Letter From Paris: What The French Don't Understand About Us (And I Don't Either)

I am reading Janet Flanner's Paris Journal 1944-55. She is a luminary to some, including me, for the "Letter From Paris" column she wrote (under the name Genêt) for The New Yorker magazine from 1925 until 1975. I aspire to be a variation on her writer-journalist theme in today's media-morphing environment. I would like to give Americans a sense of the larger world--a Parisian world, a European world, a global world--that has exploded from the culture of the last 10 or so years and is zooming forward in time and space through modern conveniences that only grow faster every day.

I want my fellow Americans to get another point of view--from one of their own--who, in some ways, has a clearer vision because she lives abroad and gets wider media coverage. And whether you want to believe this is true or not, it is. I want Americans to get a sense of how the rest of the world feels about us. Don't tell me this doesn't matter. It does. I want to show Americans how other people in the world live and what they think and why. I want to help grow American consciousness into the scope it once had but now has lost.

The irony is that during this decade of globalization, American culture has grown backwards into a much more insular milieu of fear and prejudice that George W. Bush's reign of terror--not 9/11--created. There is no question that Barack Obama is changing and repairing the perception and reputation of the United States throughout the world, and that he is making the world more friendly to Americans again, but the stark reality is this: He is up against those who still want to make us smaller than we ever were throughout history.

I was told by a former Salon.com editor that they had a hard time getting readers interested enough to click on international stories. In other words, they don't. When I tell people this fact about Salon readers, they're shocked. What does this tell us about the American consciousness?

Since the time of our Founding Fathers, Americans have a celebrated history as expatriates in France, and cultural exchange provided great interest on both sides of the Atlantic for the French and Americans alike. What news is currently creating riptides across both our cultures?

***

The guillotined Marie Antoinette got a bad rap for allegedly saying, "Let them eat cake." According to biographer Antonia Fraser, that is a myth. But the French Queen's reputation was damaged for many things she didn't do. And why? It was the 18th Century version of political fallout. France was running out of money--partially for their investment in our American Revolution--and the French people were actually hungry. There was a nationalistic prejudice against this Austrian-born queen, and she was often blamed for her ineffectual husband's poor governing skills.

The big political fallout currently being examined in France has been labeled "The Trial of the Century." Here's what Time said:

The trial pitting French President Nicolas Sarkozy against fellow conservative and former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has just opened and already the French media is buzzing with words like hatred, treason and war. In the same courtroom in which a French revolutionary tribunal sentenced Marie Antoinette to the guillotine in 1793, a panel of judges will hear whether de Villepin was actively involved in a smear campaign that was apparently designed to torpedo Sarkozy's ultimately successful 2007 presidential bid. The outcome will determine whether the flamboyant de Villepin's political career dies on the spike of a guilty verdict -- or allows him to continue his anti-Sarkozy drive, further strengthened by an acquittal.

So what we're talking about here is that de Villepin and three others are accused of spreading dirty and false rumors--a smear campaign--about and toward Sarkozy in hopes of influencing the presidential election in which both de Villepin and Sarkozy hoped to become the standard bearer for the Right. As we know, Sarkozy won this primary as well as the general election.

What a concept. The French are actually trying someone for allegedly practicing dirty politics. In the U.S., we reward political cheaters. Many believe George W. Bush stole his first election against Al Gore, and he did it in the light of day with Congress and the public watching--and with the help of the Supreme Court of the United States. Who would have believed this could happen even 10 years ago? Not to mention the Swift Boat Campaign that killed John Kerry's candidacy. I could go on and on, but who has the eons it would take? Dirty campaign torpedoes have become commonplace and effective (if morally corrupt) political strategy in the U.S.A., especially as practiced by the GOP, while the Democrats have impotently twiddled their spines and brains. I am not naïve. Politics are politics everywhere, but Americans might take heart in the fact that French courts are actually addressing this question--no matter how it turns out.

Moving along to the 2nd point of cross-cultural interest: American Health Care Reform--a subject about which the French are fascinated--and why wouldn't they be with the American circus being paraded across their computer and TV screens?

My journalist/editor friend Joelle came over for dinner last night. She showed me a spread in Grazia magazine about an American woman named Kelly Cuvar who is making sure her health care insurance nightmare is being heard. She is "in her thirties" and was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 19 and has never been in remission since.

"My cancer is easier to deal with than my fear of not being insured," she tells the magazine. "Cancer is horrible, but the health system is worse. How is this possible in the world's richest country?"

From Joelle: Ms. Cuvar was diagnosed as a student. When she graduated, her parents' health insurance would no longer pay for her. All the private health insurance companies rejected her case, until finally she got a policy with Blue Cross Blue Shield, but it only covered her up to $1,500 a month. She then got a job, but her employer's insurance did not cover Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the only hospital capable of treating her rare form of cancer. In 2006, she clocked up bills worth $80,000. Finally, the hospital agreed to treat her for free, but she still needs medication that costs $12,000 per month. Last April, she lost her job, so she has decided to remain unemployed so she can benefit from Medicaid.

"The French can't understand that Americans are hitting the streets to protest against a health insurance system that is supposed to help them," Joelle said.

How could the French understand? It is excruciating to see American citizens going against their own best interest yet again. It's as if the French Revolution had instead been a celebratory parade for the fact that the French people were starving to death.

Beth Arnold lives and writes in Paris. To see more of her work, go to www.betharnold.com.

 

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Comments

[Sinick]

Dear Beth,

My sentiments exactly. I have often marvelled how other countries could view the US favorably considering the magnitude with which this junior entry into world history throws its weight around with such blatant hypocrisy.

As an insider to the French, let me ask you this. Do you think that they could see fit to overlook any free trade agreements and share some "cutting edge" guillotine technology with us?

[Vireo717]

I agree that you are preaching to the choir.
If it's honestly your intention to open up Americans' minds to the rest of the world, I would suggest you find a more appropriate forum. I'm an American college student studying in China. This is the kind of person that reads the Huffington Post world news section.
And if it is really your intention to try to make people consider world issues, I would also suggest that you be careful not to talk down to them. Especially, writing from France, you have to be sensitive if it's truly your aim to make people think.
As for the issue of smear campaigns, I thought you were going in a completely different direction with that. Thank god politicians aren't taking each other to court over these things. The Republicans wouldn't rest if it were commonplace to take your political rivals to court over campaign sludge.
And you're bringing up the issue of protesting health care here? This is all wrong. Think over what you are trying to accomplish with your writing, consider your audience, and for God's sake don't constantly compare the US to France if you want people to ever read another one of your articles.

[scottowego]

Why shouldn't we be able to compare our heatlh care with that of the country with the best health care system in the world? Why should we lower the bar? I thought the article was well written and enlightening.

[Beth Arnold - Huffpost Blogger]

Yes, I'm preaching to the choir on the HuffingtonPost. Everyone who posts here is preaching to the choir.

As for talking down to anyone, U.S. citizens who don't live in the country--including me--have caught flack for not being in our country. It doesn't make us less of an American to not live there. We still pay our American taxes. We still have opinions. Providing an alternative view--one from outside U.S. borders--often brings lightning rod reactions, because many Americans don't want to consider that people get different perspectives exactly because they're not there. On top of that, there is a big chunk of Americans who are anti-anything about France. Others who don't think it matters what the rest of the world thinks of us.

Part of my point is that even many progressives don't pay much attention to the world around them. If a Salon.com audience won't click on international stories, who will?

scottowego is right. We certainly should be comparing our country to others in terms of health care. Maybe we could learn a thing or two.

Listen with an open mind. Entertain others' ideas. Why are you so defensive?

[Vireo717]

After reading my comment, I realize it came off with more of an aggressive tone than I intended. I don't mean anything personally, but if you honestly want to know what it was about this article that left me with a bad taste in my mouth, here it is.
Liberals have a problem with coming off as condescending. We should take a lesson from Obama and use reason and respect in order to effectively persuade those that don't agree with us that we share a lot of common ground and that we respect their opinions before stating our case. By stating that you have a more enlightened perspective because you live in France sets a bad tone for the article and provides enough reason for my Republican friends to stop reading the article and more reason to believe liberal stereotypes. I'm not arguing with any of the points in the article, I just don't think the tone was appropriate for effective persuasion.

[Yank in France]

Hi Ms Arnold,
As an American living in France for years, I am sympathetic to your point about Stateside Americans talking down to people living abroad.
For example, I remember in the summer of 2003 I participated in a Spanish language classes in Spain where I metfellow Americans in large numbers. I asked one fairly progressive woman who defended Americans' initial support/ac­quiescence for the Iraq War by saying:

"If you weren't in America on 9/11, you can't understand the reaction of the American people".

I just stood there shell speechless. While she may have a point, Stateside Americans don't know what utter frustration it was for expats to experience 9/11 abroad. Even many liberals seem to think all wisdom begins and ends on US territory?

I find many US progressives to be pretty regressive when it comes to geography, history or world events. Like conservatives, they think they can play catch up by watching the evening news or reading a press clipping.

On healthcare, I think Roger Cohen (NYT) has made an excellent case that we Americans have something to learn from France -- not that all is sugar and sweet in that/this country, but simply that people stateside should really study the advantages of a healthcare system that works FANTASTICALLY WELL at half the cost of US healthcare!

Afterwards, people can go back to French bashing all they want. -:)

[Sinick]

Bravo to you and I'm filled with envy. Citizens of the world could learn a great deal from the trials and tribulations of the GREAT cultural treasure that is China.

[COPerez]

Nice to have such a perspective; but you are - as I'm sure you're aware - "preaching to the choir."

Most of us who really read the articles here, already agree with the French (and our ex-pats who see the world with a broader perspective - usually). Those who are here only to snipe and tr0|| simply do not believe that the rest of the world really exists. Oh, they know - in a vague sort of way - that there are other people out there and other places, but they are not Americans therefore they are less that they and their opinions and "socialist" scurryings in the world are of no concern or matter.

It's a sad, restricted - and restrictive - view of the world, but one which neither they nor their so-called politicians are interested in rectifying. It's so much "safer" to stay ignorant of the rest of the world and to fear it and to have Republicans around to save them from the dangers in the world.

[Beth Arnold - Huffpost Blogger]

Well said. Thanks.

[Jeffreygeez]

CoPerez:

Well said is right. After all the fact that John Kerry spoke fluent French was considered by many as Anti/ American? A politician speaking about 3rd world democracies actually said.:That is the trouble with democracy , sometimes the people elect someone that we don?t want ( The USA)

What else is there to say about people with that that kind of mentality, other than their view of the world is shall we say politely,narrow.

[MaryKathO]

Unfortunately, this is many americans habit, especially after episodes of crisis. The best way to keep the 'average jack & jill' in line is to keep them in a constant state of fear and uncertainty. Naomi Klein's excellent book, 'The Shock Doctrine', highlights the manipulations the Right Wing uses in order to keep these poor, fearful Americans voting against their own best interests. The healthcare debate has taken a more sinister turn, though. It has become 'code' for racism, and while the President has tried to mute these charges, it is apparent to anyone with a reasonable intellect. The fact that americans are uninterested in the rest of the world should come as little surprise. We have been fed a steady diet of 'American Exceptionalism' to the point that any interest shown towards international engagement is met with charges of weakness and lacking patriotism.

[Beth Arnold - Huffpost Blogger]

Exactly. I'm with you, sister.

And racism never goes away--even if we are less so.

I'm hoping that the Democrats can somehow muster the courage to lead--and Americans will eventually realize that they've been had--even if one does allow for a healthy difference of opinion. It will take time, perseverance, and hope to change this propagandized mind frame.