The cowboy nation versus the axis of weasels

[dArKeR]

Despite their common origins in the Enlightenment, the issues dividing the US and Europe are growing

By Peter Schneider
NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , BERLIN
Wednesday, Mar 17, 2004,Page 9

The war in Iraq has made the Atlantic seem wider. But really it has had the effect of a magnifying glass, bringing older and more fundamental differences between Europe and the US into focus.

These growing divisions -- over war, peace, religion, sex, life and death -- amount to a philosophical dispute about the common origins of European and US civilization. Both children of the Enlightenment, the US and Europe clearly differ about the nature of this inheritance and about who is its better custodian.

Start with religion. The US is experiencing a revival of the Christian faith in many areas of civic and political life, while in Europe the process of secularization continues unabated. Today the US is the most religious-minded society of the Western democracies. In a Harris poll last year 79 percent of Americans said they believed in God, and more than a third said they attended a religious service once a month or more. Numerous polls have shown that these figures are much lower in Western Europe. In the US a majority of respondents in recent years told pollsters that they believed in angels, while in Europe the issue was apparently considered so preposterous that no one even asked the question.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/03/17/2003106574

I think we're in trouble when the only person I hear questioning why this is happening is Robert McNamara. I saw him on CSPAN talking about parts of "The Fog of War". Empathy.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/TheFogofWar-1126863/?rtp=1
http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2004/02/28/morris/index_np.html

[gula]

1. Spot on in many ways, but this

"On other contentious issues the US feels as strongly: the universality of human rights and the need to intervene -- if the UN is unable to act -- when there is genocide or ethnic cleansing, or when states are failing" What about Bu$h's support of some of the worst human rights violators in various *stan and *stani lands? Also, Iraq was invaded long after the various mass killings had taken place.

The impression I get from European family and friends is what freaks them out the most is the religiosity. They just can't believe that in this day and age people could spout all this fundamentalist drivel. Maybe it's because they also tend to believe that all Americans are reasonably well educated.

[bemildred]

2. I have been wondering whether the decline in literacy

and the quality of the US educational system is related to the
renaissance in fundamentalism and religiosity in the USA.
Fundamentalism is also a reaction to social change, and to some
degree it may be a reaction to the various rights movements.