America doesn’t only own the European soil on which it stations US troops. It doesn’t only own the infrastructure on which Europe bases its daily economic activity. It also owns the European mind, through 75 years of cultural imperialism that has made Europeans feel that they are somehow part of America - or at least on the outer colonial fringes of an American empire. Every day, Europeans watch America on their TVs, listen to America on their radios and follow American news and culture on their phones.
A child’s whole world revolves around the care that a parent provides. This is why children who suffer physical abuse from a parent feel helpless and stay quiet - they’re afraid to disrupt the world the parent has built, the world on which they rely. And so the child convinces himself that the parent doesn’t really mean it, that they will calm down. Perhaps the child convinces himself that he deserves the abuse. His mind makes mental contortions to excuse it. He and his siblings tiptoe around the parent, desperately trying not to upset daddy. They work together to try to keep him happy, to avoid upsetting him and suffering a beating.
