See, Bill? You're just not paying attention.
These things you mention are the things I HATE; but, like Mr. T, anyone who hasn't converted to your dogma is automatically the enemy.
Feh. Rich
The "you" in this case was the same class of American sheeple who are demonstrating the kind of obedience that you think you can see in the European's tolerance of rather more egalitarian administrations.
Since you lumped me - an Australian citizen with three grandparents who were born in Australia and one who left England when he was twelve
- in with the rest of the population of Europe, you are guilty of precisely the same kind of lapse of attention. The relevant quote - which you wisely snipped - is
-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen
-- Interesting counterpoint. Australians are very much like Americans because, as a penal colony, your convicted criminal forebears had to learn how to live off the land and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, with no help from the Crown, while we criminals had to do the same thing after _voluntarily_ divorcing ourselves from England and, in addition, having to fight the bastards off in order to keep from becoming another India. The difference between us is that we sent England packing with her tail between her legs while you're still part of the "commonwealth", a jail where the UK, if push comes to shove, can still tell you what to do. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but respect for the phenomenal science that's coming out of Australia these days, but I don't think that's what this thread is about. I think it's about that most Europeans have grown so used to being told what to do by their governments that they think they need to kow-tow to their representatives' platforms instead of figuring out a better one for themselves.
Ah, but they have far more platforms, too. The two-party American system leaves *much* to be desired.
Tim
-- Deep Fryer: A very philosophical monk. Website @
My forebears weren't actually transported criminals, but self-selected immigrants, and this is true of the majority of Australians. Australia had one of the earliest successful trade union movements, and they made a useful contribution to the successful outcome of the 1889 London Dock strike,
Actually, the UK can't tell Australia to do anything. The Commonwealth is a purely symbolic association.
The difference between Australia and the USA is that your tax evaders engineered a revolt in order to set up a social order in which the rich could evade their responsibilities, and they've been doing it ever since.
Canada and Australia negotiated their independence, and in consequence ended up with more responsible, more egalitatian, and more representative governments.
Since the political parties that grew out of the trade union movements are now substantial forces in all modern European governments - the British Labour party now runs the country and the Dutch equivalent is now back in the ruling coalition - I'm inclined to think that the Europeans did figure how to get better governments for themselves. The European electorate stopped kow-towing (it is a Chinese gesture of respect, by the way) about a hundred years ago. The incorporation of the trade union movements into the poltical power structure mostly occured without violence - the Russian revolution was unfortunately hijacked, and ended up installed a ruling class that was just as stupid and greedy as its U.S. equivalent and even better at screwing up the producitivity of their economy. Revolutions aren't a good way to get a new administration.
You system of government of rich tax dodgers for rich tax dodgers is rightly terrified of "socialism" and devotes a great deal of effort to brain-washing the US voter into the same ill-informed state of mind, so that your ruling class doesn't have to pay the sort of taxes that would cover a decent social security system and universal health care
- ignoring the fact that if they did they'd actually come out ahead by making more money out of healthier and better educated workers.
-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen
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