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| Europe |
| Adieu France, 'allo land of the free |
| 2006-10-05 |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #8 Better, he says, that America topples dictators than props them up. We complain whatever America does, and we complain loudest when America does nothing. [Here I break for an emphasis that the writer himself missed.] And while Europeans sneer at President George Bush’s dumbness, many neocons have a grasp of ancient philosophy that would shame our politicians. “I believe,” he declares, “in the principles of the French revolution and human rights.” [The continuation brings in the critical point, going back to it being better that America act than that it stay uninvolved.] And these are based on Kant’s insistence that there is a morality; that some acts, like Saddam Hussein’s genocide, are evil. And if you really object, morality compels you to intervene. So why has France been quite so vitriolic about America? “France and Germany,” he corrects in fluent English. “It has nothing to do with what America does and was long before Iraq. It is about the idea of America, Rousseau’s social contract, where you decide to join a society. Its people have no roots, no memory. This is seen as an insult to what a real community should be, which is about blood and the soil.” [Yep, Americans are Rousseauian idealists in action, whereas the heart of Europe is a bunch of old fogy blood'n'soil racists. No wonder they hate us.] it hardly explains the rabid anti-Americanism of the trendy left. “Ah, that is due to relativism. Left and right meet on foreign policy.” Both extremes agree, argues BHL, that the West should not intervene in the Third World: the right because it sees anyone brown-skinned as a savage who wouldn’t understand democracy, the left as it dare not impose systems on nice brown people for fear of being branded “imperialist”. [Ah, our old friend, the idea that the opposite of both right and left is the reasonable center.] But if he thinks America will remain dominant for years, what is the state of Europe? “Not so healthy,” he says, looking down. “There is a fear of the future and a sense of crisis.” As a federalist who wishes Europe would follow the “perfect American model” he despairs at Europe’s “chauvinism and nationalism”. BHL ruminates on the possibility of living in New York full-time “to escape provincialism”. And with that BHL sweeps off towards the Seine, painfully aware that it is America that holds all the cards. Lots of pins in this haystack, in my opinion. The medicine is sweetened with the kind of sugar superiour Englishmen and Frenchmen insist on, but there still is an awful lot of medicine. When the late Jean-Francois Revel, the renowned French journalist-philosopher went to an overtly pro-American stance unsugared by the kind of petty nonsense seen in this interview, he was ostracised and fired from his job, his message subsequently ignored by those who most needed to hear it. This Bernard-Henri Lévy will not risk. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-10-05 20:48 |
| #7 --“I believe,” he declares, “in the principles of the French revolution and human rights.”-- And what Republic are you on again??? 5th??????????? |
| Posted by: anonymous2u 2006-10-05 19:14 |
| #6 He was clearly disgusted by the senior Machiavellian Bushite who told him privately that the notorious WMD claim was a “necessary lie”. I didn't get any further. That said all I needed to know. I suppose overall this is a good thing. If the French are defined by their hatred to America, perhaps this vain celebrity will grant them some freedom from their restraints. This article makes me wonder if that vaunted Euro street is indeed beginning to wake up and smell the expresso. |
| Posted by: anon 2006-10-05 17:04 |
| #5 A5089 doesn't like him because even his compliments are condescending. |
| Posted by: DoDo 2006-10-05 13:37 |
| #4 "a warm soppy tongue-bath" Next time.... I'm enlisting in the USAF !!!!!! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-10-05 13:26 |
| #3 I read the exerpts in Atlantic... de Tocqueville he ain't. He practically gave John Kerry a warm soppy tongue-bath because he speaks French for god's sakes. Couldn't figure out why all us peons weren't voting for the traitorous b*****d, when JFK II was so charming and erudite. If BHL couldn't figure out that, then I don't give him much credit as an observer of the American scene. But it's nice not to be totally slimed by a French intellectual superstar. It has the charm of the unexpected. |
| Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2006-10-05 13:20 |
| #2 Seems like a pretty bright guy to me, A5089. What did I miss? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2006-10-05 13:03 |
| #1 Ugh, BHL, barf.... |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-10-05 12:36 |