27 October 2006

A Reader Reflecting on Society

I received an interesting note that is worth sharing. His patience has worn thin:

Yesterday I listened to a Christian Arab bent on evangelizing the banlieues in the Olivier Pichon libre journal on Radio-Courtoisie, and he told of what was said to him after his conferences in the 'hoods... for example, one 50-ish lady whose door was unsuccessfully kicked in by two violent Youths... the police come only after an hour or so, and don't dare to arrest the Youths, but calm them down, and tell the lady they can't do anything... they go away, the Youths threaten the lady with rape and death, and the lady is now hiding at her elderly mother's home, having fled her apartment... and when she asks the Powers-that-be for help, she is told she is not a priority, because she's French and already has a home.

I dunno... A few weeks ago, while buying bread, I had a conversation with an old lady, which moved me so. She was formerly privileged, (mother, married to an university teacher, etc, etc...), but now she is living alone without resources except a slight retirement in a shitty ‘hood in Lyon. She’s been mugged by Youths three time since the beginning of this year, all the businesses are being chased away by the lack of security... she was on vacation here, with her daughter who normally lives in Paris, and was not thrilled at the perspective of going back "home".

All this is to say that I have a feeling of living in the shadow of a terrible future, like being on the Titanic, listening to the idle, pointless chatter of the passengers, while knowing fully we’re going to sink eventually... Mitterrand the scumbag had his own vision of thing... saying once "après moi, le déluge", and in another occasion "nous sommes en train de faire la fête dans un avion qui va s'écraser"...
Further, he notes a sort of propensity for some social systems to be less able to evolve with will. The test will come at some point and as we see from everyday social issues as noted above, it will find itself in every place:
You might also wish to check this out.

That's funny, the idea of a "providential man (or woman, as with Joan of Arc)" is very, very French; as noted by a liberal French economist and historian, Jacques Marseilles, France is the country of civil wars; its society lacks the civil tools of the Anglo-Saxon societies, and reform itself only through convulsive spasm, with "providential men" emerging to lead us away from turmoil.

Since the revolution, it is a society marked by a quasi-permanent rift between the "left" and the "right", and a huge instability (let me see: 5 republics, 2 empires, one triumvirat, 1 occupation gvt, 2 monarchies, I think that's all).
That the centralization of all matters in life from Napoleon’s administration and curriculum to today’s aggressive socialism points very clearly to a kind of obsessive search for a means to either develop those tools, or to never need them. An effort which hopes to find a way out of the gambles taken on the leader (as a providential figure) and risking totalitarianism, or the creation of a model as a cult or fetish at the very least.

- Thank you, gentle reader.

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