When did Europe become the enemy?

[Osborne Russell]

I caught a bit of Sean Hannity on Fox News yesterday. He says Europe loves Obama because they are America-hating socialists. In former times I would have put that in quotes, because without quotes, the natural tendency would be to disbelieve that he actually said it.

My wife was stuck in traffic yesterday, listening to AM radio for half an hour or so for the traffic reports. She says the airwaves are full of right-wing vitriol against . . . Europe.

Today, Dutch says the Europeans want to pick America's next leader.

I had no idea we faced so dire a threat. When did it arise?

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Re: When did Europe become the enemy?

"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged.

"Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."


"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."


"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

[Osborne Russell]

Re: When did Europe become the enemy?

Yeah, but dude, what happens when you go around thinking everyone outside your country is ipso facto your enemy?

[botebum]

Re: When did Europe become the enemy?

It's common knowledge that Europe is against us. England hates us because of the Revolution. Germany hates us because we beat them in two world wars. France hates us because ... well French people are just rude. Spain hates us because we don't allow bullfighting. Switzerland hates us because we have the Leatherman and they still just have that silly knife with the toothpick. Need I go on? No, I didn't think so.

Doug

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Re: When did Europe become the enemy?

"The citizen of Oceania is not allowed to know anything of the tenets of the other two philosphies, but he is taught to execrate them as barbarous outrages upon morality and common sense. Actually, the three philosophies are barely distinguishable…"

"The Hate rose to its climax. The voice of Goldstein had become an actual sheep's bleat, and for an instant the face changed into that of a sheep. Then the sheep-face melted into the figure of a Eurasian soldier who seemed to be advancing, huge and terrible, his sub-machine-gun roaring, and seeming to spring out of the surface of the screen, so that some of the people in the front row actually flinched backward in their seats. But in the same moment, drawing a deep sigh of relief from everybody, the hostile figure melted into the face of Big Brother, black-haired, black-mustachio'd, full of power and mysterious calm, and so vast that it almost filled up the screen. Nobody heard what Big Brother was saying. It was merely a few words of encouragement, the sort of words that are uttered in the din of battle, not distinguishable individually but restoring confidence by the fact of being spoken. Then the face of Big Brother faded away again and instead the three slogans of the Party stood out in bold capitals:

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

But the face of Big Brother seemed to persist for several seconds on the screen, as though the impact that it had on everyone's eyeballs was too vivid to wear off immediately. The little sandy-haired woman had flung herself forward over the back of the chair in front of her. With a tremulous murmur that sounded like 'My Saviour!' she extended her arms towards the screen. Then she buried her face in her hands. It was apparent that she was uttering a prayer. At this moment the entire group of people broke into a deep, slow, rhythmic chant of 'B-B! .... B-B! .... B-B!'—over and over again, very slowly, with a long pause between the first 'B' and the second—a heavy mumurous sound, somehow curiously savage, in the background of one which seemed to hear the stamps of naked feet and the throbbing of tom-toms. For perhaps as much as thirty seconds they kept it up. It was a refrain that was often heard in moments of overwhelming emotion. Partly it was a sort of hymn to the wisdom and majesty of Big Brother, but still more it was an act of self-hypnosis, a deliberate drowning of consciousness by means of rhythmic noise"

[LeeG]

Re: When did Europe become the enemy?

"you're either with us or against us"..combine that with the expectation that people in the rest of the world are just like us, they just dress and talk differently, and it encourages a sense of betrayal when they don't cooperate with our script.

Gotta blame someone, democrats, environmentalists, Germans, French, you name it

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Re: When did Europe become the enemy?

The cultivation of the siege mentality; the prerogative of the football coach throughout the ages.

[Jim Ledger]

Re: When did Europe become the enemy?

It's common knowledge that Europe is against us. England hates us because of the Revolution.

Doug

I think feelings on that score might be beginning to subside.

[TimH]

Re: When did Europe become the enemy?

It's common knowledge that Europe is against us. England hates us because of the Revolution. Germany hates us because we beat them in two world wars. France hates us because ... well French people are just rude. Spain hates us because we don't allow bullfighting. Switzerland hates us because we have the Leatherman and they still just have that silly knife with the toothpick. Need I go on? No, I didn't think so.

Doug

They hate us, but they are all looking for us to "lead" them..

its kind of like how a teenager hates their parents


only because we are smarter, richer and more powerful than them.

[Osborne Russell]

Re: When did Europe become the enemy?

Listen, when we go to bat for The Folk, we don't need no fancy-pants Goering telling us how. I'm told he was a European.

[Osborne Russell]

Re: When did Europe become the enemy?

I think feelings on that score might be beginning to subside.

An English guy told me England would re-take the colonies. He also told me Boddington's was good stuff but we drank like six apiece and I didn't see the big deal. We laughed a lot but he's gonna laugh out of the other side of his face because in one more year, if they haven't done it, he owes me a beer.

[High C]

Re: When did Europe become the enemy?

Europe is not America's enemy, but Europe occasionally behaves as if the US were Europe's enemy.

The reason is the conflict of left/right ideology, nothing more. When Europe perceives a US that has shifted leftward, the predictable love fest ensues (yesterday at Tiergarten, for example) . When the US shifts right, the fangs come out. It's an old pattern, quite predictable.

[High C]

Re: When did Europe become the enemy?

...we are smarter, richer and more powerful than them.

...smarter than they......or not.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Re: When did Europe become the enemy?

...smarter than they......or not.

You be careful with that intelligent conservatism there, boy, or they'll go thinking you're one of those left-liberal elitists!

[Osborne Russell]

Re: When did Europe become the enemy?

Europe is not America's enemy, but Europe occasionally behaves as if the US were Europe's enemy.

The reason is the conflict of left/right ideology, nothing more. When Europe perceives a US that has shifted leftward, the predictable love fest ensues (yesterday at Tiergarten, for example) . When the US shifts right, the fangs come out. It's an old pattern, quite predictable.

Man, I can't get this straight. Is it left-wing Europe, or all Europe?