French Bashing versus Gallic Pride

French Bashing versus Gallic Pride

The stories involving bashing and trashing the French being circulated on the Net with the stupid, trite heading "You could hear the pin drop" underlie an interesting relationship between the Americans and the French. The following ad hoc observations are personal and hence very subjective and can be way off the mark. They are not drawn from any large-scale, in-depth survey. "Proofs" for the observations are not going to furnished. However, the observations are based on some verifiable facts, not on fantasies or historical ignorance.

An average American (read: mediocre high school or college graduate who is not much into serious reading) thinks the French are stuck-up froggies who are only good at cuisine, wine making, perfume concoction, and boring movies in which the characters do nothing but bare their bodies and talk, not necessarily in that order. In addition, he thinks that the French were and probably still are lousy warriors on account that the Americans had to rescue the French in WWI, WWII, and gave them a lot of logistical aid during the First Indochina War and the bastards still could not win against underfed, ragtag Vietminh soldiers.

An average Frenchman (read: a lycée graduate whose level of knowledge equals, if not surpasses, that an American college graduate) thinks without the French aid, the Americans would have had a much harder time to obtain independence from the British. He further holds onto an opinion that in helping the French during the two world wars in the first half of the 20th century, the Americans also helped themselves, thus, the Americans were not entirely altruistic as they claimed. Therefore, the stories such as those in circulation alleging the French ingratitude inflame further the French resentment of their diminishing influence in world stage and grievously aggravates the wounded Gallic pride.

The Napoleonic Wars briefly glorified France but marked the beginning of a slow decline of France as a world power while consolidating Britain as a premier world power. In the 19th century the expanding French Empire masked France's weakness. The French language was no longer predominantly spoken in some royal European courts as it was in the 18th century. English was on its away to supplant French as an international language, a lingua franca among the educated. France was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) . The 20th century witnessed the defeats of France by the Germans twice (the second time after merely 6 weeks of combat), by the Vietnamese, and by the Algerians. Soon the French found themselves, like the British, bereft of an empire except for a few territories like Martinique in the Caribbean and some islands in South Pacific. But unlike the British who were more adept in fostering some genuine common identity (British Commonwealth) among its former colonies, the French failed to establish a similar consciousness even though they have something called La Francophonie, a biannual summit of 77 French-speaking states and governments.

Though the French lament the slow decline of their language in international arena (few people bother to learn French nowadays except in some of their former colonies and their neighbors--the Germans, the Spaniards, and the Italians. The ambitious are learning English, Chinese, Arabic, and Spanish), there's one area where the Gallic pride remains intact: intellectual sphere. Despite having a population of a mere 65 million inhabitants, the French---through an educational system which emphasizes essay-writing, early specialization, and study of philosophy in high school--- have produced a disproportionate high number of world class thinkers, more numerous than those countries whose populations are much bigger. In the United States, Yale University has a strong French Department where French thought usually finds its first acceptance.

Wissai
February 26, 2013