I would have thought that only those buying into mass media bullshit still believed that France was a lazy country filled with people lacking élan.
Not bright, well-informed bloggers like us, always in the forefront when it comes to prime info. ;)

When through hell, just keep going. W. Churchill

I haven't been around Eurotrib long, but you always dig up interesting stuff.  It is very difficult to change conventional wisdom, it is also hard to get business folks--supposedly professionals--to take a global perspective on costs.  The American/Friedmanesque model obviously prioritizes the bottom line and encourages companies to shed responsibility and weight.  It's the Nike model.  Outsource and you will be more profitable, less prone to risk, and you can focus on branding.  Branding, marketing, and transforming companies into financial leverage machines, not "companies."  Indeed, I wonder why we call them "companies" and "sociétés" since many of these entities don't seem to resemble human forms anymore.  That just reminds why so many of the financial types are so disconnected from reality.  Anyway, the inability to look beyond the idées reçues is not surprising since companies, despite what their marketing says, don't encourage individualism.

That was pretty unclear.  Oh, well.

Heh.

And Germany is the export world champion despite a cost disadvantage. That tells you something...

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

I think you have to see these things in context.

It's not about the facts. In fact it's never about the facts. It's about the Grand Narrative - We own the world, and the bits of it we don't own we should own - and various rationalisations and misdirections that hang off that. The point for me is that this position is the foundation of everything else, but it's never mentioned explicitly, which makes it hard to attack directly. So it will remain a Grand narrative until its own assumptions are challenged and pulled apart.

I have no idea whether or not the people who buy the FT actually take their own propaganda seriously. But although debunking the spin is a good start it's a defensive position not an aggressive one. I suspect one way to make some inroads is to create a conflicting Grand Narrative and sell that to people as an alternative.

This is what the unions and the old left used to do. And for all their faults the approach actually had a strong positive effect in keeping the neo-feudalists in check. It's probably time for a fresher narrative though. (And in the meantime the debunking remains very useful.)

my partner is german, from the rhineland, near dusseldorf, and i have had the pleasure of scrutinising qualities of german consciousness up close for the last fourteen years.

my girl is as tough as they come, and the way her old audi battles on almost indestructibly over the appalling country roads here is a great metaphor for 'germanity' itself.

there is a neitsche-an 'power of the will' in her that could kill her young if it is not constantly modulated; luckily italy is a near-perfect foil for this!

travelling and staying in germany, i was often struck by the high level of social cohesion and solidarity, translating into respectful, careful, moderate driving habits, (except for on the autobahn!) such as signalling intentions early, maintaining high awareness of others, and obedience to the laws.

there is a tendency to hone in on the serious (even grim sides) of life, and sometimes goofyness and silly fun is felt as inappropriate, though when induced leads to a lovely merriment, the lovelier for the contrast.

only switzerland is more conventional than germany, of the european countries i know.

if you cross a traffic-free street with the pedestrian light red, you will probably be the only one in germany, but you won't get frowns quite so censorious as in switzerland!

personally i find this obedience creates an 'atmosphere' which for an anglo-italian seems a tad heavy, but the germans like it that way, though most are secretly dreaming of living in a sunny-climed villa, where the general vibe is a bit lighter and less 'responsible', and people do silly things like smile for no reason.

the pollution is intense around the industrial north, so much so that one can be on a deserted highway at 5 a.m. on a windless morning in the middle of farmland, and still smell thin diesel vapour as the dominant aroma.
i remember feeling sad that even a country raised-child might think that this is how natural air smelled.

the sky is milky white when it is not grey, and though the weather is much less fickle than england's, there is still the common factor that sunny days are relatively rare.

the constant changing of the weather in england is the reason why the brits use it more as conversation-piece, methinks.

in germany it's just 'there', a grey background to everything that leaves colours looking insipid, and probably has something to do with the high proportion of drab grey and beige shades of polyester attire favoured so much there.

characterially there is something undeniably monolithic to germany. the 'macht' is real and grounded, pragmatic and decidedly un-flighty.

there is a fundamental respect for 'healthy' practices, such as the 'spa-kultur', which has a long and dignified history in germany.

after seeing the bread choices in the bakeries, it all became clear to me....the germans are Wholegrain Freaks, the seed quotient is sky-high, poppy, sunflower, flax, you name it, they weave it into their daily diets.

one day science will perhaps fully understand the relationships and correlations between nations' diets and their destinies...

my theory is that the lecithin and vitamin E content of the germans' diets through the centuries is the direct cause of why the royal families have dipped into the german gene pool for yonks when they wanted to beef up their degenerating monarchies and aristocracies.

blindingly clear, huh!

interesting factoid: real estate agents have told me that when germans buy land here in italy, their first condition is that they can't see any other germans in their view!

when i ask my sweetie why the greens are so much stronger in germany, she says it's because the pollution is so extreme.

yin, meet yang!

loyalty is a beautiful human quality, and it is very strong in the german soul, as is respect for the intellect and highbrow culture.

lowbrow does great there too!

germanity, blended in with other european qualities, adds depth, soul and concentration to all mixes, though sipped at source is a bit too focussed on strength, and perhaps lacking in easy humour or sparkling repartee.

the harder i try to give up unconscious racism, the more obvious and interesting i find national and cultural differences! maybe because as we 'globalise' our national identities blur, and i'll kinda miss them!

the whole first year of our relationship, i had to confront how much i had been brainwashed to demean germans, through all the war flicks i had watched growing up in england.

and those audis are like tanks...

If'Madness is the absence of work'(Foucault), then Sanity is the presence of play..