This article is brought to you by American Purpose, the magazine and community founded by Francis Fukuyama in 2020, which is proudly part of the Persuasion family.
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which → bring → family
The scenes of mass border crossings from Morocco to Spanish Ceuta have split public opinion.
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scenes → split → opinion
One side supports the reaction expressed by 22 EU states criticizing Spain rather than confronting Morocco for the border chaos.
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side → support → chaos
The other side, meanwhile, condemns those 22 for turning on Spain instead of coming to its aid.
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side → condemn → aid
The usual commentary frames this as a left/right issue, but it is not that simple.
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it → frame → issue
What complicates the situation is the divide between Western and Eastern Europe.
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complicates → complicate → Europe
These differences are being exploited by external actors who are betting on internal divisions in Europe to achieve their own goals.
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who → exploit → goals
Ceuta did not create these divisions.
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Ceuta → create → divisions
It merely exposed them.
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It → expose → them
In years gone by, the left and right were differentiated largely, though not solely, by their economic policies—conservative voters (on the right) favored free markets and deregulation, while those with socialist leanings (on the left) supported state involvement and regulation, as well as greater equality of outcome.
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those → go → outcome
Religion, tradition, and attitudes to authority always played a part too, but economics was the axis around which the rest turned.
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rest → play → which
While the economy is still a bone of contention, it has paled in comparison to the modern-day sticking point—immigration.
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it → pal → point
Debate on immigration is linked to a much larger problem plaguing both sides: intolerance of opposing opinions.
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Debate → link → opinions
Here it is the left, more than the right, that has closed the door to debate by refusing to question attitudes on immigration.
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that → close → immigration
This means that views previously held by the extreme right have now spread far beyond the fringe, reaching people who were until recently happily sitting on the fence when it came to immigration.
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it → mean → immigration
They see uncontrolled immigration, and the threats posed by individuals from incompatible value systems, as at least worthy of discussion.
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They → see → discussion
Instead of debating them, however, the left has declared that anyone unhappy with the changes mass immigration has brought to their societies must be racist.
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immigration → debate → societies
This has pushed people with otherwise liberal views further right.
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This → push → views
An open debate without labeling the other side bigoted might have achieved a different result.
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debate → label → result
At the same time, the pressure on liberal governments across Europe demands a response.
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pressure → demand → response
Whether or not they truly believe in controlling immigration, they need to at least look as though they do.
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they → believe → immigration
And this is where Spain was right—the reaction to Ceuta did look like political posturing.
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reaction → look → posturing
The refusal to debate does not just alienate voters at home.
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refusal → debate → home
It also means Western Europe cannot hear what Eastern Europe has been saying for years.
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Europe → mean → years
What most Western Europeans do not realize is that, while we all come from the same Christian civilization and millennia of shared history, the last century has taken its toll.
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century → realize → toll
Our understanding of what is important and what is not diverges.
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what → diverge → ?
While Western Europe rebuilt its societies after the Second World War and enjoyed decades of prosperity, for Eastern Europe the war only really ended between 1989 and 1991.
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war → rebuild → 1989
Until then, the survival of Eastern European states was under threat from what some people saw as communism, but in reality was naked and unabashed Russian imperialism.
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people → see → reality
Until relatively recently, Eastern European countries occupied by Russian soldiers could only dream of their own nation states (or rather, national states—a term used in the constitutions of several such countries to designate a state intended for a specific nation).
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countries → occupy → nation
In some countries, indigenous populations came perilously close to becoming a minority as a result of ethnic cleansing, forced Russification, and resettlement policies.
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populations → come → cleansing
Having a national state of their own was the dream of generations for over half a century.
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Having → have → century
In such countries, multiculturalism, which is perceived as another version of forced change, does not sell.
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which → perceive → change
That is why they would rather make financial contributions or provide operational support under the EU’s solidarity mechanism than accept migrant relocations imposed by new EU rules.
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they → make → rules
When liberation movements gathered speed just before the fall of the USSR, there were millions of people willing to die just to get away from the demographic engineering imposed on them.
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movements → gather → them
While the rest of Europe had decades to enjoy their “singledom,” Eastern Europe is less trusting when it comes to newcomers.
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it → have → newcomers
They have seen this movie; they know how it ends.
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it → see → movie
Another element missing from the Eastern European psyche when it comes to accepting immigration is the guilt over “white privilege.”
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it → miss → privilege
Almost no Eastern European countries had any colonies and most Eastern Europeans themselves lived under serfdom.
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Europeans → have → serfdom
Serfdom in Eastern Europe meant peasants belonged to the lord who owned the land they lived on.
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they → mean → land
Serfdom was finally eradicated in the last parts of Eastern Europe only in 1864, just one year before slavery was abolished in the United States.
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slavery → eradicate → States
…and 23 more, not listed.
