The French: Dangerous or Merely Useless?
Jody Bottum’s provocative First Things piece on France put me in mind of this old but timeless piece by the late Porterfield Higgins-Jones Jr.:
Why do we Anglo-Saxon nations, with our wise Moderation, reverence for the Rule of Law, and Protestant Work Ethic, pretend that these lazy, oversexed, violent hyenas are, like us, ‘fellow Westerners’? Why do we allow them to share the credit for our civilization’s unparalleled achievements?
Do not miss the rest.
(Please note that this post is meant in jest. I am a confessed Francophile.)
They are dangerous. We should have let the Germans keep France.Report
The surrender thing was a deliberate attempt to get the rest of the world to let its guard down.
We used to call them “Gauls”. The only reason they didn’t take over the world is because they realized they might not be able to wield their Ministry of Culture effectively thus allowing phrases like “weekend” to enter the language.
Now that they have the internet, we must not (I REPEAT *MUST* *NOT*) let our guard down.Report
I have a very proper anglo nurtured hatred of the french but alas they have us whipped around the block in the field of nuclear power so I can muster very little scorn to heap upon them. Still in the spirit of the post, a few French jokes:
Q: How many gears does a French tank have?
A: 4. 3 for reverse and 1 for forward in case the enemy attacks from behind.
Q: Why did the French plant trees along the Champs Elise?
A: So the Germans could march in the shade.Report
There’s always the classic:
“How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris?”
“Who knows! It’s never been tried.”Report
Hah! Well done sir!Report
For all that mocking, I think one of the greatest statesmen of the 20th century was Charles de Gaulle. Certainly he was in the end a far more influential and important figure to how Europe developed after the war than Churchill.Report