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Originally posted by Elok
Really? Don't you think of each other as "French" or "Finnish" or "Polish" first, and European second? And for no reason I can see. Some of your unemployment rates are ridiculous, but that might fix itself because most of you are reproducing far too slowly to maintain your current population. Our social security woes are nothing compared to yours. Whatever distinct cultures you once had are on their way out; I've met plenty of exchange students, and they remind me of Canadians. They look down their noses at American Imperialism but their ways are almost ours just the same. You're rearing our children, more or less.
It's just that their countries, unlike ours, are slowly dying. The U.S.'s current political problems are driven by a massive social upheaval. Europeans barely have a society to upheave. You're just recirculating the same tired ideas you've had since WWII or before, and salving your pride with contempt for foreigners (hence the recent spike in xenophobia). What's come out of Europe in the past two centuries? Communism, Fascism, some decent art. Which is why I hear so much harping about the virtues of the Enlightenment, I suppose. You haven't been really inspired by anything noble since.
Well, no, the Brits had Churchill, and also Lewis and Tolkien, only now you're mostly atheists, so, well, so much for the latter two. And you had Einstein too, before Hitler scared him and all the rest of your talent out. After that it was just the bleary half-nihilism of people like Camus, followed by a slew of pompous deconstructionists. America is beginning to catch the same rot, but it's got you down to the core. When we look for unmerited pretension and failed pride, our heads turn eastwards.
Really? Don't you think of each other as "French" or "Finnish" or "Polish" first, and European second? And for no reason I can see. Some of your unemployment rates are ridiculous, but that might fix itself because most of you are reproducing far too slowly to maintain your current population. Our social security woes are nothing compared to yours. Whatever distinct cultures you once had are on their way out; I've met plenty of exchange students, and they remind me of Canadians. They look down their noses at American Imperialism but their ways are almost ours just the same. You're rearing our children, more or less.
It's just that their countries, unlike ours, are slowly dying. The U.S.'s current political problems are driven by a massive social upheaval. Europeans barely have a society to upheave. You're just recirculating the same tired ideas you've had since WWII or before, and salving your pride with contempt for foreigners (hence the recent spike in xenophobia). What's come out of Europe in the past two centuries? Communism, Fascism, some decent art. Which is why I hear so much harping about the virtues of the Enlightenment, I suppose. You haven't been really inspired by anything noble since.
Well, no, the Brits had Churchill, and also Lewis and Tolkien, only now you're mostly atheists, so, well, so much for the latter two. And you had Einstein too, before Hitler scared him and all the rest of your talent out. After that it was just the bleary half-nihilism of people like Camus, followed by a slew of pompous deconstructionists. America is beginning to catch the same rot, but it's got you down to the core. When we look for unmerited pretension and failed pride, our heads turn eastwards.
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