If you are referring to 9-11, I think most of the world shared this collective grief.
Good God no. Reaction from all the Americans I know ranged from disgust to embarrassment.
Most of the reactions I heard to the notion of Freedom Fries were to consider it as a stupid joke.
Violet and others, please do not take this the wrong way but I think you are wrong.
It was a terrible event and all probably share a sense of horror but collective grief? My impression from talking and hearing many Americans is that they share you viewpoint as 9/11 made the USA sense suddenly vulnerable - for the first time since maybe Pearl Harbour.
But honestly, not shared by the rest of the world who have experienced more than enough repeated tragic events of their own. I just have to look around the streets here at the after effects of a 14 year civil war kept going by outside powers…
I’m with Phlosphr on this one (sort of). While America is an enormously diverse nation there are some overarching gestalts at work. Without them we’d have faced (and probably acceded to) more rebellions that you could imagine.
Some off the cuff gestalts…
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People should be able to get ahead if they can.
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America is a good thing.
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Competition between ideologies, religions, businesses, etc promotes a certain distance from them for the citizens.
By that last I mean that the constant exposure one gets to all competing ideas makes Americans take them less seriously than otherwise might be expected.
Really, I’ve travelled through South America, Europe and the Middle East and most Americans don’t really ‘get’ (HA!) how seriously some other regions take such things.
There are a LOT of people from America who don’t get America either, so don’t feel like the Lone Ranger (he was a masked American who fought evil on horseback ;)).
For instance, take the deafening sound of flags flapping in the breeze immediately following 9/11. People would become outraged if you didn’t fly a flag and vow to kill those muthafuckas over there blah, blah, blah. Many of these people are folks who have never exercised their right (or duty, depending on your viewpoint) to vote. Flying the symbol is more important than than the concepts that were written into our constitution.
There are many Americans that seem to forget that this country was built on foreign power. Some will belittle the mostly open borders we have, forgetting that their grandparents came through those same borders to find happiness, raise families, and contribute to the Big Experiment.
Some people got it in their pseudo-patriotic heads that “My Country, Right or Wrong” is a good thing. They forget that it is our duty to question and challenge those in authority who might stray from the basic tenets that make America such a wonderful place.
There are all kinds of Americans. There’s just so many of us, it’s impossible to say that there is any single thread that runs through all of us, except to say that we all like America, even if we have a gazillion different interpretations of what America is.
I gotta tell ya , ive been offered freedom Fries in 3 different states and always with an charming if impudent conspiratorial snicker. And they were good 
Jonathan Chance
Thanks for that. Maybe it really is just as simple as those three tennants combined with Phlosphr’s description. Maybe the origin is not so important.
But really thanks for the word Gestault , a most welcome addition to my inner thesaurus. And fun to say too …
Gestault
Gestault
Gestault
Kalhoun
Didn’t the Lone Ranger have his own reasons to try to understand the American Psyche , how else would he have become so close with Tonto ?
The rest of your post is the most useful interpretation I have read this far. I think I understand the jingoistic/nationlism aspect to furling out the flag at such times and I like the idea that the Pysche as such might well be a shifting elusive beast difficult to pin down becuase by is nature it is composed of contradiction and interpretations. Sameness is in the differences ?
APOC said:
Yes. To pick a flavor for the United States in the same way you pick a flavor for say France - Romantic - is nearly impossible… So much so I, as an American wouldhave a hard time coming up with a word to categorize the United States…
Kalhoun said:
APOC - If you can philosophically wrap your head around this simplistic answer you’d have your conundrum answered.
You know I think Im begging to get it.
Im giddy with pleasure.
Thanks you all so much for your contribution / patience and understanding.
Oh all in all APOC - you post is a good one, and speaks volumes about why you want to know what it is to be an American. If you are a student I recommend a summer driving trip across Interstate 70 or 80. California to New York. Stop in each state have a bite to eat talk to the waitress or waiter, ask whats fun to do around here…It should take 4 to 5 days traveling and stopping at regular intervals. Take time in each place you stop to smell the air, to see the vast expanse of the United States…To date I have done this 5 times, 3 alone once with a best friend after college, once with my wife. Simply speaking it’s wondrous…
I should say…even if you are not a student I highly recommend it.
Where the F do these references to “Freedom Fries” come from? They’re virtually non-existant, save in what? One diner in North Carolina, for a few days? One Capitol-Hill cafeteria employee’s idea of a pactical joke?
Why does the world think that Freedom Fries are some kind of big thing in America? Even here in Mississippi, I know of no place I can go to order effin’ “Freedom Fries”. For me, they don’t exist – and I dare say for 99% of Americans, they don’t exist.
What!?!?!? Where and when? Are you sure it wasn’t cases of “let’s pull the foreigner’s leg”?
Can I respectfully say that this is rather presumptious - you can no more define France - or indeed any other country - with a word, than you can define the United States. That’s an outsider’s view, as would be any cowboy clichés about the States. In terms of population, you’re only 4 times bigger than France. And land area doesn’t count either (qv. Canada).
Begining I meant
Bordelond .
Pig On Beale on Beale Street in Memphis , I had Patriot Fries.
There’s a bar/restaurant thing just inside the gates In Charlotte at the airport & they proudly offer Freedom Fries.
And in Key West there’s a place called Square One that also sells Freedom Fries.
It was all pretty tongue in cheek though
Have you been reading A Condereacy of Dunces? Ignacious Reilly? There’s a good read too…
Reference my last post APOC as well.
jjiimm said:
I agree. I was being presumptious, however, France is routinely likened to several romantic allusions including being quite romantic. But I concede you are right, let me think about my point I was trying to convey…I’m in a bit of a hurry right now.
Ahem that should read A Confederacy of Dunces I shouldn’t try to type so fast when I am in a hurry…or I should at least preview.
I’m reliably informed that I have no accent (indeed a complete absence of any is oft remarked upon) and no distinguishing furriner characteristics.
In Pig on Beale it was actually a bone fide American who did the ordering and the server actually corrected the request for French Fries
a la …
“and we will have some French Fries wit…”
"you mean our Patriot Fries ? "
Cue sniggering all round
Of course if was tongue and cheek. You probably ran into a few places that were copy-catting off of the original news stories as a gag. I doubt Pig on Beale or Square One served “patriot/freedom fries” very long.
Square One’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus do not offer “freedom fries”. Perhaps it was a “chalkboard” special you had?
I wasn’t able to find Pig on Beale’s menu online, but I’m betting they no longer have “patriot fries”.
Charlotte is close to where all this hub-bub started. The airport cafe was surely a copy-catter taking advantage of a local news item.
Might they be sniggering because they thought it was idiotic? Seriously, there’s a lot of patriotic glurge out there, but I really think a lot of Americans thought that “Freedom Fries” were moronic.