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Why France is gearing up for a culture war with the United States
The Washington Post ^ | Saturday, June 8, 2013 | Agnès Poirier

Posted on 06/08/2013 8:13:57 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican

Do you remember the most Homeric of world trade negotiations, called the Uruguay round, which took place between 1986 and 1994? I was a teenager then and I remember that round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt) vividly.

I had taken to reading the austere Le Monde every day and remember the uncouth Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association in Hollywood, who particularly despised European film directors for pleading with their governments to exclude cinema, and the arts in general, from the negotiations. Valenti roared back: "Culture is like chewing-gum, a product like any other." At the time, France's President François Mitterrand led the rebellion and, sphinx-like, treated the like of Valenti with hauteur. He retorted: "The mind's creations are no mere commodities and can't be treated as such."

The contrast sums up the opposing views: the US considers cinema and the arts as entertainment industries making profits; Europe considers culture as the product of ideas that go beyond a strict commercial value. In the late 80s, France coined the notion of "cultural exception" which has since morphed into the less arrogant-sounding "cultural diversity", a principle adopted in October 2005 by Unesco as a legally binding convention passed by 185 states against two. The naysayers were the US and Israel.

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Israel; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bho44; culturaldiversity; culturewars; europeanunion; france; hollywood; israel; thearts; unesco; waronterror
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To: MinorityRepublican

185 to 2. The Free World has certainly shrunk.


21 posted on 06/08/2013 9:48:07 AM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: Drango

If you had ever been in the same room with Jack Valenti, you wouldn’t say that. He was a repugnant, ugly creature who had the manners and bearing of a low-level mafia enforcer. I never understood how he got - and kept his job, or how any organization other than the teamsters could want him as a representitive.


22 posted on 06/08/2013 9:59:25 AM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Culture war? Reminds me of something....I just bought a 1936 MAS French bolt action rifle made in 1936. It is in the most pristine condition anyone could imagine. I swear it has some of the original cosmoline in it.

Damned good condition for something that old. Almost new.

Dropped once - never fired.


23 posted on 06/08/2013 10:01:12 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: expat1000

France is in a perpetual culture war with the entire non-French speaking world.
********
A “war” that requires no battlefield courage.


24 posted on 06/08/2013 10:10:56 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: MinorityRepublican

Just what U.S. “culture” is France competing with? The nose/ear/naval pierced culture? The tattoo culture, illustrated by “The Bird” playing for Miami’s Heat? The drug culture? The ghetto culture? The barrio culture?

The distinctive American culture died in the ‘60s, killed by Liberalism. It is now the Mongrel Culture.


25 posted on 06/08/2013 10:17:11 AM PDT by txrefugee
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To: Maceman

You are right if you are talking about the U.S., but incorrect if you are talking about Europe - we don’t have a national culture - we barely even have any history - but the French - and all Europeans - do. Most of the great works of Western culture - painting, theater, music and ballet - was sponsored and funded by government or the church. That would be, to list a few: the works of Michaelangelo, Velázquez, Mozart, Shakespeare, the Russian ballets of the 19th century...In short, the masterpieces that are the foundation from which all the rest of the Western canon are derived.
Here in the U.S., if you were to stop ten native-born Americans at random on the street and ask them who is on the ten dollar bill, six of them won’t even know, seven of them, if told his name, won’t be able tell you what he did.


26 posted on 06/08/2013 10:23:06 AM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: MinorityRepublican

France has a culture? I thought they were being assimilated by the Muslim Borgs.


27 posted on 06/08/2013 10:26:37 AM PDT by MasterGunner01
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To: MinorityRepublican
F***ing Frogs


28 posted on 06/08/2013 10:30:43 AM PDT by Utah Binger (Southern Utah where the world comes to see America)
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To: Charles Martel

I do care that they want to maintain and preserve their language and cuisine; they are the essence and the soul of a national identity. To not understand that is to be a barbarian, not very different in attitude, than the Huns at the gates of Rome.


29 posted on 06/08/2013 10:40:57 AM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
What they seem to be referring to here are technically “culture wars” but seems to be really a conventional trade war with tariffs and the like as applied to products of “culture” most importantly movies.

Well said.

You get that kind of "culture war" because "cultures" aren't really as distinct or as ... well ... cultural as they once were.

30 posted on 06/08/2013 10:41:49 AM PDT by x
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To: vladimir998

@AgnesCPoirier's profile photo

31 posted on 06/08/2013 10:46:40 AM PDT by cynwoody
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To: cynwoody

Yep, that’s her.


32 posted on 06/08/2013 10:52:59 AM PDT by vladimir998
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To: kabumpo

My previous post was sloppily worded. I should’ve said that I don’t see anything objectionable to the French defense of their national identity. They do tend to overlook bigger problems while fixating on their objection to Starbucks, McDonalds and words of “Anglo” origin creeping into their language, but now at least some of them are reacting to the bigger picture.


33 posted on 06/08/2013 10:54:34 AM PDT by Charles Martel (Endeavor to persevere...)
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To: expat1000
France is in a perpetual culture war with the entire non-French speaking world.

Non, seulement avec le monde anglo-saxon.

34 posted on 06/08/2013 11:05:19 AM PDT by x
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To: MinorityRepublican

Next time, let the Germans KEEP France!


35 posted on 06/08/2013 11:24:57 AM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed &water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS, NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: Charles Martel

Thank you for writing. The small picture is part of the big picture.


36 posted on 06/08/2013 12:21:34 PM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: Charles Martel

Hey wasnt Charles Martel French? (Rhetorical Statement)


37 posted on 06/08/2013 12:27:31 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: x
Non, seulement avec le monde anglo-saxon.

Oui, c'est vrai.

38 posted on 06/08/2013 12:28:24 PM PDT by expat1000
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To: Drango

Hollywierd and American entertainment is pooping on the whole world with it’s thugish, uninspiring and gross culture. Not that France would do better...


39 posted on 06/08/2013 6:00:25 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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