Full report I'd love to hear your take on this, Nexxo... How valid is it to compare a nation's development with a child's?
I don't think you can ask for the validity of something done in a sattirical article because if it was valid, it wouldn't be sattire, would it?
Quite the contrary: good satire is funny because it is based in truth. From the dictionary: sat·ire (săt'īr') n. A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit. The branch of literature constituting such works. See synonyms at caricature. Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity. Note that the observation of a vice or folly needs to be a valid one for the satire to work. If you regard a nation as a large group of people with a shared mentality, belief system and culture, it is indeed possible to attribute to it behavioural characteristics found in an individual. It is, in fact, easier because personal ideosyncracies are averaged out in a large group. However we antropomorphise like nuts because that's how we think, and so we have to be careful with making such attributions, even towards human systems. Having said that, I made comments on the personality of US culture before, although I can't find the link now... In any case I think of the US as a spoiled, bullying child with a sense of over-entitlement. Might makes right: it bullied an entire people (Native Americans) out of their vast, rich country, then bullied some more people (Africans but also, e.g. Chinese) into building it up for them, but presents it as its own property and achievement. It has grandiose opinion of itself and its achievements. It has no sense of boundaries as it is stronger now than its parents or peers, and misbehaves with impunity. Its expectations are those of immediate gratification and egocentric preoccupation with its own needs and wants. This is not to say that I think many other countries are any wiser or more mature; they are not. They are just not the strongest kid on the block and that (mostly) tends to check their behaviour a little bit. The US is also by a long stretch not the craziest, most dysfunctional country out there.
I agree with you on that one. Only adding in the fact that we (the United States) are on the verge of a nervous breakdown. We know from history that a "super power" only reigns supreme for so long before it crumbles so in an effort to keep that from happening, we're trying to squash those perceived as "the enemy." "The enemy" is a skinny little geek who can't even compare to our bulging muscles... this is to be continued when I get home.
Yeah... think Roman Empire. Decadence came before the fall. Of course, like with the Roman Empire, every other nation despised it, but tried very hard to emulate it at the same time. Some of the US' harshest critics are its fiercest competitors. I'm sure there are some psychological models to explain all these dynamics, but it's late (here) and I'm tired... I'll come back to this some day. Nope, the NK government is pretty clever and devious. They have the West locked into their little game good and proper. I'll come back to that sometime also.
So if the US is a bullying child, then the UK used to be the domineering father, but now seems to have morphed into the indulgent mother ("It's alright, it's just a phase he's going through")
Agreed. The article just fits into sd because you can have a serious discussion about some of the stuff found on The Onion.
How does the world actually perceive us? I mean america is hated by much of the world - but how does that relay onto us ? I mean we are the US' closest ally, there must be some repercussions?
Main reprecussion is that if bush had been aany closer to blair then not only would he have had to give blair an engagement ring but blairs wife would have fallen out of the bed. but seriously imo britain may have deserved the great in great britain at one point but not any more to be honest with you I don't even think that it deserves to be called a country any more a country has people who will unite and stand up for said country now britain just seems to be full of chavs after all when was the last time you were honestly proud to call yourself british. don't get me wrong the usa can be slimy creepy little bleeders but when you speak to an american and get past their accent most of them are PROUD to be slimey creepy american citizens. sorry just my 2 pence worth but i seem to have gone a bit of a rant.
You don't think letting off a small nuke just to get attention a bit crazy? And starving its population while it's leader feeds his face in his palace. Oh and printing millions fake bank notes to destabilise the western economies, and sending it military technology to nations like Iran and Syria. With the UN security council deciding what do with NK at this very moment and china backing sanctions against it's midget leader I think NK is the 'craziest, most dysfunctional country out there' if not who? Jimbo Oh and the US does behave like a petulant child who want it's sweets and attacks people when it doesn't get them.
That, arguably, is not much crazier than toppling foreign governments and investing in various wannabe terrorists and civil war factions to feed our own economical needs, while selling nuclear hardware and secrets to potential adversaries like China (and, via Pakistan, to pretty much any takers, including Iran). You are confusing immoral with crazy. A dictator's business is to stay in business. The fact is that despite poor infrastructure and a collapsed economy, NK's leaders have their own population in a vice-like grip, and the world pretty much too scared to pull an Afghanistan/Iraq style invasion on them. Not bad going for a country a third the size of Iraq. I would be thinking more of places like Sudan, former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and several other third-world countries where entire populations that used to live relatively peacefully as neighbours suddenly start massacring each other in a psychopathic frenzy at the drop of a hat (or a political leader). I mean, they're being economically screwed over by the West, and their response is to allow themselves to get screwed over by them some more for a few AK-47s and grenades, so that they can screw themselves over in even more ways that Western powers can't be bothered to get around to themselves. You want to talk crazy? That's crazy.
Always proud to call myself Scottish, British, and European. Britain is great in many ways, most people here just do not realise it. It only sucks 'till you compare it to the other 200 or so dumps we call countries.
I'd say most people do realise it but don't feel the need to make a performance out of it like some obnoxious kid seeking constant reassurance that he's the greatest. We aren't strongly nationalistic these days, though we do get upset when questions of dropping the Pound or the Queen come up. Knocking the current government is a very British tradition, we do it because we can do it without fear. Bush and Blair would take some of those liberties away. Why is that? A look at US immigration statistics over the last few hundred years shows Germans, Irish and Italians at the top of the leaderboard with a strong showing from Eastern Europe; any "family" ties to the UK are very weak. Mutual trading benefits over the last few hundred years and the big bonus of a common language must be a large part of the reason. Blair thinks the US is easier or more profitable to deal with than, say, the French or Germans. But it means we have to put up with the fall-out from US "foreign policy".
I don't think pride requires nationalism. I am proud, but certainly I am not much of a nationalist. I don't care about the pound other then in economic terms and I don't much care about the monarchy. I do think more people then not fail to realise a lot of the great parts of this country though. They are, argueabley, not great but just what one should expect from their nation. I agree on the knocking the govt. thing - we do it because we can, but I'm sure it helps maintain the greatness, if only a little bit.
Anyway, back on topic, the UK reminds me of the board at an old family firm I worked for, a firm that had risen to greatness making wire for corsets and then biplanes. These are people who've built the firm up from nothing, but now they're getting on a bit, and younger people are coming up with new ideas and wanting a share of the action. They try to adjust, but the young competitors undercut them on price so they fall back on a reputation for quality. But nobody wanted quality if it cost more. So the firm crumbled away. Like the rest of the Sheffield steel industry (and the UK as a world power). Now we're sat in the sun whingeing at the young upstarts making mistakes because they just don't listen to their elders, who made those mistakes a century or more ago. (The true sign of intelligence in a species is the ability to learn from the mistakes of others - any dumb mutt can learn from its own mistakes.)
