PRESTOPUNDIT -- "An intense brain-buzz, guaranteed" (2blowhards)

American ideas -- about freedom and democracy, etc. -- provide an answer to the question "why do they hate us?". I'm talking about Old Europe of course. Quotable:

When the topic of the public opinion survey shifts to the spread of �American ideas and customs� � as opposed to attitudes toward the government or the people � the results become even more pointed: 27 percent of the French believe that the spread of American ideas and customs is good, but an overwhelming 72 percent consider it bad. Similarly, 24 percent of Germans think of American ideas as good, while 72 percent see this influence as bad. The attitudes of the British and Italians are, again, somewhat less severe than elsewhere in Europe: 56 percent of the British see the spread of American ideas as bad, as do 45 percent of Italians. When asked specifically about American ideas of democracy, 65 percent of the French, 55 percent of Germans, and 61 percent of Spaniards said they disliked them.

However, the cultural divide between the United States and Europe is not only evident in these measures of European attitudes toward the United States. There are equally pronounced indications of deeply different values and worldviews. Perhaps most telling, when asked to choose between the freedom to pursue one�s goals without state interference and, alternatively, the power of the state to guarantee that nobody is in need, 58 percent of Americans opted for freedom. The results in Europe are very different. In no European country was there majority support for individual freedom as opposed to the power of the state. In Great Britain, only 33 percent chose freedom, in France 36 percent, in Italy 24 percent, and in Germany 39 percent. Interestingly, the importance of individual freedom attracts greater approval in parts of the developing world than in Western Europe: Guatemala is at 61 percent, Ghana at 63 percent, Nigeria at 61 percent, India at 53 percent, and Pakistan at 61 percent�levels of support for freedom that put Europe to shame. On this issue so crucial to the relationship between state and economy, American individualist attitudes are closer to the rest of the world than is the European trust in the role of the state.

The anti-liberalism which haunts Old Europe hasn't been so obvious since the 1930s ...