If you are curious as to what France is like…or at least what makes living here so different from the States…read these two articles together and step back to see the picture they’re painting…
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1606909,00.html?cnn=yes
Justin, thanks for sharing those articles. I have read American Vertigo and appreciate Henri-Levy’s perspective. It seems France has been caught up in a crisis. For one, they have been stuck in their cultural and historical expectations of the past. Where the U.S. (generally speaking) wants everyone to embrace democracy going forward, the French seem indignant towards the present and those cultures which no longer operate in the way the French think they should. Rather than move forward, France has been stuck in the past and the embodiment of that which they resent in their past is found in the U.S. Rather than face the issues of the way things have always been (their past), they choose to blame countries like the U.S. for the things they don’t like. Some of their concerns are legitimate. But I think that unwillingness to face the growing crises in their country is why they have so many problems right now.
France has long defended their position of a person’s right to a job. There is so much security in jobs that no new opportunities are created. Businesses are not willing to take chances and there is a culture of ’status quo’ in the workplace and perfectionism as the evaluation style for performance. Now they are faced with a Europe they never knew before. The EU has opened the doors for the French to leave as they have opportunities they never had before. And with the increasing unemployment problems created by their refusal to move forward, they are nearing a crisis. The present has caught up with them and their problems are staring them in the face as new opportunities move the rest of Europe ahead and leave France stuck in their past.
It also seems France, along with the rest of Europe, is facing a 1960s Civil Rights type issue that America faced. With the doors now open to almost every country, people can now leave their country in search of new opportunities while immigrants from the poorer African and Asian communities are coming in. For years, everyone was just French or just German or just Italian for the most part. And now the open doors of the EU have made France and other countries deal with real issues of discrimination and race for the first time.
As long as France stays stuck in their past the advancement and new dawn of Europe will just leave them farther and farther behind. With the growing problem of employment amoung young people, nwq opportunities abroad, and new immigrants from other nations coming in, France is at a crisis point in learning how to adjust with the new Europe they face today. It is time France finds a new identity for the 21st century. Thanks for sharing the articles.
Sorry about posting that twice.