This is so sweet. An 80-year old Italian guy says that more sex between people who wouldn't otherwise like each other at all is what will finally save Europe and the world.

Before we write the idea off completely, I feel obligated to point out that it worked pretty well for the Irish.

I'm just about to begin Eco's latest book, ​Prague Cemetery.  ​He really is an amazing guy, brilliant, and colorful and wonderful.  I wonder, however, if circumstances have moved beyond the Pax Europa he speaks of and finds material.  Europe's real challenge in this respect would seem to be the long overdue integration of the Roma, whom you address in another news link above, and of course the absolutely abysmal record that just about every European country has had thus far in welcoming and accommodating the increasing numbers of immigrants from North Africa and other largely Islamic countries.  I guess think that is the real challenge for Europeans who dream of one big happy family--a good dream indeed, but in 2012 how profound is it to those of us who didn't witness the two great wars of the last century that Germans and Brits are making whoopy?  :)

Whenever he gets tired climbing a flight of stairs, he jokes: "Eh, my friend, we're not 70 any more!"

The chuckle for the day. 

Bslev makes an important point:

Europe's real challenge in this respect would seem to be the long overdue integration of the Roma, whom you address in another news link above, and of course the absolutely abysmal record that just about every European country has had thus far in welcoming and accommodating the increasing numbers of immigrants from North Africa and other largely Islamic countries.

To the second issue, it isn't just at the foot of the European countries that the accommodation has not gone so well.  The issue brings up the clash between the ideal of respecting all cultures and maintaining a set of cultural values.  At what point should one do as the Romans do when in Rome?  And when should Romans accommodate those who do it differently?

The Roma also bring up the issue raised by diasporic nations.  For many in the modern world, we tie our national identity to the political states in which we reside.  Americans on this side of the border, Canadians on that side of the border.  The identity attachment slides down the scale, so the Washingtonians will come to hate the invading California's for ruining the "culture" (while driving up the prices of houses).

So Eco seems to be looking for a way to get people to embrace a flexible identity.  Which is different than the political institutions in which the individuals move about.  As he says:

Europe will never be the United States of Europe, a single country with a common language like the USA

But that doesn't mean there can't be a European identity.  It is also possible that there becomes a North American identity - one in which the individuals in Canada, US, and Mexico see themselves as distinct group, as "one" people.  Although I would assume individuals proposing this would get even more virulent reactions than Eco has encountered from Welsh mayors and anchormen.

But having a flexible identity is a tricky thing.  People in general want to believe their identity, who their "self" is, is as tangible as the rocks and clouds.  Getting them to consider expanding the definition, or even to completely turn it on its head is a challenge of a life time.  Yet if they shift themselves, as with Erasmus idea, almost unnoticed by them in the living out of a life, then it becomes more plausible.  It is the difference between forced integration and voluntary (if not unconscious) integration.

Then we are back to the North African and Islamic immigrants, who do not want to integrate culturally with their host countries.  It is a story played out over the centuries, but only as of late has the idea that the host country should limit their demand of integration been considered at all.