| How to properly dislike the French ;) [message #14823] |
Wed, 16 April 2003 12:49  |
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Blazer
Messages: 3322
Registered: February 2003
Location: Phoenix, AZ
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General (3 Stars)
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This is bound to piss of some French people, ironically probably NOT the ones that deserve disliking.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/1864188
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We must begin by making it clear that when we say we hate "the French," it does not mean we hate all French people. That would hardly be possible. We haven't a harsh word for the French female (au contraire!) and only fond memories of the stout, pleasant folk of the French countryside who often treat us with kindness and generosity when we vacation among them.
We detest only a certain breed of French male, particularly the French male who lives in or near Paris and who realized, at a sickeningly young age, that the way to get ahead was inside the incestuous and corrupt French political system
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The American politician has made a solipsistic error: He assumes that his French counterpart wishes to be liked. He believes that the mere act of letting him know that he is disliked is enough to cow him into submission.
But the important French male does not wish to be liked. He does not wish even to be respected. He wishes to be noticed -- and in such a way that the people who do the noticing cannot help but also notice he is looking down on them.
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Who among us in America was not a tad shocked when a poll found that a third of French people surveyed were rooting for Saddam Hussein to win the war? Millions of Frenchmen, if the poll's sample was representative, appear to believe that it would be better for a murderous, unstable dictator to remain in power than for the coalition to achieve victory. What could explain such monstrous views?
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I was certainly shocked to discover that "we" were so hated by "the French". I never had any bad feelings towards France and assumed the feeling was mutual. Turns out they think Americans and Britains are dirty pigs 
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Americans have long suspected that they don't actually like the French, but it isn't until this war that those suspicions have been confirmed. Now they must learn how to express that dislike.
I have spent only a bit of time among the French and cannot offer the most expert advice. But I would say this: To wound an important French male with words, you must choose them carefully. Taking the French out of fries will do nothing but reaffirm his view that he is your natural superior.
Jed Babbin, a former U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense, spoke well when he said that "going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion." In a sentence he isolated and insulted the vanity of the powerful French male while at the same time conveying an admirable air of indifference toward him.
Those of us who cannot summon such wit would do better to remain silent, and pretend that the important French male does not exist. Otherwise we risk giving him exactly what he wants.
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