Britain’s potential departure from the European Union marks yet another existential moment for the continent,but it is just at such moments of crisis that the true strengths and worth of the project reach to the foreMost ideas prove themselves by working well. The thought of Europe, on the other hand, and seems to be most powerful when its going disastrously unsuitable. Over the course of modern history,it appears that Europe becomes an urgent business only when it is threatened with disintegration. When things are OK, Europe bores us to tears. It is 28 shades of grey. But plunge Europe into existential crisis and it suddenly seems to matter. This is the noteworthy paradox of the thought: it grips the imagination only when it is in a dire state. The odd way in which the threat of Brexit makes the notion of Europe interesting again is actually fairly familiar.
Europe has always drawn energy from the proximity of catastrophe. The first modern conception of Europe that of a Christian commonwealth of holy kingdoms – took hold because the Turks were at the gates of Vienna and the triumph of Islam in Europe seemed a genuine possibility. The religious wars in which Catholic and Protestant powers tore each other apart were ended by appealing to that same thought of European Christendom.
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Source: theguardian.com