I'm an aspirant of the Dale Carnegie school of "How to Win Friends & Influence People." This iconic book was written in 1936 and I first read it in the 70's, early teens. Its simple philosophies seem so common-sensical that I really can't imagine why people thought the book was so earth shattering. Basically, it says: "don't criticize," "show interest in other people," and "work hard." The examples are a little dated but they seem common enough. I certainly found them inspiring and I am ever vigilant to reflecting similar traits, however....

I didn't understand then, and am only just now getting it, that Mr. Carnegie's recommendations are a proto-American philosophy not necessarily shared by other Western cultures... Let alone socialist cultures. "How to Win Friends & Influence People" is about individualism. It just goes to show you that the culture you're raised in taints your view so centrally that we just take it for granted that other cultures must share the same logic. Case in point: Nicolas Sarkozy is the new "conservative" French president. I followed his campaign run because he was pro-American, and I wondered how he would fare with the French people. However, after reading his positions, I couldn't tell what was "conservative" about him - he could have ran as a Democrat in the U.S.

As it turns out, apparently, Mr. Sarkozy's jogging is what makes him a "conservative." You see, Nicolas Sarkozy gets up every morning and runs a couple laps. "Sarkozy has fueled a French suspicion that running is for self-centered individualists like Americans," (Charles Bremner, Paris correspondent of the Times of London), and "jogging is of course about performance and individualism, values that are traditionally ascribed to the right," (Odile Braudrier, editor of V02 magazine). What is even more amazing is Sarkozy's response: "Of course [jogging] is right-wing." The right, however, vehemently disagree. Ian Morrison of the Telegraph Web site said, "No decent conservative would dream of jogging. It's a vulgar, untraditional form of self-advertisement that might frighten the horses."

Jogging? I hate jogging. Does that mean when I approach political office that I have to run as a liberal?

I couldn't believe it when I heard about this in the news. Those French can be nutty about things sometimes.

Didn't people say that Bush is one of us because he wears blue jeans, or that he is the most likely candidate that you would want a beer with at a bar?

Yet He doesn't drink alcohol, and he wears a $10,000 suit at every public speaking engagement at the White House. As I used to say in the Restaurant bizz, that appearance is everything!

From what I've gathered among my non-American friends who have spent time in the U.S., most of America's so-called "liberal Democrats" tend to be to similar to, or more conservative than, the so-called "conservatives" in other Western countries.

We do get ourselves in a lot of trouble when we assume everybody shares our values. I believe in things like human rights and equality under the law and the freedom to speak and believe according to your own convictions about as firmly as I am convinced that water is wet. But in most of the rest of the world these ideas are as foreign as martians. I can name more cultures where ideas about human rights are considered sentimental nonsense than cultures where they are not.

I suspect that Iraq was bungled due more to the failure to understand this than to any other cause. "Of course they want democracy!" Well, no.

Democracy is the environment of a safe society, Chaos demand order and strict control to manage. Its not a matter of them wanting democracy but the security of the nation demanding strict control, as you see how quickly we gave up 9 of the bill of rights for security of our nation under the duress of the possible imminent terrorist attack on our soil.

I would agree with the total lack of communication aiding Chaos.

You can buy suits that cost so much???

I bet Martin has a closet full of them (I'm actually in my "Got Hash" Tshirt as I type!)

Yeah but how much do you spend on a haircut?

Lets face it... the US is one of them. Most politics are not about ideals but about mining-rights...
Dont know if you know it, but Hussein for instance was an ally of the US for years against Iran... Laden was one against the Russian in Afghanistan and so on. There are many more examples for that. The US army used them against their enemys, went away, left their allies without any future in a damaged land... No wonder that the people there are not very happy and dont like the USA much.
I hope you can differ between an explanation and a justification.

Dont take me wrong: EVERY country does that in a way.
Most wars are not for human rights or ideals... they are because of economic interests.
The people in a country are manipulated by the media to have the "right" point of view (from the point of view of the government or other powerful pools). You cant fight someone who didnt do something or at least whos reputation isnt destroyed enough. So you tell the people what he did and than you fight him for that, wheter it is true or not. All that counts is, that there is something valueable to gain and that people believe what the government says.
Again: I am not talking only about the US government. Germans government isnt in another way... we just dont have such a large army...
In Huganda, where 1 million Tutsis were killed by the Hutus (both african tribes)... today we know that the French government was involved there...
Germany had its "glorry times", too... we all know about that.

*Fuchur*

So far I have only one person in American history who I would call a true American Hero, that would be Benjamin Franklin.He was an environmentalist of his time.....But here is my all time favorite quote of his , well, sense 911 and Bush Jr.

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."



I have read variations , but this is the one I use on those who are so willing to do what Mr Benjamin Franklin mentions.


Another version:
(They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.)

What scares hell out of me is that Republicans can no longer be counted on to try and protect economic freedom - they make big-spending Democrats look like scrooges - and Democrats can no longer be counted on to protect civil liberties - most Dems nowadays are in the business of limiting freedoms.

Memo to world: America no longer believes in freedom. We pay it lip service, but it's all a fraud. Many other societies are more free than ours.

Weird.....

I like to jog and I'm a conservative....hmmmm LOL

George