A French Cultural Lens Turned on the US

Picture taken from "Le Monde"

From the French perspective, “Americans are reckless optimists, incurably blind to the tragedy of life, to the weary convolutions of history and thus to the need for lengthy August vacations and financial regulations.” So reads “The New York Time’s” “Memo from Paris” from earlier this week.

This article, titled “Gazing at America, the French Still See a Wild Frontier,” gives an interesting and funny counterpoint to an American point of view. We Americans all know how to pick out the French: they are the well dressed snobs, smoking away in the corner of the world party as they philosophize about the grandeur of their (lost?) Culture.

Seeing ourselves from their eyes is more difficult. This “Memo from Paris” helps Americans turn the cultural lens on ourselves. We thought we were hardworking, practical, honest and energetic. But we emerge from French scrutiny looking like boorish, over confident and under knowledgeable upstarts from the backwoods. Add our perceived ignorance and our superficial capitalism, and the French aren’t surprised by the current economic crisis in the US. Hey, it might even teach us a lesson.

The “Memo from Paris” also illustrates the French interest in US elections. Let’s not confuse this with an affection for the good 'ol US of A and especially not our government. There isn’t any. But that being said, news about the US is constantly playing on the radio, printed in the newspapers and sprinkled in French conversations. The French know what is going on in the US, though news is inevitably written from a French point of view.

As the representative American, I am constantly asked the question, “Who will it be, McCain or Obama?” Often my interlocutor has two things to say after I posit the response that I think it will be Obama. First, Obama will not be elected, the US is too racist. Second, it is a shame that Obama won’t be elected. He would have been a good president. I have not spoken with a single French person that is excited about "McCain the maverick."

French pessimism for Obama’s possible ascension to the presidency shows a little something about French optimism. Don’t they know that one of the Obama themes is “Hope”? It also helps show how influenced people are by their culture. The cultural lens through which we understand the world is large and strong, and most people have a hard time seeing without it.