December 09, 2004
This is rather telling
It seems that in the UK, if someone breaks into your home, your attacker has more legal rights than you do. At least, that's what Dr. Ian Stephen of Glasgow Caledonian University says in this article. He encourages victims of burglary to assume a state of "active passivity", or, barring that, outright passiveness.
I think this sheds light on a lot of other things as well. If we take this as characteristic of the European mindset - which, for entertainment's sake I'm going to - we see a culture that is not only scared of defending itself, but has actually set up their legal system such that the burglars are better protected than homeowners. If this isn't an anti-civilization mentality, I don't know what is. In many states in the US (especially the South and Midwest/Mountain states) if someone breaks into your home, most of the time you can kill them. Heck, in certain Mountain states, even mere trespassing is grounds for justifiable homicide.
But in Europe? No, not really. You've got to be sure to not give the burglar any problems and hand over your valuables right quick, and please, please don't provoke the poor, terrified criminal into doing something he hadn't planned on doing, like using the weapon he's brought with him. No, don't do that, whatever you do. And don't even think about trying to defend your life, family, and property by going after him, because then you'll really be in trouble. Like Tony Martin, who went to jail for three years after shooting the teenaged burglars who broke into his isolated farmhouse. But don't worry. We've got excellent psychological care set up to help victims deal with the blow to their self-esteem.
I think the foreign policy applications of this mentality are obvious to the point that I don't even need to spell them out.
