I believe the creation of the European Union (EU) has been one of humanity’s greatest achievements in the second half of the 20th century. And in fact, what kept me in Europe at the end of the 80s and the very early 90s was the prospect of the European Union. I also think that despite many challenges and criticisms it encountered, Euro (€) was and has been a great success in stabilizing many of Europe’s economies during economic crises, especially during the 2000 – 2010 decade. So, I am no supporter of FREXIT, DEXIT, ITEXIT, and so on. However, the other day, I could not help it but to think of current EU as a «Brown Dwarf»! Talking about an extension of imagination, eh?!! Well, read on.
Brown Dwarfs are astronomical objects that could have turned into stars (undergo nuclear fusion to turn Hydrogen into Helium) but they just missed the mass threshold. They are bigger than massive planets (eg Jupiter), but not massive enough to become stars (eg our Sun). So they go through the process, but they miss the end goal and linger on as unrealized star potentials. If you are still with me, park this concept in the back of your mind for the time being and read on.
Once in one of my conversations about the world with a very close family member, she told me that she sees Asia (mainly China, India, the Middle and Near East - including Egypt) as the grand-parents of the world, the Europeans as the parents, and the North Americans as the adolescents. The adolescents are full of energy and want to do all sorts of things, and believe they can. They also sometimes do immature things. The parents know what it is like and are trying to steer the children into wisdom and maintain the ‘household’, and the grand parents have a long term view and vision and have seen it all, and try to advise the others. (We have not quite figured out where we would put Africa and South/Central America, but Oceania seems to be on the adolescent wave).
Integrating the two concepts (Brown Dwarfs and life continuum), the parents (EU) in general should become grand-parents and pass on the wisdom to the parents (their children) and grand children (adolescents). EU had this potential, but somehow, either as a conscious decision, or through wrong decisions, it became the instrument of the adolescent because it could not resist. So just as the Brown Dwarf did not have the mass to become a star, but it was too big to be a planet, EU did not have the wisdom to become a grand-parent, and became an elderly!
Paris, January 16, 2023
Zeejay