Re: $$$ for your firearms
Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2019 11:11 am
This is mostly to add an offshore perspective to what Riggerjack said. Contrast and compare style ...
Whenever Denmark is brought up in the US as an example of the ideal society or whatever, the counterargument is typically that the Danish system only works because it's an culturally/homogeneous society. That might be, but I think it's something else namely differing attitudes about the "government".
In the US, the prevailing attitude is best illustrated by the standing joke that the last thing an American facing a problem wants to hear is "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you". Whereas, in Denmark, the trust in government is so high (Denmark has the lowest perceived corruption index in the world(*)) that the most common complaint I hear about ERE is something along the lines of "how I'm not contributing to society if I'm not working and paying taxes". Such complaints imply that society de facto equals the government. (This is something I personally disagree with, so I proceed to talk about how society is also how we treat our neighbors and other things we do that does not circle around the government.)
(*) Which I frankly think is a greater achievement than being the so-called happiest nation in the world.
In general, there's just a stark difference between the two countries when it comes to mutual trust between citizens and government. Americans perceive this trust as being driven by homogeneity. I disagree. I think it's because the Danish [government] system tends to work and if it doesn't it gets fixed because people want it to work. Whereas in the US, government doesn't work that well, partially because many Americans don't want it to work. (This could be related to population density. Being sparsely populated, the US can still allow rather unrestrained freedoms w/o stepping on other people's rights. In Europe, things have be be more regulated. Same reason why there's a difference in attitude between urban and rural Americans. Statistically speaking the population density of your residence strongly determines how red/blue your voting district is.)
So to draw the lines in starker terms: In Denmark both sides (government vs private citizen) assumes the best intentions on the other side. In the US, they assume the worst. This is how I find myself talking to US government bureaucrats through a small hole in some bulletproof glass whereas Danish bureaucrats in open offices will happily lend me their personal cellphone to call the bank for a missing account number.
As such a Danish response to some government worker walking onto one's property would be something like "Hi, is there a problem?" (and how can we help each other to resolve it) rather than the American "Show me a warrant. You're trespassing!"
I understand that there are historical reasons for how both attitudes developed. It's not that Denmark is culturally homogeneous ... rather it's that the government in Denmark is considered part of the people's tribe and vice versa. Whereas in the US---see much of the Constitution---the government often belongs to "The Other" tribe---which it originally did in the form of the British Empire (hence the stuff about well regulated militias, housing troops in your house, search and seizure). The US (which won) in the 18th century parallels Rome (which lost) in the 5th century. The latter would likely dearly have appreciated something like the constitution over those couple of following centuries.
Whenever Denmark is brought up in the US as an example of the ideal society or whatever, the counterargument is typically that the Danish system only works because it's an culturally/homogeneous society. That might be, but I think it's something else namely differing attitudes about the "government".
In the US, the prevailing attitude is best illustrated by the standing joke that the last thing an American facing a problem wants to hear is "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you". Whereas, in Denmark, the trust in government is so high (Denmark has the lowest perceived corruption index in the world(*)) that the most common complaint I hear about ERE is something along the lines of "how I'm not contributing to society if I'm not working and paying taxes". Such complaints imply that society de facto equals the government. (This is something I personally disagree with, so I proceed to talk about how society is also how we treat our neighbors and other things we do that does not circle around the government.)
(*) Which I frankly think is a greater achievement than being the so-called happiest nation in the world.
In general, there's just a stark difference between the two countries when it comes to mutual trust between citizens and government. Americans perceive this trust as being driven by homogeneity. I disagree. I think it's because the Danish [government] system tends to work and if it doesn't it gets fixed because people want it to work. Whereas in the US, government doesn't work that well, partially because many Americans don't want it to work. (This could be related to population density. Being sparsely populated, the US can still allow rather unrestrained freedoms w/o stepping on other people's rights. In Europe, things have be be more regulated. Same reason why there's a difference in attitude between urban and rural Americans. Statistically speaking the population density of your residence strongly determines how red/blue your voting district is.)
So to draw the lines in starker terms: In Denmark both sides (government vs private citizen) assumes the best intentions on the other side. In the US, they assume the worst. This is how I find myself talking to US government bureaucrats through a small hole in some bulletproof glass whereas Danish bureaucrats in open offices will happily lend me their personal cellphone to call the bank for a missing account number.
As such a Danish response to some government worker walking onto one's property would be something like "Hi, is there a problem?" (and how can we help each other to resolve it) rather than the American "Show me a warrant. You're trespassing!"
I understand that there are historical reasons for how both attitudes developed. It's not that Denmark is culturally homogeneous ... rather it's that the government in Denmark is considered part of the people's tribe and vice versa. Whereas in the US---see much of the Constitution---the government often belongs to "The Other" tribe---which it originally did in the form of the British Empire (hence the stuff about well regulated militias, housing troops in your house, search and seizure). The US (which won) in the 18th century parallels Rome (which lost) in the 5th century. The latter would likely dearly have appreciated something like the constitution over those couple of following centuries.