Site Takes On World Champs of Pessimism: the French

Professor's evidence counters doomsayers
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 21, 2011 2:25 AM CDT
Updated Mar 21, 2011 2:46 AM CDT
Web Site Takes On Les Pessimists
Cherchez l'optimism.   (?Ariaski)

Can the Internet cure pessimism? A French professor hopes so, and is launching a site designed to battle the blues in France. It's aimed at "les declinologists," who fear that French culture and society are in their death throes. A poll early this year found the French to be the "world champions" of pessimism, reports the Telegraph. One academic "high priest" of gloom wrote recently that France's economy is "going up the spout" and its industry is "headed for extinction." But Professor Jean-Hervé Lorenzi is posting evidence on Tous Optimistes that the nation is "potentially one of the most dynamic countries in the Western world." Cherchez les optimistes. (More internet stories.)

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