Paris 2028
Posted on 11/16/2003 4:51:49 AM PST by Stultis
Unemployment is at 10 percent and rising; the national debt has doubled in eight years to 1,000 billion euros; the country has fallen to tenth position in the European Union for income per head of population.
More than 20 percent of the electorate say they may vote for the revolutionary far-left; in last year's presidential election a similar number chose the xenophobic far-right; a centre-right government elected to carry out major structural reform has done no more than tinker with the pension system.
Internationally the country has ruptured its relations with the world's only superpower, marginalised the United Nations, and by its arrogance towards the countries of the former communist bloc created a glaring rift through the heart of Europe just at the moment of its unification.
Discounting cliche-ridden one-offs like "Amelie Poulain," there has not been a film scene of world significance for a quarter of a century, and the same is true in literature and the visual arts. The country's last Nobel prize in the sciences was in 1997 -- and that was the first in years.
In short the French mission to be a light unto the world has failed. The Anglo-Saxons are taking over and without urgent -- and possibly violent -- shock treatment, the nation that invented human rights, cheese and Charles de Gaulle is headed for oblivion.
Such is the diet of gloom that has nourished the French public in recent weeks, as a series of books on the country's supposed decline sparks a bout of self-flagellation reminiscent of the last epidemic of "morosity" that swept the land in the mid 1990s.
Leading the alarmists is right-wing historian Nicolas Baverez whose book "France in Collapse" gives the starkest diagnosis of the country's predicament. Other titles in the vogue include "French Arrogance" by Emmenuel Saint-Martin, "France in Disarray" by Alain Duhamel, and "Farewell to a Disappearing France," by Jean-Marie Rouart.
According to Baverez, France's chronic inability to reform itself means that it is now facing the challenges of a post-Cold War, post-September 11, globalised 21st century with systems and habits of mind conditioned by events more than 25 years ago.
"The nuclear deterrent, a strong euro, French-style public services, the 'cultural exception' -- all these have been put up like some ridiculous Maginot Line against the world's upheavals. This refusal to change... is now plunging France into decline," Baverez writes.
Drawing unflattering comparisons with Britain, where the unemployment rate is now under five percent and there are a million more small businesses, he says that the Socialists' 35-hour week has increased costs to the point that 20 percent of the manual workforce is now priced out of the market.
And quoting de Gaulle who said, "France can only carry out reforms via revolutions," Baverez warns that failure to confront the country's entrenched vested interests will lead to economic breakdown, the advance of the far-right and "the accelerated radicalisation of social violence."
Baverez's book set off a heated debate in the media, with left-wing commentators decrying his obsession with the Anglo-Saxon yardstick and others arguing that for all its faults life in France was not after all quite so bad.
But his thesis won at least partial backing from abroad when Paris Match magazine this week commissioned 12 well-known international figures -- all well-disposed to France -- to give their views on the national "decline."
"It is in cultural life that France's amour-propre has been most grievously wounded. The reservoir of international-level genius has mysteriously dried up -- in every art-form," wrote the British novelist and academic David Lodge.
Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa dwelt nostalgically on his memories of the vibrant Paris scene of the 1950s, then lamented what he said was the country's growing introversion.
"If there is a sickness in France it is nationalism. It has found a place at every social and political level... But this defence of identity, this idea of the 'cultural exception' which is so widespread is totally provincial. For me it is the negation, the death of universalism," he wrote.
All 12 writers expressed tender feelings for France, but agreed that much is wrong. According to Dmitry Nabokov, son of the late Russian-born author Vladimir, "France -- alas! -- is a microcosm of Europe's dissatisfaction and pessimism."
Not only did the French invent cowardice, they own the patent for it as well. The cheese-eating surrender frogs are going down in flames. Good riddance.
Was that before or after the French Terror?
One odd thing: by 9PM in France you cannot find a human... they disappear into a tranquillizer/TV induced coma behind closed doors. You can drive all night and not see a single human, no gas stations, nothing. Just endless ghost villages from 9PM onwards.
Over the border in ally Spain, at 9PM the party is just getting started! An amazing change occurs when you cross the mountain passes.
It will lead to ascendancy, energy, optimism, self-confidence, renewed liberty, clarity, and renaissance!
Vive la France! Vive les Etats-Unis! Vive la liberté! Vive la résistance!
Exactly. They try to explain away their cowardly actions by saying they do what they do not because they are cowards, but because they are "enlightened," What a crock.
LOL (at FreeRepublic you get to read some of the funniest things.)
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