@Ceili,
Ceili wrote:
I'll tell you why the rest of the world gives a ****. It's because business does not reside in one country, neither do insurance companies and banks. It all intertwined, see, like a great big web. These corporations (deemed persons by your country) are then citizens of the world, or something. And if they run around as charlatans and thieves and your country refuses to police them, then you have the banking fiasco et al.
Now if your government cant get along, the rest of the world shakes, waiting for the next great american melt down, waiting to see what more you can all do screw-up the world.
China fears it's loans may go tits up. Israel fears a third world war, and the americas fear following Europe and yourselves down a sinkhole.
If this was only about you, that's one thing. Sure, don't give a damn about your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to hell.
'Cause being poor is an abomination. And health care is only for those who can afford it.
But it ain't just about you.
If you schmucks don't get it together, you could **** everyone up. Again. Get it?
And so how was the following comment arrogant or really any substantially different than your rant?
No, you've revealed that what you're really worried about is your own ass, and the collective European ass.
Fair enough. Self-interest is an excellent motivator
If you're worried about what the
schmucks in the US are doing because it has great impact on you and the rest of the world, you display more rational thinking than is usually the case. At least you didn't try to preface this clear expression of self-interest with nonsense about concern for the schumcks and their standing as a beacon of democracy.
Snide opinion pieces in foreign newspapers may make the authors and many of their readers feel superior to the divided hick nation with lynch mobs baying, and the "fat, solemn, smug (Republican) legislators" indulging in (of course) "serpent-speak," but they will have
zero bearing on what happens. They are as irrelevant as the expressed opinions of their nation's leaders.
And this isn't because Americans are inherently arrogant, but because the minor players never get to say much about what the major players will do. Such was the case when Britannia ruled the waves, subjugated native peoples around the globe, and exploited the truly down-trodden at home, and it is the case now.
Not to single out Great Britain of course, most of the US critics have had their turn in the pilot's seat (except of course Canada).
As I've written on numerous occasions in this forum, I fully understand how maddening it is that there is a government in the world over which you don't even have the minimal control provided by a single vote, but which could, under certain circumstances, have as much or more influence over your life than your own.
It's a fair bet that at some point in time (later rather than sooner) Americans (or their successors) will share this frustration and sense of impotency, and it's also a fair bet that if the empire's decline results in as soft a landing as Britain was able to manage, there will be American pundits writing snide and impotent columns about whatever Big Dog stands over the rest of the world.
Despite your endless denials Ceili, you are clearly anti-American. That's fine by me. I much prefer your raw contempt to obsequious expressions of concern, and particularly when a more polished contempt underlies the concern.
