> A German Lesson for Remaking Iraq
>
> By Anne Applebaum
>
> Wednesday, November 10, 2004
> The lesson of the East German transition after 15 years should, in other
> words, be phrased as a warning: Even if it is possible to get every
> political and economic element right, even if it is possible to avoid
> violence entirely, the psychological transition to liberal democracy from
a
> regime ruled by fear is one that takes at least one generation, if not
two.
> Few people are able to walk from a closed society into an open one without
> self-doubt and discomfort. Few people find it easy to readjust their
blah blah blah - what a piece of arrogant Gringo shit.
Fear? Nobody lives in a greater fear that this god-forsaken nation that is afraid of its own shadow (cf. Barry Glassner, _ The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things_).
I lived for 25+ years on the other side of the iron curtain and I saw that fear was practically unknown - people were not afraid of speaking their mind up in the public, challenging their bosses, challenging the police, deriding the government etc. Then I lived for 25+ years in the US where most people I know are afraid of leaving their own fucking cars and homes and tell how dangerous everything is, where hicks in the suburban wasteland were so afraid of terrorism that voted in a moron who promised them to "make them safe." So whih society is "ruled by fear?"
But what really gets me is a stupid American bitch who spent her entire fucking life in a sheltered suburban environment and either did not live the United states at all or if she did, she stayed in sheltered resorts and 5 star Hiltons - and then she has the temerity of speaking with authority about life in other countries. What a ruse. That fucking navel-gazing arrogance is what foreigners hate about gringos the most - and rightfully so.
Wojtek