The original thesis is actually wrong. It is not the people of Europe who are so deferential to authority. It is the political classes. Few major political parties in any European nation actually oppose the ever greater sway of the EU. As such the voter is effectively disenfranchised and made redundant. The EU has decided that man-made climate change is real and that something must be done. The national political parties follow behind. What the people think is immaterial; in the EU system their role is to obey and pay up.

Chris Mumby makes some valid points, although I think the technical point about executions was that the FEDERAL government had only executed 400 people, rather than that the States had in aggregate executed many thousands. Certainly we have fought just about every nation on the surface of the planet, yet still manage to be reasonably friendly towards most these days!

It was not blind deference that led Europe to be led by Napoleon, it was French military might. Which Europe (England and Prussians mainly) overturned in 1815 (Anyone heard of Waterloo? or the Peninsular War? or the failed French invasion of Russia?) There was also WW1 and WW2 were Europe/UK/commonwealth, with the help of the late entrant USA, overturned the aggression of Hitler etc.

A quick check on Wiki states that the USA (& it’s predecessors) has executed over 15,000 – not the 400 mentioned by Aidiran. Sure Wiki can be wrong and I’m sure that the UK has executed many thousands more – but stop been so pious and defensive.

The USA has invaded many countries Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Philippines – the UK has invaded more…. but that was a different time and not hugely relevant.

I’m a fan of America – but America has made many recent decisions that has turned some European public opinion against it – the Invasion of Iraq been the major failure of US foreign policy. I will not vote for the current shower in power in the UK because of the Iraq war.

Please stop the anti-European snobbery and get on with the climate debate.

As a lifelong European I can confirm that the default posture for most Europeans to any perceived problem is to demand “what is the government going to do about it”. Indeed, given Scientist has probably devoted his waking hours to making this very demand of his government, he fits the pattern. I don’t think this signifies a respect (or deference) for authority so much as helplessness or apathy. We might debate as to what caused (or exacerbated) this attitude but it’s certainly there.

I’m not so sure that the US is that far behind though.

- Yup. It deprives them of one of their rights in exceedingly rare and extreme cases – in case you weren’t aware, the Federal Government has executed fewer than four hundred people in the whole of its existence. I challenge you to find a European power that can make that claim.

“…has by far the largest military budget in the world…”

- Has by far the biggest economy of the world, and Europe to boot depends on the United States to maintain global peace; United States forces make up the great majority of the UN military forces, and permit European nations to maintain smaller armies in turn, because after all they can suck at the teat of the United States’ protection.

“invades other nations frequently”

- Yup. Hell, we’ve invaded all of Europe, what with our military bases all over it. And when we don’t invade a nation that EUROPE thinks needs invading, Europe starts condemning us.

“has a long history of backing fascist regimes”

- Yup, we do. We’re backing Britain, Spain, France, Norway, Sweden… why, virtually every nationally socialist country that side of the Atlantic. Remember, Mussolini described Fascism thus: The glorious merging of corporate and government power. This describes – every – single – European – nation. The United States has some croneyism going on, but nothing to the way Europe handles its corporations, from Volkswagen in Germany to British Telecom in Britain. There is no clear line of distinction between church, government, and business, in most anywhere in Europe. The only company the United States treats the way Europe treats all of its industries is the US Post Office.

Again, talk to any European who has left Europe for the States. I have, many times over. Invariably they describe the nation they’re from, no matter the nation it is, thus: Society, and more particularly its “representatives,” are what government respects. The individual doesn’t matter, only the society.

I suppose your shrill comments and ad hominem attacks AREN’T politically motivated.

The point remains that the author of this blog wouldn’t know good science if it poked him in the eye. His views on climate are driven only by his political fears and prejudices.

Blind deference is, in fact, incorrect. It’s wide-eyed deference. Europeans, on the whole, actively look to authority figures to increase their authority – they don’t merely accept dictation, they seek it. Any and every public problem is expected to be solved by government figures, in spite of an abyssal record.

The Unites States is singularly unique in its approach to authority – the British parliament can pass any law, can overturn any “right,” by its authority alone. There are no guaranteed rights in Britain, and it is still positively liberal – classically liberal, by which I mean libertarian – compared to every other European state, with the possible and sometimes exception of Ireland.