We are often chided for our negative opinions of France and the French. We have not come to our present opinions overnight. And we have not formed them from thin air. Nor have we borrowed them wholesale from some French-hating crank. We look to first sources and, in an often missed irony, much of our opinion has been informed and given shape by the French themselves. For example this and this and this and this and this and this and this. [Pause.] These samplings are all reports by the French about themselves. We have done little other than report them here, though our critics flatter us by thinking we do something more. We, however, do not flatter ourselves. We do not think France or the French find our sting unbearable. We leave it to the French to sting the French.

And at least once a year they oblige us.

SELF-DOUBT LEAVES FRENCH FEELING DOWN IN THE MOUTH

PARIS January 22, 2005 (Scotsman) - "The French no longer believe in anything," the report [by France’s 100 prefects, the country’s top administrators] said. "That is the reason that the situation is relatively calm, for they believe that it is not even worthwhile expressing their opinions or trying to be heard any more."

"It’s a fact: France and the French are pessimists," said Alain Duhamel, a respected French commentator. "The French doubt themselves and worry about the future. ... France has been anxious about its future, about its way of life, for the last 30 years, ever since the employment crisis and doubts about identity, ever since the absence of clear perspectives and collective projects."

GLOOMY FRANCE ADRIFT
It's French Eat French

FRANCE FULL OF DOOM AND GLOOM OVER FUTURE: POLL

LONDON June 19, 2006 (AFP) - The French are highly pessimistic about their country's future, with 85 percent finding their nation headed in the wrong direction, a [Financial Times] survey of five European countries published here Monday showed.

Just nine percent of French respondents thought the country was moving in the right direction as it enters the final months of Jacques Chirac's 12-year presidency, ahead of elections in April.

Earlier this year Socialist deputy Arnaud Montebourg was quoted:

"Nobody expects anything, nobody hopes for anything — we are all crushed by a kind of nervous breakdown."

PFFT (What is this?): Gloomy Gauls 5 | Rayonnement français 0