OT small world

Well, I'd suggest that it's only *some* people who are guilty of this
(uneducated/inexperienced yet still holding firm opinions and hence
spouting shite). Not that I'd try to put words into Hog's mouth, or
anything else come to that...

 

*Dances for Fivers*

 

You don't need to have experience of the USA to dislike what it does
outside its borders, although there is the tricky question of how
reasonable it is to blame, collectively, a population for the
government it elects.

I have American friends and relatives, nearly all of whom I like, who
are largely ignorant of what is happening outside the USA. That is
only a limited sample, but my wife (who lived in the USA for many
years and regularly travels there on business) assures me it is
typical. Perhaps I'm unreasonable in believing ignorance is no excuse.

The reason why I myself would never live in the USA is actually
entirely different. I sometimes find it difficult, having visited many
third world countries, to square my conscience with living, often at
their expense, in such relative luxury in the UK. I'd feel even more
guilty in the USA.

<pauses for breath> I suspect that the subject of our transatlantic
cousins is one on which you and at least are likely to continue to
disagree!

 

And exactly the same argument can be applied to our fair isle; excepting
kyoto possibly.

Well I think some of the Americans I know are aware of what's done in
their name and also of 'world' issues. It is fair to say they're very
focussed on the US though. I wonder what portion of the UK's 'world'
news is infact European news?

Well, I'm not aware of having visited the third world; Thailand I guess
is as close as I've got. I don't know if I'd feel more guilty in the US
than the UK when it was quite prolly our empire that disadvantaged the
third world the most in the first place...

 

Very true. I think we cocked it up. I just wish the Yanks weren't
quite so hell-bent on repeating our mistakes.