Re: Re: What's wrong with society?

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 8/22/2007 12:04:16 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, megaknee@... writes:

One thing the article seems to do is contrast a protective health-and-safety society with the world wars era, implying that an attitude of duty to surrender yourself to the state's lead to all the way to gviing it your life is a superior model.Perhaps more so in Europe than America, that model wasn't very popular after WW1, when its effect on the population was counted up. Is it better to be childish and standing up for yourself, or to be dead?

You're close, but I think you missed it by a bit.

The point of the article and Tocaville's statement was that society would be one where people did not stand up for themselves or their society. They would be weakened by state handouts and cradle to grave care, to the point that they were unwilling to take risks to preserve even that and would ignore dangers until it was too late.

That is more of what happened in WWII than extreme militancy. Germany was belligerent, as was Italy. However, even in those two countries, the number who actually supported the warfare was very small, but there was nothing that they could do to stop it by the time it started. The other countries like France and England were too comfortable to risk disturbing it by standing up to Hitler early and possibly have avoided a wider war. By that inaction, Hitler was encouraged and the war happened.

It is largely forgotten these days, but after WWI, the Communists invaded Western Europe and came close to victory. Had their units been more organized (they were "lead" by a man who idolized the Mongol hordes, particularly their brutality) they might well have crossed Poland and taken at least Germany too. There was the very real threat that they would try again, which had a hand in German militancy and Hitler's accession to power.

But the point of the article as a whole was that Europe faces now is that so many people get so much from the state, that they don't want to upset things and are ignoring real issues. In that sense they are behaving in a childlike fashion, which is especially bad since they expect the politicians to care about them. They don't. They see the Muslims as a growing voter bloc and are actively courting them at the expense of the citizenry. Some have already even said that they would overturn their nation legal codes in favor of Sharia Law if enough people wanted it. That speaks volumes for what the politicians think about their citizens.

If the people did stand up for themselves against their politicians and the growing threats, then they would be better off. Just like prior to WWII, if they remain silent and childlike, many will end up dead.

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