Why do we always think that "ELSEWHERE" is better than our own country? (page 22 of 23)

Be patient and close your eyes—it’s ideal. I’m fine, everything’s fine, I’m fine...

Well, France isn’t so bad, even if it could be better.

That’s always what I tell myself when I get back from a trip.

Well, France isn’t so bad, even if it could be better. It’s always what I tell myself when I get back from a trip.

It’s funny—I haven’t had that kind of thought in such a long time. I still really struggle with coming home, sometimes even feeling a sense of humiliation.

Michel

Don’t go back then. 🙂

My dear Agnès,

Don’t come back then. 🙂

Thank you for your great advice, but I’m going home no matter what—to the land where I was born. No one can stop me from saying what I think about the risky turns it’s taken and followed. When the time comes, I’ll be old enough to die somewhere else.

Yours, And long live free Auvergne.

Michel

"... it's not really South America I would've turned to..."

Given your obvious (and barely contained) sympathies, South America would actually make a wonderful welcoming land—Italy too, which was its cradle, after all!

Keep a travel journal instead of lecturing all the veterans on the forum.

It wouldn’t have what you call a "lesson" if there weren’t an overproduction of "angelic" material! !

It's an old one, but thankfully it's still relevant! !😉

Auvergne free of what?

People of mixed origins like me? Okay, I must still have 0.01% Auvergne blood if I go back 12 generations...

And that’s when I reread the original post and realize it’s pretty old.

The participant had felt a greater sense of lightness and freedom abroad. Well, first off, when you’re on vacation, you feel better than at home where you get up every day to go to work.

Then you feel freer in countries that are less organized, but try living there and you’ll discover the downsides.

Personal reasons keep me from doing what I consider ideal: from May to October in France, and the rest of the year abroad, in the sun...

It's an old one, but luckily it's still up !😉

I held back from asking what his old username was and why he's an anarchist. Guess I've made some progress over the years...

Well, you’re deleting the Off😏

Oh yeah, they really need to get married, with Attila!

Auvergne free from what? From people of mixed origins like me? Okay, I must still have 0.01% Auvergnat blood if I go back 12 generations...

What we likely realize—or at least what I’ve realized through travel and the years—is that people live, if not happier, at least more at peace in countries with a simpler and more intuitive relationship to national identity than France. I felt this even more sharply during the COVID years, through the atmosphere, the discourse, the tone of the media, even the sound of voices on the radio.

In the vast majority of the world’s countries, the nation is defined by language, culture, blood, or borders: you know who you are, where you come from, where you’re going, and the question of whether to embrace or reject national identity doesn’t even arise. When blame is needed, you know who to point to; when suffering comes, you know why.

But in France, we have Rousseau and Ernest Renan, which means we don’t build a state from a nation—instead, we build a nation from a preexisting state, all while glorifying the daily renewal of a collective freedom that’s purely theoretical.

In Rousseau’s world, it’s perfect, even poetic—a great high school essay topic. But in today’s postcolonial, instant-communication, image-driven, consumerist world, it no longer works, and in my opinion, it never will again.

That an Auvergnat might embrace this ideal and transcend their origins is one thing, and I wouldn’t doubt it. But that a cosmopolitan, globalized population would find it fulfilling, or that individuals in control of their bodies, minds, and identities would be satisfied with it, is another.

This is why a Turk, a Hungarian, an Icelander, or a Scot structurally feels more at ease, more serene, and probably happier than a French person—and more factually free in daily life.

Faced with this obstacle, ideology hardens, values become rigid, and secularism loses its 1905 spirit, abandoning its liberal foundations to be turned into a religion of sorts. This shift has been glaringly obvious since 2005, and every analyst agrees—but the result is a country without clear values, polarized by pointless ideological battles, and where, whether you like it or not, people aren’t happy and don’t live well.

Michel

Strong westerly winds in Brittany today, right? (doesn’t thrill me 😎)

Hey Jean Luc,

What’s bothering you?

Michel

That an Auvergnat woman subscribes to and transcends her origins in this ideal is one thing,

As I mentioned earlier, I’m hardly more Auvergnat than you are...

I live here now, but I’ve lived elsewhere before.

I’m a mix, and not necessarily French. 😉

A lack of mixing leads to racial purity, and that’s not exactly appealing...

Lack of mixing leads to racial extinction, which isn’t exactly appealing...

In genetics, maybe, but genetics isn’t on a human timescale. To me, that’s a specious argument. That said, I’m just trying to explain why being French is tough, doesn’t make you happy, and makes you feel like you’re better off somewhere else.

Michel

I thought—but I must be wrong—that since the end of World War II, we no longer used the word "race" when talking about humans.