Just a little general update on my experience abroad:
Yesterday my Betreuer (the volunteer from the exchange program who lives in my area, each student has one) came over to check up on everything here and do an interview to make sure everything is ok. Everything is great. My host family and I get along very well and there's very good communication between us.
Today, after a pretty cold bike ride to school (looking at the weather report for Virginia is a little sad), I took a philosophy exam. Understanding and writing about Immanuel Kant and his philosophy in German is definitely a challenge, but the teacher is nice and will probably cut me a break.
I also stopped by an English class in my grade and talked about segregation, civil rights, and the current racial situation in America. It's pretty difficult to answer a question like: "Is there equality in America?"
Later in my social science/econ class, we were talking about inequality, how to measure it, and the causes of it. During the course of the class, the teacher asked who was responsible for correcting inequality when they see it. Immediately just one other student and I responded "society" while the rest of the students who responded said "the government."
I got to thinking: would "the government" have been the typical answer in America? Maybe the Germans have on average more trust in the ability of the government to fix problems. What would you (Americans, Germans, or any others) have said in this situation? Please sign your comments so that I can see who wrote them (I still don't know who wrote a comment on the Spain post (jagdgeselle?) and a comment on the Brussels/Aachen post (anonymous), so if you know, let me know).
As always, comment, email, and take it easy.
4 comments:
Short answer: Ideally it should not make a difference....In a well structured polis, the government mirrors the society.
Way too complicated to answer in one comment box(though I am sure I could not answer that question wisely with even a hundred boxes)...and "yes" I hope Americans are rightly skeptical of government's abilities. When governments are powerful enough to give everything, they are also powerful enough to take everything.
Cheers,
Mike Bruno
I guess I "second" your Uncle Mike B's (I'd forgotten that you have THREE Uncle Mikes!) succinct short answer. Government is the means by which society implements its values. (The schools in The American South weren't going to integrate themselves.) We run the risk of "two steps forward, one step back" (ERA amendment hasn't made it yet) and disconnects between society and government (most Americans support abortion rights), but the messiness helps protect against too much concentrated power.
As Mark Steyn says, 'And so, in a democratic system today's electors vote to keep the government gravy coming and leave it to tomorrow for "the children" to worry about. That's the real "war on children" – and every time you add a new entitlement to the budget you make it less and less likely they'll win it.'
As Gerald Ford says, "A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have."
Very interesting responses. Thanks!
I see that Uncle Mike B's post and the last anonymous post share the sentiment that too powerful a government is a bad thing.
But it seems Aunt Cecil's reflects something in all three posts, the German mentality, and the American mentality, and that is, a government should reflect the will of the people.
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