"The biggest difference between France and the US and UK remains the pursuit of sensual pleasure, a thing the "Anglo-Saxon business model" seems to have foolishly ignored. The US Constitution makes formalistic reference to the "pursuit of happiness" but it is the French nation that concentrates on pursuing pleasure and the savoring of it. They do not need to be reminded by their constitution that they have a right to do so.
The cultivation of pleasure, so exotic for us and so contrary to how we live in our ill-groomed, fast-food-fetishing, sexually incompetent, binge-drinking culture is why so many foreigners are seduced by France."
Stuart Jeffries
Guardian Weekly May 18th
France is the most civilised nation on Earth. This is maybe why it is the object of constant vilification by American and British journalists and opinion column writers. They just know that the French enjoy their lives, have their priorities right, and are terrified that if this caught on elsewhere, the whole edifice of capitalism as we Anglo-Saxons know it would be put into question. How we gonna keep them down on the farm now that they’ve seen Paree and what it offers? Just as well that only 7 million Americans have passports.
The nauseating attacks on the French over Iraq (surely even the most isolated voters can now see that they were right, the US government wrong), illustrates the panic that ensues as soon as the French use their common sense and summon up the courage to state the obvious.
In 1949, I , a ten year old English boy, asked for a bar of chocolate in a French tabac. The woman behind the counter threw the change at me shouting “Merde Anglais.” Well, we had recently destroyed her town and her livelihood and she thought it had been rather unnecessary, although it wasn’t really my fault. Yes, they can be exasperating and sometimes rude. But they have the answer to LIFE, as opposed to making a living.
I have only been to France once, and loved the country; It helped that my daughter could speak fluent french and was able to explain certain nuances, especially etiquette in ordering in restaurants; I didnt find the french people to be overly friendly, tho not as rude as our media would lead us to believe; it looked to me that the french treat everyone with the same indifference, including other french. I am afraid the french way of life will eventually be overtaken by the muslim hordes immigrating to that country and not assimilating into french culture; my daughter was in lyon, and said the tension between muslims and natives was incredible; I hope the french will stand up for their way of life; I fear, however, that that way of life is a recipe for disaster when encoutering people who truly believe it is ok to kill if one doesnt believe the way they do. I am sure the Brits and Yanks were not following Jesus’ command to turn the other cheek when fighting in WWII, but I sure am glad they chose that route.
Fortunately, not all Muslims feel that way. Most are perfectly decent, intelligent people who face a sort of civil war to decide what the Moslem religion is to look like in the future – – forward or backward-looking. I personally think we should stay well out of it and not interfere, invade, boss them around, be arrogant, overtly take sides, or infuriate them more than we already have. We should help the moderates and try to sideline the extremists as far as possible . Blair has done it in Northern Ireland (to his credit – there is little else to his credit!).
Recall, gentlemen, who brought la dolce vita to Gaul in the first place. Italy is the mother of the not-Anglo-Saxon lifestyle. Granted, the Romans were bloody brutes but (Mussolini excepted), their descendants tend to stay in their gorgeous towns and cities and not tromp armies across Europe a la Napoleon.