October 7, 2004
AND YOU THOUGHT GLOBAL WARMING WAS THE MAIN ENVIRONMENTAL THREAT
Chirac lashes out against US cultural domination (Khaleej Times, October 7th, 2004)
French President Jacques Chirac warned Thursday of a “catastrophe” for global diversity if the United States’ cultural hegemony goes unchallenged.Speaking at a French cultural center in Hanoi ahead of Friday’s opening of a summit of European and Asian leaders, Chirac said France was right to stand up for cultural and linguistic diversity.
The outspoken French president warned that the world’s different cultures could be “choked” by US values.
This, he said, would lead to a “general world sub-culture” based around the English language, which would be “a real ecological catastrophe”.
This sounds like he dusted off an old speech on the rain forest and simply replaced a few nouns. Either that or he forgot to take his meds. The best response to this timeless whine was that of the late Canadian philosopher, George Grant, who noted in the 80's the irony of thousands of European students marching in anti-American demonstrations while sporting blue jeans and U.S. college sweatshirts, then all the rage.
There's already a "general world subculture" based around using English. It's the world's language of commerce.
Cultural diversity is a good thing, but bad cultures tend to die off when exposed to superior ones. France's propensity to labor strikes, and riots over cutting retirement benefits that aren't due for thirty years, suggest that the current French culture might not last.
Also, who protests that their culture is worth saving, unless they also believe that it's inferior, and cannot withstand contact with other cultures ?
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at October 7, 2004 7:10 AMChiraq's didn't even have to change a few nouns. All he had to do was dust off the speeches from 10 and 20 years ago bemoaning the glut of American movies in French theaters (1980s complaint) or the expansion of English words and phrases stemming from the creation of new technology into the French culture (1990s complaint -- remember when the pre-Chriaq government demanded its citizens use it's own term for e-mail, which contained about four times as many characters to get the same point across?).
Posted by: John at October 7, 2004 8:40 AMInteresting site to give this speech.
Posted by: jim hamlen at October 7, 2004 10:37 AMHenry Hyde should subpeona M. Chirac; perhaps Kerry will appear as a character witness.
Posted by: ratbert at October 7, 2004 12:32 PMThe world marketplace has spoken and that bald-headed stooge Chirac just doesn't get it.
Have you ever listened to French rock, c'est affreux.
Posted by: Bart at October 7, 2004 2:22 PMThey're worried about the spread of English? Within two or three generations Arabic will be the dominant language in France. Perhaps their fears are a bit missplaced, oui?
Posted by: Mitch at October 7, 2004 10:07 PM