On my other blog, I rant quite often about Western Christianity missing the point on most things. Actually, what I’m referring to is American Christianity, though it is obviously rooted in European religion. The real problem is something culturally fundamental to America: hide-bound mechanical rules.
This was most readily apparent when I served as a Military Policeman in Europe. Every time I ran into a glitch in our operations with the local national police agencies, it was always a problem with Americans following precise regulations and the Europeans doing something which made more sense in the circumstances. They have this thing about the spirit of the law being more important than the letter.
That is, we tussle intensely over words and semantics, and they casually get work done. Even when you account for their lazy, do-nothing socialism, along with their doctor-ordered year-long “stress leave” policies, they got at least as much done as we did when measured in man-hours. Plus, they had a darn sight more fun doing it. And no surprise Vox Day runs into the same idiocy dealing with FedEx. This is a glaring example of how Americans operate.
Even worse is the filthy hypocrisy of finding new meanings in the words of laws and regulations (not to mention the Constitution) when it becomes painfully obvious the letter of law just cannot fit the situation. The examples are so numerous, my head spins just trying to pick out a few. I could write books on it. We are the laughing stock of the world.
