Posted on 04/12/2007 10:12:44 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
That is the bottom line. Fear of American strength and belief that ANYONE can become anything they want with the freedom and wherewithal to attain it.
You just nailed it! When I was a young student in Europe in 1968 the ONE huge ‘lesson’ I took away from that experience was that, in Europe, everyone was BORN into what they were to be. Period. I will never forget the impact that realization had on me.
It’a ALL about class structure. The Europeans who hate us are convinced that their ‘system’ is superior because it provides ‘safety’ - they don’t have to push themselves, or take risks in life (many of them are living in houses that have been in their families for generations) because ‘life’ is all spelled out for them from the moment they are born.
Lastly, the first time I toured the White House I was struck by how very appropriately it represents the USA. Unlike the palaces of Europe, in which their so-called leaders reside (except 10 Downing), the White House is very small, understated, and reflects the fact that ANY citizen can aspire to become POTUS.
What right wing intellectuals! When was the last time you can think of a right wing French intellectual? De Tocqueville? And he had good things say about America!
“The Americans represent a real danger for France, different from the one posed by Germany or the one with which the Russians may - in time - threaten us. The Americans may have preserved a cult of Liberty but they do not feel the need to liberate themselves from the servitude which their capitalism has created.”
France was left leaning almost from the beginning of their Revolution. Bourgeois, whether its economic or artistic meaning, is still a French word of contempt. Though equality is stressed with socialism France still wants to be the first amongst equals. Unfortunately, French language has lost its all important cultural significance that once allowed it entry into the great houses of Europe and Russia; France had lost to the Germans in three wars from 1870 on and needed the help of the culturally inferior US to bail her out in two of them. Then the worse thing possible: the spread of English as the new universal language from this upshot startling nation with no culture to speak of. The French are beholden to the US and resent them for it — it makes them feel more inferior than the inferior backwater status the French have always given the US (and Canada). In the end, they are ingrates, par excellence.
I haven’t read any of them....but I need to .....so I’ll be interested if ...goldstategop...can help us...
I’ve read this book by John Gibson. Gibson, IMHO, is one of the “ordinary” experts that America grows in bumper crops. He may not know anything about, say, early Indian artifacts, but when it comes to Anti-Americanism in the EU, John Gibson is the “go to” guy. It’s beyond the comprehension of the EUs that an ordinary man who has an established position in a world class organization should just one day decide to study on something else. From all that I have observed over the years, so many EUs got to one definition of themselves and just stayed there. This is also what I got from this first installment of the BBC seires.
A cover for envy, or even the opposite, a threat to elitism.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
True enough. A bit of both, I suspect.
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