If there is anything more representative of the immense waste, bureaucratic elitism and arrogance, it is this report of the erection of a new, decorative statue of a tree outside the new European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany.  The statue, ostensibly of a Walnut tree, cost about $1 million in American dollars.  The tree has been called the “money tree.”  Would that it worked.  The new building cost over a billion dollars.  Quite an edifice for bureaucrats who can’t solve any actual problems but busy themselves with detailed rules and regulations.  I liked the title of an article on this by Andrew Stuttaford, “Let Them Eat ‘Art.’ ”  (National Review Online, September 6, 2015), excerpting an article in The Guardian.  Below is what one spokesperson said of the statue:

“Giuseppe Penone’s [the artist] tree conveys a sense of stability and growth and is rooted in the humanist values of Europe in the most beautiful way.”

And here is another by a different bureaucrat:

“It is not about decorating the headquarters, it is about helping the cultural world,” a spokeswoman said, citing European Union treaty article 167, which states that the union will contribute to “the flowering of the cultures of the member states…. “In times of austerity we think it is important to spend money on art because it is a unifying theme between countries.”

Wow!  Note the flowery words, “sense of stability and growth.”  Really?  It is an almost perfect parallel to the legendary statement of disdain for the French people expressed by Mary Antoinette in 1789: “let them eat cake.” That is what we see in Europe.  As if to retract a bit, note the last sentence: “In times of austerity we think it is important to spend money on art because it is a unifying theme between countries.”  So when we really need to stop spending money, we think that we should just spend more on “modern art” to make us all feel better.

I agree with Stuttaford when he concludes: “I don’t know what is worst about this; the condescension, the arrogance, the waste, the eurobabble, the characteristically dodgy legal rationale, the jabber passed off as erudition or the junk passed off as art.” At the least, why not just plant a real tree?  Many historians see Europe as about 50-70 years “ahead” (some mean it literally) of the United States.  I see signs of the “Europeanization” of America, including a much greater reliance on large public bureaucracy, a movement toward the Social Democratic type of welfare state (this, despite attempts to roll it back), and the development among politicians of a “devil-may-care” attitude, even a disdain,  toward constituents in order to promote their own welfare.  We are not there yet, partly due at least to an different kind of basic mentality among Americans that persists, an attitude of independence and individualism that still distrusts big government to a great extent.  Interestingly, while people may distrust current politicians and government, this does not affect their positive views toward policies Europeans have already embraced.

Only God knows the future, but I am concerned, though not yet pessimistic, about the long run.  If we can return to the constitutional principles of the Founding, even given their relative imperfections, we may avoid what I see as the implosion of Western and Central Europe.