THE French like to think of themselves as a miserable lot. Voltaire taught them that optimism is for the naive. Jean-Paul Sartre made ennui chic. Best-selling French psychology books include such titles as “Too Intelligent to be Happy”. Polls consistently rank the French among the world’s most despondent. Fully 85% earlier this year said that their country was heading in the wrong direction, compared with 61% of Britons and 51% of Americans. The Anglo-Saxon world hosts a blossoming trade of life coaches, self-help writers, motivational speakers and happiness researchers—what might be called the “optimism industry”. In France, it has had trouble gaining a foothold.
Now, it seems, upbeat thinking is à la mode. During his election campaign, Emmanuel Macron, the new president, was the candidate of “la positive attitude”, said Damon Mayaffre, a linguistics researcher. Favourite words he used in his campaign speeches included hope, future, dream and youth. Even the name Mr Macron gave...Continue reading
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