These diaries are designed to show the UK on the verge of collapse, anti-European and inferior to the rest of Europe. "They are trying to rouse the sleeping economies of Europe with their vile Anglo-Saxon economic solutions." This is endlessly repeated because it plays to the meme that anyone who supports America, even when it was Clinton, is undermining Europe. Much of the information is extracted from quality UK newspapers and journals with their excellent analysis and who are quite prepared to be critical of UK policy - especially that of the liberal left (the Financial Times and the Economist are like the Wall Street Journal in terms of politics) It is then overlaid with comments like this diary that the analysis is saying, "Stoopid foreigners... Evil, evil evil." It doesn't, but why spoil a good story. Few of these diaries look at the critical self-analysis of France in Le Monde and other French papers, nor this type of analysis in the Financial Times. It all goes back to de Gaulle and his feelings of inferiority at the end of the World War 2 - or perhaps even to Agincourt :) These diaries get highly recommended because people enjoy the UK bashing - teach 'em right for having allied itself to the States. In the Autumn, the gas crisis was going to bring UK industry and its economy to a halt. It never did. But, again, why spoil a good story.
Much of the information is extracted from quality UK newspapers and journals with their excellent analysis and who are quite prepared to be critical of UK policy - especially that of the liberal left (the Financial Times and the Economist are like the Wall Street Journal in terms of politics) It is then overlaid with comments like this diary that the analysis is saying, "Stoopid foreigners... Evil, evil evil." It doesn't, but why spoil a good story.
Few of these diaries look at the critical self-analysis of France in Le Monde and other French papers, nor this type of analysis in the Financial Times.
It all goes back to de Gaulle and his feelings of inferiority at the end of the World War 2 - or perhaps even to Agincourt :)
These diaries get highly recommended because people enjoy the UK bashing - teach 'em right for having allied itself to the States. In the Autumn, the gas crisis was going to bring UK industry and its economy to a halt. It never did. But, again, why spoil a good story.
However, Welshman does claim the comment is tongue-in-cheek, in good humour, wink wink etc.
It's going be nice, though, when he writes something really funny to disguise the underlying resentment.
it's just mindless UK bashing once again:
In fact, these threads never read that way. Money is a sign of Poverty - Culture Saying
That's like trying to piss off Nomad by calling him a Netherlander. guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
"productive" threads.
Not something we need to worry about then?
Well, I thought he is trying to piss me off as an apatriot... *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
These deconstruction exercises are first and foremost about an ideology that I think is fair to say most of us here on ET are fighting. But the fact remains that this ideology has been pushed by the right in the US and the UK, and has entered the mainstream of these two countries as "common wisdom", and there is an element of national superiority in pushing that ideology, especially against the designated opponent, the French (or alternatively the "Rhenan" countries), the country(ies) which (used to) have the most coherent competing economic model.
It is Wall St and the City against Bercy (the French Ministry of economy and industry), and it is London and Washington against Paris and Berlin - even if by all means not all English agree and not all French disagree with those we've been calling the freemarketistas.
So yes, I react as a Frenchman who sees his country mocked and brought down on a daily basis in the name of a dangerous ideology, and that plays a role. But please also admit that that ideological assault also has a real anti-continental bent, as exemplified by Thatcher's famous quote:
This century, all the problems of the world have come from the continent and all the solutions from the English-speaking world.
It's up to us to manage this tension between the ideological fight and the national rivalry. You are right to flag what you see as abusive generalisations or attacks from me, but please don't forget the context. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
