It’s pretty freaking strange, and I doubt unplanned, that the U.S. Congress declares war on another country while Northern Europeans award Jimmy Carter the Nobel.
What does this ironic juxtaposition, arena of complements, or inherent contradiction of world polity mean for the future of the world? It’s not clear from where I sit in front of this little computer. I fear that Europeans are completely out of touch with the realities and exigencies of real terrorism, that their ideals, while worth upholding theoretically, are masked by their naivite or treacly romanticism for a pre-World War II era. But I also fear that U.S. democracy is regressing toward a pre-civil liberties era.
However, when it comes down to it all — I’d rather be alive in an democratically impoverished country than dead in an obliterated one. My bet is that most Americans feel this way. Cynical? Perhaps — but based deeply in the seriousness of preservation of one’s own life.