George Steiner, 1929-2020, a true European

Against the advice of some of my better read friends, I will still from time to time reach for that Evening Standard on the bus or London Underground. It exposes me to stories I would never usually click on when they drift through my social media feeds, to the juicy politically-charged gossip of the 'The Londoner' pages and, above all, can be a nice free ride with original high-quality thinkers who I'd usually have to pay for in The Economist or Standpoint (yes I mean Anne McElvoy). This week though it was Matthew D'Ancona whose Comment piece piqued my interest. This is unusual because D'Ancona, being among those Remainers with whom I parted company after the referendum, could for the last year at least be found using his Lebedev inches to preach Remoaner miserabilism with a consistency comparable to certain Anglican vicars I could name. 

But it is time for us all to move on and in any case the subject matter was intriguing enough to draw me in: a eulogy-cum-memoir piece about George Steiner F.B.A., the prodigious "polyglot and polymath", philosopher, novelist, critic and genuine Renaissance man (he knew at least four languages including ancient Greek), who passed away at 90 last Monday. D'Ancona's article describes him as an "arch-democratiser" of the treasury of European high culture, and possessed of a "lifelong preoccupation with with the meaning of the Holocaust". It seems to have been the devastating juxtaposition of these two facts of European history - that, in Steiner's words, "Goethe's garden almost borders on Buchenwald" - fueled the man's mission to honour and bestow the humanistic achievements of the former as bulwark against the latter. 

While that fervent belief in European culture was primarily exactly that, the logical endpoint was political: "the ideal of unison is undeniable. It inspires important elements of European thought and statesmanship since Charlemagne." 

At this point anyone who became disillusioned with the self-appointed guardians of European civilisation since 2016, may hear alarm bells. The rich, expansive Weltanschauungen of gently spoken professors proved inflexible to the dispositions of millions of their fellow subjects of Her Majesty, and appeared to publicly shatter into a zillion furious tweets. (A.C. Grayling is the Platonic ideal for me here) 

But with Steiner, something very different happened.     

“I’ll tell you what’s going on here: England is tired of history and wants to stay out of it. It prefers to be a smaller nation."

This analysis of Brexit is the most honest of any I have seen from an advocate of a united Europe. It is much closer to the truth than those who glibly dismiss it as the product of racism, or a nostalgic lunge for Empire 2.0. There are reams of data suggesting the UK is among the most tolerant European societies, and the dwindling band of armchair imperialists desperate to cling to vestiges of British power abroad were probably as likely to vote Remain as Leave (I mean, look at me).  

A man with both greater geographical and historical experience of Europe - Steiner was a French Jew whose family fled the Nazis in 1940 - probably can be relied on for a more measured take. It must be hard enough to paint Boris as Hitler, but when you've lived in fear of the real thing the idea must be laughable. 

But just as noteworthy is the second part of Steiner's thought on the British question: 

"And the fascinating problem is: can one be a small, provincial culture with an international language, which dominates the entire planet?"

I think he was right again; the answer is no. I want to see the United Kingdom back on the world stage, living out her destiny as the symbolic linchpin of a diverse and purposeful Anglosphere and Commonwealth, and a strong advocate for the values she gifted to the world. It's just that I believe that can be done outside the strictures of the European Union, probably more effectively. And, as the hoax about 'Irish English' displacing the original British variety as the working language of the EU was getting at, the English language ain't goin' nowhere any time soon.

In carving out that role the UK has to play in the world, we'll need some of the more sensitive voices from the 'pan-European' side to contribute (even the Standard might be helpful). Sadly we have lost one of them in George Steiner. Rest in Peace. Ruhe in Frieden. Reposez en Paix. Αἰωνία ἡ μνήμη.