Europe is in shock. At the Munich Security Conference on February 15th, US vice president JD Vance said what many Americans think, especially those who prefer not to visit the old continent. Europeans are used to hearing the ‘reasonable’ voices of US intellectuals who love to
visit and live in Europe. The German Minister of Defence, Boris Pistorius, said the speech of Vance at the Munich Security Conference was not acceptable.

It is a paradox which shows how each party is simply speaking to its own fan club. Vance stood up and said that there is a problem with freedom of speech in Europe. He expressed his opinion freely in Europe. Pistorius said he could not accept Vance’s idea, therefore limiting freedom of expression. Both seem to be caught up in the paradox of Epimenides of Crete. He had stated that

 

Cretans are always liars: Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται.

 

Thomas Fowler in 1869 explained the paradox in these terms: “Epimenides the Cretan says ‘that all the Cretans are liars,’ but Epimenides is himself a Cretan; therefore he is himself a liar. But if he is a liar, what he says is untrue, and consequently, the Cretans are veracious; but Epimenides is a Cretan, and therefore what he says is true; saying the Cretans are liars, Epimenides is himself a liar, and what he says is untrue. Thus, we may go on alternately proving that Epimenides and the Cretans are truthful and untruthful.”

The same paradox applies to Vance and Pistorius.

 

Freedom of speech means to be able to say anything.
Limitation to the freedom of speech means some things cannot be said.

 

Vance accused Europe of limiting free speech and yet was able to say anything. Pistorius proposed to defend free speech by condemning Vance’s opinion. The paradox highlights the lack of communication between civil servants in Europe and Americans voting for Trump. Both parties wish the other to be different. No effort is made to compromise or understand the other. The paradox demonstrates that smooth speaking Americans have brushed aside differences deeply felt between the US and Europe. Europeans have often put aside the differences in favour of advantages.

Oscar Wilde in 1887 pointed out the problem in the Canterville Ghost with a touch of irony: “We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.”

What is clear is that Vance and Pistorius have not read their Bible properly. The paradox of Epimenides is used by Saint Paul in the Epistle of Titus:

"One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. (Titus. 1:12 KJV)

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Focusing on what is in common and brushing aside differences makes people feel good but drives them over the precipice. Time to cherish differences, emphasize and underline them, in order to find solutions which are not paradoxical and superficial. This is the first step in diplomacy between different cultures.