by Glauco D’Agostino
I read an article of 20 May 2020 on the Republic of Poland’s website: «St. John Paul II was a highly active advocate of European integration. Its post-war division was considered extremely harmful to the entire continent. Our Great Pope has repeatedly stressed that Europe should breathe with both its lungs – eastern and western. At the same time, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, he indicated that “there will be no unity of the continent until it is a community of the spirit.”
I introduce this reflection coming from our beloved Poland to denounce the improper use of words for purely political purposes. Europe is not the West and much less the European Union. This mix of concepts is probably intentional, indeed planned by interested political-military leaders or stray lodges that are very active in that West become by design a divisive political concept, to oppose East. We cannot reduce Europe to the economic-commercial (and henceforth military-like) dimension of the European Union. St. John Paul II spoke of a community of the spirit, not of coins or barters. In his clear view, Ukraine and Russia were integral parts of Europe, all part of Christianity in the name of the teachings of Saints Cyril and Methodius, “Apostles of the Slavs”.
Today, the pseudo-Western and pseudo-Europeanist aggression of Olaf Scholz, Boris Johnson and Mario Draghi would like to shift the boundaries of the military (NATO) or trade (European Union) alliances, passing them off as civilisation boundaries. Thus, according to them and the inexperienced leaders in Brussels, Ukraine and Russia, both Christian and Slavic, would belong to opposite worlds, the first Western-democratic and the second Eastern-autocratic. Against every historical evidence. Thus, according to the three warmongers, if there are disagreements between Moscow and Kyiv, it is good to enter, take advantage of it, feed the tensions through proxy war and, why not, place weapons and the like. It is also functional for rising suffering GDP in COVID’s times. And the motivation for this clever insertion is, of course, the co-option of Ukraine in Europe-West as opposed to Russia-East.
What about Biden? Joe is aware Russia is a world mighty, a nuclear power with a veto at the UN Security Council. In the state of the Union speech, Joe accused first the Russian oligarchs, his corresponding social class. He is aware at least half of the American citizens oppose the confrontation with Moscow. His tones are not as excited as the zealous hypocritically pro-Europe Europeans. He is used to crises on the ground and trained to handle allies. An Italian movie from the 1980s titled: “You go ahead, I’m cracking up with laughter”. It is not difficult to find the idiot on duty taking the bite with servility, often receiving unanimous approval without even considering who will ultimately take the consequences. Sure, not the lovely Joe. “Divide et impera”, his Empire’s motto. The important thing is to keep the two European lungs separate and in constant fibrillation: the “eastern” and the “western” one.
Map from DC Clothesline, 2014
Ukraine and Russia are both integral of Europe. There are no opinion majorities can subvert the evidence. Reducing Europe to the European Union means offending its historical, cultural and symbolic significance. Norway (Stoltenberg’s homeland) does not belong to the EU, and Great Britain (with Brexit), Iceland (which Trump even wanted to buy) and Switzerland (which, as of yesterday, exited its recognised status of a neutral country) do not belong, either. They are all Europeans, yet. You are not European, just as a member of the European Union and the European Union does not represent all Europeans. The self-styled pro-Europeans argue that Ukraine’s membership in the European Union and, automatically, NATO is good. True Europeanists know that the authentic Europe-building process is not by co-optations, subterfuges and blackmails to join a bureaucratic and arrogant structure, so to speak, one of the von der Leyen’s bombs. Europe, not necessarily in political terms, is based on symmetry among different peoples and a proactive spiritual harmony. There are no pariahs. While it is true that Ukraine is European, it is undoubted that the Russian Federation, Belarus, Moldova, the Transcaucasian countries, all the Balkan countries and Turkey itself are also European. It does not seem that when speaking about Europeans, the EU includes peoples of those nations. We wonder why!
When in Warsaw before the Berlin Wall fell, many of my Polish friends complained that other Europeans from the West, of course, did not view them as Europeans. They just were those from the East, not Europeans. Ideological biases. The oligarchic factions of NATO and the EU, still today, deem even the Russians as non-Europeans. Are still there racial or perhaps religious prejudices? I don’t think so. On the other hand, a doubt arises. Cold War Western biases, as well, could conceal an opposition not so much in ideological terms as ill-drawn by imperial territorial and economic supremacy. A perfect deception for the sincere anti-communists.
I finish with my heart in Poland. Or rather, back to the words of the great Pole Saint John Paul II, who wished for a reunited continent “from the Atlantic to the Urals”. He addressed to Europe: “Find yourself again, be yourself.”
