Lebanon's Shiite cleric tells the British to act more European than American

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanon's top Shiite cleric asked Britain on Sunday to adopt the European approach to the region rather than an American one which is using Lebanon to pressure on Syria and Iran.

Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah made his comments during a meeting at his office with visiting British envoy to the Middle East Michael Williams, according to a statement released by the cleric's office.

"We want Britain to be European and not to be American or work on the side of America's foreign policy in the region," the black-turbaned cleric said.

So, a Lebanese, Shia cleric may realize something that many Americans and Europeans do not: while the United States and Europe may share a single civilization, they do not share a common culture, and their cultures (several on the European side) may continue to diverge until there is a distinct European/Western civilization and an American one.

This attitude that Europeans and Americans are the same seems to be behind a lot of the animosity on both sides of the 'pond' (a term itself suggesting the 'closeness' between Americans and Europeans). Each side expects the other to be more similar to them, and when that side fails to be, they get angry.

Europeans deride Americans for being ignorant simpletons. American culture has traditionally been isolationist, and Americans are characteristically simple and straightforward, not conniving. Hence the widespread 'ignorance' of international affairs and very clear-cut views.

Americans deride Europeans for being arrogant weaklings. Europe has a history of strict, rather inflexible social structure. It isn't surprising that Europeans would look down on a people largely drawn from their peasantry (the huddled masses). Europe has also seen more than its fair share of wars, almost all of them self-inflicted. And almost all European states have lost land and a huge segment of their population due to war. It makes sense that they would be reluctant to go to war, even if war is necessary.

Even the American 'gung ho' (a phrase Chinese in origin which has been assimilated into American English) attitude and the European cynical disposition manifest themselves in children's books and films, with the American ones having a disproportionate amount of 'good endings' whereas the European ones have a disproportionate amount of 'bad endings.'

The sooner Americans and Europeans start recognizing that their cultures have a common root but are becoming ever more separate, the sooner Euro-American animosity can wane. Europeans have sibling cultures to Americans, and Americans have a sibling culture to Europeans. They are currently similar, but they are no longer the same. There is a divergence in values, religion (yes), and outlook.

The UK is stuck someplace in between, influenced both by mainland Europe and the United States (much as Canada has been shaped by a cultural tug-of-war between the United States and United Kingdom). A common language (or very mutually intelligible languages) and a historic self-distinction from mainland Europe would do this.

Alternatively, increased travel opportunities and communication such as the internet could and probably will create eventually a sort of monoculture (of the people, not bacterial, variety) and a single nation out of the human race (and to a one world government and the end).

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