Finn d'Abuzz wrote:I must admit it, I love Europe.
I especially love England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, The Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and (on the periphery) Scandinavia.
I seriously doubt I might ever love France, simply because it is inhabited by the French.
I question whether or not I might love France Lite - Belgium, but I suspect that my lack of ardour for states like Spain and Portugal is directly connected to the fact that I have yet to visit these nations.
There is so much to admire about these nations and their people.
However...If they have no use for us, I have no use for them.
Clearly it is not 100% of all Europeans who despise the US.
Whether it be 50%, 30%, 20% or 10% of Europeans who love America, these are the Europeans with whom my heart connects.
What amazes me is that anyone might feel content in wallowing in the faults of one's nation (homeland) and at the same time invigorated by the jeering criticism of other nations.
Spare me the BS notion of purity of spirit and consideration. Liberals are no more pure in their idealism than Conservatives. Given that we are all imperfect specimens of God's creation, how does it make sense that almost 50% of our species (albeit they would argue the number exceeds 50%) prefers to think the worst of us?
There is only one answer: By thinking the worst of us as a group, individuals can, somehow, lay claim to exceptional grace.
Yeah, right!
dear texan swine
You're being a tad dull regarding who is it is claiming exceptional grace...
continued
I don't know anyone who doesn't love to travel through the US and interact with youse yanquis. There probably are some but I haven't met them and if I did I'd probably have the urge to piss on their shoes and their flag.
I don't know anyone who doesn't love Cole Porter, Mark Twain, the Bill of Rights, the transistor, the New York Metropolitan, the Nash Metropolitan, coonskin caps, 59 Caddy tailights, surfergirl tummies, the Chrysler Building, West Side Story, the watercolor backgrounds painted for Bambi, Nichols and May, the moon-landing, the consequences if not the odor from an oil-barrel of smouldering brassieres, American Graffitti, Bob Dylan (BC), Olmstead's parks, Joan Didion's every sentence, blues harmonica, Singing in the Rain, the cheeseburger, the collected sermons of Will Rogers, and that black girl's bum I saw yesterday on Lexington. Actually, there are people who despise a lot of those things above, but most of them are Americans.
The Western World, though not the rest of it, is in a golden age and this would not likely have been so without the mad frenetic swirl of America.
But that ain't the whole story, that's just the good part. You are more violent and militaristic than any other nation blowing each other to **** with a statistical abandon that has the rest of us shaking our heads, and blowing other peoples to **** with an ethusiasm that the first part of this equation does not ammeliorate in the slightest. And all under the blessings of providence, being providence's chosen.
