Europe and the US: Thanks America, That’ll Be All
Europe and the US: Thanks America, That’ll Be All
Andy Warhol, Big Mac, iPhone: It was a grand American epoch. But it’s over. Europe must finally emancipate itself – just not as awkwardly as Jürgen Habermas might like.
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My eyes nearly rolled out of my head. Answering American exceptionalism with European exceptionalism and a subtle nod at the wonders of colonialism. Stuff like this makes me sympathize when folks say the entire West needs to go. The only saving grace here is the most popular comment in German on there is pointing out how dumb glorifying colonialism is.
"Europe must finally emancipate itself" and you call it "European exceptionalism". Canada is doing the same at the moment, telling the US to fuck off. Is that now exceptionalism?
the time has finally come for Europe to once again try its hand at hosting the spirit of the age
When the Europeans conquered the American continent in the early 16th century, at a time when coyotes and grizzlies were still bidding each other good night where New York and Los Angeles
Give me a break. If by "emancipate itself" you mean "regain it's rightful leadership of the world" then yes, it's exceptionalism.
Any mention of colonialism and wrong-doing is thus condoning it? If you think "hosting the spirit of the age" means that the spirit of the age is colonialism, you're in the wrong era my friend.
You're wilfully misinterpreting the text to create a narrative that isn't there. The narrative is quite simple "fuck the USA". If you cannot get on board with that, then this isn't the right place for you.
I'm willfully misinterpreting the plain writing I quoted? The entire article is a masturbatory exercise in how Europe is the rightful leader throwing off the temporary yoke of US dominance.
Exactly. We need an omnipolar world where we are desired partners for cooperation. Countries like France have been exploiting former colonies in Africa for ages. That's why they happily sign Chinese contracts now. Europe's success came at the expense of their former colonies. And it's one of the reasons why all those dictators in Africa stayed in power. Because we funded them in exchange for their resources. Just like the US.
We need to work on establishing a sustainable world order. We may lose short term economic advantages, but we have to gain so much.
To be sure. The world is slowly lurching back into the great game mentality thanks to trump but everyone who plays will find again, just like they did last time, they've got nothing to really gain and aren't as economically powerful as they think they are. Cooperation is where you actually win.