ZGram - 1/7/2002 - "Sobran: Hail, Switzerland!"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

Copyright Ingrid A. Rimland

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

January 7, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

=46or once on the lighter side in these dolorous times ...

[START]

Hail, Switzerland!

 Whenever I  hear someone brag that America is "the greatest country on
earth," I want to ask, "Have you ever been to Switzerland?"

Well, I have. I spent a whole week there once.  Very dull. No war, no
international crisis, no crime, none of the things that give  life its
savor for red-blooded people like us. Nobody even knew who the president
of the country was. The Swiss have never even had a great president. Their
national hero is still that guy with the crossbow. Their national pastime
is  yodeling.

I don't intend the blasphemous  suggestion that Switzerland is the Greatest
Country on Earth, but it has a fair claim to be the sanest. It has had less
history over the last thousand years than  most African countries have had
in the last generation. You know the old Chinese  curse: "May you live in
interesting times." The Swiss have no memory  of interesting times. They
have a proud history of not making history.

Switzerland sat out two world wars, for  which it is resented by the sort
of people who think war is a duty. The Swiss seem  to feel that the rest of
the world can enjoy mutual slaughter perfectly well  without them. They
have never joined the United Nations, NATO, or the European  Union. They
are content to hunker down within their sheltering Alps, while  Americans
will cross two oceans, simultaneously if necessary, to get into a good
war. Nor do they have troops, battleships, submarines, and military bases
around  the world. And no nukes.

In short, the Swiss are what all right-thinking  people have learned to
call "isolationists." They have stubbornly  maintained their independence.
As a result, an awful lot of Swiss didn't die  violent deaths in the
twentieth century.

Oh, by the way, the Swiss aren't  afflicted by terrorism. Osama bin Laden
has probably never heard of Switzerland,  unless he stashes his money
there. It may not be the Greatest Country on Earth, but  nobody calls it
the Great Satan, either.

Not that the Swiss aren't ready to  defend themselves. The men are required
by law to serve in the militia and to keep  firearms in their homes. But
when they say "defense," they mean  defense - not empire, not New World
Order, not "global  leadership."

They have a federal system of government, and  in Switzerland federal
still, oddly enough, means decentralized.  Each  canton treasures its
independence. The national president has little power, little  opportunity
to achieve "greatness." The Swiss franc is one of the  world's most stable
currencies. Swiss banks are the world's most  secure vaults.

Naturally, a country like that, free, peaceful,  and prosperous, isn't
going to be left alone. A few years ago there was an  outcry against
Switzerland as a repository of "Nazi gold," which  turned out to be a scam,
an attempt to blackmail the Swiss. They were given a  choice between
coughing up billions or facing international opprobrium and  sanctions. It
later transpired that the Nazi gold was mythical, the accusations a
cynical smear campaign.

Independence is always hated by centralizers  and internationalists. The
papacy is hated because the Pope, unlike politicians and  journalists,
can't be bought or bullied. Switzerland is hated because it  remains aloof
from the "international community." I'd offer  other shining examples of
resistance to the pressures of internationalism, if I  could think of any.

Switzerland has enjoyed the kind of history  Americans once hoped for. But
while America has been drawn back into the  quarrels of the Old World its
people had hoped to escape, Switzerland has in effect  managed to secede
from that world's strife without leaving the continent.  If you want
excitement in Switzerland, you just have to roll your own; the state  won't
provide it for you. You can sum it up by saying Switzerland is a  country
that has lost more lives in skiing accidents than in war.

The story of Switzerland is the greatest  political success story of the
modern world, yet we never hear about it. Why not?  Because it puts all
other states to shame. Most rulers want to Americanize their  countries;
but if they really cared about their people's welfare -  lives, liberty,
property, and all that =97-they would try to Swissify. It's  a sign of the
times that I am forced to coin this indispensable verb.

(Joseph Sobran, December 13, 2001(George Herbert)
r for every thi

[End]

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=0B
Thought for the Day:

"Go not for every grief to the physician, nor for every quarrel to the
lawyer, nor for every thirst to the pot."

(George Herbert)