France! Land of … numbing depression?
Jimmy Carter, can you translate your malaise speech* into French? The Scotsman reports:
IT IS official: the French are a nation of depressed pessimists, wracked with self-doubt and unable to see a positive future.
This gloomy portrait of the current state of Gallic morale – or rather the lack of it – was made public yesterday in a damning report by France’s prefects, the country’s top administrators.
“The French no longer believe in anything,” the report said. “That is the reason that the situation is relatively calm, for they believe that it is not even worthwhile expressing their opinions or trying to be heard any more.”
If only.
The report in part blames “the absence of clear perspectives.” Damn that Jacques Derrida!
Also “doubts about identity” and a lack of “collective projects” — should the Bundeswehr launch an invasion for old times sake?
Oh, and the “employment crisis” has something to do with it.
(original link from Tim Blair’s weblog)
* yes, I know the word “malaise” never appeared in it … but everyone thinks it did.
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July 30th, 2005 at 1:36 am
[...] udy, respectively). And we noted earlier this year that an official French government poll found “a nation of depressed pessimists.” So if the French are ha [...]