In an ideal world for union organizers, where the external forces of global economy have no impact on union membership, this may not be true.

FORBES: Yes, Unions Need Reinventing

Hence the need for an avant-garde to keep the ideal of ever closer union alive.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne

Beauvoir and Sartre helped to popularise a modern ideal of a male-female union of the minds.

ECONOMIST: French muses

However, the way that the European Union and the eurozone are set up a country leaving the monetary union would be considered to be a shocking defeat for the whole European ideal.

FORBES: The Appalling Greek Solution: A Military Coup