This man is after my own heart: "Merkel's Sidekick Says Brexit Makes Europe Unstable - Good, The EU Should Collapse."
Way before Brexit, my feelings about the EU -- now rapidly becoming 'European dis-Union or EdU -- were negative. Born as a social democratic French-German experiment, the EdU evolved into an enormous mistake of Nature, top heavy, corrupt, bureaucratic, and, lately, authoritarian.
Its apologists are many. That's natural. The EdU gave birth to vast armies of undeserving beneficiaries. A teratomorphic creature spewing subsidies and other cash entitlements in every direction, the EdU sweetened the lives of frauds, embezzlers, clusters of special interests, and "investors" munching on "support regional programs," "development funds," and "research programs" providing wealth for life at the expense of the taxpayer.
The EdU has produced, and continues churning out, enough regulations to choke the world. European "rules" pop up everywhere. Member states must "adjust" their legal system to orders from Brussels--orders issued by un-elected bureaucrats with opaque priorities and loyalties. In such an environment, under-the-table pressures and gentleman's agreements thrive.
The greatest disaster engendered by "united" Europe though was last year's Muslim illegal immigration invasion of the Continent. Spawned by German chancellor Merkel -- Europe's maddest woman -- huge throngs of mainly Middle Eastern Arabs, supplemented by healthy throngs of Afghans, Iranians, Bangladeshis, and black Africans, just walked in and, naturally, demanded to settle and begin collecting subsidies, too.
Insanity.
"United" Europe is now the all-time historical example of how to screw independent countries pushed together by ambition-driven "leaders" looking for empire.
"Progressives" are already shedding tears over the rejection of this monstrosity by burgeoning minorities across the Continent. And for good reason. A broken EdU will automatically remove from the their hands the best opportunity for imposing on all European peoples a "Fourth Reich" minus Adolf Hitler.
It is time that Europeans with a sense of self preservation kick these "unionists" out the door and clear the decks of European bureaucracies with a flamethrower.
And, then, maybe, Europe, in the grip of one crisis after another, could breathe again and organize its defenses against threats, both domestic and foreign, multiplying by the day.
Good riddance, Mrs. Merkel!
@blue1950 It's hard to see any hope. A lot of people are proud slaves of whatever nation they were born into. Even if the country really sucks, and the people are struggling, they will tell you how great it is or use to be. They might blame their situation on a political party, rich people, corporations, ISIS, whatever.
The reality is that all countries/governments, and borders exist solely in the imaginations of humans. Each nation or political party believes it has the true imagination of how the world is and should be and that it has the right to force it on everyone else for their own good. "War is peace, freedom is slavery...". This is the main problem.
You are unfortunately right -- to a certain extent. Aristotle has given answers to your theory and Plato worked out a "Republic" that was workable (in theory). Pessimists would embrace your thoughts without much hesitation.
I'm still working on what is the right thing to do. Most probably, I won't have an answer--ever.