Subject:
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Re: Conversation w/ a LEGO Rep
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 25 Aug 1999 17:36:39 GMT
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Viewed:
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2036 times
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Simon Robinson <simon@simonrobinson.com> wrote in message
news:FH135q.M3B@lugnet.com...
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Jesse Long writes:
(snip)
> In Europe, when we see that people are poor or suffering due to a brutal
> dictatorship or starving or having their human rights abused, our instinct
> is to say 'how can we help? What can our Governments do to help?'
Yeah. Only when it's too late to nip the thing in the bud, then the rest of
the world gets draged in kicking and screeming.
(snip)
> We may not
> like it when politicians cheat on their wives but we recognize that • doesn't
> really have any bearing on how good they are at their jobs.
Our media is to blame for this viewpoint. I don't believe many americans
really care how many women Clinton or any other pres sleeps with. It's just
a way for the stations to get higher ratings. And that's because, even
though we don't care that much, we love a big scandal and being nosey. How
many people don't listening to two people having an argument in a
restaurant? Few and far between right.
> What we see coming from America on the news is a constant stream of
> 'We don't want to pay for this' or 'this is none of our business'
> or 'We don't want to help other countries'.
This used to be our standard policy: 'Keep your cotton pickin' hands off
the Americas and we'll leave the rest of you alone.' That changed with WW2.
Then we realized that much of the world was too imature to prevent a
cascading event sequence that could result in our whole civilization
colapsing. So to stem the tide we had to change our policy to: 'We're
watching what you're doing, and if we don't like it we'll slap you on the
hand and send you to your room. Meanwhile here's your billion dollar
allowance for the year and some nice military toys to play with.' A little
screwed up, but it seems to prevent collapse.
> Not only that, but we see reports
> of kids being sentenced to death, of guns being everywhere because
> Americans expect the right to have them. Of American churches distorting
> the Christian message into a right wing propaganda tool.
They were old enough to know the difference (any kid whose watched Bambi
should know what death is and why it's bad).
I always viewed the religious groups as the 'left-wing radicals' (left being
bad), but religion plays a big part in our lives and politics down here in
the South (I think that's where most of them come from). Off Topic- I lived
in Chicago for a couple of years and they really weren't as religious as we
are down south. By religious I mean 1 out of 1.5 people attend/have
attended church, and you only have to drive a mile to the nearest church
(for Europeans that would be like every block).
Getting back to our left-wing radicals I think they were influenced a lot by
the Roman Catholic Church. You want to talk about political 'left-wing
radical' involvement, they have it down pat, and have been doing it for
centuries. But you've got to remember that was one of the main reasons our
fore-fathers settled here: fleeing religious persecution. Unfortunately
it's like a never ending cycle and keeps repeating itself.
> Of anti-gay
> and anti-any-minority-group prejudice.
Yes, yes we have all that, but doesn't all of Europe have this too? Why do
the Serbs hate the Bosnians and Kosovars? Jee, could it be minority
prejudice? What about all the Middle-easterners who have been moving to
France, England, and other countries, are you guys welcoming them with open
arms? And then of course there are the Jews. Japan, China, Korea, etc,
also have this problem. The Japanese are very racist against Koreans and
Chinese and vise versa. Personally I hate racism, and it actually seems
like we have less of it here where I live in the South than in Chicago. Off
Topic- I believe this is primarily due to a cultural 'guilt' about the whole
thing and therefore we are very conscious about it. The only time I've seen
it in person was at a restaurant in Arkansas, and a truck rental in Chicago.
However, I know it exists everywhere. As a college student I wrote an
article about racism on our college campus and interviewed several black
friends of mine to find out what they had experienced. I was shocked, and
it made me upset that we had such ignorant people running around campus
doing this.
My point is racism exsists everywhere and just because our media choses to
air it once a week doesn't mean we are the only country with this problem.
> Perhaps some of that isn't really true, but all those images do add up to
> create a very poor impression of Americans.
Personally I don't have a bad impression of Europeans as a whole. (Except
Hungarian women with hairry legs and wondering if anyone over there ever
takes a bath ;) I do have an impression of the French as being arrogant
cowards, but that doesn't mean I don't like them , or wouldn't help them if
they needed it.
> Now like I say I am generalizing. I also think it's really a political
> thing. From Americans I've known personally I'd say that when it comes
> to *personal* life, most of you are very caring people. Possibly
> more so than people in the UK. But when it
> comes to politics, it's different. I've seen debates here on lugnet, where
> many Americans are saying about how they don't want to pay any taxes.
> In the political culture in America, I guess that sounds reasonable. But
> seen from a European perspective those postings just make you
> look incredibly selfish.
I think you overly socialized countries miss the point about lower taxes.
With lower taxes people spend more money on goods and services, which goes
back into the economy to support the hard working people who make the goods
and services, who then go out and buy more goods and services, etc. Taxes
are still collected so tax revenue rises. Then the gorvernment can help
those who are unable to work, spend some on infrastructure, and some on
defense. The problems start when you decide to start supporting everyone,
including the people who work, those who can't, and those who just don't
like to work. Then the government needs lots more money and starts to drain
the economy for it.
> That is IMO the reason why a lot of Europeans
> have such a poor view of Americans. It's got nothing to do with
> America's power or history, or the two World Wars, etc.
Why do I always get the feeling that the rest of the world has an
inferiority complex when they compare themselves to Americans? Do you
honestly believe we are better than you? You make it seem as though we
think we are better than you. That's absurd. To be honest I think we
couldn't care less about making comparisons. We have things we like and
don't like about our country and wish they were more like Europe's policies
and whatnot, and vise versa for Europeans, but neither of us should feel one
is more superior than the other.
> OK - so how many people have I offended? <grin>
I wasn't offended, just debating.
Adam
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Conversation w/ a LEGO Rep
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| (...) do (...) Oh yes - much of Europe has awful problems with prejudice. I wouldn't say most people in the UK have a very good impression of Serbs either :) Possibly the difference is - at least in the case of gays - that by and large mainstream (...) (25 years ago, 28-Aug-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Conversation w/ a LEGO Rep
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| (...) I've just seen some very strange answers to this question. Jesse, I think what you've written comes closest to the truth. Eric Kingsley was pretty close to the mark too. Coming from the UK, I think that yes it is true that *in general* many (...) (25 years ago, 25-Aug-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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