Do Europeans hate themselves?

Submitted by Stephen (Japan), Aug 3, 2008 at 07:50

Kerri Beaudoin: "I think Europeans hate themselves."

No Europeans don't hate themselves. It just looks that way because (many) Americans love themselves so much.

You make it sound as if Europe is Communist Russia. Europe is made up of mostly capitalist societies. We did learn from the past. We learnt that pure capitalism will destroy a civilisation and lead it to a greater gap between rich and poor, and eventually social decohesion and war. We learnt it from the Romans, we learnt it from the British Empire, we learnt it from Germany during the depression. Now we have realised that only capitalism is socially viable, but that social checks are necessary to prevent the widespread poverty and social exclusion which is found everywhere.

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