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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (49453)	11/22/2005 10:07:20 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

Random Musin' on World Wars just watched a documentary on the Battle of the Somme with the brother (informed readers will probably know which brother) and i am pondering over the social significance WW1; betwixt the Edwardian/European age and the modern/American age. it was the passing of the age of europe in so many ways (in the modern age we tend to measure trends by decades rather than the reign of monarchs; hence the edwardian age being the last monarchic/imperial societal strech) and no wonder why Europeans are so transfixed by the history of these two World Wars. fundamentally civilised nations, enlightened by the age of reason (germans themselves in the glorious afterglow of bismarck's pragmatic administering), with so much to hope for in the century but insted dragged down into the next 50 years of intercine warfare and unprecedented global bloodshed; it explains so much about the european pysche. when a continent has suffered so much and toppled from so grand a pedestal; from the sublime to ridiculous; from the height of empire to the fall of nations.. better for the european to enjoy a steadied, studied and studded decline into calm prosperity rather than manoeuvre with destiny and risk such an awful fate again. Britain is more secure, established and prosperous than she has ever been in her entire history; why does it matter if America is preeminent and responsible for the diffusion of Anglo-Saxon values throughout the globe. Europe may suffer from the teeming immigrant masses, as the French riots have so aptly demonstrated, but it was her manpower devastation from the Wars that made it a sensible policy to import colonials to once again man the devastated industries. in alot of ways the europeans, the french, have ceded their role to their American not in resentment but from exhaustion. it is after all nato and american arms that secures safety in europe (though admittedly even without an american presence europe would still be at peace) america rules the world because she pays for it whereas Europeans have been able to divert those funds to constructing elaborate welfare states that are now collapsing from immigrant exploitation. Europa abducted by the Bull Europa may be a spent power but no silenced rival has ever had it better in history (perhaps Greece under Rome?); each European nation from the Spanish, to the Italian, the Germans to the French and the Brits most of all remain treasured little archives that have held to their niche and hold a global admiration that is no danger of waning. After all the British have begun to flex, on behalf of Europe, their financial and journalistic prowess, british papers being the global benchmark, whereas France will always be destination no 1 for gawking tourists. The Germans remain a productive race, who "get on with it" by studying for 5 year uni degrees and as a result come to predominate in their chosen fields of industry and advanced manufacturing. The world worships Italy in culture, food and haute couture; even though Italy is a decreipt and crumbling economy with a credit profile more befitting a third world nation. As for Spain, the world and its cousin flock to its beaches (which i find unimpressive i might add but that's another story for another time) even though it was an eclipsed powerfor the past 300 years or so. so all in all the story of Europa, from her abduction to now, is no mean one and despite having a crummy 20th century; the European peoples can look forward to a hopefully better 21st century where they'll have to deal with the relatively minor issues of calming their trans-Atlantic brethren, integrating hostile minorities and perhaps dismantling some awful socio-political structures (which are barriers to economic growth and true equitable distribution of wealth but that's whole other story) so next time when a reader comes across yet 'nother neo-con taking the mikey out of Europa; remember the Battle of the Somme (and link to this post)... Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Zack out