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Maybe this is the case in the US, but it's not so for the West as a whole, viz.: the hands-off French approach: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020

by reedlaw 13y ago

Maybe this is the case in the US, but it's not so for the West as a whole, viz.: the hands-off French approach: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204740904577196931457473816.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020474090457719...

paganel 13y ago
There's also something to be said about American suburbia and everything being so sparse. Until a kid is 16 and she can get a driver's license at least one of the parents has to be on call to drive her on/off to school, on/off to other kids' parties etc. That can consume a lot of time.
Dewie 13y ago
> Rest assured, I certainly don't suffer from a pro-France bias. Au contraire, I'm not even sure that I like living here. I certainly don't want my kids growing up to become sniffy Parisians. It's hilarious that she included a paragraph solely to excuse herself for complimenting a certain aspect of the French lifestyle, presumably in order to appease the (imaginary or not) anti-France streak in the American consciousness.
- pm90 13y ago
  Off topic, but:I have seen this anti-French attitude a lot (in most cases, jokingly). What is the reason for the American dislike for the French? One Frenchman I talked to said that its because France does not always support US Foreign policy....is that really the case?
  - acheron 13y ago
    As you said, it's mostly a joke, usually exaggerated for comic effect. Even calling it "anti-French" may be too much; it's just playing off a stereotype of French people as snobby and overly "sophisticated" (in a slightly derogatory way). I don't want to link it to working class/upper class or rural/urban or whatever, since those aren't really right, but perhaps a vaguely similar impulse. Trying to tie it to "foreign policy" or something is thinking about it much too hard.
    - toyg 13y ago
      That stereotype exists because, right before US elites started formalizing their own cultural scenario (before F.S. Fitzgerald, to give a rough idea), French culture was one of their main models, if not THE model. On the other side, French elites invested a lot in the American Revolution and were quite disappointed with the outcomes (a society characterized by freedom but also rough and greedy, which eventually chose The Anglo Way in most matters and stole their thunder as Beacon of Civilization). Ever since, both sides were locked in a constant and intense debate in a way that very few other countries experienced. It's funng because both French and US mainstream cultures agree on very fundamental matters (the need for a secular State, the power of technological progress, the importance of cinema and popular culture, down to comicbooks) but express them in completely opposite ways in practice.
  - toyg 13y ago
    There's a very complicated history of mutual love and disappointment between France and the US, stretching all the way from before the American Revolution.

by reedlaw 13y ago

paganel 13y ago

There's also something to be said about American suburbia and everything being so sparse. Until a kid is 16 and she can get a driver's license at least one of the parents has to be on call to drive her on/off to school, on/off to other kids' parties etc. That can consume a lot of time.

Dewie 13y ago

> Rest assured, I certainly don't suffer from a pro-France bias. Au contraire, I'm not even sure that I like living here. I certainly don't want my kids growing up to become sniffy Parisians. It's hilarious that she included a paragraph solely to excuse herself for complimenting a certain aspect of the French lifestyle, presumably in order to appease the (imaginary or not) anti-France streak in the American consciousness.

pm90 13y ago
Off topic, but:I have seen this anti-French attitude a lot (in most cases, jokingly). What is the reason for the American dislike for the French? One Frenchman I talked to said that its because France does not always support US Foreign policy....is that really the case?
- acheron 13y ago
  As you said, it's mostly a joke, usually exaggerated for comic effect. Even calling it "anti-French" may be too much; it's just playing off a stereotype of French people as snobby and overly "sophisticated" (in a slightly derogatory way). I don't want to link it to working class/upper class or rural/urban or whatever, since those aren't really right, but perhaps a vaguely similar impulse. Trying to tie it to "foreign policy" or something is thinking about it much too hard.
  - toyg 13y ago
    That stereotype exists because, right before US elites started formalizing their own cultural scenario (before F.S. Fitzgerald, to give a rough idea), French culture was one of their main models, if not THE model. On the other side, French elites invested a lot in the American Revolution and were quite disappointed with the outcomes (a society characterized by freedom but also rough and greedy, which eventually chose The Anglo Way in most matters and stole their thunder as Beacon of Civilization). Ever since, both sides were locked in a constant and intense debate in a way that very few other countries experienced. It's funng because both French and US mainstream cultures agree on very fundamental matters (the need for a secular State, the power of technological progress, the importance of cinema and popular culture, down to comicbooks) but express them in completely opposite ways in practice.
- toyg 13y ago
  There's a very complicated history of mutual love and disappointment between France and the US, stretching all the way from before the American Revolution.