Something tells me in 2015, France will be on the Brink of social unrest if not implosion not unlike what rocked it back in 1968 ... except this time it will be a conservative counter revolution. Its troublesome in many ways given that it will only benefit the Far right. With a government out of touch and a political rhetoric by the political establishment and a President which leaves the entire nation indifferent added to all the crap one reads in social media spreading rumors and encouraging hate speech of all sorts and 24 h / 24 news reels by media outlets (BFM TV, LCI, I Télé) which are competing for sensational news without the slightest remoteness, I am really worried about the general atmosphere of intolerance which only empowers intellectual midgets and the physically strong but crush the genuine intellectuals and fails to protect the weak. Its disheartening to observe what I always suspected would even hit France as it hit Iran back in 1979: Revolution. Except this time its the foundations of democracy which are at stake. One supposedly born in Frances 1789 ( for all the wrong reasons) which Republican dogma tried to hail and raised to a cult status while overlooking historical realities in the name of political correctness. Well that Political correctness and a certain idea of France is being questioned deeply in society as never before in the entire history of the 5th Republic as shaped by Charles de Gaulle. The Latter gave France a Monarchical Republic which implemented a solid and at the same time flexible political institution which to some degree reconciled France with its own dark revolutionary past whilst compensating the bitter feeling and nationalist frustrations born from having abolished the Monarchy as the living embodiment of French Pride and Glory. But the 1958 Constitution required a Presidency which was respected and a President who had the Cojones, the charisma of a De Gaulle and ironically of his nemesis Mitterand. Political giants who could embody the institution in ways that kept the nation together and whose strong personalities and political wit kept the nation together. That Era is over ... What will follow ? Heaven or Hell ? Nobody today can answer that question ... I am surprised that few foreign journalists particularly the American or British press seem to pay enough attention to what is taking shape in this country. Because what may happen here will without doubt shake not only Europe but the Western Democratic societys at large. The very conception of the usefulness of democracy and the moral ( at times moralistic) superiority of republican ideals as it has been boasted about since 1789 French Revolution or earlier in 1776 during the American Revolution ( actually a colonial revolt encouraged and aided by the French Monarchy against British domination) is today at crossroads. With the emerging Asian Nations and an African continent which in a few decades will have a demography more than 3 times that of Europe, the very survival of the western world as we understand it will be challenged by new economic, social and cultural realities. Can the French democracy correct itself and the nation overcome its shortcomings without a charismatic leadership merely though social dialogue without the rising temptation for violence and intolerance ? Lets hope so ... But all nations including democratic ones need a great man or great woman to lead them at some juncture, the idea of their greatness only takes shape through history and nothing could or can guarantee if the person they choose will end up being a tyrant like Hitler or a heroic providential heroes like Churchill or De Gaulle. Marine Le Pen is neither a providential hero, nor a Hitler but her partys ideologies are not rooted in tolerant ideals but in deeply controversial nationalistic instincts. Foreign correspondents are wrong to reduce what is going on in France today to clichés. France is a country with a deeply rooted intellectual heritage and the debates emerging in French society today are fundamental to follow and understand because the answers to such concerns like : national identity, modernity vs progress ( which would make an intellectual Midget like Abbas Milani who sees modernity as a progress in itself look silly), gender equality, are concerns need to be addressed with clear cut answers which the current political establishment whether leftwing or right wing have failed to answer or bring any satisfactory enough and the vacuum it creates is paving the way for a Far Right victory in this nation. Something new is emerging in the French political landscape which is equally unique, troubling, exhilarating and at the same time begs more questions than it answers. De Gaulle Once said : Patriotism is the love of ones Country, where as Nationalism is the hatred of others ... Had De Gaulle words not been true I guess my Lithuanian Grandparents wouldnt have respectively joined the French Resistance and fought against the Nazi Tyranny at the risk of their own well being. Yet Despite being medaled and congratulated for their contributions to the defense of the nation in one of its darkest hours, my maternal grandparents who had fled communism and the soviet invasion when they arrived in France only acquired the French nationality 10 years after the Liberation of France. My mother having been born in France could only demand it once she was 15 years old. Unfortunately France lacks a De Gaulle ... in the meantime it may well choose Marine Le Pen for better or worse or simply plunge into if not a civil war at worst into a deeply troubled period in the months and years to come. Lets hope the nation the likes of Le Pen aspire to lead will survive the political earthquake in the making ...
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 09:19:31 +0000
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