NorthernGent
Posts: 8730
Joined: 7/10/2006
Status: offline
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Dtesmoac,
You're in good company as most of us don't know who we are, where are we and what our names are! We're too busy running around chasing houses and cars like madmen chasing water in the desert.
Your point on Socialism - I will add that France and Britain are nothing like socialist societies so I don't think we're in position to draw conclusions based on these two. Granted some socialist policies are based on self-interest - for example, protectionism around the national workforce - and this contradicts their international approach to world affairs. However, on balance, I personally would take socialism over what we have in Britain today. Both Britain and the US have third world countries hidden in the closet - New Orleans, various other inner-city parts of the US - how can this be right with the wealth that both nations create? Also, the high crime rates are evidence that once you scratch beneath the style surface there is something seriously wrong. I think you said in another post you've spent a fair amount of time over here so you'll be aware it's not all tea, scones and cosy chats about the shipping forecast.
I'm not sure you're right about the lack of a community spirit in Britain - granted, Thatcher and her government destroyed long-standing working class institutions and instilled individualism in order to concentrate much of the wealth of the nation in the South and around London. However, as a people, we've never really sort community in festivals/parades etc - we have a tradition of seeking community at football and down the pub - both are ingrained in British culture and community. Football is passed down from father to son and it's very much part of the social fabric - many Britons spend their wages on following their football team around the country and abroad - for example, Newcastle played Inter Milan recently in Italy and 15,000 Newcastle fans went to Italy to watch their team (and this is the rule rather than the exception) which is around 1 in every 20 people in the City - out of interest how many Dallas fans would make the journey to another part of the US to watch their Gridiron team? also, a large proportion of Brits would much rather be down the pub having a few pints with mates than prancing around towns making a show of ourselves at festivals. Just not our scene, Des. We're thinkers not exhibisionists :-)
Your point on many Americans - there was a post on here from someone who said the poorest people in America are more wealthy than Middle Class Europeans - comments such as these tell a story (obviously the poster missed the TV pictures of starving, dying Americans in New Orleans which to Europeans looked like hell on earth).
I tell you what though Des, I would like to think there are more idiots over there simply because there are more of you - more scientists, more obesity, more diversity, more idiots, more people who spend their evenings wrapping themselves up in cling film and smoothering themselves with fish oil, more everything. If not, and a large proportion of you are the planks that our right-wing media paints you as, then we're in a spot of trouble.
Your point on lowering the quality of education - well, when University is made accessible to all it is inevitable that there will be a fall in the standards the elites are used to as resources are re-directed away from the elites to wider society. It's simply a symptom of a more inclusive society and it can only be good - I for one would have been unable to go to University in Britain if I lived in the Britain of the 1960s and prior to that.
Regards
Regards
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RE: US Foreign Policy - 
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