http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-eu-looks-the-dying-soviet-empire-16930
TL;DR? The EU government, as ALL Western governments -- including the United States -- has idolized Leninism for a long time. It's so hierarchical, and "patriotic", and above any real accounting. An Elite which tells itself it is doing everything for "the people" -- even as it is reserving special treatment for the "selfless" Elite! What's wrong with that?
Those of you who have worked for the Federal US Government, including for the "military", have actually been "the elite" in a Leninist body, moving inexorably toward the Leninist ideal. Perhaps you knew something was wrong. Maybe you thought that was the natural order. And, yes, taxpayer-citizens have some responsibility for this mess, too. We voted, right? And we didn't protest enough to get J6ed.
It isn't a coincidence Western governments find themselves, now, facing something very much like what the old Leninist guard faced as the USSR stumbled toward its final paroxysm: moral and financial bankruptcy.
I do think there are better and worse ways to deal with something like this. Taking some personal responsibility for our Collective, even if we weren't at the core of The Party, seems appropriate.
It is going to be interesing to see how the European Union all works out. Seeing how the United States works out will also be interesting. I hope we leave NATO, and soon. The United States ought not to be defending a patently oppressive, NON-democratic, LENINIST-"socialist" government like the European Union.
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Excerpt: "Soviet ideology promised equality, justice, a higher living standard, and greater economic development than in the “capitalist world.” In reality, though, Soviet citizens experienced shortages of goods, unfair distribution, rule by a privileged class of political elite, and a significantly lower living standard and level of development than in the West. Characteristically, discontent first arose among those members of the ideologized elite who truly believed in the promises they had made to the people. The movement for a “true Leninism” called for a return to the ideal—to the fulfillment of those promises and the accomplishment of the goals that the ideology proclaimed. Mikhail Gorbachev came to power promising to “restore the Leninist ideals,” but ended up leading the country into collapse. The last of the Soviet leaders, he believed that the government bureaucracy stood in the way of building a utopian socialist society and that the people wanted nothing more than to find a way to achieve those ideals in practice. He therefore appealed to the people for support against the bureaucracy, confident that they would back him. But the Soviet people, who had for the first time in many years had the opportunity to express their opinion through relatively free elections, voted instead for Gorbachev’s opponents—for pro-Western liberals who promised a better future if the country would merge with the “civilized” Western world, and for right-leaning nationalists."
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