Posted on 01/09/2005 1:34:46 PM PST by Lorianne
is not so easy to know when you’re deluding yourself and when you are finally seeing the light. When I look back at my reasons for leaving the United States for France in 1972, some seem to me as outmoded—and, in retrospect, as endearing—as Beatles haircuts and Vietnam-war protests. Others stubbornly persist. In any event, my career as a serious American novelist having been short-circuited, I opted for the improbable exploit of becoming a writer in French and a professional translator, and I succeeded. I am long settled in Paris; the three youngsters I brought there, tucked under my free-flying wing, are mature adults with fast-growing children of their own. We have excelled in flexibility, risen to every challenge, transformed somewhat slapdash beginnings into a harmonious whole.
What happened? The sea change began on September 28, 2000, when the domestic repercussions of Arafat’s prefabricated "al-Aqsa" intifada in Jerusalem struck me in a dizzying instant of recognition. I was hardly alone. Stunned and dazed, the formerly integrated, assimilated, liberated, progressive, and (in some cases) indifferent Jews of France found themselves—ourselves—thrust out of the body politic and herded into a virtual ghetto. In the years since then, things have only gotten worse, much worse.
Here I stand, endowed with an intimate knowledge of French language, thought, and reality—and on the threshold, perhaps, of France’s, even Europe’s, downfall. I know a lot about adjusting to foreign countries, feeling at home with strangers, acquiring exotic skills. I can eat with ohashi (don’t ask me to call them chopsticks) like a native, I know how to take a shower with a pail of water in an African hut, I can dance . . . well, let me not string out my credentials. The question staring me in the face at the end of this three-week visit is, could I readjust to the United States, my native land? How could I get used to it, where would I put myself, who would I be if I came back home?
I never thought of myself as an expatriate; I’d let my American identity slip away while retaining the free-floating grace of being a foreigner. Instead, I’d been a "European," picking up after a brief interruption not exactly where my family had left off—not Budapest, not Przemysl, those were places we would not go back to—but Europe and all it could boast of. Beautiful cities that are really lived in, monuments at every street corner, savoir faire, craftsmanship, savoir vivre, boutiques, refinement, manners, health care, free education, history, French windows and parquet floors.
And . . . the Shoah? I came back to be European and, irony of ironies, Europe is showing me why my grandparents left. For a novelist and student of history, this is a fantastic experience. For a grandmother, it is agony. How can I explain to French grandchildren whose very existence is the consequence of my once flighty decision that I cannot entrust them to their native land? But how can I lead them to safety if I myself do not know how to go home?
(excerpted due to length - click on link to read the reast)
Those who knew Europe was sociologically and politically gentrified and corrupt fled to a new continent seeking a better life and a fairer government. Some two hundred odd years later, a decendent goes back to the "old" land to find that the stale hautiness, cultural stagnancy, and backward thinking still prevail. I'm shocked.
"Give me empire, my dear Yanks. Come over here and colonize this place so that I can put my suitcases back on top of the closet, keep my swishes and furbelows, my fanfreluches and baubles, my adopted family jewels and Continental airs, and live to a ripe old age here in the center of Paris, in the middle of nowhere."
~The last paragraph. Never again. Never. So many were lost to do just this thing in the forties. Our youth are not worth your Continental airs nor your furbelows.
Save yourselves, and if not, then France dies.
>>I am an European trying my very best to get to the USA.
Thank you America for your leadership against the war on Islamic terror>>
If you are coming to escape liberal passions toward feminism, radical environmentalism, or passifism toward Muslims, don't bother coming. Liberals remain in control of the media, which controls the masses.
I'll read the entire article later. (Just after I finish watching the NFL playoff games!)
I lived in a small village in Europe for a few years some time ago. Certainly the Europeans have a history. Monuments every darn place that you go. Some are simply ruins found in obscure little places.
That is my real view of Europe. A place which celebrates past events with lots of monuments. Monuments to wars and heros and policies which eventually convinced multitudes of people to flee that place for a better life in the new world.
Now the liberals (Socialists) in this country would have us emulate the failed European model. Well, my ancestors left that place because they were tired, poor, downtrodden, etc.
Europe is over, and the Islamic conquest is noteworthy in that such a violent cult could conquer an entire continent in an essentially non violent way.
Remarkable.
The author assumes that the French Media is spoonfeeding the French populace with a carefully controlled medicine. That's not reality. I think the French Populace is swallowing what they want to hear.
"I am an European trying my very best to get to the USA.
Thank you America for your leadership against the war on Islamic terror."
Change your name to one with a Mexican genre, learn to speak Spanish with Mexican accent, get in by whatever means, and you are in here home free.
Our immigration policy is a complete farce, sea and air ports are guarded to the inth degree, but our southern border is wide open to one nationality group only. You and other legal would be immigrants are penalized by following our laws, this while a certain "special" other ethnic group is rewarded for breaking our laws.
Shameful and sickening, just damned sickening.
To that end, it seems like you might be able to say that all the NAACP assaults on Civil War Monuments and even maybe 10 commandment stuff is a uniquely American thing...always marching blindly forward. I grudgingly think there's something to that. (Not putting words in your mouth, just thinking out loud....idling while GB is getting their butts kicked.)
Whoa - this is somebody who really has had her eyes opened. I was prepared to sneer a bit before I read the full article. Now all I have to say is that for someone with the grasp of France that Nidra claims, she seems blissfully unaware of what happened to the Jews there during WWII. This stuff isn't new.
But would he be so patriotic if it were just my cattle getting rustled and not his? Is he ready to go to war for the Irish? The Cubans? The Taiwanese? Or only now that the wheel has come around to his own tribe?
What is the term, the opposite of winter soldier? How do you describe someone who is a poster boy for a nation of solipsists?
Very timely, very poignant.
For those who continue to contend that the UN is "mankind's last, best hope", be advised it never was and never will be.
But the United States of America probably is...
Great post self-describing an arrogant leftist slowly being mugged by the reality of a decadent and declining France.
She should stay in France, of course, and fight for Marxist truth there. A person with such a slow learning curve would be of no help here.
The joke is she really thinks someone cares what she does.
I thought so. The Muslims are already taking over..it's just a matter of time. Sad. They will really be Eurabia soon..and we are the dumb ones?
Your premise is true.
But the assertion doesn't follow.
Otherwise, we would be preparing to inaugurate President John Effin' Kerry, supported by a solidly Democrat Congress.
What's this 'don't bother coming' nonsense? Perhaps you should swap places with Kristian for a perspective realignment. The things you cite are mere annoyances in the big picture - America still is the land of opportunity compared to Europe. It's no contest! For starters, look up European tax rates sometime.
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