Indeed: "It's not tolerance we need, but a way of thinking that allows us to get outside of the boxes they want to lock us in..." (Alessi Dell'Umbria in reaction to the riots last year).

The national myth (and this includes the idea that "the state is always right" mixed with white identity and catholicism), is fueling this.  The Left, which falls on the statist side, gives free reign to internal institutions like the CRS in the name of security and doesn't thoroughly question the role of institutions in causing divisive inequality in France.  The Right uses class difference and mixes it with extremely potent racial differences based on some vague notion that there has been a monolithic "France" since Astrix roamed its woods.  

If folks would just call the Edict de Nantes "Louis XIV's Final Solution," then maybe what were fighting for would become clearer.

I like Asterix, be he wasn't French!  If people would just get beyond their national myths, then maybe democracy could work.

Anyway, waking thoughts from the u.s. west coast.