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March 22, 2007
Infidelity Attitudes and the War on Terror
MSN Men has a long article called "French Men Don't Get Caught," about how Americans and Europeans view infidelity in marriage. What's an earthquake of emotional turmoil in the U.S. gets met, as you might expect, with a Gallic shrug by those sophisticated Europeans. Or maybe a Teutonic shrug, but that doesn't sound right, does it? The article says,
It seems no other population suffers the same magnificent anguish that we do. The Russians regard affairs as benign vices, like cigars and scotch. The Japanese have institutionalized extramarital sex through clubs and salaryman lifestyles. The French, who don't cheat as much as we thought they did, prize discretion above the occasional lie. In sub–Saharan Africa, even the threat of death by HIV hasn't created a strong taboo on cheating.
I wonder if these attitudes parallel approaches to the War on Terror. The same slams against the U.S. on infidelity -- so unnuanced! those stifling Judeo-Christian (emphasis on JUDEO) fears! -- get hurled against our approach to terror. My first response: the French and other Europeans who smile and shrug and see cheating in marriage as part of the natural social landscape will also quietly accede to bus burnings, riots and creeping Sharia as parts of their new social landscape.
When you believe in nothing absolute outside your own perceptions or needs, you can rationalize anything.
The discussion boards with the article present spirited defenses of American values, raising the point of whether infidelity attitudes reflect degrees of women's freedom in various countries to oppose men's traditional prerogatives. Take a look.
Van | 03/22/07 at 06:56 AM | Categories: WWIV
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Comments
It's a case of values being turned upside down and the Muslims can keep their Sharia law !!
Paul | March 22, 2007 08:51 AM
Perhaps I'll blog about this later, but I'd agree with your title. Mark Steyn in America Along harps on the European failure to replace their population. For Europeans then, marriage is not necessarily as much for procreation as (apparently) for entertainment. (Yes that's a pretty broad brush.)
In America the family does have a greater value, so the cost of betrayal is higher.
soccerdad ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.keshertalk.com/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 22, 2007 10:10 AM
