Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Two nations separated by Piers Morgan

Alistair Sim and Gordon Harker in an Inspector Hornleigh movieI was mulling over the differences between our colonial cousins in the Unites States and us over here in Wonderland. I've been doing this a lot lately what with one thing or another. We get to hear about the contumelies and brouhahas of the American body politic and I've enough friends, acquaintances and colleagues over there for me to have news feeds full of their various arguments for and against one or other course of action.

Over here, we tend to forget that the United States is a foreign country. And a very different one at that. The idea that it's the same as us but bigger, or worthy somehow of being patronised as a younger sibling with lots of big ideas that could easily be transplanted over here is, of course, a nonsense. We struggle to get our heads around the Tea Party and they struggle to understand our love of socialised health care. They have the constitutional right to bear arms, we have the constitutional right to make fists in our pockets so long as we don't make a fuss about it. This last point came home to me the first time I went to visit friends in the Wild West and we went shopping. Standing in the queue for the till I glanced at the mither merchandise. Where we'd have had sweeties or chocolates or copies of "Hello" magazine ("Dame Flora Robson shows off her amazing baby bump! Exclusive pictures inside!") they were displaying shotgun cartridges and boxes of bullets.

We need to respect our differences, they're what makes the world what it is. And we need to be careful when we try to transplant ideologies from one place to another that they're both viable and appropriate in their new environment.

5 comments:

savannah said...

am i insane or is mr morgan starting to be almost palatable? he really did pick up the anti-automatic gun gauntlet in a way that no other news commentators/broadcasters did and i agreed with him. stuff is getting crazy over here. xoxox

Kevin Musgrove said...

I found myself agreeing with him whole-heartedly and had to go and have a lie down in a darkened room for a couple of days.

Ms Scarlet said...

Yes, It felt a bit weird being proud of Piers....
Sx

dinahmow said...

And our gun crimes are escalating again. Perhaps we need a Mr. Morgan?

Gadjo Dilo said...

Luckily I haven't yet read what Morgan said in full, and so I can stay unconfused. "Janusz J" - who is clearly a Hungarian and so knows from bitter experience a thing or two about which countries people should be in - is right... we don't need him back again. Stick him on an island in the middle of the Atlantic, St. Helena perhaps, or Atlantis.