This surliness is more a fierce form of realism than a sign of malaise. It is a bitter wisdom. It is a nod to Hobbes’s view that the life of man is, on the whole, “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”
On France’s glorious malaise (thanks Thibault!).
I like France’s realism. It’s a massive strength at an individual scale, especially growing up there. At a team level, it’s destructive as fuck. I mean, that’s what I witnessed and still witness in France. The all “dans la vie faut pas se faire chier” is just not that compatible with team effort, respect and focus. We can even see it on a soccer field. And I’m saying that with English phlegm, if I was to express this in French it would be on the “on vous emmerde” line.
Anyway, as long as France could live on its own it was OK, almost funny. Now that it has to compete worldwide, now that France is sort of Germany’s bitch, now that everyone sees that French people together are pretty bad but are all right if not amazing when part of international teams, questions raise.
I have no idea how this is going to evolve.