#REDIRECT [[File:What Does Europe Want? (article).jpg|thumb]][[Slavoj Žižek]] and Srećko Horvat combine their critical clout to emphasize the dangers of ignoring Europe’s growing wealth gap and the parallel rise in [[right]]-wing [[nationalism]], which is directly tied to the fallout from the ongoing financial crisis and its prescription of imposed austerity. To general observers, the European Union’s [[economic]] woes appear to be its greatest problem, but the [[real]] peril is an ongoing ideological–[[political]] crisis that threatens an era of instability and reactionary brutality. The fall of [[communism]] in 1989 seemed to end the [[leftist]] program of [[universal]] emancipation. However, nearly a quarter of a century later, the [[European Union]] has failed to produce any coherent [[vision]] that can mobilize [[people]] to [[action]]. Until recently, the only [[ideology]] receptive to European [[workers]] has been the nationalist call to “defend” against [[immigrant]] integration. Today, [[Europe]] is focused on regulating the [[development]] of [[capitalism]] and promoting a reactionary conception of its [[cultural]] heritage. Yet staying these courses, Žižek and Horvat show, only strips Europe of its [[power]] and stifles its political ingenuity. The best hope is for Europe to revive and [[defend]] its legacy of universal egalitarianism, which benefits all parties by preserving the promise of equal [[representation]].
