There are only twelve years between the democratic ascension to power of Adolf Hitler in 1933, to his suicide in a bunker in a Berlin in ruins – like all of Europe – in 1945. Twelve, only twelve years old. Little more than a sigh in the history of humanity. But boy did they leave a mark. And lessons. Although, things of oblivion and deception, if not a staunch hatred of the enemy, whether real or invented, there are more and more people who lean towards the path traced by that monster whose destructive force has been trivialized to the point of indescribability. through countless novels, movies and series, to this day.
Germany not only emerged defeated and humiliated from the Great War, but soon, in the grip of runaway inflation, it was looking for a scapegoat, and Hitler took to blaming the Jews for all its ills. Of course, there was already an ancient latent anti-Semitism in many spheres of German society, as well as in half of Europe, which was the breeding ground from which the Nazi leader made the flowers of evil sprout.
And it turns out that now, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s invasion of Gaza, more and more Europeans, in their immense diversity and who have never before been so united or so prosperous, feel more threatened, cornered, scared. , desperate. Because the dreams of a middle class that religiously paid their taxes are fading, perhaps reluctantly, yes, but ultimately convinced that the social elevator would take their children directly to heaven.
Nor has the unexpected and very rapid globalization, the rise of China, the jihadist attacks, the financial crash of 2008 or Covid, among a thousand other misfortunes, helped. Well, it’s been raining for a while now. But perhaps one of the most determining factors in such a marked collective increase in fear, apathy and hatred is the inversion of the demographic pyramid.
Until recently, there were always many more young people than old, who were revered by the entire community. And so it continues to happen in the countries of the so-called third world, which will be poor but happy, unlike the unhappy countries of the West in which it is increasingly difficult for the pampered young people, who are few, to show a minimum of respect towards the older people, starting with their own parents and grandparents.
And, well, this is where the breeding ground for hatred that the thriving populists so skillfully know how to manipulate in the political and social sphere, who point to immigrants as the cause of all our evils, is most easily created. But paradoxes of life, our welfare state would not last five minutes without them.
Wars, boats and cayucos aside, what is now being proposed in more and more European countries is to subcontract the management of asylum claims to third countries. The British, people with a lot of experience in these matters, want to send them to Rwanda. Because we must remember that only two hundred years ago they populated the immense island-continent of Australia with prisoners who could no longer fit in their prisons, mostly Irish, for crimes as despicable as the theft of a crust of bread to feed. to his children.
Before being elected prime minister, Boris Johnson traveled to Australia, where he was amazed to see how the Government of that former colony had set up on Manus Island in New Guinea and the small republic of Nauru, an island in the South Seas, some camps in which hundreds of unwanted asylum seekers were confined who had been intercepted by the Australian Navy in the middle of the sea, in a desperate attempt to reach, in more than precarious boats, what they believed would be the promised land.
Those infected tropical camps, in which the detainees – men, women and children – coming from so many wars and political and religious persecutions, could take years without knowing what their fate was going to be. Although, perhaps what caught the attention of good old Boris the most was that those who were in charge of the custody of these undesirable beings were private companies that made money from the business, and this was communicated to his party upon his return, as we are now seeing. with Rishi Sunak’s Government.
Does Europe really want to follow suit? The way things are going, one would say that yes, the breeding ground is already ripe for this and many other atrocities, including war.
