[Menydh]

Actually, "Westernism" is more a problem than a solution. Indeed North America was/is a component of... "the western construct" as it is, in origins, Anglo-Saxon. I think that the English coined the term "West" to attempt to have some claim or linkage the Graeco-Roman heritage. Which is funny since, at least the Hellenic part of it is Eastern and not Western.

The roots of Europe are varied. But it first defines herself as Christendom, something that in the grand picture is common for both Eastern and Western Europe. The big socio-cultural division between the East and the West is religious, with the Schism of the East. This schism has its origins in the germanisation of the Church in the West and the subsequent turn of the Patriarch of Rome into the absolute power. So in a way the Celtic and Romance (or, should I say, proper "Western" indigenous peoples) are alien to it. Though just in a way since heritage is a dynamic process.

You are taking the European Union as an example of difficulty for integration in an idea[l] in Europe. There lies your mistake. That is, I'm afraid, Pan-Europeanism. From such a perspective (Pan-European) we lose the insight and the matter of Europe: i.e. that Europe is a common environment with a much varied compound of ethno-cultural nations.

Only from a Traditional perspective we can aim for preservation at its best. So Russians or Serbs are not "westerners". So what? Incidentally I've never found another European group as different and far away to mine as the Finnish, well beyond Russians or Serbs. And the Finns.. are they "westerners"? Further, since "westernism" would include North America, how do I relate to a yankee or a canook... or a kangaroo? I mean, we are talking about Europe, aren't we?

The complex mosaic of Europe is --I've repeated this times and again-- rich, varied and unique as it is fragile for its richness, variety and uniqueness. And it stretches from her Eastern and Western extremes as well as her Southern and Northern extremes.

Further, in the tradition of making the best out of the worst of the situations, we should look forward to seizing the current crisis to turn it once and for all in a unique chance to build a strong and as complete as possible Europe. Or at the very least to set this as the ideal and the goal to achieve. What you see as countries far east to you, are in reality your Eastern frontiers. Be glad that there are fellow Europeans there to take care of those frontiers.

In the future world of blocks, Europe does not stand a chance without her full strength. And you can be sure that those "westerner" Americans will bring nothing good, as they have not in the past.