Charlie Hebdo and the Project of French Identity

Globalist ^ | 16 January 2015 | Michael Vlahos

[Lorianne]

What to do when you are no longer the next universal vision for humanity? ___ In the age of globalization, brand has become more important than where something is made. Quality counts, but it is the brand you buy into.

How well the French understand this. They remain tenacious on EU laws that aggressively defend their marques of origin like the bubbly “Champagne.” France is, after all, a nation of immortal brands – so much so that they seem to undergird French national identity itself.

Simply, for the national brand to be sustained, France must also grow, but here the country’s dilemma reveals itself — the demographic markets for growth are mostly in Muslim lands.

The French Revolution instantiated a blazing, flaming universalism that had not been seen since either late Roman Christianity or the 7th century surge of Islam.

But after the party, after the hangover, what does a nation do when it realizes that it really is no longer the next universal vision for humanity? When it realizes that it really, really wants to keep and enshrine the special and intimate things that make it special and meaningful to its own people?

[OddLane]

Millions of Algerians have come to France, and the nation is both bigger and stronger for it.

Could have fooled me.

[Dallas59]

This Charlie thing is against all religions

[Robert DeLong]

You would think someone from John Hopkins University, especially Advanced Academic Programs, would know how to do simple arithmetic. Fertility is in trouble in most of Europe. Germany, a society of well over 80 million people, stands right now to shrink by 12 million, to 72 million by 2060.

80 - 12 would be 68 last time I checked. Am I missing something here?

Beyond that I think he is an idiot.

[LonePalm]

The Charlie Hebdo title, "Aprés le scandale du Christ dans le pipi D'Avignon aux chiottes touts les religions"

translates to:

After the Avignon Piss Christ scandal all religions belong in the bathroom/outhouse. (literally: Crapper).

"Ceterum censeo 0bama esse delendam."

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

In the toilet with Charlie Hebdo.