When we first arrived at Pave, we were skeptical of many of the claims being made about French ant-Americanism. How could things be so in the country of Lafayette, Tocqueville, and Bartholdi? Our quarrel was with the pettiness and perfidy of the Jack pack, the political soft-think of French celebrity intellects, and the hyped-up no-think of the French peace mob. It was not angry Americans who disabused us. It was the angry French -- those disgusted by French betrayal of the traditional amity between our countries.

THE ANTI-ANTI-AMERICAN
Proof There Are Still Thinking French

We were introduced to Jean-François Revel by Carine who handed us a copy of Anti-Americanism and told us to read it. We did. [Pause.] And here we are today.

FRENCH ACADEMIC JEAN-FRANCOIS REVEL DIES

PARIS April 30, 2006 (AFP) - French philosopher, journalist, writer and academic Jean-François Revel, who died in hospital near Paris on Saturday night, was a brilliant nonconformist and bête noire of the French left.

And France is sadly lessened by his passing.

Funeral services for M. Revel will be held this Friday at le cimetière du Montparnasse at 3:15P.

Born Jean-François Ricard, M. Revel studied philosophy at l’École normale supérieure. His biography says he passed "ex-aequo" suggesting meritorious but irregular studies. M. Revel kicked around as a teacher, a member of the Resistance, and a newspaperman. His first book, Histoire de Flore, was published in 1957. It was followed by some thirty more. In 1997 he was elected to the l’Académie française (fauteuil 24) as one of the fabled 40 immortels -- though, this never seems to stick.

If you despaired that the best contemporary minds in France were all Derridean slops, M. Revel will be a pleasant shock. He writes with lucidity and solidity, where things are driven to a point -- not a menu of ever so many possible points. And he writes with a naturalness and ease that bespeaks the disciplined mind. He never loses his reader because he never forgets his reader.

Here is one example. And below another:

EUROPE'S ANTI-AMERICAN OBSESSION

Today's anti-American disinformation is not the result of pardonable, correctable mistakes, but of a profound psychological need to make the U.S. the villain responsible for others' failures.

Take crime, a subject Europeans love to whip the United States over, while closing their eyes to their own rapidly rising crime levels. The fact is that during the final 15 years of the twentieth century, crime diminished dramatically in the United States. In New York City, Rudolph Giuliani cut crime by half in five years. In Europe, disorder has skyrocketed. In France, crime and delinquency doubled between 1985 and 1998, and has galloped ahead even faster since then.

...The success and originality of American integration stem precisely from the fact that immigrants' descendants can perpetuate their ancestral cultures while thinking of themselves as Americans in the fullest sense, sharing basic ideals across racial and ethnic barriers. In France, the characteristic attitude of newcomers from North Africa, Turkey, and sub-Saharan Africa is predominantly one of alienation, confrontation, rejection, and hatred.

...And so America's enemies and allies alike, valuing animosity toward the U.S. over influence on her, condemn themselves to impotence. In the process they strengthen the American superpower.

We would point out that M. Revel did not so much write against anti-Americanism because he loved America -- though clearly he did that -- M. Revel wrote against anti-Americanism because he loved France. How we wish more French loved France and not that little idea of France swimming in their navels.

We have always intended to write up M. Revel as a recommended read. We do so now. Go read him.

A collection of tributes can be found here.

Jean-François Revel, Marseille, France, January 19, 1924 – April 29, 2006 at Kremlin-Bicêtre.

PFFT (What is this?): France lessened 5 | Rayonnement français 5

Bonjour,

Revel était un abruti.Il n' a aucune influence en France.Pas plus ou pas moins que n'en a le bouddhisme embrassé par son fils....

Good luck for your country in Irak !

Ah, M. AB/AY, yes. The French are always electing non-influential nobodies to l’Académie française. And if one wants to find French "jackasses", apparently there is no better place to look than among the officers of the Légion d’honneur.

Thank you for dropping by and making France look ridiculous and disparaging her institutions. You being a professor and a person of genuine accomplishments, well, we must trust you to know better than France herself.

Regards.
DGB

Bonjour,

On a donné des hochets à Revel pour qu'il se calme voilà tout.
Vous devriez faire de même , surtout avec Condy , son tempérament d' hystérique s'aggrave de jour en jour si on en juge par le visage qu'elle offre à la télévision.
Cela ferait du bien à Rummy aussi…
Quant à l' "œuvre" de Revel ,ce minus a cru se hisser à la hauteur du Général en critiquant son style.
Mais justement qui lit "le style du Général" tandis que "les Mémoires de guerre" sont lues par de jeunes lecteurs toujours aussi passionnés ?
Cher Damian ,admirateur de Revel, vous avez lu "le style du Général" vous ??

Good luck for your country in Irak !

M. AB/AY,

Let us see if we have followed you correctly:

Elevation to one of only 40 fauteuils of l’Académie française and appointment to the Légion d'honneur, the most senior Order in France, and its rank of "Officer", these are nothing but hochets, baby rattles?

So you are arguing that these institutions of merit are nothing of the sort. France through these meretricious institutions dispenses empty awards -- meaningless toys -- as sops to...to whom? Undeserving no-talents.

Your much beloved General*, who reinstituted the Legion and, as head of state, served as its Grand Master, said of the order: " la Légion d'Honneur est une élite de vivants ".

You will have us believe this is all so much rattling. Well, France is more hollow than even we imagined. But you know best.

DGB

* le Général = This is used by people most devoted to de Gaulle, especially people who personally knew him, or worked under him. This was the term used by the ministers of de Gaulle when they referred to him in private. ... This phrase is nowadays hardly ever used except by elderly Gaullist supporters.

Bonjour,

Si vous aviez un peu de culture française , vous sauriez que nos meilleurs écrivains n ' ont jamais été de l'Académie,même s' il y a des exceptions…
Dans le cas de Revel , il s'agissait bien de lui donner un hochet.Même remarque pour la Légion d 'Honneur.

Quant à mes engagements politiques , j'ai été traité successivement sur ce site de Fasciste , de Bolchevick , maintenant de Gaulliste gâteux …Si cela vous chante…

Good luck to (?) your country in Irak !

Plame ,Plame,Plame,Plame...

de Gaulle?

In this article Jay Nordlinger sums up my opinion of the Gaullist with this Quote du jour:

"When I need cheering up, I like to think of that glorious moment when Charles de Gaulle told Dean Rusk that he wanted all American troops out of France, pronto. Replied Rusk, "Would that include the ones buried in the military cemeteries, General?" This must be the greatest riposte in American history."

I really am sorry to hear about M. Revel. He was one of the few good things to come out of Phrance in a long, long time.

Well, there you have it from M. AB/AY. France has no meaningful standards of merit or accomplishments. Her highest awards are sops, dispensed fraudulently. Completely empty.

Of course our tribute to M. Revel does not hang on any awards bestowed him. Rather it is his lucidity of mind and the force of his arguments that we recognize here.

Si vous aviez un peu de culture française...
Posted by: AntiBrits/AntiYankees on May 10, 2006 08:05 AM

"If you had a little French culture", this is becoming standard rant with M. AY/AB, who, presenting himself as an exemplar of that culture, shows how little French culture there is to be had these days.

DGB

@Joatmoaf

Bonjour,

Vous nous ressortez sans cesse votre intervention en 1944.
(D'abord c'est à la France que vous devez l'existence...)
Mais ce n' était pas par altruisme;vous ne faisiez que livrer combat à l'Allemagne Nazie qui vous AVAIT DECLARE LA GUERRE(et non l'inverse !!!!) .
D' ailleurs les dirigeants Baltes et Polonais qui vous lèchent les bottes en 2006 vous ne les avez pas libéré eux en 1944.
Ce n' était pas "utile"...
Et puis quand on a un Parti Nazi (!!!!) US (voir son congrès au Michigan (!!!)) ,cette abjection , on ne peut guère penser que vous avez agi par esprit démocratique...