The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream

The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream Jeremy Rifkin Date: 19 August, 2004   —   $16.35   —   Book product page Rating:

Like the last book I read by Jeremy Rifkin, "The Hydrogen Economy", this one is very well written. In fact, I seriously had to stop and think for a while about once per page. But where Rifkin's musings about the future of energy were on fairly solid ground, this book feels a little mushy. Rifkin sees the European Union as a new era in human society - a transnational state whose legitimacy is based on universal human rights, quality of life, sustainable development, and globalism, rather than the current Hobbesian social contract based on private property, markets, and borders.

Rifkin obviously did a lot of thinking about what it means to be an American and who Americans believe they are - and on the whole, I think he got it right. But the premise of the book is that the idealistic principles upon which the EU Constitution is based are representative of the dreams and ideals of all Europeans, and are the future of human governance in an increasingly interconnected world. I'm not sure I buy it. I mean, if that were true, wouldn't the constitution have been ratified by now?

And Rifkin glosses over some of the big problems facing Europe today - growing racism, problems integrating immigrants, and unemployment - characterizing them as challenges to be overcome in pursuit of the dream. And that may be true; most Americans don't actually achieve the American Dream, though most of us believe in it. But that, I think, is the big difference. Rifkin himself points out the European Dream is going to have to deal not only with current societal problems, but also the deep cynicism Europeans seem to apply to every problem. While Europeans chuckle over America's naive optimism, I doubt you can even have a "Dream" without it.

Rifkin also cherry-picks numbers, stats, and polls to extol the European Dream, but not for the reason you'd think at first glance. For example, he points out that, in terms of productivity-per-hour, the French worker beats the American worker. But he doesn't mention the French worker only works a 35 hour week. Immediately you think, "Aha! Frenchie doesn't look so good when you see the big picture, does he?" But then you think about it again, and start to wonder who the real winner is. Is it the guy who busts his butt to drive a Lexus to work six days a week, or the guy who spends his afternoons eating baguettes with his buddies watching soccer at the sidewalk cafe? I'm pretty sure Rifkin used that comparison with exactly that train of thought in mind for his reader.

Buy into it or not, "The European Dream" is a fascinating compare and contrast of the American psyche with European attitudes, and it's definitely worth the read on that basis alone. And it may well be true that the EU will be better able to cope with globalization, but I'm just not convinced that Europeans have a universal dream the same way Americans do. And even if they do, I don't think it'll supersede the American Dream any time soon.