Eric: In a way, that's the USA's fault. We made your culture that
way ... helped you rebuild, swaddled you in nonaggression, secure from a Soviet assault, full of the moral superiority because you had an older brother to fight your fights for you.Judy: ... is I'd say wrong (incorrect). "Europe" is less bellicose than the US because of WWsI and II. (I wanted to say something about the Cold War, also about differences within "Europe", but, another time.)
I was discussing Germany in particular. Still, Europe was not less bellicose because of WWI. World War II started 21 years after the first war ended, so obviously the Great War did nothing to dampen bellicosity.
WWII was the locus of change, and this change was wrought (especially in Germany) by the US occupation and transformation of (part of) a totally defeated nation.
As with Japan, the US feared Germany's warlike traditions and wanted to make sure it would be stable and peaceful.
Unlike Japan, modern Germany has no immediate pressing enemy now that the USSR is gone, so it's free to adopt the moral superiority tone. If North Korea and its other threats were gone, Japan, I assume, would be just as dismissive and prone to the "more civilized than thou" trope.
Hoping your cold passes quickly, Eric ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
