tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9356835.post113639061174512230..comments2023-05-23T10:17:03.252+02:00Comments on 21st Century Schizoid Man: The Failure of Soft Power...John F. Opiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00445399643146235960noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9356835.post-1136790909811849762006-01-09T08:15:00.000+01:002006-01-09T08:15:00.000+01:00Hi -Not entirely sure that the track record of the...Hi -<BR/><BR/>Not entirely sure that the track record of the European voters has actually been all that good: their obvious ignorance of what is being done to them by their duly elected officials is a fairly good argument for insulating the functioning of the intranational European state from the vagaries of power-hungry demagogues.<BR/><BR/>Of course, that is the core of the problem: power-hungry demagogues. I was watching the German morning infotainment just a few minutes ago and Claudia Roth, the head of the Greens, was on: she promptly called policies that look to solve the problems that the Greens have created in Germany to be "backwards".<BR/><BR/>And isn't that part of the core problem of Europe, of not trusting the common man? Then again, it's also the core problem of the Democrats in the US as well...<BR/><BR/>Thanks for your comments... :-)John F. Opiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00445399643146235960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9356835.post-1136749095970558802006-01-08T20:38:00.000+01:002006-01-08T20:38:00.000+01:00Hi Niko -Sorry for the delay, my internet connecti...Hi Niko -<BR/><BR/>Sorry for the delay, my internet connection was down for a few days...<BR/><BR/>You're absolutely right, but there's one further thing to underscore your argument: the corruption of the EU and the accompanying tragedy of the commons. The EU is so corrupt that even the people who are supposed to watch over the EU have yet to open up their budget to controls, let alone get a clean bill of health from the accountants: that is perhaps the greatest scandal in the EU of all.<BR/><BR/>And it is in many ways ironic. The Europeans desperately want to be where the US is, and are clueless as to what it takes to be there.<BR/><BR/>JohnJohn F. Opiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00445399643146235960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9356835.post-1136451791232212632006-01-05T10:03:00.000+01:002006-01-05T10:03:00.000+01:00I prefer to compare the late EU to the last decade...I prefer to compare the late EU to the last decades of the Roman Empire. No, really. Crippled by expensive bureaucracy, weakened by imperial overstretch, and torn apart by rivaling lobbyist groups.<BR/><BR/>The irony being, of course, that the same European elite delights in depicting the US as the second coming of the Roman Empire. Well, if anything at all, then the US Empire represents that stage when Rome influenced if not controlled 9/10's of the known world, and planted their seeds of law and order, effective agriculture, and a sophisticated financial and tax system, in savage lands that later became the Britain and French Empire. The de-centralized topic of that time, or, as we rediscovered recently, "Think global, act local," is what America drives today.<BR/><BR/>Europe, however, chose, "Think big, act small." But not in the Jennings sense.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com