perfidy

I started this post as a comment to Ross' statements in the comments to Pythagosaurus' "You Think We Got It Bad? or, Ambling into Mediocrity" post of yesterday. It got a little long, so here it is:

Ross, your anti-Americanism seems to have taken over your brain. While the United States is not home to two-dozen languages and cultures, it is home to a melange of hundreds of languages and cultures. The diversity of this country is remarkable, in landscape, traditions, music, food and unique turns of phrase that can be found in the small nooks and crannies.

I agree with Pythagosaurus completely on the cultural issues - there is diversity, albeit within a larger American cultural frame. One of the reasons for this is that America is not an ethnic culture, one that grew up out of one people sharing history, language, and the rest. America is different; in that there is an American culture that anyone can join simply by accepting a (very) few core ideals. And then, they are part of the history of America, share its culture, while retaining many aspects of their own. And the rest of us benefit from this as well. Even you could Ross, though you are a Canadian.

So you think traveling within the United States is going from one Walmart to another? I think you need to twist the little knob on your head. Sure, there are Walmarts and the chain restaurants. Americans appreciate efficiency. But there are also the little diners, with the old guys at the lunch counter smoking Pall Malls and trying to decide how much of an asshole the local mayor is. There are festivals, fairs, monuments to civil war veterans, local historical societies running museums devoted to the story of pumpkin horticulture in a three county area. 

There are Ethiopian restaurants in Columbus. Vast numbers of ethnic restaurants everywhere. Sporting events, bitter rivalries, local beers, roadside attractions like the world's largest ball of string, just because some weirdo thought it'd be a good idea. The beautiful and the strange, the ugly and the wonderful, and more scenic landscapes than you can imagine. If many people don't see the value of hopping on a plane and ending up in Trondheim it's because you can hop on a plane in Indianapolis and end up in New York, Boston, Washington, San Francisco, Miami, New Orleans or Chicago with equal ease, rent an apartment and get a job. You have been able to do that in the United States for over two hundred years, and it is nice that the Europeans have finally caught up.

For all that you are claiming that the United States has suddenly rushed to set up a fascist state to ensure its security from strange and disturbing Europeans, even the Patriot Act doesn't even come close. Johno and I have criticized it here, and we have not been arrested. Nor are we likely to. Despite the clear threat from Middle Eastern men between the ages of 20 and 40 hiding in our midst to prepare attacks on innocent civilians, how did we react? Vast expulsions, internment camps, beatings and lynchings? I don't remember that happening. Our president, in the wake of the most horrific attack we have ever experienced encouraged everyone to be nice to Arabs. And everyone agreed.

The EU is making a deliberate set of choices when it comes to personal freedom. And I fear that they are the wrong choices. Unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels make regulations that affect almost 300 million people. Those people have no choice in selecting those bureaucrats. And those regulations decide whether you can form a business, publish a paper, what you say on the internet, and ten thousand other things. And there is no equivalent in the EU constitution of the Bill of Rights. The list of rights in the proposed EU constitution lists the rights of government, not of people. There is little real difference between personal freedom and freedom from regulation. The relationship between government and people is one that Americans appreciate more than anyone else. We argue about it constantly, and reprove our representatives when they overstep the bounds that we have set. We do not complacently accept dictates from elites. (At least, not all of us.)

The relative strengths of the European and American economy are related to this freedom. The more that the EU superstate layers the European economy in regulation, the more protectionist it gets, the weaker they will be. Chronic unemployment has been a feature of European economic life for decades. That we have unemployment now, in a recession, is unremarkable. The policies of Japan and Europe have kept them in the doldrums for well over a decade, during a period that America and to a lesser extent Britain were experiencing unprecedented growth and prosperity. This recession will end, likely soon by all indications. But where will Europe go? We prosper because we are free.

Ross, I resisted saying this in the last comment I made, but: if American sucks so completely; if we are a nation of provincial rubes who can't understand the wonders that the rest of the world has to offer; and have lost and forgotten freedom of expression and are busily setting up a police state; why are you living in Northern Virginia, and having this argument with two Americans on their website? And I don't mean this facetiously, in an "America, love it or leave it!" way. You are often hyper critical of America, which is your right. Obviously something compelled you to leave the country of your birth to come here. If America is as bad as you say, what are the reasons you came here?