Quote Critique

“A day will come when all nations on our continent will form a European brotherhood… A day will come when we shall see… The United Sates of Europe… reaching out for each other across the seas.”

– Victor Hugo (French novelist, playwright, Hunchback of Notre dame and Les Misérables, 1802-1885)

Impressive.  Hugo foresaw the creation of the EU over a century and a half ago.  While the movement towards fewer and larger nation states may seem inevitable in the globalized economy, such ideas were probably ridiculed in his time.  Perhaps the contemporary equivalent prophecy is “Singularity is Near,” the belief that there will be a total integration of natural biological systems with adaptive technological mechanisms to create a new type of human information processor.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it.


4 Responses to Quote Critique

  1. ryamada says:

    I remember attending a conference on the EU in Rome in 2005, and reading Lundestad’s ” ‘Empire’ by Integration”. Definitely remarkable to consider a (sort of) politically unified Europe when looking at its long and bloody history. Even so, it’ll be interesting to see how it weathers this storm.

    Thanks for doing a series of quote critiques. These are among the most interesting I see on Twitter.

    – Ryan

  2. chucklesamadeus says:

    I’m glad you like the quotes. I have a solid years worth of material, so keep coming back!

  3. ghamal says:

    Enjoyed this post, especially the comparison to the modern perception of the Singularity. Wish there was a “thumbs up” button on WordPress.

    • chucklesamadeus says:

      the thumbs up button an awesome idea, it should be mandatory on all user generated web pages.