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WW I was terrible because there were war mongers on both sides, and a culture of war on both sides. Pro-war propaganda was hardly necessary in Germany or the UK - there were plenty of people willing to fight a war without it, from the frankly psychotic Kaiser down.

It's very hard to imagine that kind of patriotism in the EU today. The US is certainly still infected with it, but nothing makes people less reluctant to fight wars than seeing most of your generation destroyed and most of your country bombed to rubble.

I doubt the US will change its mind about war until that happens.

As for Israel - Israel has always been good for business. We can continue to be outraged and horrified, but Israel is so damn profitable for arms dealers - via a US subsidy, which is nicely circular - that war is going to remain the natural state there.

'Serious' people aren't even slightly interested in peace.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Jan 13th, 2009 at 12:14:50 PM EST
It's very hard to imagine that kind of patriotism in the EU today. The US is certainly still infected with it, but nothing makes people less reluctant to fight wars than seeing most of your generation destroyed and most of your country bombed to rubble.

It's hard to imagine though not impossible. There has been talk of more protectionism due to "the crisis", and doesn't protectionism also favour patriotism? Besides, what is the percentage left of West Europeans who have seen most of their generation destroyed or their country bombed to rubble?

War begins with a change of attitude that may look harmless in the beginning, i.e. envy of the other, then blaming, demonising the other, self-defence against the other and then, or before that, truth will be uncool (s.a.) and the waving of the flag cool.

I suspect that there are few voices under 30 on this blog and, as a whole, this blog doesn't aim at reflecting mainstream thought which could be more revealing with regards to patriotic/Eurotic feelings that could be susceptible to (war) propaganda.
 

by Lily (put - lilyalmond - here <a> yahaah.france) on Tue Jan 13th, 2009 at 01:02:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]
War begins with a change of attitude that may look harmless in the beginning, i.e. envy of the other, then blaming, demonising the other, self-defence against the other and then, or before that, truth will be uncool (s.a.) and the waving of the flag cool.

Sooo very true...


Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind...Albert Einstein
by vbo on Wed Jan 14th, 2009 at 01:45:47 AM EST
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