Posted on 12/05/2018 5:51:12 AM PST by RoosterRedux
Like the manic French Revolution, great wealth disparity drove the recent protests. This was precisely the same pattern that the French Revolution followed: for the rural country folk, they were protesting King Louis XVI’s onerous tax system that was foisted on the backs of the working-class, as the image below shows, but these anti-tax protests in 1789 rapidly devolved into something more terrible.
...
Deep changes are indeed afoot in France. No amount of temporary reversals on the part of the French government will prevent that. We are witnessing the end of the postwar French political order. The kind of changes that the French people are demanding from their government will only ever be temporary because the very system of French government is incapable of fundamentally changing its governing style. Things will get worse, not better the longer that the French elite, like Macron, remain deeply committed to the German, I mean, European Union.
Whether these changes in France’s political culture bring about the same level of bloodletting as the French Revolution remains to be seen. But it isn’t going to be pretty going forward. The age of disruption has hit France and it will not dissipate until true change at the top is embraced — and any fundamental changes to the French political system will only further weaken the turgid European Union. I’d expect more levels of unrest eventuating in the end of the Macron presidency as the months wear on.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
= failed political theory or system. You proved my point.
....it’s just endless social programs.
We don’t hire in France anyone. You can’t close an office or fire anyone without a massive, costly, effort. They don’t realize it hurts them.
De Gaulle even went so far as to attempt to use the military against the protestors. He went to Baden-Baden Germany to meet with French defense officials to see if he had their support. Apparently not.
It is suspected Macron’s recent calls for an EU Army was for just such purpose. For use against European citizens to preserve the EU’s control over them.
In fact, the article on which this thread is based speaks of this as a revolt against the entire French system of government.
That said, the fuse was lit by the gas/diesel tax.
Those Frenchmen aren’t following Marianne into battle, they’re just trying to catch up with her. Vive les Boobs!
Robert Bork wrote about this in one of his landmark books -- it may have been Slouching Towards Gomorrah. He said the single most destructive trait you find among people in socialist countries is boredom. Look at these demonstrations in France, and then compare it to the idiocy you see with so many public demonstrations here in the U.S. over the last few years. It's obvious to me that a lot of people simply don't have to work hard enough to survive.
Little known fact: the EU capital isn’t Brussels, it’s Berlin.
This is no different than raising children. The more you spoil them, the more they will want and the quicker they will throw tantrums when they don't get it fast enough. They become clutching, whining, demanding little brats who are insufferable to be around.
Germany needs France just as much as the reverse. For those who don't know, both are derived from the same blood. (Franks = France) Like two siblings, one choose art while the other engineering. It's gotta be something in the water (the Rhine).
Speaking as someone of primarily German descent, Germany (outside of Bavaria/Alps region) has to be perhaps the biggest bore in the entire developed world. France? Maybe the most beautiful, elegant, and agriculturally rich area on the planet. It's why their food tastes so good - life is was/so easy, they had plenty of time to experiment. Food was so plentiful and diverse, they had the means to test. And food is so close to market - a few hours - that it's absolutely fresh.
You can always spot a German in France because they are everywhere. Sporty, fit, wearing athletic wear while the French maintain their steadfast commitment to fashion & style: black, layered skirts, slacks and coats, high heels for the ladies, pinched dress shoes for the guys, etc.
No, the problem for France is not the EU, it's because they finally ran out of someone else's money. That would be Uncle Sugar paying for NATO, while they hide behind the Euro to deficit finance their social and Euro fantasies. The author is right in that they're going to have to make some hard decisions, but none of those will ever touch on the core meaning of being French.
What you might call "failure of planning and budgets", the Elites might call "successful skimming and money laundering".
The real purpose of high government spending is to make it easier to flow money to the Elites and their supporters and friends, while hiding the true extent of the fraud.
I thank God every day that my great-grandfather left that whacko country and emigrated to West Virginia.
Reading the article and all of your comments, I was looking for some key elements to indicate where this is going. Those elements seem to be missing in the protest movement. Leadership. Message. Action plan. New constitutional document. Proposals. Initiatives. Willingness of the people to become a different kind of people, workers not takers. Removal of problem immigrant culture.
At the moment it looks more like more of the same; a short-lived spasm leading to resumption of things as they have been.
But just because we don't know the details doesn't mean there aren't any.
People aren't mad at some "failed political theory or system" like you claim.
Ask the rioters and they won't say their burning the place down because of socialism or globalism.
They're mad at how the French government policies are negatively impacting their lives in very real ways.
It's not the "system" they're rioting over. It's the adverse impact that system creates and hurts them in their lives, that they're rioting over.
So are we.
Federalism would help.
And bouncing all the muzzies.
Agree that the French love their socialism, the 35 hour work week, the month long paid vacations and other generous benefits. However, the proverbial chickens are coming home to roost in the form of high taxes. France has always had high taxes, but Macron’s embrace of the carbon tax swindle has pushed things over the edge. The middle class is fed up and sees quite correctly the spiraling increases in fuel taxes as the end to their comfortable lifestyle. I am surprised that the same yellow vests aren’t also linking their protests to Macron’s immigration policies that have turned parts of many French cities into Muslim enclaves bent on spreading jihad and establishing a sharia state. Perhaps Marine LePen can galvanize these two issues and will become the next president of France
I am currently visiting Colmar France. The town has a smaller version of the Statue of Liberty because the sculptor was from here. On the smaller version of the Statue of Liberty was a yellow jacket draped across her shoulders. I think there is a lot of Trump envy being displayed in that symbol.
Good observation, lurk.
These are things WE need to ponder as well. The French are protesting a grim (and worsening) financial and social situation. Our situation is nearly as bad, some might say orse, and we would be well advised to plan ahead for our own protests and eventual solutions.
Skipping the protests and going straight to the solution phase would of course be better, but I think the American middle class needs a good, vigorous protest, or a fistfight, to clear the anger out of our systems.
I agree-the French people as a whole are mentally ill when it comes to supporting socialism.
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