To: Tom Clarke who wrote (16996 ) 8/31/2000 4:22:06 AM From: GUSTAVE JAEGER Read Replies (1) | Respond to That's quite an open-ended innuendo of yours: "more civilized Latin Europe etc." "the US is the only country that went directly from barbarity to decadence without the détour through culture..." But what's culture and what's civilization in the first place? I don't think that a French redneck is more civilized than a Yankee hick.... In these matters, most people behave like members of a middle-class family whose one of their uncles is a world-famous writer or scientist or whatever. Although the achievements of that brilliant uncle should be considered as a strictly personal reward, the other family members self-delusively take credit from them for themselves --although they're all a bunch of no-gooders.... Get the picture?Message 14023908 Weltanschauung of the British and German elites.... German youth have been raised, even well after WWII, in the Deutschland-über-Alles myth: German workers have constantly been praised for their allegedly high productivity (regardless of the fact that the German workforce pulls the fattest paycheck in the world). So, in that kind of society, if you're some Turkish hobo on the dole, it just doesn't matter.... The American-turned-German Dream for you is to scramble to open a groceryshop or something. Conversely, if you're a genuine, 100%-bratwurst, ledenhosen-wearing, German boy who doesn't make it then... boy, You're Germany's shame! You ought to be part of corporate Germany and participate in the manufacturing of BMWs, Mercedes, Trumpf heavy machinery, Thyssen iron I-beams, Siemens electronics gear, etc, etc. Again, the anti-climax between the elite-imposed expectations and the youth's gloomy daily life is too strong.
