Anti-U.S. feeling in Germany.

Fifty-seven per cent of German young people consider the United States "more dangerous" than Iran. Stark testimony, we suppose, to the dangers of snorting too much cocaine.

How else to explain such bizarre results? Dr. Sanity might be able to shed some light on this but we get the impression that there's some psychological process whereby you take on the antipathies of the people who are your real enemies because you might actually have to go off and do something about your enemies.

Such as engage in close combat against them, which, we hear, can be unpleasant.

Therefore, you kid yourself that the enemy of your true enemy is your actual enemy and basically lick the boots of your true enemy in order to mollify him for the moment and put out of mind such an unpleasant prospect of actually having to reach for Old Betsy over the fireplace.

Maybe we'll never get that past our Ph.D. committee while working for a doctorate in abnormal psychology. Our mind goes there, however, for purposes of informal analysis of modern insanities.

Here's an insightful piece by a German who skewers his countrymen who believe in the U.S. Threat to Life as We Know It:

The Germans have believed in many things in the course of their recent history. [Interesting list of German beliefs here.]

* * * *

Anti-Americanism is hypocrisy at its finest. . . . You can call the American president a mass murderer and book a flight to New York the next day. You can lament the average American's supposed lack of culture and savvy and meanwhile send off for the documents for the Green Card lottery.

Not a day passes in Germany when someone isn't making the wildest claims, hurling the vilest insults or spreading the most outlandish conspiracy theories about the United States. But there's no risk involved and it all serves mainly to boost the German feeling of self-righteousness.

"Evil Americans, Poor Mullahs." By Claus Christian Malzahn, Spiegel Online, 3/29/07.

UPDATE 4/16/07:

A propos of having to do something unpleasant if you admit reality. consider this from Dr. Joy Bliss:

Why do some people seem to want to deny the existence of evil in the world? Because they will have to deal with it, and it's a hassle, or worse. It disrupts a comfortable illusion. And it requires that we confront whatever malevolence we may have in ourselves, too, which is not fun to do. Nevertheless, confronting true external evil is daunting, scary, and complicated, and forces us to locate the required courage and aggression within ourselves - to the point of being willing to die for home and family and country - when we would prefer to be comfortable.

"The Analyst Speaks: Denial of Evil and the ABC's of Life in Western Civilization." Dr. Joy Bliss, Maggie's Farm, 1/9/06.