Aknauta
02-27-2003, 02:56 PM
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A Defense of the French
By Lee Harris 02/26/2003
Everyone hates the French now, and always has. Perhaps.
But I would like to say a word in their defense, and if you don't want to forgive the ones who are alive today, at least consider forgiving the ones who died in the past—and even as long as two or three centuries in the past, if that would help.
Keep in mind that my knowledge of the French is entirely limited to dead ones, having been spared any actual acquaintance with them in the flesh except during one fleeting visit to Paris when I was too young to comprehend its splendor. But I can imagine them. I know them quite well through the books that I have read that Frenchmen and women wrote.
The French are indispensable—it is impossible to imagine civilization without them. They had to exist in the past even if you do not believe there is a pressing need for them at present.
There is a whole way of understanding the world that is French and that is critically important in order to make a civilization work.
this is the unique contribution of the French to the spiritual life of the human race (http://www.techcentralstati on.com/1051/defensewrapper.jsp?P ID=1051-350&CID=1051-022603A)
A Defense of the French
By Lee Harris 02/26/2003
Everyone hates the French now, and always has. Perhaps.
But I would like to say a word in their defense, and if you don't want to forgive the ones who are alive today, at least consider forgiving the ones who died in the past—and even as long as two or three centuries in the past, if that would help.
Keep in mind that my knowledge of the French is entirely limited to dead ones, having been spared any actual acquaintance with them in the flesh except during one fleeting visit to Paris when I was too young to comprehend its splendor. But I can imagine them. I know them quite well through the books that I have read that Frenchmen and women wrote.
The French are indispensable—it is impossible to imagine civilization without them. They had to exist in the past even if you do not believe there is a pressing need for them at present.
There is a whole way of understanding the world that is French and that is critically important in order to make a civilization work.
this is the unique contribution of the French to the spiritual life of the human race (http://www.techcentralstati on.com/1051/defensewrapper.jsp?P ID=1051-350&CID=1051-022603A)