Liberty, Equality, Envy

By GottaLaff

My Tweet pal Mariel Hemingway said this article made her day. I can see why:

The feeling in Europe, and especially in France, about Barack Obama’s presidency is as clear as day: we are envious. [...]

[W]e are envious because Americans are so evidently proud of their president. What is worse, we feel that Americans have a kind of faith in Barack Obama. We would love to feel the same way about our presidents and our leaders.

Naturally, our presidents and leaders are even more envious than we are. They all seem to be wondering why they are not loved as well as Barack Obama is loved. Some of them are trying to play up their resemblance to Mr. Obama; others are suggesting that he is overrated. And so on. ... It is an extremely amusing spectacle. [...]

Many French intellectuals hate Barack Obama because they feel that too many people adore him, and with too much ardor. [...]

We had a chance to appreciate Mr. Obama’s spirit of cooperation with Europe at the G-20 summit meeting. It came almost as a surprise, for we are no longer accustomed to such things after years of George W. Bush’s isolationism. [...] Mr. Obama’s anger is portrayed here as something holy. And when he laughs, we laugh.

When our president, Nicolas Sarkozy, gets angry, on the other hand, we laugh. When he laughs, we wonder why. We feel that Mr. Obama confers dignity on his country and its people. We, too, would sorely like to feel dignified.

Amélie Nothomb is the author of “Tokyo Fiancée” and “The Life of Hunger.”

I edited this short piece down more than I wanted to. Please go read the whole thing. And thank you, Mariel.