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Can you tell what we talked about at dinner tonight? · 20 March 06

I realise that in writing this, I am simultaneously preaching to the choir and wounding the sensibilities of the well intentioned, for which I apologise. But, there are some things that I feel the need to refute, because they are said to me so many times by all and sundry, and hinted at by so many others. Repetition leads to conviction and universal acceptance as a ‘truth’ in the national psyche. It is a sad demonstration of the harm that results from exaggeration, the resentment that is triggered by the inability to accept a mere role.

During the Second World War, America did not ‘save’ Europe; in particular, she came nowhere close to saving the UK. America could be said to have saved Germany from speaking Russian, perhaps. If anybody could lay claim to the role of saviour it was Russia, and noone saved the UK apart from herself.

The Marshall plan channeled a lot of money into the rebuilding of Europe, but was not an act of generosity or something deserving of a general round of back patting. This money was reclaimed at high rates interest, the UK paid its full dues and had to go through a significant amount of belt tightening for decades to do so.

I am not an economic refugee. I do not have anything to be grateful to this country for. If anything, this country should be grateful to my country for the subsidy they have effectively supplied to them. I am highly educated, trained and skilled, all of which my country has paid for way beyond the level that would have been supported here. There are not sufficient people in this country capable of doing my job. That is a fact that is confirmed every time they advertise my position. We don’t have to go through the farce of excessively tailoring the posting, my qualifications and experience speak for themselves. The ‘brain drain’ of the educated from Europe and, of even more concern, the developing world to the US is a moral and ethical dilemma deserving of some serious navel gazing by the powers that be.

  1. Seriously?!?

    As you said, preaching to the choir. I find it amazing that some Americans would pull the “if it weren’t for us, you’d all be speaking German” crap out of their asses, and then in the next breath would order a side of “freedom fries”, completely forgetting the fact that if it weren’t for the French, America would still be speaking the Kings English.

    Ancient history! they’ll retort. To which I’ll remind them that WWII ended more than 60 years ago, and that the tecnological and economic superiority enjoyed by America in the period following the post-war (none of their factories or universities were bombed into nothingness) has been eroded by hard-working and diligent people from Europe and Japan, to the point where the only thing America has a claim on is moral and economic bankruptcy. And quality prime-time television programming.

    Americans (not all, many of my American friends are more than disappointed with their country) need to open their eyes and see that they are not some benevolent power, gently herding the world toward Nirvana. If anyone is wearing the twin jackboots of oppression and exploitation, it is the UNited States of American and its foreign policy.

    The country has become what it was built to rail against.
    — Adrian    Mar 21, 09:15    #
  2. Unfortunate, but true…the hubris of the American nation has gotten worse under the Neoconservatives and the Bush regime. It is one of the signs of a fascist regime.
    — Dan    Mar 21, 12:04    #
  3. Ouch, that was a rather unpleasant kick in the nuts.

    Sorry you feel that way. My father happens to be a WWII vet, he was at Normandy on the beaches. And there was that little problem in the Pacific that was going on around the same time. Sorry but we may not have won WWII but we did help out a bit with little things like lend/lease, Sicily, day light bombing…

    And sorry again about the Marshall Plan, sure the Japanese aren’t too happy about the occupation either, or those nasty bombs.

    Um, my families were economic refugees, sorry, small problem with poverty and a little famine.

    Point is, the US isn’t the only bunch of idiots out there, plenty of skeletons buried to go around.

    This country has become exactly what it set out to be, a culture of the wealthy few riding upon the backs of the masses. All those pretty words were just that, words, the actions of this republic speak volumes as to what they really meant.

    Tired of it all, then ask one simple question: How long can human beings survive when the wants of the few out weigh the needs of the many? Genius is in simplicity.

    And with that, I take my leave of all of you. I prefer my quiet life, trying to prepare my three children to face a world that is fast spiraling toward oblivion. I’ll be the guy seeking peace and solitude, walking my dog and carrying my camera.

    David
    — WepWaWep    Mar 21, 15:43    #
  4. [shakes head sadly]
    Wow, that’s f’ed up.
    — Captain Purple    Mar 28, 14:18    #
  5. Whilst it is true to say that “Repetition leads to conviction and universal acceptance as a ‘truth’ in the national psyche” I find the roots of this dynamic more interesting, though perhaps this is not the appropriate place to pursue those issues.

    I can understand your desire to correct the attitudes of your host-country, but I wonder why it is that you emigrated there given that you state that you are not an economic refugee – neither are you, as a Brit., a refugee from oppression . Whilst you do add that there are few in the US capable of doing your job, which may well be true, I doubt that they coerced you to go there and live amongst them. So why did you go there, and perhaps more importantly, why do you stay? These are questions which your hosts may also like answers to, but until such time there may be those who will question your motives, or who see you as just another ungrateful ‘ex-pat’ living amongst them under sufferance.
    — ocionnfaolaidh    Apr 3, 06:05    #
  6. Your question is an interesting one. I moved to the US for two main reasons. First and most simply, I was offered a job out of the blue at a time when I was looking around for new challenges. However, the main reason I leapt at the opportunity was that I have always been a traveller, yet had never before lived abroad. As a traveller one grazes the surface of different cultures, but I had never before immersed myself in one. Although America was not a natural choice for me, I am generally inclined to follow the tides of opportunity and follow where they lead. Not always the best choice perhaps, but one that has done well by me thus far.

    I stay for many reasons, the least of which is that I have not been here so very long and still can learn much from the experience. As to the rest…
    — sarah    Apr 3, 22:28    #
  7. It’s been a while since I did History at school, but one of the things which was made quite clear was that it WAS the USSR who really turned the tide in WWII. And I’m talking about the land war, obviously nothing is going parallel the H-bombs.

    I think the problem was that communism shortly after became the enemy (and let’s be fair, not through them being shiny & fluffy) so their contribution was deliberately played down – but didn’t the USSR lose more people in WWII than anyone else?
    — AJS    May 1, 15:53    #
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