Tom Kando
Schadenfreude: German. Pronounced 'shahd'nfroyduh'. Meaning: "Pleasure derived from the Misfortune of others." Tendency of many people on both sides of the Atlantic.Europeans love to exaggerate America's troubles, and vice-versa: I get e-mails from European friends and relatives constantly asking me how I manage to survive, while my country is falling apart. They write things like, "We hear about California. Boy, you are in real trouble over there! Your budget deficit, your drought, your fires, your earthquakes! How can you stand it there?"
When the Northridge earthquake hit in 1994, some Europeans called me up to make sure I was okay - in Sacramento, 700 kilometers away!
During Obama's presidency, the NRC Handelsblad, one of Holland's premier newspapers, published an article predicting that Obama's policies would probably fail, saying that the US was on the verge of total collapse.
The Europeans most eager to see America fail tend to be on the Left. So that's one side of the story.
Here in the US, we do the same thing in reverse: A few years ago Time Magazine wrote that California's economy was so bad that it was beginning to resemble France (Oh my, not that! I thought, guffawing)
Some time ago, Pepperdine University held a conference on "The Collapse of Europe." Professors presented papers predicting Europe's imminent demise. For one thing, the Continent's population was declining, necessitating mass immigration from Muslim countries. This was bound to transform Europe into a Muslim theocracy.
For many years, a popular term in some circles in America has been "Eurosclerosis." This refers to the belief that Europe is over-taxed and under-productive, and thus will soon be very poor.
A few years ago, Rush Limbaugh said that most lower-class Americans are far more affluent than most upper-class Europeans.
The Americans most eager to see Europe fail are on the Right.
What both anti-American Europeans and anti-European Americans have in common, is a total disregard for facts, and a refusal to check out reality by traveling across the Atlantic. You see, they are both already convinced that they know the truth about how bad the other side is, and they adamantly refuse to have this certitude shaken by paying a visit to the other. Some of my American conservative friends tell me, "I know how wretched life is in Europe, I was there in 1950." And my European friends tell me "I know how terrible things are in America, I watch 'desperate housewives' on TV."
I must confess, sometimes I'll give a tit for a tat: When my Dutch friends asked me how I managed to survive the Northridge earthquake some years ago, I retorted, "How did you manage to survive the Bosnian war?"
Anyway, I find this funny, and I hope you do too. It's not a tragedy. The bright side is this: the reality is that both Americans and Europeans are doing a hell of a lot better than they think of each other.
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10 comments:
Very interesting topic Tom. Thanks for discussing it. More interesting to me than the fact that these opinions exist is the matter of how did they come to exist? Because of media coverage (right or wrong), or maybe because of some inherent competitive gene that makes people organize against another group.
Groups of people from clubs to countries have had opposing beliefs for centuries. Even before there was "media coverage" to form their opinions. So it must be in our genes to socialize and compete against others. And of course this is how wars start.
Oh well ! How 'bout those Mets?
Tom Bridges
Tom Bridges,
thanks for your comment.Yes, "tribalism" on a global scale, you might say. You're right, probably our nature.
As far as "Europe vs. America" is concerned, the mututal potshots are pretty mild, and I'm sure that the transatlantic relationship will survive.
As to the REAL trouble we are in, and which side of the Atlantic is in worse shape? Hard to say. The news today said that the Europeans are fighting amongst eachother. Some, like the country where I come from (Hungary) are in real deep trouble, and they want rich countries like Germany to bail them out. But the rich Western Europeans aren't eager to come to the rescue. Unlike the US, Europe is not one country. They dont even have a Treasury. So who knows how they'll deal with the current world crisis.
As to America, things are still getting worse here day by day. (Did I ever mention to you that I put most of my savings/investments into AIG? You see, all my life my business strategy has been to buy high and to sell low, that's why I'm so rich, haha).
I got some e-mails yesterday in reaction to this post, implying - in essence - that we are at armageddon, the end of days for America and the world. To that, I would say, 'dont get carried away...'
OK Tom, I understand your point, but you are neevvvvvvvveerrrrr going to see me step foot in France. I don't even visit the French pavilion when I'm at Epcot. Any nation that loses three times in a row to the Germans, drives around in Peugots, and let's their women walk around without shaving their legs or underarms and without using deodorant should be shunned. Also DeGaulle's nose was too big!
Hey Brian,
I was wondering why I hadn't heard from you in a while. I feared that maybe you had written me off as hopelessly liberal.
So it's good to read your words again,and your wit.
Regarding the French, though, I have to disagree: (1) they actually WON the first world war, if you recall. Yes, yes, we helped them out in the end, but before that, they turned back the Germans practically single-handedly at the Battle of the Marne in 1914, they suffered more casualties than any other country in that war, triumphing over the Germans time and again at such epic battles as Verdun.
It was only appropriate that Ferdinand Foch would be appointed Supreme Allied Commander, as no country made a greater contribution to the allied victory than France, a country of great, brave warriors throughout most of history (Remember Napoleon?)
2) I'd choose a Peugeot over a Chevrolet any day.
3)The idea that French women dont shave is precisely an example of what I mention in my post - "oh yeah, I know all about Europe, I was there is 1950."
True, half a century ago, French women may have been hirsute. Today, Parisian women are incomparably more attractive, I am afraid, than most Sacramento women...
4) As to smell, you should know that France is the world Mecca for perfume (as well as fashion and beauty).Isn't it because these things are so abundant there, that American women who can afford it go there?
While you are at it, you should perhaps also add that the French dont know anything about cooking and about wine.
Tom
I note that you did not – and cannot logically – refute my concluding and convincing point that DeGaulle’s nose was too big.
With regard to your other attempted refutations, I offer the following (and I almost feel ashamed because this is like taking candy from a baby):
1. During WWI, for over four years the Germans occupied and fought on French territory. Any French victories were meaningless and pyrrhic; they never drove the Germans out. At the end of the war, Germany still occupied half of France. By my definition, that means the French are losers. Would you argue that the USA won the war in Vietnam because they won every battle? (Oh, and let's not forget that 10,000 French paratroopers went into shameful captivity at Dien Bien Phu. My God what losers!)
2. Peugeot withdrew from the American market in 1991 because their product was so unreliable and unmarketable. The Germans (oh my God, here they are beating the French again), the Japanese, the Swedes, and the Koreans have all succeeded. Even the English have been able to market their unreliable products (Jaguar). Come on Tom, can you really take an auto manufacturer or nation seriously if it can’t succeed in the U.S?
3. You make my point for me: obviously, a nation that doesn’t bathe needs perfume. It’s not worth your time pursuing this silly line of argument about French women; we haven’t even gotten to garlic breath yet or sleeping with Nazi’s.
Brian
Brian,
Did a French woman break your heart? You sound like a pouty teenager when you make these silly generalizations about the French being "losers." No nation on Earth can objectively be called "losers;" every nation is a mixture of human beings who are successful to varying degrees at varieties of things. It's very hard to take you seriously! For example, did you know that the French have the most highly rated health care system in the world, according to world polls? For some reason, you're angry at the French. Please fess up!
Jan
I will not dignify your vicious francophile attack on me with a response.
Brian
Brian
you can dish it out but you can't take it. Insults and vulgarity are your thing, so this exchange stops right here.
The one great exception to my Francophobia – the great Marcel Bigeard died June 18, 2010. He was captured in 1940, escaped to North Africa from a German POW camp in 1941, parachuted back into France in 1944 to organize the Resistance, commanding the 6th BPC jumped into Dien Bien Phu in 1954, and then commanding the 3rd RPC in Algiers in 1957 used electrical shock and waterboarding to smash the FLN cells operating in the Casbah. An incredible hero – he was the model for Col. Raspeguy in Jean Larteguy’s “The Centurions” and “The Praetorians” novels and Col Mathieu (along with the 10th division’s Gen Massu) in the movie “Battle of Algiers”. A truly great soldier!
Brian,
interesting, to find a comment from you on an old post.
I had vaguely heard of Bigeard, but I dont know anything about him.
From your description, he sounds like a brave and heroic man. Just two caveats: (1) he ended up on the losing side, twice - in Indochina and Algeria- despite his use of torture. (2) His use of torture should not be part of his pedigree.
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