America’s Troubles: the European View

Letter from the Continent America’s Troubles: the Kuropean View Be xv I am repeatedly asked, on lecture tours of the United States, what Eu- ropeans are thinking about America’s difficulties at home and abroad: prin- cipally, of course, the “race problem” and the war in Vietnam. As. to the first, while so many Americans —whether Negro or white—seem to believe that change can be ef- fected by legisla- tion, most Euro- peans have their doubts. Americans tend to be legalists

2 2 el Pee ges s Kuehnelt-Leddihn witness the “noble experiment” of Prohibition. “There should be a law against it,’ is a pop- ular American phrase. Staunchly re: publican in their outlook, Americans dislike and suspect the cult of per- sonality and prefer the rule of law to that of persons. Europeans, on the other hand, are generally more aware that laws are notoriously ineffective in changing basic human attitudes. They tend to believe that the race question in America will be solved only by live social forces, not by poli- tical action or legislative fiat.

EK

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Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

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Letter from the Continent America’s Troubles: the Kuropean View Be xv I am repeatedly asked, on lecture tours of the United States, what Eu- ropeans are thinking about America’s difficulties at home and abroad: prin- cipally, of course, the “race problem” and the war in Vietnam. As. to the first, while so many Americans —whether Negro or white—seem to believe that change can be ef- fected by legisla- tion, most Euro- peans have their doubts. Americans tend to be legalists

2 2 el Pee ges s Kuehnelt-Leddihn witness the “noble experiment” of Prohibition. “There should be a law against it,’ is a pop- ular American phrase. Staunchly re: publican in their outlook, Americans dislike and suspect the cult of per- sonality and prefer the rule of law to that of persons. Europeans, on the other hand, are generally more aware that laws are notoriously ineffective in changing basic human attitudes. They tend to believe that the race question in America will be solved only by live social forces, not by poli- tical action or legislative fiat.