French people. I think that without fear of condradiction I can say that French people, in general, have an attitude problem. Not only do they smell bad and eat snails, but they seem to think they're God's gift to the world. Not all of them are that way, of course, since many French people I have known are very cool.
So why are the French so haughty? To be fair, they HAVE contributed quite a bit to the world. You've got french fries, french dip, french salad dressing, french toast, and, the thing we're all eternally grateful for, the french kiss. On the down side, they saddled our language with a lot of crappy words that no one can spell, they constantly make pathetic movies that some nutcases still think is high art, and they became the lapdogs of the Nazis in World War II. What's going on with these French people?
France, believe it or not, was once THE most powerful country in the world. The French Empire included most of Italy and claimed Spain as a dependent state. EVERYBODY spoke French, since it was the language of commerce, art, and science. Napoleon took it to its height, conquering almost as much land as Hitler without the benefit of tanks or railroads or bombers. Since that great expansion (and I would contend BECAUSE of that great expansion), France has been in decline and has eventually sunk to its current level of suckiness.
THEREFORE, those French who act all arrogant are the ones who are clinging to the tattered remnants of the empire that once straddled the globe, owning large chunks of America, Africa, and Asia as well as dominating life in Europe. Tsk!
How times have changed. Now English is the language to know, and the United States is the country whose influence is stretching across the globe. Yes, WE are the French of today. With that, though, comes the same lame insecurity that we may be slipping from our apex. Look how people reacted when the Japanese injected a little bit of competition into our auto industry. People were horrified that they were going to buy everything American and the capital would be changed to "Washingto" (prounounced wash-ING-to). Now look at them. HA!
I remember reading something for college where the author bitched about the fact that the United States' share of global industrial output had fallen from 50% after World War II to about 25% in the 90's. Where DO they dig these brain-dead assholes up? After WWII, we were the only industrialized country that hadn't been bombed into oblivion, so OF COURSE we're making all of the manufactured goods. When the other countries heal, OF COURSE our relative share of output will decline. This numbnut tried to use this fact to claim when the U.S. is in decline. He didn't of course, bring up what our share was BEFORE WWII...
I love it when people make hypotheses without the need to be constrained by anything like evidence. It's a fuckin' scream.
