The latest round of stories are even more disgusting than usual. This is really a question for the Americans who might be reading: doesn't the whole thing, nearly five years on, fill you with shame? If not, why the hell not?
Actually you're right - you're not so much a tory as a free-market liberal. ;)
It only makes a mockery of the American Way if you assume that the American Way is scaleable to everyone else. But I don't think it is - I think it's predicated on the idea of American exceptionalism *exactly* the way the British were at the height of Empire. The rest of the world can be "improved" or exploited depending on their malleability and usefulness.
But no Americans have commented, bah!
7/7 was bad but nothing significantly different to what we're used to, and certainly nothing worse than Madrid or, frankly, the daily shelling into civilian areas that the Israeli military do. 9/11 was iconic for its scale, but mostly it punctured the idea of exceptional status: you get blown up just like the rest of us. I still think it's outrage born of wounded *pride* that is the main effect of 9/11.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2006-06-14 08:10 am (UTC)It only makes a mockery of the American Way if you assume that the American Way is scaleable to everyone else. But I don't think it is - I think it's predicated on the idea of American exceptionalism *exactly* the way the British were at the height of Empire. The rest of the world can be "improved" or exploited depending on their malleability and usefulness.
But no Americans have commented, bah!
7/7 was bad but nothing significantly different to what we're used to, and certainly nothing worse than Madrid or, frankly, the daily shelling into civilian areas that the Israeli military do. 9/11 was iconic for its scale, but mostly it punctured the idea of exceptional status: you get blown up just like the rest of us. I still think it's outrage born of wounded *pride* that is the main effect of 9/11.
But this is drifting waaay off-topic.