Thanks to the US military service, I spent quite some years in Europe. I must confess I prefer living there over living in the US, but I could never afford to go back there on my own. I’m not too sure any of those countries would want me, since I’m not highly productive in the economic sense. Still, I got comfortable with the atmosphere and other languages, and could spend my declining years there.
It’s not a simple matter of externals. For example, I admit I really enjoyed their mass transit systems, something we will probably never duplicate. I’ve read a lot of analysis why this is so. Most of it points out our far lesser population density, and how we do have mass transit systems in big cities. There is also the argument the Europeans are fundamentally more comfortable with high taxes and socialism. These points are valid, but miss the much more fundamental difference: We are more emotionally involved.
It’s not as if there is no passion in Europe, but it runs in different channels than for us. Most of the residents there would love to have a personal vehicle, a big house in the sprawling suburbs, and so on. However, they don’t consider it a basic right. For all our lip service to “reality,” our gut instinct here says having your own wheels is an utter necessity. We can hardly imagine planning our lives around a bus or train schedule, and you should hear the whining when I suggest walking more than a quarter-mile to get anywhere. Even with my arthritis, I can enjoy walking a mile or two along interesting routes, and that happened quite often when traveling in Europe, both on private and government business. Our problem is we take ourselves too seriously, and make it a matter of universal human justice if we are inconvenienced.
We are spoiled brats. When I traveled through various European countries, I seldom did things to stand out as a foreigner. More than just learning the language, I tried to maintain a live-and-let-live attitude. This is the fundamental nature of being “cosmopolitan.” I don’t have a vested interest in making you think and act like me. At the same time, I carry a sense of civil responsibility, of trying not to cause trouble for frivolous and merely personal reasons. I’ll be glad to make a scene for the right reasons, but that moment seldom arrives. Our brattiness shows in our corruption. It’s not as if I’m suggesting there’s no corruption in European government or other institutions, but it’s different. We self-righteously assume it shouldn’t be, but when it’s there, it’s just too pervasive and extravagant. Most often, it’s factored into business in Europe. That is, it’s not quite corruption in the greedy sense, but it’s taking liberties and being generous with everyone, not just yourself. I can’t count how many times in Europe little rules were broken in my favor by someone who could have been a grinch.
For all the secularity of Europe, they handle sin a lot better than most American Christians. Vices exist all over the world, but most Europeans are simply honest and matter-of-fact about it — regulate and tax it. We are prissy and silly — prohibit, then cripple the enforcement, using penalties as an excuse to oppress those currently on the political outside. Because of this, our American Christian witness is very weak, because we want to rule the world, instead of rule ourselves. This is what destroys it for us here. Rant all you want about the evils of socialism, but it’s only going to progress. The least we could do is figure out how to make it work, and make the most of it. Instead, it will be our destruction, because we as a nation are not mature enough to handle changes we can’t stop.
