February 20, 2003
APROPOS:
Rift With Europe Runs Deep: U.S. views on war, guns, religion strain the alliance that has defined Western democracy. (Sebastian Rotella, February 18, 2003, LA Times)Some Europeans foresee a split with the United States, as increasingly hostile cultures disagree over fundamental values and issues: war, guns, the death penalty, the role of religion in everyday life."The biblical references in politics, the division of the world between good and evil, these are things that we simply don't get," said Francois Heisbourg, director of the Foundation for Strategic Research, a Paris think tank. "In a number of areas, it seems that we are no longer part of the same civilization. You have a fairly religious society on one hand and generally secular societies on the other operating with different references. What would unite us does not seem to be in the forefront."
As if to prove the point below. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 20, 2003 7:01 PM
What divides Europe and America is the Axis of weasels attempting to drag us down to their level. What Europe decides to do is fine for Europe. The question is what has it sown since the WWII? Asia outstrips them economically. Business ethnics is a joke in Europe-they would sell the rope Lenin said the capitalists would sell that would be used to hang capitalists. Our refusal to be ruled by elites (except for momentary lapses in judgement when 40% of the nation managed to elect Clinton) does not sit well with the autocracy that rules the Old World. Initiative, individual judgement, responsibility, individualism, all cowboy traits and our heritage are unacceptable to the Europeans who reign over docile serfs. Most nations want a death penalty but the ruling elites won't have it. This list goes on but the general worldview there is let the public eat cake. This wouldn't be accepted in the US.
Posted by: Thomas J. Jackson at February 21, 2003 12:16 AMThe most insightful passage of the article was this:
Jean-Francois Revel, a curmudgeonly titan of French political thinkers, published a book last year titled "The Anti-American Obsession." His thesis: Anti-Americanism today expresses the revenge of a defeated, but still pervasive, European left that never forgave the United States for winning the Cold War and exposing what he calls its bankrupt ideology.
Revel and others say Europeans are hypocritical because they still expect U.S. military might to save their bacon if they are ever threatened.
This is exactly right.
pj:
The key being though that they are still wedded to Leftism.
Yes. People don't change their minds easily. They may recognize that their philosophy doesn't work and their enemy's philosophy does, but this doesn't necessarily lead them to change their philosophy -- just to grow even angrier at their enemies for getting God and nature on their side, making it an unfair fight.
Posted by: pj at February 21, 2003 12:46 PM