I sometimes wonder whether Americans will ever recognize that every report from an international institution be it the UN, the World Bank, or any other reflects the prevailing wisdom among the European intelligentsia and that is only tangentially related to reality.
Our own elites with their well-earned feelings of inferiority respect those views far beyond their actual worth because they think the European intelligentsia are the cool kids.
Face it. The entire world is like high school.
I’m involved in a golf tournament this weekend. Good to cleanse the mind of politics.
Do you really think US eggheads have inferiority issues with the Euro eggheads? That’s pretty damning. It’s on par with Mr Reynolds declaring superiority at OTB as evidenced by a greater number of thumbs up. High school would be an apt comparison.
This certainly isn’t true in medicine where European medicine is looked down on. Not true for the hard sciences I know best, or computer science. Not true in economics AFAICT. In what field do you find this?
Steve
would agree the reality based, science loving, pundit class regard their Ivy League education as inferior to European universities such as Oxford, Sorbonne, Modena, etc. Then there’s the way the Euros have created cradle to grave social systems, ceded policy and regulation issues to EU bureaucrats and an uncanny ability to do it first (e.g. gay marriage, transgenders in the military, etc)
So, yes its all high school the city school kids trying to fit in the prep school swells.
Steve, ever hear of CERN?
Walt- Yup. Ever read science journals? If anything there seems to be a tendency for US scientists to assume they are the best. Never read about Oxford or hear kids say they want go there. Maybe if they can’t get into MIT or Berkeley.
Steve
I haven’t encountered this assumption of european cultural superiority, myself.
Then there’s the way the Euros have created cradle to grave social systems. . .
Well god damn them for doing things differently.
. . .ceded policy and regulation issues to EU bureaucrats
We cede them to MBAs.
. . .and an uncanny ability to do it first (e.g. gay marriage, transgenders in the military, etc)
America can’t be the most enlightened nation at everything.
Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk.
THE BIKER
A little girl was leaning into a lion’s cage when suddenly the lion grabs her by the collar of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, all under the eyes of her screaming parents.
A biker jumps off his Harley, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch.
Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back letting go of the girl. The biker brings the girl to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly. A newspaper journalist had watched the whole event. Addressing the Harley rider he says, “Sir, this was the most gallant and bravest thing I’ve seen a man do in my whole life.”
The Harley rider replies, “Why, it was nothing, really. The lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger, so I acted as needed.â€
The journalist says, “Well, I’ll make sure this won’t go unnoticed. I’m a big time journalist, and tomorrow’s NYTimes will have this story on the front page. So, what do you do for a living, and what political affiliation do you have?” The biker replies “I’m a U.S. Marine, a Republican and I voted for Trump”. The journalist leaves.
The following morning the biker buys the Times to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads, on the front page:
TRUMP SUPPORTING U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT & STEALS HIS LUNCH.
Walt is on the right track. Our opinion-making groups plus our politicians and diplomats are those I was thinking of.
I must have a blind spot. I know plenty of Harvard-ites. I know Oxford-ites. Never seen that inferiority complex.
Have you ever looked at the coverage and adulation of the conference at Davos?
I’m curious. How else do you explain our pursuing European interests that aren’t in our own interests? Expansion of NATO, our relationship with Saudi, overthrowing the Libyan government, emphasis on European models for health care reform, contrast of our political system with European systems in which our system always seems to come up short, the desire to apply European approaches to environmental management (where a good commuter system addresses the transportation needs of most of the country, something not the case here), contrast of our handling of immigration with European countries, again in which (until recently) our approach is always worse, and so on.
Alright, I will bite.
1) Expand NATO? That was the desire of our own Cold Warriors. That is the residual anti-Communist thing at play.
2) Saudi- Uhh, the right wing base loves Israel. So do a lot of the left. Israel hates Iran. We blindly support Israel. Also, SA strategically keeps oil prices low at times that help us. (See, Reagan, Ronald)
3) Libya- The Europeans thought the civil war would result in a lot of refugees. Yup, they probably made it worse. After all the help they provided in Iraq, were we really not going to help?
4) European health models- Which of these have we adopted? Hah! If you really follow the health care policy literature you know that the Australian, Japanese, Taiwanese or Singapore model would also be perfectly fine. Those models are looked at not because they are European, but because they are universal, provide good care, and cost less than ours.
5) The grass is always greener. You dont see anyone seriously advocating that we adopt a European system.
6) European environmental approach- I think I looked this up before and I think our EPA existed before the Europeans did anything serious. Anyway, go read the environmental scientists. They dont necessarily want to copy exactly what Europe does. They do want the US to take the issue as seriously as does the EU.
7) Immigration-AFAICT, there is no unique European approach to immigration. Many countries handle it differently. Most people think ours doesn’t work that well. I dont see looking around the world at other countries for ideas is a sign that we have an inferiority complex.
Do yourself a favor, sit down and talk with a bunch of high achieving high school or college kids. See where they want to go. It isn’t the European programs. Yea, a lot want to do the one year abroad program which is basically vacation time, but for their degrees they want the big time US schools.
Steve