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> Deep down, we're an annoyingly arrogant little country with delusions of grandeur ... The problem is France used to be the world's superpower, with an econom

> Deep down, we're an annoyingly arrogant little country with delusions of grandeur ... The problem is France used to be the world's superpower, with an economy bigger than the one of the UK. Literally number one. Then the monarchy fell and all it took was a mere 15 years for that little arrogant man that Napoleon was to get its arse (and France's arse) handed to him in Waterloo in 1815. 15 years to throw away centuries of greatness: what an amazing success the revolutionaries managed to pull. They fucked up so bad they realized it and tried to, peacefully, re-instate monarchy, but it was too late. Charles X was king of France after the Waterloo SNAFU (1824 to 1830) but it was too late to fix things. It's nice and all, on paper, to want no king. But France is considered to have lost, forever, its place as the world's n 1 superpower when Napoleon lost in Waterloo. I'm not saying monarchy is better: what I'm saying is that the french revolution coincides with France losing its status as the world's 1st super power. And France has been arrogant ever since but it went from 2nd to 3rd to 4th to 5th to 6th to now 7th place. It's a never ending fall. With the biggest public deficit and the biggest public debt in the entire EU, and the level of primary education going down the drain (university is still doing OK), I fear it's only ever more pain ahead for France. The country is literally crumbling left and right and communists, siding with islamists (the party of Melenchon are downright commies, who understood that if they were cozy with islamists, they'd get a chance a winning the elections), are planning to destroy the little that's left of France's past grandeur. If you think those in charge now are negative towards their own country, you haven't seen anything should either the communists (Melenchon) or the national-socialists (Le Pen / Bardella: which are for a national preference with a deeply socialist program) win the next elections. Besides an aching aircraft carrier France still has the atom bomb and that's it. No more money. No more education. France is toast. P.S: the biggest success, from their leftist point of view, of french intellectuals is managing to present national-socialists as "far right" (as if they were fascists)

nolok 28d ago
I have no idea what's your point but I have to say I find "The country is [...] siding with islamists" when we were literally the only country willing to defend the freedom to speech and caricature religion a couple years ago against islamism, with Quebec the outlier that sided with us (even though Canada did not). Overall: I don't think any country should be on top. I'm glad France is not number one, and I hope it remains strong but never get in that position again. Part of why I love the EU is that no one, not even us or germany, is strong enough to fully impose its will without concession. Some would disagree with that, but they clearly don't know their history. So ... I'm not sure what your point is, but I think I disagree with it.
- spiderfarmer 28d ago
  People who think everything is a zero sum game are mathematically destined to lose. Trump is finding that out in record time.
  - ben_w 27d ago
    > Trump is finding that out in record time. Given his age, I think any record would be in slowness, not quickness.
tsimionescu 28d ago
> P.S: the biggest success, from their leftist point of view, of french intellectuals is managing to present national-socialists as "far right" (as if they were fascists) I wander how "national-socialist" sounds in other European languages, and whether it might have some history of referring to fascist movements. Say, what would the Germans call someone like that? Nationalsozialistische? I don't remember if there is any history about someone who called themselves that being a fascist...
- usrusr 27d ago
  Yeah, "when have national-socialists ever been fascist!" is all I read in GP's post after I got to that part. It's just a brain crash for me (I'm German)
dadoum 27d ago
I think it's ridiculous to write that much without realizing the most obvious thing that happened, that France had its birth rate drop first and very quickly, meaning that they lost their demographic advantage against the rest of Europe.
teiferer 27d ago
> 15 years to throw away centuries of greatness Great for whom, exactly?
computerdork 27d ago
Am no expert at French history, but this feels like cherry-picking to me of what happened to France. From what I read, one of the biggest reasons (besides the defeat at Waterloo) for the downfall of France to Britain was that in the 1700’s, France had wild speculation in the colonies in the Americas, specifically, in the Mississippi Company. When the bubble started collapsing, the Prime Minister at the time (John Law), put a lot of the French treasury into trying to support that bubble, but it collapsed anyway. Now the French government was relatively cash poor, which eventually led to losing a lot of its colonies to Britain, a great deal of unrest in France and the French Revolution. And I am no history expert, so am unsure of this myself, but in my humble opinion, the idea that monarchy is why France lost its place in the world doesn’t seem like a major factor.

nolok 28d ago

I have no idea what's your point but I have to say I find "The country is [...] siding with islamists" when we were literally the only country willing to defend the freedom to speech and caricature religion a couple years ago against islamism, with Quebec the outlier that sided with us (even though Canada did not). Overall: I don't think any country should be on top. I'm glad France is not number one, and I hope it remains strong but never get in that position again. Part of why I love the EU is that no one, not even us or germany, is strong enough to fully impose its will without concession. Some would disagree with that, but they clearly don't know their history. So ... I'm not sure what your point is, but I think I disagree with it.

spiderfarmer 28d ago
People who think everything is a zero sum game are mathematically destined to lose. Trump is finding that out in record time.
- ben_w 27d ago
  > Trump is finding that out in record time. Given his age, I think any record would be in slowness, not quickness.

tsimionescu 28d ago

> P.S: the biggest success, from their leftist point of view, of french intellectuals is managing to present national-socialists as "far right" (as if they were fascists) I wander how "national-socialist" sounds in other European languages, and whether it might have some history of referring to fascist movements. Say, what would the Germans call someone like that? Nationalsozialistische? I don't remember if there is any history about someone who called themselves that being a fascist...

usrusr 27d ago
Yeah, "when have national-socialists ever been fascist!" is all I read in GP's post after I got to that part. It's just a brain crash for me (I'm German)

dadoum 27d ago

I think it's ridiculous to write that much without realizing the most obvious thing that happened, that France had its birth rate drop first and very quickly, meaning that they lost their demographic advantage against the rest of Europe.

teiferer 27d ago

> 15 years to throw away centuries of greatness Great for whom, exactly?

computerdork 27d ago

Am no expert at French history, but this feels like cherry-picking to me of what happened to France. From what I read, one of the biggest reasons (besides the defeat at Waterloo) for the downfall of France to Britain was that in the 1700’s, France had wild speculation in the colonies in the Americas, specifically, in the Mississippi Company. When the bubble started collapsing, the Prime Minister at the time (John Law), put a lot of the French treasury into trying to support that bubble, but it collapsed anyway. Now the French government was relatively cash poor, which eventually led to losing a lot of its colonies to Britain, a great deal of unrest in France and the French Revolution. And I am no history expert, so am unsure of this myself, but in my humble opinion, the idea that monarchy is why France lost its place in the world doesn’t seem like a major factor.