In 1997 I interviewed for a job with Hewlett Packard in Lyon, France. The countryside and the city were beautiful. I'd been warned about how rude the French could be but the only problem I had was with the cabbie, who was mad at me when he was the one who got lost (that, in fact, may be a great example of what's wrong). Jean-Yves was in charge of getting me to my meetings and lunch. I made the comment about the price of gasoline being so astronomically high and his response was a big thumbs up as he proclaimed "it's the best!".
My uncle parachuted into France on D-Day. He never talked about what happened - he would just clam up and get real quiet if you asked him about it. All this makes me want to go read French history and try to find out how they came to this point of being, on the one hand, so proud of their culture while on the other so willing - almost begging - to have it trampled by their oppressors. Too much has been done by others to protect the French and preserve their land.
I have a feeling that if I do study French history, I'll find that the problems started with a small group of people who gained more and more power over a long period of time, gaining in size and volume, slowly building a following based on the beliefs that goverment will take care of you and that goverment should be allowed to make your decisions for you and that the income you earn is to feed the government, and that you shouldn't be held responsible for your actions, and that you really don't have to work if you don't want to as long as enough of the others are willing to help feed you, and that nothing is worth fighting for when appeasement will do the trick...
In 1997 I interviewed for a job with Hewlett Packard in Lyon, France. The countryside and the city were beautiful. I'd been warned about how rude the French could be but the only problem I had was with the cabbie, who was mad at me when he was the one who got lost (that, in fact, may be a great example of what's wrong). Jean-Yves was in charge of getting me to my meetings and lunch. I made the comment about the price of gasoline being so astronomically high and his response was a big thumbs up as he proclaimed "it's the best!".
My uncle parachuted into France on D-Day. He never talked about what happened - he would just clam up and get real quiet if you asked him about it. All this makes me want to go read French history and try to find out how they came to this point of being, on the one hand, so proud of their culture while on the other so willing - almost begging - to have it trampled by their oppressors. Too much has been done by others to protect the French and preserve their land.
I have a feeling that if I do study French history, I'll find that the problems started with a small group of people who gained more and more power over a long period of time, gaining in size and volume, slowly building a following based on the beliefs that goverment will take care of you and that goverment should be allowed to make your decisions for you and that the income you earn is to feed the government, and that you shouldn't be held responsible for your actions, and that you really don't have to work if you don't want to as long as enough of the others are willing to help feed you, and that nothing is worth fighting for when appeasement will do the trick...
Hey... Wait a minute!