After my speechless commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I was left speechless after reading Robert D. Kaplan’s Wall-related Dispatch from The Atlantic.
Kaplan plays down the geographic symbolism of the Berlin Wall (an “artificial border”) and maintains his theme of geographic determinism (which I have called myopic): “twenty years after the end of the Cold War, classical geography continues to shape the terms of global politics”. But this statement is nowhere near as controversial as Kaplan’s closing comments about America “losing” Europe after the fall of the Wall, and a shock-inducing rhetorical question followed by some logic straight from ancient Rome:
What does the European Union truly stand for besides a cradle-to-grave social welfare system? For without something to struggle for, there can be no civil society—only decadence.
Is Kaplan suggesting that the EU’s lack of will to fight for liberty abroad has lead to a deteriorated self identity? Read the article in full. Fulminate below.

