the end of European civilisation (as we know it)

[Lunnan & Hjort]

I declare "the end of civilisation", even when it here merely
concerns the arguably smallest of the world's five dominant
domains, namely Europe, as an on-topic theme, and am
therefore abstaining from the "(OT)" sign on this occasion.
And the End is Nigh, friends. I hope there will be violent 
protests, social revolts and large demonstrations, with bishops 
leading seas of torches to the nearest parliament or television 
station. 

What is at stake? Civilisation, cheating, doping, the 
disillusionment of illusions, der Untergang des Abenlandes, 
der Übergang des Morgenlandes, der Zwischengang des 
Unterbewusstseins, the collective loss of our sacred human artistic 
personal innocence, the asphyxation of our most important 
instrument in life, namely our sacrosant inner voice. 

Can we stilll save Europe? No. It has been decided, by a 
couple of penstrokes and nods of heads, decided upon after 
some budget analysis. We can only lament the result, and apply 
for cultural asylum in Iraque or Brutopia. Where is the police
when we need them? Did we dissolve the Soviet Union for this?

There have been doping in sport and sacrilegious acts aganst
comic book artwork, and we rage against it. Ine Wigernæs drinks 
too much coffee, there was something extra in Johann Muehlegg's 
pasta, and Mondadori published "Lost in the Andes" without
the final page. But the people involved might nevertheless be 
respected for having done their best; they didn't attack the myths 
themselves, they didn't try to destroy the illusion that we wish to 
buy, they didn't bomb the bridge they were using themselves,
per se. 

But today, this Saturday, this is what happens. The Powers of Europe
have nodded and thrown their children out with the bathwater
and have shot themselves in their left feet. A song isn't a song
anymore. Riga, the capital of a Soviet Republic (at least it was
the last time I was there), hosts the Eurovision Song Contest.
It is *bad enough* that Ukraina and Slovenia are allowed to sing 
*in English* (which is to say, American), and Poland in German,
without forcing e.g. England to sing in Slovak (which would have
been interesting); these are scandals worthy of separate 
demonstrations and the toppling of governments. But the *real crime* 
instigated against humankind (well, admittedly only the silly European 
part of it) is that *all the music is canned*, for the first time in 
European History. No instruments, no real conductor, no real 
violinists or keyboardists or engineers of synthetic quasi-live sound 
production. All instrumental parts have been pre-recorded and 
transcribed onto DAT-disquettes as strings of inhuman 0-s and 1-s. 
Only the singers will actually (sort of) sing. Their "backing" (bah!) 
is canned, pre-made, stored, dead, dodo gravis, non-vivo. 

Riga, Latvia, Baltikum, the home city of Mariss Jansons and
Alfons Berzins, how could you? Why beholdest thou the beam that is 
in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the mote that is in thine own 
eye? This would not have happened in the times of the Soviet Union 
or in Mediaeval England or at the Colosseum in Acient Rome.

The Grand Prix has become the Eurotrash Sad Context. Glorious 
hopes of spirit and cultural exchange and human artistic expression 
to foster and enforce peace amongst us have been destroyed and 
dusted, reduced to a tragic farce of a Karaoke party. 

Professor Nils Lid Hjort
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Division of Real Fights Against Destruction of Human Spirit
Subdivision of Where is the Police when we Need Them