‘Joie de vivre’ versus geopolitical realities
This morning when I visited the corner grocery to pick up some early potatoes for the stew we are having for dinner, I said something that drew a broad smile from the middle-aged Flemish owner with whom we have exchanged banter from time to time over the 30 years that we live at our present address and that he served as his father’s assistant before taking over the business. I told him that yesterday I had spent the day up in Knokke, a Belgian seaside resort, and understood from the manifest joie de vivre of everyone around that no one there could possibly imagine that the end of the world is nigh. Shopping in elegant boutiques was going strong, especially since these are the final days of the end-of-year sales. The restaurants and pubs, from gourmet at the top to carry-outs at the bottom, were all overwhelmed by customers at midday. The sun was shining and all was well with the world.
Indeed, a visit to Knokke is good therapy not only for the war weariness of those of us who follow geopolitics. It is also a cure for those who are anxious about the robustness of European banks, about the high level of inflation, about the reserve currency status of the Euro and much more on the economic front. Though Russian state television may daily tell us that Europe is well on its way to chaos and revolt, the life style before your eyes in Knokke tells a very different story. The local industry is real estate and prices have been on a fairly steady upward curve for decades. They now match the 10.000 euros or more per square meter with ‘city views’ that you would pay for an apartment in Paris.
Let me hasten to add that resorts like Knokke are to be found on several islands on the North Sea coast of Germany, in Nice and the still more glamorous Mediterranean coastal cities of France or stretching south on the Atlantic from La Rochelle. Indeed, most West European countries have their own versions of Knokke where the upper middle classes can show themselves off and enjoy one another’s company.
I say ‘upper middle classes’ because they have the incomes and assets to spend liberally at these resorts, but they do not possess the vast wealth of the genuinely rich, who have outgrown the habits of their fellow citizens and flock to international centers of sybaritic life where they are property owners. National stability rests precisely on the upper middle classes and, judging by Knokke, they are doing just fine regardless of the cost of fruits and vegetables or the price level of heating oil, which are the concerns of the lower middle classes, not to mention workers.
We speak about the ‘bubble’ or ‘echo chamber effect’ which keeps the Biden administration, Congress and the whole political establishment in Washington, D.C. isolated from realities of America’s losing hand in the Ukraine war, from the complicity of the United States in Israel’s acts of genocide in Gaza and from so many other ugly sides of U.S. policies. Here in Europe, the upper middle classes escape to their own versions of Knokke and are equally persuaded that all is well with the world notwithstanding what the journalists may show on television.
No one can say if and when there will be a price to pay for this blissful indifference. But it has to be mentioned if we are to understand the dynamics in play during this year 2024 when parliamentary and presidential elections take place in Europe, the United States and other key countries globally.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2024