Chirac's Failure of Leadership
Even The New York Times is forced to note the lack of leadership being offered by French president Jacques Chirac in the wake of the riots there.
Two notes of interest about the story. The piece reads as follows:
The civil unrest is seen as serious because it shakes the foundation of the French republican ideal, which envisions a uniform French identity that ignores ethnic and religious origin as the best guarantor of national unity.
A "uniform French identity"? Based on what? The fact of being in France? Part of France's problem is that it has so thoroughly expunged any trace of religious influence from its public life that all that remains for forging a common national identity is some kind of diffuse loyalty to a country. Here in America, we're blessed by the notion that being an American has a higher meaning than the simple fact of living in the United States. That's what the whole "one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all" thing is about. And even when we may fail to live up to our highest values, there's a common understanding of what they are and why they're important. France, it seems, either never developed or has lost that sort of concensus over time, to its great detriment.
Second note: If you read to the end of the linked piece, you'll notice this: In a visit to a slum in 1991, Chirac stated "that it was 'not racist to say' that the immigrant workers of the suburbs were a financial burden to France, were disinclined to work and made 'noise and smell.'"
With that kind of leadership, it's actually something of a surprise that the riots didn't occur sooner.
Two notes of interest about the story. The piece reads as follows:
The civil unrest is seen as serious because it shakes the foundation of the French republican ideal, which envisions a uniform French identity that ignores ethnic and religious origin as the best guarantor of national unity.
A "uniform French identity"? Based on what? The fact of being in France? Part of France's problem is that it has so thoroughly expunged any trace of religious influence from its public life that all that remains for forging a common national identity is some kind of diffuse loyalty to a country. Here in America, we're blessed by the notion that being an American has a higher meaning than the simple fact of living in the United States. That's what the whole "one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all" thing is about. And even when we may fail to live up to our highest values, there's a common understanding of what they are and why they're important. France, it seems, either never developed or has lost that sort of concensus over time, to its great detriment.
Second note: If you read to the end of the linked piece, you'll notice this: In a visit to a slum in 1991, Chirac stated "that it was 'not racist to say' that the immigrant workers of the suburbs were a financial burden to France, were disinclined to work and made 'noise and smell.'"
With that kind of leadership, it's actually something of a surprise that the riots didn't occur sooner.
posted by LadybugUSA at 7:07 AM
5 Comments:
Carol,
I really like what you had to say about the situation in France.
I'm a pretty hard-core liberal, but more than that, I try to be open-minded.
That helped me to read your post with a minimal amount of prejudice, and I got a lot out of what you wrote. Chirac's failure of leadership is indeed a detriment to one of America's greatest allies.
Thanx,
Dan
rzafft makes a couple of excellent points. What about the two social compacts (s)he makes reference too?
Certainly, we don't want for the French to embrace the same "moral values" we've embraced over the last few years: war, greed, treachery, deceit, violence....
As opposed to Bush's leadership which has been.....
Successful??
hmmmmm.
Gee, I hope Mike Brown isn't in charge of coordinating response to civil unrest here in the U.S.
Speaking of Leadership failures - This is the latest from Governator:
"If I was to make another `Terminator' movie, I would tell Terminator to travel back in time to tell Arnold not to have another special election."
Ahhhnold truly has a rich pool of political acumen and to draw from doesn't he.
Can we send HIM to France?
The civil unrest is seen as serious because it shakes the foundation of the French republican ideal, which envisions a uniform French identity that ignores ethnic and religious origin as the best guarantor of national unity.
Ignoring ethnic differences to guarantee national unity... Hmmmm... Where did I hear this before? Oh yeah from Ward Connerly and his "just ignore race" initiatives.
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