After reading a number of comments here and, in particular, Jerome's words that the socialists should be more optimistic, it dawned on me how right Jerome was.
It is absolutely essential that progressive thought and actions contain an element of utopian desires. By "utopian," I do not mean dreamy, wishful thinking, but rather cogent and intelligent views that illuminate present injustices through the light of a different and better future. The right-wing in the U.S., and to a lesser degree in Europe, has sucessfully imposed regimes of economic and political thought that drain power from populations by endowing neo-liberal ecnomics with an inexorable "feel." "Feel" is important, it is that subliminal framework that allows for articles like the one Jerome is deconstructing to appear logical and normal to most who read it. It is the feeling of our current culture that allows us to seemingly explain things because they seem so normal and so logical, even if they do not hold up to scrutiny.
We are witnessing a cultural tragedy unfold. The French carry a Utopian ideal in their collective heads about what it means to be French. They are self-appointed defenders of Europe's real republican virtues of liberty, equality and fraternity. Their rightful place is as Europe's leaders, and the state, embodying an idea of France, is the nation's master puppeteer. None of this works in 2006. The state, as all others in Europe, is circumscribed by global market forces. France is only one of 25 EU member states and the way liberty, equality and fraternity have been delivered since the 1950s has to be recast.
None of this works in 2006. The state, as all others in Europe, is circumscribed by global market forces. France is only one of 25 EU member states and the way liberty, equality and fraternity have been delivered since the 1950s has to be recast.
The fact is that France has been leading the globalization bandwagon in many arenas; it's just that the French public is more wary of its upper classes. Perhaps the French bourgeoisie should be more wary of their proletariate, still running around with some idealism.
If yesterdays demonstrations happened, workers all over the world should thank the French, not be wary of them. they are putting into action new vocabularies about morality, politics and economics. Chirac should listen; so should the world.
I think you're right on the money with your point about the handle the international media have got on these events in France : oh those (######) French! (replace ##### by your choice from: dreamy, romantic, outdated, utopian, idealistic... something that means losers).
In fact this is a way of neutralizing the French rejection of any further encroachment of globalisation. You know, it might give people big ideas, like, globalisation is not an inevitable tide that it is futile to oppose.
I went over to look at your blog, andrethe giant, and, apart from a good post on the French events, I saw this:
"Il est cinq heures, Paris s'éveille." (Jaques Dutronc)
A guy who has that on his blog can't be all bad.
As far as utopianism is concerned for the Left, what I would say is that many people today, and, specifically, many of the American Democrats or French Socialists I know are very, very glum about the future and insecure about change. Many are simply fighting to keep what they have. The question is not one of creating a perfect society, but rather: do we want the future to be better for children, for the next generation?
Do we? Most people say 'yes,' but they have lost that hope and they have lost the vocabulary and faith in public mechanisms that inspire them even with a minute degree of confidence that their children will be better off than them.
The question then becomes, what has changed that makes current adults assume it will be harder for their children than for them and why do people just accept this? This is a radical change in outlook. The entire (and problematic) industrial revolution has, in some way, been built on the idea of progress, and, luckily, this was seized upon as much by the Left as by the Right, to different ends and with different successes and failures. Now this very simple utopianism, that the next generation will do better than the present one, has been lost. More importantly, because of the Right's control of the media as well as the Left's inability to articulate our (mis)fortunes, it seems that no one is even asking the question anymore.
Anyway, I've gone on forever about this ,but it seems that a certain degree of utopianism--a goal for a better future and a vocabulary and framework for its articulation--are necessary. That's all I meant. Maybe I just should have said "hope."
