the unhesitating belief that 'I Cannot Be Wrong. To question if I am right suggests I might be wrong. And I cannot be wrong. Therefore, I am Right and any issue between us is Your Problem and nothing to do with me.'
This is interesting to me because I have been raised to believe just the opposite of that. Probably 50 percent because my dad was a scientist and 50 percent because my country is nazi country. So I wake up every day knowing that I could be wrong, that most likely I'm very wrong all the time, that once there was a time when people in MY country, people who are like me were so deeply and horrifyingly dead wrong that there are next to no words for it.
And I think that is why Bush freaks us out so much. Because we look at the US and think, well, once there was a time when we were one 100 percent sure that we were right and we were patriotic and we waged war and we were going to win and we were DEAD WRONG. How can you live and be sure you aren't wrong? How can you ever risk it? Especially when you have like scary stuff like nuclear bombs at your disposal. I know Americans talk about fate and being chosen in particular, but our guys said the same thing and they were still horrible and evil and people still went for it.
Errr, to cut our personal issues short, we for one have to be raised to never be sure of anything we say and always take into consideration that all the others might be right. And we are one step away from checking ourselves everyday to make sure we haven't grown horns and a devil's tail overnight and find it shocking that others don't do that as well :D
(of course the we is a very optimistic we, I dearly wish I could speak for all Germans/Austrians, though that is way too optimistic;)
On "being wrong"
This is interesting to me because I have been raised to believe just the opposite of that. Probably 50 percent because my dad was a scientist and 50 percent because my country is nazi country. So I wake up every day knowing that I could be wrong, that most likely I'm very wrong all the time, that once there was a time when people in MY country, people who are like me were so deeply and horrifyingly dead wrong that there are next to no words for it.
And I think that is why Bush freaks us out so much. Because we look at the US and think, well, once there was a time when we were one 100 percent sure that we were right and we were patriotic and we waged war and we were going to win and we were DEAD WRONG. How can you live and be sure you aren't wrong? How can you ever risk it? Especially when you have like scary stuff like nuclear bombs at your disposal. I know Americans talk about fate and being chosen in particular, but our guys said the same thing and they were still horrible and evil and people still went for it.
Errr, to cut our personal issues short, we for one have to be raised to never be sure of anything we say and always take into consideration that all the others might be right. And we are one step away from checking ourselves everyday to make sure we haven't grown horns and a devil's tail overnight and find it shocking that others don't do that as well :D
(of course the we is a very optimistic we, I dearly wish I could speak for all Germans/Austrians, though that is way too optimistic;)