O Intermitente
(So long, farewell, auf weidersehen, good-bye)

segunda-feira, outubro 06, 2003

Jean-Francois Revel: The anti-American obsession

Neste ensaio (adaptado do livro homónimo) Jean-François Revel explica que o sucesso cultura americana se deve à sua "contaminação" por culturas estrangeiras e não a um qualquer proteccionismo estatal ou sequer à "força do Dólar" e critica o modelo cultural proteccionista seguido pelo governo francês.

Giancarlo Pajetta, an important Italian Communist leader, once said: ?I have finally understood what pluralism is; it?s when lots of people share my point of view.? In that spirit, governments and elites almost everywhere have signed on to cultural globalism provided that their own countries are its source and model. In 1984, presenting a Projet culturel extérieur de la France, the French government said, with signal modesty, that this manifesto had ?no parallel in other countries.? All cultures are of equal value, conceded the authors of this official document (a statement erring on the side of simplistic political correctness), but our culture is predestined to be a universal mediator, for it is ?shared by people of every continent.? Touching optimism indeed, which naturally led up to the conclusion that ?the future of the French language in the world can only be as a promoter of cultural progress and is closely linked to the future of people everywhere.? Global homogenization of culture, in the illusions of these authors, is fine?provided that it emanates from France.

Hatred for America is sometimes pushed to the point where it transmutes into hatred for ourselves in France. This is what we saw when the Disneyland near Paris was opened in 1992. This event was denounced by our intellectuals as a ?cultural Chernobyl.? But you will notice that a large part of Walt Disney?s themes, especially in his feature movies, are drawn from European sources. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Sleeping Beauty, Carlo Collodi?s Pinocchio, the musical scores in Fantasia, the reconstruction of the pirate?s ship from Robert Louis Stevenson?s Treasure Island?all are borrowings from, and homages to, European creativity. And Disney pays deference to other traditional masterpieces from various cultures?for example, The Thousand and One Nights

posted by Miguel Noronha 2:39 da tarde