Threat from the DPRK (North Korea)

[Kinser79]

(09-22-2017, 04:32 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:

(09-22-2017, 04:16 PM)Kinser79 Wrote:

Quote: We were tired and far away, so we left an armistice in place expecting it to resolve in time.  Time, in the eastern sense, is a much longer horizon than it is in the western sense.  So here we are.

Speaking from a philosophical standpoint I would agree.  In general Americans, Brits and Western Europeans have a short time-reference.  In general Westerners think of the next day, next quarter, year.  The Chinese, Japanese and Koreans see the world in large civilizational archs and are willing to take decades of pain for centuries of prosperity.

I'm not so sure that Brits and Europeans are like the US on this.  There's a saying that in Britain, 100 miles is a long distance, while in America, 100 years is a long time.  I think that's where the big split is on time scales - between the US and most of the rest of the world.

I've been to the UK and Western Europe extensively while I was in the fleet.  Europeans in general view 100 years to be a long time, while their references in distance is quite different than in the US.  In the case of the UK, the whole thing could be squashed into Alabama with room to spare, and Alabama is not a particularly big state.

I will agree that Americans are more likely to think in terms of quarters or years instead of decades as Europeans tend to do.