Mediocre

Over dinner last night we were discussing why the US series of Queer As Folk made so much more of an impression on the local popular consciousness than the UK version did. It may seem strange at first but it shouldn’t really. America is the country where you can buy hardcore pornography quite legally and openly but where a bared-breast on national TV results in a political lynch-mob.

America is a slightly schizophrenic country – with one personality in the heartlands and a different personality on the coasts. I wasn’t surprised to see this article from one of the BBC’s resident correspondents about the introspective, more moralising direction that the USA is increasingly taking. This one did surprise me though: The next generation from the self-styled Land Of The Free would seem to believe that the land is too free and should be less so. Not an attitude I care for from ‘the Leader of the Free World.’

Justin Webb observes in his article that Americans generally see Europeans as decadent and to be honest they are not far wrong. Europe is a collection of small ‘faded empire’ nations and ex-Soviet satellite states, struggling to find a place in the new global economy. I don’t have figures for other European states, but for the UK I can say that only 18% of our workforce actually produce tangible goods (less than 1% are farmers!) – which leaves over 81% employed in the ‘Service’ industries. Even the USA isn’t that bad (26% and 73% respectively!)

It seems that Europe can agree on the nobler things, such as pollution and global warming, even though we cannot agree how to govern the continent. So where does that leave us?

Since it looks like more and more Americans are expecting the Biblical Apocalypse to start any day now I guess they don’t feel the need to worry about greenhouse gases. In fact, since the trends mentioned here are hardly likely to appease Islamic Fundamentalists, maybe in some bizarre Dr Strangelove fashion, they will actually bring about the end of the world while trying to remake it in their own image!

So you’d better hope that there is some future in closer European integration, because somebody’s going to need to pick up the pieces when America finally disappears out of sight down that ‘road less travelled.’ But then again who says it has to be any of the current field leaders? Maybe China will beat us all to the punch.