Bill Stewart[SMTP:bill.stewart@pobox.com]
At 09:28 PM 05/03/2003 -0500, J.A. Terranson wrote:
On Sat, 3 May 2003, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
At 07:15 PM 5/3/03 -0400, Adam Shostack wrote:
Please register to participate. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/04/20030430-26.html Please tell me someone played a DNS game. Not at all: this is to be expected after the three minute hate...
Oh, right, who's today's target? Are we still practicing hating Saddam, or is it Bashar al-Assad this week, or the French?
Tim and Peter have been discussing the origins of "Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys" and the general hatred of the Frogs, but I've got to disagree with Tim's assertion that it's been going on for a long time. Sure, there's been some low-level dislike, and Jay Leno's always made fun of their liking for Jerry Lewis, and Parisians have a reputation for being as rude as New Yorkers, but it seemed like there was such as rush of anti-French surrender jokes and anti-French political commentary that it's more than just coincidence; it seemed like the meme was being pushed hard and fast by somebody.
Perhaps the meme was just sitting around from DeGaulle's time, waiting to be triggered by France's lack of participation in US Unilateralism and unwillingness to join the COW coalition this time. But it didn't seem that way.
American distaste for the French was not very strong till recently; but goes back a long way. The "Cheese-eating surrender monkeys" line goes back to 1995, as I showed - even then it was uncontroversial. As long as I can remember, there has been a love-hate relationship. This is based on the notion, held by many French and some Americans, that France has a superior, more sophisticated culture than the US. Some Americans just accept this, others see vast pretentiousness. Examples: "An American in Paris" (1951) - uncritical acceptance. "Funny Face" (1957) - Young Audrey Hepburn accepts until Flostre's real intentions towards her become all too obvious. Mark Twain had a LOT to say about the French - check http://www.twainquotes.com/French.html For an interesting essay on the evolution of European attitudes towards the US, try: THE UNLOVED AMERICAN by SIMON SCHAMA Two centuries of alienating Europe.
Peter Trei