We can count the many ways in which modern Liberalism (as in Leftism, not classical liberalism) is the ideology of civilizational decline, and here is just one more example. The secular progressive/humanist/materialist worldview that our Euro friends have adopted makes them easy prey for their future Islamic masters.
French Protest “Austerity” Plan
(PARIS) — Diesel and jet fuel supplies were running low Saturday in parts of France as workers took to the streets for another nationwide protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to raise the retirement age to 62 [from 60]. Fuel supplies were a prime concern as unions announced that all 12 fuel-producing refineries in France were on strike and many depots were being blocked by protesters. Police were called in Friday to force three crucial fuel depots to reopen, including one near the southern city of Marseille.Saturday’s march from the Place de la Republique in Paris was the fifth in a full month of protests that have swept this nation of 64 million people, affecting trains, subways, airports, hospitals, schools and other facilities. The Ecology Ministry said fuel stocks at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport — one of Europe’s key hubs — were good until at least Tuesday, but the statement left open the question of what happens after that.“(These protests are) an attempt to say stop abusing the workers and citizens,” Christian Coste, head of the CGT Union at Total’s La Mede refinery, told Associated Press Television News on Saturday. “We are not here to bring France to its knees and create a shortage, we are here to make ourselves heard.”
Workers have been striking for five days straight at the La Mede refinery in southern France. On the streets of Marseille, garbage was left uncollected for the fourth straight day and firefighters had to extinguish some rubbish piles set afire. Sarkozy’s pension reforms — especially raising the retirement age from 60 to 62 — are seen by unions as an attack on their near-sacred social protections. The government says that is the only way to save the money-draining pension system and insists people must work longer because they are living longer.
“The French understand that those who are blocking this country are at the head of the government,” CFDT union leader Francois Chereque said on BFM-TV. Yet even at 62, France would have one of the lowest retirement ages in Europe. In cities around France excluding Paris, some 340,000 protesters were out by midday, according to the Interior Ministry. Union figures have been consistently far higher than official counts.
A shocking abuse of human rights, I tell you! Lazy bastards. This is what Western civilization in decline looks like. Their culture disintegrates beneath their feet as they protest for more “bennies”. And not only lazy, but more stupid. Literally.
Retiring Younger Makes You Stupid
Donna Agnew loves her job, which is a good thing, because the way the economy is gasping, the 64-year-old Boston art gallery owner says she may not be able to afford retirement for the foreseeable future. She is hardly alone. With 401(k)s looking more like 201(k)s these days, many baby boomers are putting off retirement to rebuild decimated nest eggs. But amid such uncertainty there may be hope: A number of studies suggest that staying mentally and socially active may help stave off dementia and other dreaded declines associated with aging.
One tantalizing British study, in particular, recently concluded that working beyond normal retirement age appears to keep dementia at bay. Probably the way things are going, I will never retire,’’ said Agnew, who has been working seven days a week in her ARTmosphere Gallery in the North End since laying off several workers earlier this year.
The British researchers scoured medical records of 382 men whose Alzheimer’s symptoms emerged around age 75. They found that, all other factors being equal, the symptoms were delayed about seven weeks for each extra year the men worked. “It is possible to affect onset of dementia by lifestyle choices later in life,’’ the study’s lead author, Michelle K. Lupton, a graduate student at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, said in a phone interview.
Lupton said that the group’s findings, published in May in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, shouldn’t be interpreted as a prescription to work years longer to avoid Alzheimer’s. Rather, she said, their conclusions add weight to the “use it or lose it’’ hypothesis of staying mentally engaged to slow the negative effects of aging.
Some scientists believe a trait called cognitive reserve may help explain why certain people are able to stay mentally sharper longer than others. The term applies to the brain’s resilience, its ability to cope with damage – such as the signature plaque that clogs the brain in Alzheimer’s – while still functioning normally.
Exposure throughout life to mentally challenging activities – such as pursuing an education, working at an engaging job, and volunteering – may contribute to building cognitive reserve, said Yaakov Stern, professor of clinical neuropsychology at Columbia University and a member of the Alzheimer’s Association’s Medical and Scientific Advisory Council.
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