主题：【文摘】法国的太子党 -- 我爱莫扎特

the problem is that most Chinese do not have opportunity to live among them and understand the large cultural differences there.

As I said before, war between nations is the war between 精英 of those nations. It is a competition of industrial power, political solidarity, public administration, diplomatic alliance, economic resources--and most importantly, those are all managed by political/military/economic 精英.

公民权不仅仅是权利--should be changed to 贵族/精英 权 or title 不仅仅是权利

Some Chinese now become very rich and start to pretend to be 贵族. But they do not understand aristcracy means not womanizing, nights of lavish dinners, global fashion brands, and reckless sex, more importantly, it implies social responsibility. When your country faces military or economic challenges, you should be the front man to lead the charge and quite possibly, enjoy the first bullet!

What Tiger implies here is 尚武精神, which is in the blood of Anglo-Saxon elites/people. Saxons even defeated Roman Empire at Teutoburg forest and throughout the history, Roman empire did not dare to cross the Danube River (多瑙河).

当我看到《华氏911》中介绍美国议员子女参战情况时，我就知道这个国家的这届政府道德基础已经沦丧，政治上破产经济上崩溃是迟早的事。尽管有信息革命之功，艰难险阻就在眼前。

--Yes and no. Yes, because the honor code is fading in America.

WASP elites are just like their British counterparts. Those WASP east-coast families used to stick to this British tradition, that's why so many sons of senators/congressmen did lose their lives in WWII. But America changed its military recruiting policies after Vietnam war, now, military service is no longer mandatory like in the ancient Rome empire. People are no longer proud of military service. This country is slipping into Carthagian way: pay high prices to attract all kinds of trash to stuff the ranks of the army, more like a mercenary army now. The Iraq war made it even worse.

No, because《华氏911》quoted wrong figure: he covers only the 100 senators, not all the Congressmen. Sons of some Congressmen do serve in the army, navy or air force.

使得皇室和社会名流阶层不得不前赴后继地参战，否则就有亡国之危。远的比如阿金库尔战役中战死的约克公爵。近的如两次大战，英国贵族的参战率和死亡率都是普通国民的10倍。再如马岛之战，

--Yes. Thumbs up. I know that too. That's why I respect the british aristcrats more than the French ones.

这个岛上的绅士淑女战士将军流氓土匪酒鬼赌徒们，就是穷到了只有一条裤子，也是中国争霸世界的劲敌。

--hehe, 酒鬼赌徒们 should be excluded. Agree with your comments! Chinese just rich up in the last 20 years and still underestimate their competitors.

Britons(esp., the English, not including Irishmen or Scots) defeated Portugese, Spaniards, Dutchmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Chinese, many small Asian nations in the last 300 years. Britons won the North American continent though they were repeatedly defeated by the French in the 7-years war.

Their allies include most commonwealth nations, their Austrlian, American and Canadian cousins, all Nordic nations (yes! go and learn the industrialization history), Benelux friends(created by British diplomats, Belgian king was from England), India, Hong Kong...

Japan was its student, Germany share the common Saxon link with it and was actually sponsored by England before 1870s.

A small island nation that maintained a global empire for more than 200 years--if one nation underestimate such a nation with contempt, then history will give this nation a harsh lesson.

Last comment: UK's only challenge now is its large gov. debt and shabby financial system. But in terms of national defense, it is more than strong enough to compel any military challenge.

hehe, btw, google search on Shan Wu Jing Shen

尚武精神_互动百科

难以想象日不落的海上贸易如果缺少了军事力量的支撑那会是怎么样的；难以想象经济、科技实力雄厚的大宋王朝如果拥有了一种坚定的尚武精神那历史又将如何。 ...