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

End of the line is an expression. I could have written inbreeding.

Cultural non-mixing leads to the same result as genetic non-mixing...

Cultural non-mixing leads to the same result as genetic non-mixing...

No, you're mixing up decades and millennia. There’s always cultural mixing, anyway, but the ideology of acculturation is something else entirely. France is filled with people who were forbidden their culture, forbidden to pass it on, all in the name of idealism—almost transcendence. Oh, I used to believe in that like everyone else; we love believing in beautiful idealistic stories. But now, at my age, with my experience—no. Besides, all that’s left of idealism is withdrawal, and with the current concept of secularism—an innovation of the 2000s—we’re far from it now.

Michel

PS: I’m explaining what I understand, answering the initial question, illustrating—but this is my experience and my point of view, about a complicated country.

Mixed-race folks like me?

Do you also descend from Neanderthals like many people on Earth? It seems we partly descend from both Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals.

France is populated by people who have been forbidden from embracing their culture, forbidden from passing it on, all in the name of idealism, almost transcendence.

Can you tell me who in France forbids people from having their culture? You don’t seem to understand what French society is really about...

Can you tell me who in France forbids people from having their own culture? You don’t seem to understand what French society is...

Did I not understand what French society is? You’ve got to be joking, I guess. Or you just don’t have a broad view of the facts and things.

Michel

Mixed-race like me?

Do you also descend from Neanderthals like many people on Earth? It seems we partly descend from Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals.

... but some people descend even more from one than the other :( !

Or you don’t have a broad view of the facts and things.

Sorry for being a bit provocative 😛 French society is best described by Marcel Gauchet, no doubt. That’s exactly why he talks about social division. What is French society, really? It’s class contempt, insularity… In short, don’t expect to be invited to dinner by Mr. Bernard Arnault anytime soon, etc. And it’s the same old social patterns repeating themselves in this society… Don’t tell me what I’m writing is just clichés about French society—class contempt and insularity—I’ve experienced it multiple times in the professional world. What I mean is, if you don’t have the right codes for the company and the social circle you work in, you won’t last long. In Anglo-Saxon companies, if you’re good and you work hard to hit your sales targets at the end of the month, you’re appreciated. Not in French companies. That’s why it’s often said that France is a highly centralized country where orders come from Paris. So if you didn’t go to the *grandes écoles*, the ENA, etc., you won’t go far in life—which explains the widespread feeling of social downgrading. That’s why populations with a regionalist fiber end up speaking out—maybe that’s what you meant in your previous message?

... but some don’t even descend more from one than the other 🙁 !

That’s exactly why I consider myself a primitive man 😉

That’s exactly why it’s commonly said that France is a highly centralized country where orders come from Paris. So if you haven’t attended the grandes écoles, ENA, etc., you won’t go far in life, which fuels the widespread feeling of social downgrading.

A sort of elective monarchy with a technocratic oligarchy—yeah, not wrong. I was talking about the state and the nation, even before these considerations.

Is it because populations with a regionalist fiber end up showing it—maybe that’s what you meant in your previous message?

There’s no such thing as a "regionalist fiber," just nations that are ignored and erased.

Michel

You write, "Segregation leads to racial extinction—doesn’t sound too appealing..." If it’s about mixing "races" and such, it’s obvious that’s how humans survive—just like dogs: "purebreds" are more fragile than mutts. And when people say they’re "pure stock," it reminds me of a dead tree stump.

I’m speaking for myself here, being a mix of Belgian, French, Spanish, and New Mexican blood... not to mention my grandparents had ancestors from elsewhere. But hey, I don’t take pride in it, just like I’m neither proud nor ashamed of having French nationality 😉

Yeah, a French teacher once corrected me on that, reminding me that I should use the word "species." But in the end, "species" feels just as much like an animal term as "race," doesn’t it?

I’d be curious to see the family tree of a French person who claims to be "pure-blooded."

Who do they think they’re descended from? Neanderthals, since they were the first inhabitants of the area? Poor Neanderthals, victims of the great replacement by the African Cro-Magnons...

France is at the crossroads of Europe. Everyone’s passed through—Romans, Visigoths, Arabs, Normans, Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons. If you add the economic arrivals of Poles, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, then North Africans, West Africans, you get an explosive mix!

Maybe that’s why we’re so unmanageable?

I feel like unfortunately, we're becoming more and more "manageable," but that's another debate.

Oh yeah! Your teacher was right to correct your vocabulary back then. You still remember it, don’t you? I guess today they wouldn’t use the word "species"—your experience must be from a while ago. "Race" and "species" apply to animals; for humans, there’s only one term.

You're mistaken—it's definitely called the human species. Don’t confuse it with: *you idiot!* Anyway, what word would you use to describe a monkey that, by sheer bad luck, grew a big brain and has been playing at killing each other for hundreds of thousands of years?

Indeed, as you say, my experience is dated. Some weren’t complaining about it. 😎