This is very interesting, as always, but I would like to say that, in my opinion, it was a little bit idealized. Since I grew up in France I will use this country for my examples, first since it has been the latest subject, diet and obesity. Bossel got the facts just above and I agree, people in France and other countries are getting bigger and bigger but it is also true that you never see the kind of obesity you can see in the US in Europe. There are obese people but I have yet to see people with so much fat that it is swinging from on side to the other of the body. Anyway this is not the most interesting thing, for me the big disillusion would be concerning education and cultural heritage.
It is true that education in Europe is much, much better than in the US. I came here to go to the university and guess what? I'm going back to Europe next year because I want to see the difference for myself, and the counselor told that in sciences European universities only accept students with two years of science because that's about the size of the gap between Europe and the US. Furthermore I was amazed by the SAT which is used for entrance in university without exaggerating, a good student after a year of high school in France could ace the math part and do better on the English part than most American. However, there is a downside to this, the gap is not getting bigger; education in France is not as good as it used to be, teachers are not motivated anymore and students are the reason. Maciamo spoke of the desire to study for its intrinsic value but I don't think it's a trend anymore. Most students are discouraged by the fact that a diploma won't get you a job in France, and there are scholars doing some simple jobs but not by choice, underemployment (employed below your level of qualification) is a serious concern in France.
Concerning languages, especially in France, student have never been good in my short life span, they get lots of English but there are very few who can really use it unless they have some reason, like parents, beside you do have to take a second language for 6 years but again with very pour results. Moreover the techniques seriously lack efficiency, but this is not a generality, northern European countries do a better job at that with a large portion of the population speaking at least English. The cultural heritage is also in danger, because this generation of student isn't that interested, they are just proud to have it because they think it makes them better. In France they have to have special days with free entrance in museums and such to have some kind of public, they even sold discount tickets for books, theatre... in high school to catch students' interest in culture. These initiatives are very good ideas and successful to some extent but, we didn't need such initiative just a decade ago. To conclude I would say that Europe is still a leader as far as history, culture and intellect goes but sadly they are losing ground, to what? The American decadent culture, the good thing is that the European intellectual leaders are aware of that and fight the tendency and even if they can only save a few thousands among the younger generation it will be enough. You can call this elitism, but isn't that what we should thrive for? (you can discuss the role of the Grandes Ecoles on that subject, they produce the finest students in France and in the world but are highly selective?)
I will just add a few other things concerning religion, and economics. A study in the US showed that 80% of the people surveyed didn't believe in the theory of evolution, how many of those do you think would rather believe in the Genesis from the bible. Europe is moving away from religion because they know it is not needed anymore. Religion was meant to justify and explain things that were troubling humans and also give a structure for society; both these things are now obsolete with the advent of science and stable democratic governments. Although this should be true in the US I believe they don't have enough historical background yet to be rid of such an important part of their short history, after all started by some fundamentalist freaks. But to come back to Europe Nietzsche saw it a century ago; God is dead in the heart of most people there.
About economics, I will just say that even though, countries in Europe have a very good system for education and healthcare, they won't be able to keep it much longer thanks to the aging population. In France there were some massive demonstrations by teachers when the government tried to make the retirement age a little higher and this kind of things happen as soon as the government tries to touch the privileges of the public services workers, as a consequence the government will be confronted with larger and larger expenses to keep the system running, and France and Germany already are in trouble because their annual deficit doesn?t fit the EU requirements which is 3% of the GDP, they are around more like 4%, we always point at the US when it comes to debt but in that case the American deficit for 2004 is lower. But this is a global problem, Japan, Europe, North America and all developed countries have a problem with aging population.
I think I?m done, I will end by saying that despite the fact I didn?t like living in France for personal reasons and because it?s hard to fit in when you?re not part of the culture, I appreciate the fact that I was brought up there and now I?m even considering going back (not to France though) but I guess you can?t appreciate the things you have until they are taken away from you.
Rachel said:
In France to preserve and protect the traditions and experience of centuries of French cheesemaking, the AOC (Appellation d?Origine Controlee) system was established, as it has been for wine.
Do you know that this AOC is sadly losing its reputation. I don't know for cheese but some wine producers who had the AOC, cheated and made modifications to their wine, The reason is that France used to be the first producer of wine but now their is strong competition from Australia, California... so French producers have a hard time keeping up and are tempted to sacrifiy quality.
I've just realized that I didn't even answer the original post concerning the link between European country. I'll be short, In my opinion, many Europeans are more conscerned about their own country and even have some grudges against others. For exemple the French still despise the Germans for what they did in WWII, I don't want to make a generalization but you still hear such words as: Bosh, Nazis and other pejorative noms when talking about Germans. There still is some kind of competitions between the countries, just look at a soccer games, people kill each others over this matter. But I won't deny that there is a connection thanks to history, culture and now the EU and the Euro (a great idea in my opinion).