“The End of History was never linked to a specifically American model of social or political organization. Following Alexandre Kojève, the Russian-French philosopher who inspired my original argument, I believe that the European Union more accurately reflects what the world will look like at the end of history than the contemporary United States. The EU’s attempt to transcend sovereignty and traditional power politics by establishing a transnational rule of law is much more in line with a “post-historical” world than the Americans’ continuing belief in God, national sovereignty, and their military.
- Francis Fukuyama
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roy
2 years ago
It appears that Francis Fukujama is taking the dropping of two sub 50 kiloton nuclear weapons personally. Your grandparent’s country should have chosen not to have awakened a sleeping tiger!
Don´t strike the U.S. out, it is the one country that separates church from state and at the same time is gaining Atheists at a very rapid rate. How many countries in the EU separate the church from the state?
ino
2 years ago
hey roy….
try this list:
germany
holland
belgium
france
denmark
sweden
norway
and maybe more, but these countries i am sure have a seperation of church and state…. and they do not have a pledge of allegiance that children HAVE TO say that states that they are “one nation under GOD”! and children who refuse to say this line can be and are expelled from schools!….
a recent study in the US showed that less than 10% of those asked would vote for a president who was an atheist. in fact near 60% of interviewed said “they would not trust an atheist to be president”… funny, but with the labour parties in europe, it is almost a given that its members are humanists…..
think before you comment roy….
Roy
2 years ago
You came up with 7. Any more?
ino
2 years ago
no, that is the 7 that i am absolutely positive about….
Roy
2 years ago
Interesting that you also neglected the following:
In 1942 Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance. One year later,
in June 1943, the Supreme Court ruled that school children could not be forced
to recite it. The case, West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, ruled
that expulsion from school and criminal penalties against the student for not
participating in the pledge violated his/her First Amendment rights to free speech
and free exercise of religion3.
ino
2 years ago
interesting point; here’s a funny read….
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/speech/studentexpression/topic.aspx?topic=pledge
but, you seem to be focussing on a mere detail. my over all point was that the US , as suggested in the article we are commenting on, is indeed still a country where religion is still very much in the forefront of society. in the countries on my list it is unthinkable that during an election a politicians religious believes would be an issue. you would not see video footage on the web of sarkozy’s church minister. angela merkels church visit on sunday morning would not be part of her election campaign. in fact, i do not even know if they are church going people, or if they are religious at all.
the reason i did not put the Uk on the list, is because of the church of england which is headed by the queen, thus bluring the line between state and church. however, tony blair when he was the pm was registered as an anglican, but would go to catholic mass with his wife on sundays. in the Uk this was pretty much a non-topic. but i think you and i both know what tonys chances would have been, would he have run for office in the states, right? JFK to this day is still refered to as the first and only catholic president!
yes, america has seperation of state and church in it’s constitution, but in reality, religion is very much part of society…..
maybe you should watch that morgan spurlock docu again…..
Roy
2 years ago
2 things, read a little of Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett and others and you will learn that America is moving toward a non-theist society at a very rapid rate. As Hitchens says “There aren´t enough churches on any Sunday to contain the folks that profess to be religious.”
ino
2 years ago
it’s good to hear that the US is going through this developement now, some 30 years after northern europe…..lol
Roy
2 years ago
Are you aware that “seperation” is not an English word? You have used it twice in your previous posts. Could it be of Greek origin? “Lol”, how quaint. If you have a secondary education I wouldn´t sully the school´s name by mentioning it on any CV you might submit.
ino
2 years ago
my sincerest apologies to you roy for not taking the time to run this through the spell checker before i hit the “submit comment” button. i hope i did not inconvenience you too much.
but you are right, roy! the foreigner misspelled a word, therefore he must be mocked and his ideas can just be cast aside, roy. very mature of you roy. in how many languages would you be able to conduct this argument, roy?
the last post was meant as a sort of peace offering, so i ended it with “lol”, you know, to give it that light hearted, quasi post modern, “look at us going at it on the interwebs” touch. i am very sorry to now find out that you do not have the social skills to grasp this.
but you seem to be taking this all too seriously and start to become rather unpleasant and personal, so i think this will have to be my last post on this topic .