Looking at the convoluted negotiations taking place
with the European Union I am reminded of what Leo Tolstoy said in “War and
Peace”:
Germans are self confident on the basis of an
abstract notion – science, that is, the
supposed knowledge of absolute truth.
A Frenchman is self assured because he regards
himself personally both in mind and body as irresistibly attractive to men and
women.
An Englishman is self assured as being a citizen of
the best organised state in the world, and therefore, as an Englishman, always
knows what he should do and knows that all he does as an Englishman is
undoubtedly correct.
An Italian is self assured because he is excitable
and easily forgets himself and other people.
A Russian is self assured just because he knows
nothing and does not want to know anything, since he does not believe anything
can be known.
The German’s self-assurance is the worst of all,
stronger and more repulsive than any other, because he imagines that he knows
the truth – science- which he himself has invented but which for him is the
absolute truth.
If
only?
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