... and New Age and Oprah and "is it any surprise that France — this country with no black politicians but a backwards language — believes a kinda black, kinda American with no real qualifications... will, somehow, be capable of 'healing' the worlds problems by doing nothing - or the wrong thing - if we would only 'hope' and 'believe' enough? It's all part of a whole, people."
It's all part of a whole, people.
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What the hell?
This is a hate-filled racist screed. He contends that even the French genome is corrupt, along with their language.
He's right about Oprah and her ilk though.
Ann - What is your bizarre obsession with this creep? And what is it about his postings that make you think he's such in intellectual and literary genius?
Strange indeed...
Three posts does not an obsession make.
You'd like to blame all this on Rousseau, but the fact is that he was part of France.
Crack usually overstates his case for effect and sometimes shoots first and asks questions later. But he is at least in a real war and is not afraid to see his enemy trying to hide in plain sight and opens fire. Gutsy dude in today's world of niceness and smiles to everyone. He reminds me of a John the Baptist/Elijah character, and he is on the internet of all places.
Anyone understand a point in this? Black people = treated poorly in France. This is no surprise, but I certainly understand his wishing to write about it. boingboing.net has a good post, yesterday, on racial profiling in France, in fact.
Homeopathy = stupid and useless. Okay, but it tells me nothing about the actual French healthcare system. Did CE intend to comment on healthcare?
Nothing else made any sense. This is rambling, disorganized, filled with things that are purported to connect but don't...
What's up?
In Jean and Manon, you will see the sheer twisting of reality, in the french mind, to fit their view of things - and (this isn't addressed in the films but should be mentioned:) how their non-specific, clumsy, ancient, backwards language ("The house, red" instead of "the red house") keeps them stuck, logically, repeating the same intellectual mistakes ad nauseam.
This from someone who seems to prefer the language of his slave masters (albeit former ;)
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
If you want to be specific about it, it seems to me the structure (house) should have a more linguistic prominence (top billing) than its less permanent color.
Just saying ;)
Can't you do it either way in Spanish, Lem? That's really the ideal.
John Lynch said..."Three posts does not an obsession make."
No, but you're only counting the last day or so.
Can you tell me what is so interesting about this guy or for that matter, anything he has to say?
I also find it rather amusing to say the least, that so many die hard conservatives appear to be so infatuated with what a black man has to say about...anything.
Is this part of that "big tent" thing?
Then again the annoying thing about the romance languages might be the hierarchical nature of the societies that sprang them.
hierarchy is so archaic.
but i see i'm doing one of my monologues again.
The most important thing and perhaps the only thing about Crack Emcee is that he is black. Conservatives are crazed about skin color. And gender.
Unlike leftist kooks, who would certainly had nominated and gone batshit insane over a remarkably unqualified quasi-socialist candidate for president regardless of skin color.
Can't you do it either way in Spanish, Lem? That's really the ideal.
La roja casa? Its phonetically all wrong. you would need a counterculture to take over as it were.
Its just not going to happen.
English can keep it's "urban dictionary" thank you very mucho.
I agree with Beth. There IS racism in France. It's just different than here. Plus, the normal French healthcare system is quite good, and something of a cultural model for the U.S., if not a specific organizational model.
There are whack jobs in all countries who are into useless/dangerous alternative therapies, but that says nothing about the larger society, except that there is inevitably a large component of traditional local color in this nonsense.
As someone who has spent some time in France, and who has a wife who lived there for 5 years and has a degree from the Sorbonne, I'm really wondering what country Crack Emcee is talking about.
I like to think I know a fair bit about France, and what Crack Emcee describes bears about the same relation to reality as what those Europeans who see "High Noon" and "The Shootist" think they know about the Western U.S. I almost married a Dutch woman, and I must tell you that she and her friends had some VERY strange ideas about the U.S., even after having lived here for several years. Even educated Europeans have a hard time "getting" the U.S. (I should say, "especially educated Europeans....") So it's not surprising that Americans can have very different experiences of Europe, seeing things as we do through the lenses of our own cultural spectacles.
Of course France has a culture that includes its portion of human weakness and evil. So does every other culture. And we all tell lies to ourselves. The French may tell different lies that are difficult for outsiders to understand, but so are the ones we tell ourselves here. Like us, the French make a pretense of their Enlightenment foundational principles. Thus anyone who adopts French culture and can think of "nos ancêtres les Gaulois" irrespective of race and without too much irony, may become French. But that isn't completely true, and it IS different than the U.S.
I work closely with a lot of Eastern European immigrants, and, believe me, while having had their fill of old Soviet ways and quite glad and appreciative to be here, things are not all beer and skittles trying to fit in. And that is in a country as basically welcoming as the U.S.
I think much of this screed is the result of XWL's own rather unusual personal situation vis-à-vis the French, and while we all have our own perceptions and experiences, it isn't the worst idea to try to look at one's situation objectively and put it in some kind of larger context.
Americans are very naive about racism. They think it's all about black and white (and, for some, Jewish and Latino, etc.).
Racism is everywhere. I lived in the former Yugoslavia, just for example. There, racism is all about Serb and Croat and Bosnian. And the best part is they all look exactly the same.
I should say above not "pretense of their Enlightenment foundational principles," but, "the French make MUCH...."
There is a component of pretense in both systems, but I should let that hang in the air, and not make it so explicit, telling ourselves, as we do, our lies.
There is a component of pretense in both systems, but I should let that hang in the air, and not make it so explicit, telling ourselves, as we do, our lies.
Viva España ;)
I like Crack Emcee's commentary on New Ageism. He is right about Oprah.
Don't know about France; haven't been there. Mentioned a movie I love though.
There is a component of pretense in both systems.
In fairness Theo, having a history of war sandwiched between enemies/allies to the north and enemies/allies to the south might have something to do with that inflated sense of self.
For the most part we (the US) get involved in other peoples wars.
Jeremy...In answer to your question to the Professor about including Crack here, you of all people should appreciate that secure people do let "weird" people talk to them. We commenters here all talk to you, don't we? And Crack has a point of view big time, and a good heart.
The French are almost as inscrutable as we are.
Julia Child's book My Life in France is a great read.
Also, Lem, don't forget, between Louis XIV and Napoleon, the French DID conquer a lot of Europe. Of course, the rest of Europe has been inclined to stick it to them ever since. If you think Americans dislike the French, talk to some Germans or Dutch sometime.
I like that Ann links to Crack Emcee. It reminds me I bookmarked him the first time I read one of his comments here. I don't read him regularly, but enjoy what he writes when I do read there. Let me tell you why.
He writes specifically about something that has taken over way too many minds in our own culture, and that is "magical thinking".
Hope is a wonderful thing for the hopeless. But this country wasn't built by the hopeless. It was built by those with a clear vision. By people who were willing to put some blood, sweat and tears on the line to make their lives better. They LEFT Europe, and didn't look back for atta-boys.
The fact that we have a President who ran on the platform of Hope and Change says more about we Americans than it does about Obama.
How did so many of us become hopeless?
Hopscotching among the crack mc's internal links, I found a profound thing he wrote:
It hasn't been lost on me that most of the people that hate the president can only get along with other people that hate him as well. ... These are people who know every possible charge against the president but can't find time to discover if those accusations are true - and, more importantly, don't care. Show them how such an attitude hurts the country and they blithely bat it away, having convinced themselves of their own righteousness.
And why don't Obama's kneejerk detractors realize the harm they are doing to our nation?
Let me see if I've got this:
The guy who was chased from an ATM line by a crowd of french people - and attacked by Nazis - is the "racist"? How does that work, Mr. Lynch?
Beth, the post is called "Random Pictures/Even More Random Thoughts" - and you're looking for the "point"? (Shit, girl, I expected better of you,...)
And when 40% of a people are using water as "medicine" (the largest group on record) without being bright enough to figure out it's water, I think that's a MAJOR statement on a healthcare system. I mean, either the doctors are fools or crazy. (Considering it's a cult, I vote for both, actually.) And how do they connect? Penny nailed it with "magical thinking" and the harm it causes. Can't you see that? Wait - you missed the previous stuff, so,...weird.
Lem, I'm an American speaking American - never been a slave, never had a master - now or ever before. You ain't one of those "I was a slave master in a past life" types, are you?
As a conservative, Jeremy, Michael Steele leaves me cold. And what do I have to say? Solipsism is an extremely dangerous thing. I don't hear many other people saying it. Hell, we just had an election that was a classic case of it on a mass scale. Did you see it? Or are you one of those who confused "Hope" and "Change" for a political platform?
Oh - and about that tent: Only racists think someone has to be invited in, or is standing outside of their own party. Get a clue, dude.
Seven Machos: There you go, masked man.
Theo, I'm talking about "France", that country across the Atlantic Ocean. Didn't your wife notice the racism? The broken windows where Jews conduct business? The slums Arabs and blacks stay in? The Africans who sell trinkets at tourist traps because no one will hire them? Is your wife blind? Or just blinded by the pretentious attitude the french slather on themselves and Americans who suck up to them? I was attacked by boxers (the dogs) on my very first visit. The french train them to attack Africans and I wasn't wearing my "Stars and Bars" that day,...I guess, if your wife had been there, she woulda missed it and declared me mistaken it ever happened. Like I said, some people ARE delusional.
Or, maybe, you two are wearing the "cultural spectacles" no one offered me at the airport. I mean, I'm clearly telling you I understand the lies the french are telling to themselves but you, still, say I'm the one who's confused - even after you say they're lying to themselves!!! Which, if you think about it, is a cool way to add insult to injury. No hard feelings though, and to prove it, send me your address: I've got a pristine copy of Steely Dan's "Pretzel Logic" I'll send you.
Freeman Hunt: isn't it grand? I was captivated from the very first frame, and the honesty Berri showed - in revealing the evil, the foolishness, and the redemption (Manon and her "enlightened" husband) was brilliant. America needs such filmmaking.
Stop it, Traditional Guy - I'm tearing up. Shit, you're gonna blow my image, man.
Theo, you ought to see Alsace on the weekends: the Germans drive huge Mercedes Benz's into the land of the little car and take over the place, acting like the french don't exist. The french sit on their stoops and stew about it; those that aren't working that day, as their servants, that is.
Penny, people were confused - and angry - a dangerous combination. Now, as Obama discovers President Bush was right all along - about a whole range of issues - they're becoming confused and angry, again, at him. What they aren't capable of is blaming themselves for their superficial take on President Bush.
That would require maturity - from people famous for delaying their adolescence for as long as possible.
Crack -- I rest assured that you recognized the sarcasm in the one post.
Crack Emcee: All I can say is that after 5 years living in France, my wife never had any more trouble than she might in her native San Francisco. She's a city person, and Paris is a city. She knows how to cope.
And, yes, she did see plenty of discrimination against Arabs in particular, and yes, plenty of crappy neighborhoods, as have I. So what? It's a real country, with real problems, not some idealized fantasy land of low-numbered Parisian arondesments.
And, yes, I've been in Strasbourg and seen Germans both in big Mercedes cars and acting like, well, pigs. Again, so what? Welcome to real life in Europe. News flash: Germans can be complaining pains in the butt. So can Americans, but we're usually more bumptious and less nasty.
If your problem is that the French are proud of their culture and history, what do you propose as an alternative? That they suddenly start acting like self-loathing Santa Monica types, apologetic for everything about their country? The French have a lot to be proud of and are surrounded by daily reminders of it.
And, yes, every culture tells lies to itself. But, personally, I don't find the French lies any worse than the American ones, just different.
Chacon à son goût.
Beth, the post is called "Random Pictures/Even More Random Thoughts" - and you're looking for the "point"? (Shit, girl, I expected better of you,...)
Fair enough, except for the internal linking of those random thoughts on your part - those didn't hold up. But still, random works, as a title.
No, that forty percent of the population falls for the holy water of New Age medicine thing doesn't tell me anything about their healthcare. From the googling I did, it appears the source of that number, forty percent, is Boiron, one of the two major homeopathic producers in the world, both based in France, and that homeopathy in general and in France specifically, goes back at least a century. It's disturbing that so many cling to a belief in water, but it doesn't tell me that their actual healthcare delivery system is good or bad.
I'm sitting here right now drinking a Perrier and I am here to tell you: France has some damn fine water.
I don't know that it cures diseases. However, I can tell you this: you mix Perrier with Alka Seltzer, and you've got a drug with some pop.
If someone said African Americans were inbred, ugly and crippled, and limited by their primitive language, I think racism would be obvious.
Saying the same things about the French is racist.
Not changing my mind on that.
Crack - About that "big tent" I mentioned:
"Oh - and about that tent: Only racists think someone has to be invited in, or is standing outside of their own party. Get a clue, dude."
Right.
Blacks have always been able to just waltz into the GOP's "big tent"...uninvited.
If you actually think the GOP wants YOU or any other blacks or people of color...other than your votes during elections of course...inside their tents or their homes...you're delusional.
Name all of the big time black national politicos in the GOP...
...take your time.
Seven Machos: Oh yea.
Theo Boehm,
San Francisco? It's called "The Paris of the West". Liberal, socialist, racist - and clueless. The french are making demands of America that it doesn't ask of itself, like we must have a black president when they don't. France gets a pass for a food fetish.
What I don't understand Americans protecting them. Where's our pride? France has it, but we're guilty. We don't have 5 centuries of fucking up - we're two hundred+ years old. I find the french boring. French TV? Bad music, bad dancing, and "wacky" humor. What's to admire?
The Germans have life. Going to Germany was always a thrill: A people with a purpose, and - unless you meet racists - the nicest folks you'll ever meet. The french are rude. Why give them the time of day? To feel superior yourself? No thanks. I'm an American. I don't have to prop myself up, or look down on anybody, to feel good about that: we are good. I "propose" they get a clue: there's nothing special about them once blacks don't have to look at them from the barrel of a gun.
Self-loathing might help: they deserve it. 5 centuries of lies don't compare to 200 years, and people - especially Americans - ought to quit acting like you can.
Beth,
How are doctors "delivering" water and their healthcare is good? It's impossible. The fact it's been going on for 100 years is even worse: they're proven fools.
People confuse the hell out of me.
John Lynch,
I never said that: observing there are inbred villages in France ain't calling the people inbred. It does surprise me that we never hear about it. France is really old, and really bad, but nobody's supposed to admit it, why? I've seen facial structures which are frightening. Huge over-grown brows, or people with one side of their face fully developed, and the other just,...whatever. (I've noticed such things on Africans, too.) I saw a guy with his brain exposed - and I'm supposed to pretend I didn't? I work with Americans, now, and the worst thing I see are people who don't brush their teeth.
The French are stupid. Complex ideas go right by or stumps them ("This is not done.") It's because they have an old, inflexible language that doesn't allow their brains options. English is very direct and specific. The french use word pictures or they give up and say "Le Big Mac". I don't think that's racist. They are what they are. I say the same thing about blacks: get stuck on ebonics and you limit yourelf. Big deal.
I think you want to find wrong because you don't like me. Being liked isn't all it's cracked up to be. My ex was liked and she's killed three people. Charley Manson had a crowd. I'll settle for integrity.
Jeremy,
You crack me up. The Democrats are racist, now, just as they were racist as the Dixiecrat party of the KKK. It's just a new style. The fact it appeals to blacks is a sad statement - not the party of MLK. I live in a Republican state and race is an observation - not a statement. And I'm going to have beers in a Republican home when I'm done: it's not an issue. If it is, it's a point to joke about. Other than that, nobody cares.
Compare that to San Francisco, where I went to get a job and they made me wait outside. Or where blacks are shoved into Bayview/Hunters Point. Or they're idolized for their skin, like it holds special meaning. It's a lie - as big as the ones the french tell. I'm glad to be done with them.
On the other hand, George W. Bush had the most integrated cabinet in the history of the United States. It was based on merit and a world view - not color. The Republican Party wanted to run Colin Powell before anyone heard of Barack Obama, but his wife didn't let him because she was paranoid. Conservatism is a different outlook and it's not going to succumb to the quota system. I don't want Affirmative Action, but I'll welcome assistance from my fellow Americans who see I'm trying to make a contribution. And I'll offer any I can provide. That's what we're supposed to be about.
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