VDH on his informal survey of culture:
He asks:
"...is civil society mostly moderate, predicated on the rule of law, and
meritocratic — or is it characterized by self-indulgence, cynicism, and
tribalism?"
"The answers to these questions do not hinge on race, money, or
natural wealth, but they do involve culture and the way average people
predictably live minute by minute. Again, these national habits and
traditions accrued over centuries, and as much as politics or economics,
they explain in part why Bonn is not Athens, and Zurich is not Naples,
or for that matter why Cairo is unlike Tel Aviv or why Mexico City
differs from Toronto."
And:
"There is one final funny thing about contemporary culture. What people
say and do about it are two different things."
"We in the post-modern,
politically correct West publicly pontificate that all cultures are just
different and that to assume otherwise is pop generalization, but we
privately assume that you would prefer your bank account to be in
Frankfurt rather than Athens, or the tumor in your brain to be removed
in London rather than Lisbon."
Indeed!
