Being European

"Hey, this is Europe. We took it from nobody; we won it from the bare soil that the ice left. The bones of our ancestors, and the stones of their works, are everywhere. Our liberties were won in wars and revolutions so terrible that we do not fear our governors: they fear us. Our children giggle and eat ice-cream in the palaces of past rulers. We snap our fingers at kings. We laugh at popes. When we have built up tyrants, we have brought them down. And we have nuclear - fucking - weapons." (Ken Macleod)

(That last sentence is a self-consciously ironic reference to a Denis Leary gag, and the quote needs to be understood in the context of your common or garden transatlantic flame war, albeit on usenet and involving renowned writers of science fiction.)

I like this quote. I like it in part because I shouldn't. It's very un-European to exhibit this kind of pride, and I'm proud that we're not proud, if you see what I mean.

The shot is of M larking about in the ruins of Selinunte.

Details: Minolta Dynax 5, 50mm, exposure not recorded. Selinunte, Sicily, May 2004. Placemark.