NECESSARY LOATHINGS

French ill will goes way back (ISAAC SHAPIRO, May 4, 2003 , NY Daily News)

As the 18th century drew to a close, France and America even found themselves in armed conflict, the so-called Undeclared War, brought on by America's revulsion to the excesses of the French Revolution and France's outrage over America's secret alliance with Great Britain. [...]

Since the end of the Cold War, France's anti-Americanism has had a contradictory and hypocritical nature, according to "The Anti-American Obsession: Its Functioning, Its Causes and Its Inconsequence" by Jean-Francois Revel. French commentators now seek to make America the "scapegoat" for the ills of the world. In fact, the Europeans were responsible for the two worst and most deadly human scourges - fascism and communism - while America has been the engine for improving the political and economic welfare of people the world over.

Revel concludes that the new French anti-Americanism is not only irrational, but based on anti-capitalism and a fear that French culture risks being overwhelmed by the world's sole remaining superpower.

Thus, the unpleasant reality is that since before the birth of our nation, the French political and intellectual elites, with a few exceptions like Revel, have never liked us. On the contrary, they have always viewed us with a mixture of contempt, envy, open hostility and fear of our political, economic, cultural and military power.

Fortunately, however, as Revel notes, it doesn't matter, since France is in no position to rival us or be much more than an exasperating nuisance.

Stated in their simplest forms, the American Revolution is about the power of the people; the French Revolution about the power of the people's government. As we are to decentralization, they are to centralization. And so the two must inevitably be in conflict. Unfortunately, we are trending their way; fortunately they have a sufficient head start that their nation has already rendered itself useless before we reach the point where we do the same to ours. Hatred of France is necessary not least because its present is our future. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 4, 2003 10:04 AM