culture war is declared in Europe - LA Times

John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge

(Culture) War Is Declared in Europe
U.S.-style religious and 'town vs. country' conflicts take hold.
January 31, 2005
 
[snip]
A recent obsession in the drawing rooms and salons of Europe is the fact that a plurality of Americans (22%) cited "moral values" as their main reason for going to the polls. To civilized Europeans, the culture wars — God, gays and guns — are the most risible bit of American politics.

Ever since 1945, European elites have preferred their politics to be technocratic — mainly managing capitalism for the common good, rather than tackling private issues of faith and morality. This is partly because Europeans are less passionate about religion. Only one in 10 French people says religion plays an important role in his or her life. But lately, cultural issues have begun to force their way back into the mainstream of European politics, stoked by three things.

Full text at this link:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-micklethwait31jan31,0,2382690.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
Received on Thu Feb 3 19:01:32 2005