The Mindset of Decline
Most Europeans grew up with fear, not ambition.
Nuclear energy is seen as disaster, not promise. AI is seen as threat, not tool. Progress is framed as danger.
Through decades of dystopian stories, pessimism became our default.
Our myths of decline:
- Chernobyl — the danger of progress
- Fukushima — fear reborn
- 1984 — technology as control
- The Terminator — machines as killers
- Black Mirror — every future ends in horror
- Climate doomism — the world already lost
We learned to associate ambition with arrogance. Creation with risk. The future with loss.
From Fear to Frontier
Humanity faces immense challenges and immense opportunity.
But in Europe, unlike in America or China, there is no clear path forward. No shared ambition. No grand vision of how to build, act, and lead.
Yet Europe is not weaker.
We have the best universities. Brilliant minds. Unmatched craftsmanship.
What we lack is not talent. We lack belief. Confidence. Boldness.
We build apps when we should be building rockets. We debate endlessly when we should be solving them.
Europe stands at a turning point. The coming decades will decide whether we remain dependent, fragmented and cautious or whether we rise to lead the world in innovation, prosperity, and freedom.
Innovation Creates Prosperity and Security
History is clear.
Empires rise and fall with their technological frontier.
- Britain ruled through naval technology and industry
- The Dutch through trade and innovation
- America rose through industrial power and wartime production
- China is rising through massive technological investment
Innovation → Prosperity → Security
There is a direct link between a nation's ability to build new technology and its citizens' standard of living.
Europe's peace and prosperity were built because the world relied on us. Our machines. Our cars. Our engineering. Our industry.
Trade created jobs. Jobs created wealth. Wealth created stability.
But today we are losing manufacturing to Asia and America. We are abandoning what we are great at instead of evolving it.
Entire industries disappear. Thousands of jobs vanish. Dependence grows.
When Europe was poor in the 19th century, life expectancy in industrial towns was barely 37 years. Innovation pulled us out of poverty. Industry created modern prosperity.
We must do it again.
Not by consuming the future but by creating it.
How to Make Europe Great Again
- Belief and Mindset — Belief always comes before ability. When you study Enzo Ferrari, Dietrich Mateschitz, Christian von Koenigsegg or James Dyson, you realize they believed in themselves long before anyone knew their name. Belief is the operating system of society. People must believe they can build great things.
- Capital and Talent Flow — Make it frictionless for capital and talent to move toward ambition. Break down bureaucracy. Lower barriers to entry. If you do that, you don’t even need to tell people what to build. Great builders are so intrinsically driven and curious that they will do it because it feels natural to them. You just need to leave them alone.
- Build. Build. Build. — More factories. More labs. More startups. More prototypes. Less talk and regulation. Either you build or you let the builders build. But you cannot tell them what to do.
Why Europe's Foundry Exists
We want to tackle the 1. step.
Europe's Foundry exists to rewrite Europe's narrative.
- To tell the stories of builders, scientists, and dreamers
- To explain that optimism is not naive.
- To show that the frontier is not somewhere else
It is here. In Europe.
We must fight pessimism in Europe.
From the grand vision to the smallest daily interaction. Every action ripples through society. Choose kindness. Support each other. Optimism compounds!
Europe stands for freedom, democracy, and human dignity.
To protect these values, we need a strong and independent economy.
That requires innovation. Now more than ever in this geopolitical landscape.
Your Choice
There are two things we can do:
Build the future. Or cheer from the sidelines.
We will tell the stories.
But you. You are the builder.
Join the startup. Start the company. Invent the technology. Build the future. Just make something beautiful.