Hi Nadine, that's a great question, I'm not sure I can answer it with any sort of justice, but I'll give it a shot anyway.
In general, when you watch the talking head shows on television and hear the radio news programs, there seems to be an over fascination with American politics. Of course, most of it is twisted into the most anti-Bush spin from the best CNN writers around.
On the other hand, there is this disconnection many feel toward their own government being in any way responsive toward the things which bother them in life. They have a kind of deterministic attitude about the entire process of politics. It's the cynical mentality you see displayed on threads around SI toward the U.S. government. Everyone is corrupt, no one is honest, and everyone is out for their own interest. No one party is better than the other, they're all despicable.
For instance, in Italy most people basically believes corruption runs rampant. To the point that every soccer game is determined by what referee belongs to what faction in a political circle. But, Italy is a bit different in many ways then the rest of Europe, they really follow politics (even though they think it's corrupt) every day. They talk about politics constantly in street corners, bars and just about everywhere. It takes no effort as an American to get someone going talking about politics. They love to talk about the ups and downs in America, just as they love to talk about the latest football stars shenanigans. They rarely get emotional about it, it's more of a interesting side note to their life, instead of something they deeply care about.
But getting back to the disconnection for a moment. I think this story tells a lot. Just the other day when we were in Innsbrook, my wife started talking to one of the shopkeepers. She was just having a harmless conversation regarding when Austria shifted to the EURO. Anyway, this apparently opened up a real sensitive area of her life. She was visibly upset when my wife said innocently "well it's probably a lot easier now to use your currency then it was a couple of year ago". Based on her reaction, you would have thought my wife said something rude about her husband, because she shot back "EASIER FOR WHO!
Apparently, Austria has been going through a tough time since the conversion about three years ago and is just now starting to come out of the economic slump it caused. Anyway, the lady snapped quickly out of her anger funk and agreed their wasn't anything anyone could do about it "our government made an agreement" (very depressingly).
I hope you get the drift. Underneath the scene, there is this "they aren't listening to us" belief among many Europeans toward their government.
By the way, Germany just passed a 18% sales tax, and we paid a 20% sales tax in Austria the other day. Don't they realize how much they're shooting themselves in the foot with the tax and spend mentality?
I think I would discover something quite different in Ireland these days. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to visit.
There is another side of the equation I neglected to mention. Whenever you talk about licenses or the government in Germany, Italy or Greece, the answer you usually get is something along the lines of "yeah, they license the heck out of that" (once again rather depressingly).
So, I see this under-current of yearning to be free from government intrusion in their daily lives, especially as it relates to business interests. |
