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Pastimes : All Clowns Must Be Destroyed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SBerglowe who wrote (31646)	5/8/2000 12:34:00 PM
From: pater tenebrarum	Respond to of 42523

well, in Europe people's exposure to violence via popular media is about the same i believe. but i think the ravages of two world wars have had a chastening effect on European culture. the welfare system that keeps people content is a direct result imo of the period leading up to WW2 where high unemployment without a safety net led to the political polarization that made Hitler's rise to power possible and all that happened in its wake. the question foremost on post WW2 politicians' mind was how to prevent similar developments in the future, thus the social market economy was born. nowadays you can e.g. walk anyplace in Vienna at any time of day or night, without running the risk of being molested. violent crime is so rare here that the more recent intrusion of the less restrained criminals from the former eastern bloc was a real shock for many people. but funny enough, even this set of more violent criminals has apparently begun to adapt to the more gentle European way of conducting business. the best example is the organized crime scene in Vienna, which is mostly in control of prostitution and illicit gambling. it has for decades existed with a sort of unwritten code of behavior that conforms to the non-violent character of society as a whole.