From: "E.J. Totty", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>In response to earlier comments, I have indeed lived abroad, I travel very
>widely and have by now made more trips to the US than I can accurately
>count. Nor are these thoughts anything very new.
>
>Fact is, they're Americans and we ain't, and that's all there is to it. The
>respective attitudes are not remotely interchangeable. If there's any more
>travelling to be done, it's most likely our US cousins who need to be doing
>it, in order to check out the cultural environment this side of the water.
>
>The long-suffering 'IG' is right - at present, US considerations are
>largely irrelevant to the firearms issue over here, though if the
>'Americanisation' of society being so enthusiastically pursued by New
>Labour continues indefinitely, this could conceivably change.
>
>Nick Steadman
Steve, & Nick,
Culture is culture.
It remains that no matter where you may find yourself,
the safest modus operandi is to always presume that danger lurks.
In my travels about the European continent, I was careful
to note that there are places which are safe in one part of the day,
and of great danger in the darker hours. It was usually in places
where the police presence was greatest that criminal element was
of the greatest concern.
And, additionally, there is safety in numbers. I seldom
ventured out after dark in any city, without a local companion,
or a travelling companion.
What happens, and happens frequently to those who
are not 'locals' and who venture by themselves in the cities, after
dark is notable.
True, in most places of most countries, you are very safe,
and the need of an arm with which to offer defence to an attack is
statistically small. The same goes for just about anywhere in the
USA.
But, I hasten to add, that merely because one is safe in
most places, it does not effectively extrapolate that carriage of an
arm is a waste of time.
I will avail myself to an equally valid and justifiable analog:
the automotive seat belt.
I might neglect -- on a frequent basis -- to strap myself in.
But what of that freak accident? What if I <had> strapped
my butt to the seat? Would I still be unhurt?
Not unlike helmets for motorcycle drivers and riders.
I decry the law mandating the wearing of something,
in the same way that I would decry the law mandating the carriage
of a firearm. But if you get tossed off the bike -- as I did in March of
this year -- and land smack on your head, as I did, after being struck
by an automobile that was accelerating past 25 mph, you have no one
to blame for the attendant head injuries. I luckily survived rather
unscathed, save for massive bruising in various places as a result of
practicing the art of flying without wings. My stout stature must be
the combination of British Isle genes and some unique Amerindian
ones as well. I was told that I flew, and bounced, rather neatly.
As usual, I had on my full-face helmet, and was wearing
leather, as I always do, even in the oppressive heat of summer.
One never knows, if you get my drift?
Now, Nick? That yours and the other cultures of the Euro
land mass are suffering a sort of cultural dilution, isn't to be blamed
upon anyone. People imitate for various reasons. If the strength
of the upbringing of some people's children isn't sufficient enough
to counter bad -- or other influences, then who's to blame?
If it is merely some kids suffering the affectations of a
rather faddish and passing subculture, imagine how we feel when
we see teenagers with those outlandish punk styles that originated
'over there' <grin>.
Americans are not a uniquely violent sort. It just seems
that way because of the mass media, and the movie industry.
Need I remind you of the 'cowboy westerns'?
I guarantee you that traffic assaults and tempers are just as
bad in some places in Italy and France, as any as you might witness
in the US. That they seem to be worse and more frequent, is -- I remind
you -- purely a result of the massive and repetitive reporting that is
done. That there are the dolts, soft headed, and lame brained who
brandish firearms in the incidents of such fracas', is to be expected
with the understanding that we are a <freer> nation in most instances.
Yes, that kind of display is despicable, and it a rather rare
event. I can virtually _guarantee_ you, that if your nation were as
free -- in the regards to the possession of firearms as is mine, that your
nation (never mind Italy or France) would experience the same
thing, in perhaps the same ratio of per capita.
You neglect to also consider that the US -- as no doubt the
UK of late -- has a very much greater dispersion of other cultures, and
the attitudes that are common to those cultures. There will inevitably
be the conflicts and clashes that produce the results that you hear
about. The only thing missing from your nation is the freer possession
of all manner of arms.
And, I think that you should give us credit: it ain't the
massive blood and gore nation that we are made out to be. Otherwise,
why do we have the great tourist influx that we have?
And just think: they visit in the virtual presence of fully
armed American citizens every day, and rarely if ever are aware of it.
That alone should speak volumes.
I mentioned this in an earlier missive to IG. Perception is
everything. And, most importantly, the press releases from the Euro
part of the world are much more controlled than anything in the US.
Crime rates, and criminal acts of the Euro nations are much
more controlled as regards the media, since the perception is that
those countries that do have a proactive control of media content
do so to prevent image problems.
I will grant you that you probably don't have the issue to
deal with as the foreign visitors to Florida did with regards to the
car-jackers a few years back, and the shootings of them that was
broadcast far and wide.
But if the same thing happened to some Americans, can
you state unequivocally that the same level of coverage and outrage
would have been leveled at the other nation? I think not.
Car-jacking still happens in the US, only the people getting
shot now are the perpetrators in many cases.
You don't hear much about that angle I'll wager. It isn't news
when the bad guys are taking the hits.
Now, I ask: If Americans are as bad as they are made out to be,
are they doing all those bad things -- in every way described as in the
media reports -- when they visit your nation and those other adjacent
lands? If not, then I rest my case. You may quote at will that one very
visible case of the idiot that was caned in Singapore. That one needed
another caning but never got it.
--
=*= =*= =*= =*= =*= =*= =*= =*= =*=
=*= Liberty: Live it . . . or lose it. =*=
=*= =*= =*= =*= =*= =*= =*= =*= =*=
ET
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