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·PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JULY 8, 1986
PAGE 15
which in West European opinion is in the same position as poor
Poland in Russia's yard. It explains West European disapproval
of America's inteIVention in Grenada, which in West European
eyes paralleled the Soviets' invasion of Afghanistan.
Still, the frog's frustration does not explain exactly why she
remains blind to the fundamentally different nature between
oxen and bears••• Why then do West Europeans fail to recognize
America as one of their kind--i.e., a pluralist democracy--and
the Soviet Union as not--i.e., a communist totalitarian regime?
Like the u.s., Western Europe stands for parliamentary
democracy and freedom of expression. Democracy and pluralism,
however, represent only systems of the political and moral
cultural fields of life. There is a third important field of
social life, economics•••• Ordinary Americans have always felt
economic liberty an indispensable guarantee of their democracy
and pluralism.
Most ordinary West Europeans do not.... In
"welfare state" Europe, capitalism is a dirty word, as
despicable as communism•••• Economic freedom in Western Europe
is severely restricted by a multitude of regulations and
laws•••• So Western Europe's economy stagnates while America's
keeps growing.
This causes jealousy, which reinforces the
political frustration Western Europe already has towards its
Atlantic partner•••• Many West Europeans share anti-capitalist
feelings with the Soviets.
This anti-capitalist affinity
obfuscates the far greater differences between pluralist
democxacies and communist totalitarianism.
There is also a third reason for West European frustration••••
Large parts of the West European population consider Americans
naive, simple, unsophisticated--a nation without any real
culture or important history. Everything America has, has been
borrowed from Europe. All it has added are things like jeans,
Coca-Cola and McDonald's••••
Such views are
held
not only
by
the
ordinary West
European•••but also by many intellectuals, who•••know little
about America's history. They know nothing about some of the
greatest
political
philosophers
of
all
time--Alexander
Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson--whose visions shaped
American democracy and greatly influenced European democracies.
They know nothing about America's spiritual foundation, its
deeply embedded trust in God.
Says one [intellectual], "We Europeans have been reduced to the
role of the civilizing Greeks in the Roman Empire:
teaching
the Americans the proper temperature at which to drink their
red wine."
And another:
"Europeans have a better
understanding of
the complexity
of
the
present world
difficulties than the United States."
The first quotation is from a conseIVative Italian author, the
second from a former British Socialist prime minister.
The
list could be expanded endlessly.
"Europe, Europe, Europe,"
the frog bellows louder and louder, as West European
politicians and intellectuals try to prove that they are good
Europeans by distancing themselves from America.