La réalité, c'est que dans tous les cas la thématique ethnique est utilisée pour faire oublier les thématiques de classe.
Todd is alluding to several of his well know themes about French society: the strong egalitarian streak that is permeating throughout the French psyche and also how race based politics has consistently failed to get any serious traction in France (even antisemitism). For the French people, since the revolution, the traditional enemy is not another ethnic group but rather the upper class: aristocracy and bourgeoisie. Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
is there an effort to 'tone it down' as time goes by, or is it still lauded unconditionally, like the awmerican one? ~Government budget deficits are not nearly as dangerous as the deficits we have created in vital and complex natural systems.~ Naomi Klein.
The values of the Republic (Liberté, égalité, fraternité) are pretty much the only common themes from the left to the right of the political spectrum. Even the Front National speaks of defending the Republic.
If there's any effort to tone down historical achievements , it is the more recent ones, the ones that have been put together in the aftermath of WWII: social security, health insurance, collective bargaining in the workplace, several weeks of paid vacation... everything that we collectively refer to as "the French social model" that neo-lib advocates regularly decry as "unsustainable". Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
