Tony Judt was a respected advisor to Tony Blair, whom he endowed with the realism that historians bring to politicians. A convinced Europeanist, he was also an example of a socially committed intellectual. Dramatically afflicted with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, he had to write his great work on Europe(Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945) with the anxiety of someone who knows the end of his days and wants to leave an everlasting bequest . He succeeded. This is a monumental recent history of Europe that has the pace of a thriller and the scope of an encyclopedia, and should be part of the Study program of all European high school graduates. After nearly a thousand pages of profound scholarship and prescient interpretation, Judt concludes:

"The 20th century witnessed Europe's fall into the abyss. The United States forged the largest military and China manufactured more and cheaper goods. But neither the United States nor China has at its disposal a useful model amenable to universal emulation. Despite the horrors of their recent past - and largely because of them - it is now the 'Europeans' who are best placed to offer the world some modest advice on how to avoid repeating their own mistakes. Few would have predicted it sixty years ago, but the 21st century can still belong to Europe."

Europa appears today as a dignified but somewhat aged lady, something like one of those beautiful sculptures, full-bodied, but somewhat disjointed, inexpressive and mutilated, that have come down to us from classical antiquity: the Venus de Milo, the Victory of Samothrace and the Caryatids of the Parthenon. Their elegant demeanor and their unending gaze are still intact, but the passage of time has relegated them to an apparent sterile monumentality. And yet, it continues to exert a permanent fascination among its millions of visitors, from all civilizations, attracted by that something sublime that only the classics can achieve.

Despite their longevity and apparent decrepitude, these three sculptures remain 'current', they continue to inspire us. When I read Judt's paragraph, I thought, once again, that Europe, despite its apparent senescence, preserves a dignity and serenity that we must value in its proper measure and try to revive, if we do not want to make mistakes in essential matters. I also thought how current is still that wise admonition attributed to the famous Central European Judeo-Catholic composer Gustav Mahler: "Tradition does not consist in adoring the ashes, but in fanning the fire". To be enraptured by our European past, which is so sublime, is an exercise as necessary as it is comforting. But it is not enough to admire it as one appreciates an inert monument, if we do not want to update it, if we do not want to fall into that ugly vice of modernity that is to confuse traditionalism with a healthy attachment to tradition itself - that part of the past that, fruit of a dense interaction from one generation to the next, continues to exist in the present.

And yet, Europe's reputation is in question. It is suffering from the same logic of the Black Legend that it itself threw at one of its most distinguished components, Spain. The rest of civilizations - Russia, Islam and China especially - are skillfully taking advantage of the leave self-esteem that, since the Second World War and the concomitant processes of decolonization, have been artificially and uncritically installed among the European citizens themselves.

Honestly, I do not know if these other civilizations are in a position to give many moral lessons to the West, considering their past and present actions. But even if we accept the saying that "the devil is the comfort of fools", the paradox that disturbs me is that many of these criticisms come from extra-Western intellectuals or activists. They have launched their anti-European ideas from Western universities, because they cannot freely exercise their work from their own original intellectual centers. This has had very perceptible consequences in public life, which Westerners themselves have assumed with an overwhelming frivolity and intellectual submission: from the demystification of their heroes - from Columbus to Isabella the Catholic, through the (so far unknown) Fray Juníper Serra - to the demolition of their symbols: from their sculptures to their artistic works, literary productions and most representative cultural achievements.

And yet, are there so many reasons to fall into that leave self-esteem?

The reality is that the old European lady retains all her seductive power, for her heritage of the past and her attraction in the present. A simple Google search is enough to prove that Europe is still the continent most visited by tourists from all over the world, the dream destination for emigrants from all over the planet (who even risk their lives, literally, to get their citizenship), the territory where social coverage (Education compulsory, attendance health, unemployment coverage, retirement pension) are universal, the promised land for freedom of expression, the political space of Europe, the political and economic space of the world, pension) are universal, the promised land for freedom of expression, the political space where democracy is more consolidated, the place where the rights of minorities are more respected, the place where there are higher security rates, and the atmosphere where intellectuals can launch their ideas of subject without fear of reprisals.

Moreover, Europeans enjoy a religion whose founder decided not to interfere in temporal affairs ("to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's"), which consolidated the great cultural bequest of their previous traditions (Jerusalem, Athens, Rome) and immunized them from political theocracy as in Iran, from the politicization of religion as in Russia or from the condemnation to irrelevance of religion as in China.

That we are not at our best is evident, but the reality is not the one we utopically dream of, but the one that is imposed around us: the rights that a citizen enjoys in other great civilizations do not stand the slightest comparison with those of Europeans.

The challenges ahead for Europe are certainly complex: the harmonization between diversity and uniformity, something that has always guaranteed its greatness; the preservation of its own specific values together with the traditional capacity to welcome immigrants; the care of acquired universal rights (Education, health, retirement) to pass them intact to the next generations, which requires a realistic fiscal and public debt policy; and the consolidation of its own legal and political institutions. But if we are able to respect and value our heritage - material, artistic and spiritual - of the past and meet those challenges, we will be able to meet Judt's challenge, and the 21st century can still belong to Europe. But none of these lofty goals will be possible to achieve if we do not strive to raise our self-esteem: our sublime past and our hopeful present demand it.