Bleak chic: the French are a remarkably depressed bunch

Or so say the polls

Quote:

ONE of the most perplexing questions of the early 21st century is this: how can the French, who invented joie de vivre, the three-tier cheese trolley and Dior’s jaunty New Look, be so resolutely miserable? To outsiders, the world’s favourite tourist destination embodies the triumph of pleasure over desk-slavery, slow food over fast, the life of the flâneur over that of the frenetic. Yet polls suggest that the French are more depressed than Ugandans or Uzbekistanis, and more pessimistic about their country’s future than Albanians or Iraqis. A global barometer of hope and happiness puts the French second to bottom of a 54-country world ranking, behind austerity-battered Italians, Greeks and Spaniards, and ahead only of Portugal.

The article argues that the French are self-critical, find positive thinking naive, give hard ratings in school and find a certain beauty in gloominess.



I can relate, but if constant nation-wide depression is the result, maybe the American style can-do attitude is to be preferred.



Nice in-depth article in the Economist (not yet behind the pay-wall when I post this)

via JREF Forum http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=270592&goto=newpost