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Europe's Dormition: A Historical Analysis

The document discusses Europe being in a state of "dormition" or deep sleep since the end of World War 2. This dormition has made Europe weak and powerless, as seen by its role in recent crises and wars like Afghanistan. Europe was put into this state by the catastrophic violence of 1914-1945 and by the domination of foreign systems imposed by the postwar US and USSR hegemonic powers. Europe currently lacks self-awareness of its unique past and culture. However, the document argues that the powers controlling Europe are weakening and world upheaval indicates Europe's dormition will not last forever.

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John Sebastian
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47 views2 pages

Europe's Dormition: A Historical Analysis

The document discusses Europe being in a state of "dormition" or deep sleep since the end of World War 2. This dormition has made Europe weak and powerless, as seen by its role in recent crises and wars like Afghanistan. Europe was put into this state by the catastrophic violence of 1914-1945 and by the domination of foreign systems imposed by the postwar US and USSR hegemonic powers. Europe currently lacks self-awareness of its unique past and culture. However, the document argues that the powers controlling Europe are weakening and world upheaval indicates Europe's dormition will not last forever.

Uploaded by

John Sebastian
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Europe in Dormition

By Dominique Venner
http://www.counter-currents.com/2010/08/europe-in-dormition/

Translated by Greg Johnson


Translator’s Note:
The term “dormition” refers to the Eastern Christian tradition of the “falling sleep,” i.e.,
the death, of the Virgin Mary, who then immediately rose from the dead and ascended
into heaven. In Venner’s sense, Europe appears dead but is merely sleeping and will soon
awake.
Since the end of the two World Wars and their orgy of violence, Europe “entered into
dormition.”[1] Europeans do not know it. Everything is done to conceal this fact. But this state of
“dormition” continues to weigh us down. Every day, European impotence is clear. The latest
proof came during the Euro zone crisis in the spring of 2010, which demonstrated profound
divisions and the powerlessness of a unanimous political will. The proof of our “dormition” is
equally visible in Afghanistan, in the humiliating role of auxiliary forces assigned to European
troops at the disposal of the United States (NATO).
The state of “dormition” is the consequence of the catastrophic excesses of the murderous,
fratricidal frenzy perpetrated between 1914 and 1945. It was also the gift of the US and USSR,
the two hegemonic powers resulting from the Second World War. These powers imposed their
systems, which were foreign to our intellectual, social, and political tradition. Although one has
since disappeared, the toxic effects are still felt. We are, moreover, wallowing in a guilt without
equivalent. According to the eloquent word of Elie Barnavi, “The Shoah has risen to the rank of
civil religion in the West.”[2]
But history is never motionless. Those who reach the summit of power are condemned to go
down again.
It bears repeating, moreover, that power is not everything. Power is necessary to exist in the
world, to be free for one’s destiny, to escape subjection to political, economic, ideological, or
criminal empires. But power is not immune to the maladies of the soul capable of destroying
nations and empires.
Although threatened by many quite real dangers and ever sharper conflicts of interests and
intentions, Europeans today are first and foremost victims of these diseases of the soul. Unlike
other peoples and civilizations, Europeans are deprived of all self-awareness. It is the decisive
cause of their weakness. If you believe their leaders, they are without past, roots, destiny. They
are nothing. And yet what they share is unique. They are privileged with the memory and the
models of a great civilization attested since Homer and his founding poems.
The many heavy trials on the horizon, the weakening of the powers that dominated us for so
long, the upheavals of a henceforth unstable world, indicate that the Europe’s “dormition” will
not be eternal.

Notes
[1] I developed this historical interpretation in my essay Le Siècle de 1914 [The Century of 1914]
[Paris: Pygmalion, 2006].
[2] Answer of Elie Barnavi to Régis Debray, À un ami israélien [To an Israeli friend] [Paris:
Flammarion, 2010].
http://www.dominiquevenner.fr/#/edito-nrh-49-europe-dormition/3581031

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