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Originally Posted by I'm Me  First Swiss stance has been neutral since instation of democracy in the 1600s after the Swiss Federation was formed. Much of what the world has for peace like Red Cross, Reporters Sans Frontiers, Geneva Conventions were born in Switzerland. Secondly Switzerland has the largest physics research center in the world. They invented WWW and much of modern internet, it would be silly to assume they can't make a nuke on demand. |
Actually, I wouldn't have assumed the Swiss were neutral until after the banning of the Swiss Guards with the exception of the Vatican following the Napoleonic Wars. Because the Swiss Guards were the most highly trained, nasty and dangerous mercenaries in the world.
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US isn't western geographically, politically and culturally. Geographically it is in the east of East Asia.
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That depends on your outlook, doesn't it? I mean, it's to the west of Europe isn't it? And East Asia is to the south of Russia, and everywhere has a direction associated with everywhere. You cannot say that legitimately, because everywhere is somewhere compared to somewhere else. If you go by longitude measurements, then the US is Western. But then, by longitude lines, even London is 'eastern'.
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Europeans are much more sophisticated, usually more aware of world politics and issues and definitely more cultural. An average ten year old kid in France, Belgium or Greece is more aware about the world and smarter than most 20+ old Americans.
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Europe generally has to be more aware. Remember, the US is similar in size to Europe. Europe is a much closer collection of countries, plus they have the European Union which means the true definition of cultures is being blurred as people move. Of course, a Belgian kid who has a Romanian kid as his neighbour is going to be more worldly than an Oklahoma kid who doesn't have the money to even go to Washington DC.
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European politics is different from US too, while US is based on an absolutisation republic, European countries have a more open and majority based government, there isn't much chance to manipulate votes.
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Remember the circumstances that the US constitution was set up here. It was signed while they were still fighting a war with the then-greatest power in the world, the British.
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Americans are geographically, politically and culturally alienated from the world. This gives them a stereotyped view of the world and a narrow opinions coupled with inability to see through contradictory politics.
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A lot of countries who don't diversify a lot are culturally and politically isolated. Take China for example - how many Chinese farmers living in and around the early regions of the Huang River are going to know about European politics? You will find that generally, the cultural centers of countries and the larger cities will be more worldly, and more recognised internationally as targets for trading and such. People in Moscow and St Petersburg will know lots about the world, but how much will a Russian living out in the Urals? The same goes for the USA. People quite often measure off of the lowest - and I will give you that especially through the Bible Belt, there are a huge number of Americans who wouldn't know which way it was to Mexico. But through the major centers, such as New York, Washington D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles, people are generally more worldly.
Another huge part is the cultural giving America gives to the world. Seriously. You turn on television in Europe, you will find that there is usually (if not always) a TV show being dubbed into French/German/Italian/Spanish/I could go on. How many shows from outside the U.S.A. do you see showing in the US? Not many. The cultural symbols of today's world and societies include the golden arches of McDonalds, the red label of Coca-Cola, the blue oval of a Ford. All American companies. The reality is, Americans don't know any different, because they're saturated with their own culture and not others. I'm sure all Americans could be more worldly if they had the chance - but the media don't give them the chance.
And politics at electiontime is never about making controversial policy and agreeing with your opponent - it's a competition. And both sides want to win.