| Eustace 2005-04-07, 6:08 pm |
| Wlodzimierz Holsztynski (wlod) wrote:
quote:
> Eustace wrote:
>
>
>
>
> I see. You need more time to get the picture.
> (I left Europe as a mature man, and I lived
> in the US 36 yesrs. It is still more important
> that I had a close contact with a whole spectrum
> of social and ethnic strata, on both coasts
> + Midwest + Texas).
I left Europe when I was 37 years old. During the last summers before
immigrating I hitch-hiked around most countries of Western Europe and
came to contact with many different people. Here in the US I lived for
12 years in what seemed to a countryside (here they call it residential
areas) and in New York City. I don't know if you are older than me but I
doubt that the width of my experience can be smaller than yours, if it
is not much wider.
quote:
>
>
>
> No you cannot. You need a good argument for that,
> and that's precisely what you are short of.
Sorry I disagree. I *can* positively assure you if I am talking out of
direct personal experience. That's the reason I used the word
positively. I see, however, that you trust arguments more than
experience. That may be a problem for our communication...
quote:
> The Europeans are not any better informed than
> Americans. Give them a test and they will
> sound foolish just like Americans.
Please explain what test you mean, because you may be right for what you
are talking about. I insist that the Europeans are better informed than
the Americans, because that is what I have found out from my personal
experience. When back in Europe, I soon realized that you couldn't
really discuss any political issue with Americans. When I first had
traveled to a northern European country (at the time in my country we
had a military dictatorship) I experienced an intellectual expansion.
When I came to the US I had the opposite experience, a pressure to stop
thinking, which, eventually, I had to learn to fight. Last fall, when I
heard of that survey of Republicans I referred to in another thread, I
realized that the situation is much worse than I had thought before.
Really, what are you talking about? What you are saying does not make
any sense according to my experiences. You obviously had to have
different ones. I would be curious to here how you arrived to the
improbable conclusions you have arrived, because I know enough of life
to know that had I been in your shoes, I would probably been thinking
like you.
quote:
> The US has a clearly greater freedom of speach than
> Europe. It is not easy to find a country which
> can match the USA, and most likely there is none
> which can outdo the USA.
In 1971 and between 1977 and 1982 visited many western European
countries, and everywhere I heard a much wider variety of opinions than
after I came here (excluding New York). How can you say these things
that you are saying! Obviously you believe what you are saying... Before
I judge you, then, please explain yourself better. From your viewpoint
you may be right, at least to a certain extend.
quote:
> Your mudding will not change it.
I would politely ask you to retract this statement.
quote:
> And there is no need to define the terms
> to make my statement true. It is already
> true as stated, and in the agreement with the
> standard meaning of the used words. I do not
> appreciate your twisting the reality.
>
> Wlod
It is already true as stated! For you, not for me. I am twisting the
reality! I, unlike you, am speaking out of my direct experience of reality!
I would like to hope that our discussion would at least help us
understand each other better, but this, unfortunately, depends on the
good will of both parties, and I am not sure that such will exists on
your part. I sincerely hope I am wrong.
Regards,
Eustace
|