"Why are the French like That?? " A Classic Question posed by Americans and Other non-French... To Which We Reply, "The Differences Between Us and Them are Even Greater than You Think! " More observations on modern French Society from the point of view of an American, long-time expat, observer?

We have, most of us, seen those sad videos of circus elephants chained too long, for years, who while away the time neurotically swaying, back and forth, back and forth, against the chain that holds one of their tree-trunk legs to a spike anchored in the ground. Years of such restraint condition elephants to their bondage, so that eventually the chain can be removed, yet they will still stand and sway in place, no longer able to recognize freedom, nor to act on it. The context of bondage, and their long conditioning to it, holds them every bit as efficiently as the chain once did. They may, in fact, be free, but what good to them is their freedom?

Such conditioning is surely the dream of all slavemasters of all epochs of human history, for despite our pretense at superiority over elephants (and every other animal on the planet), the observation which follows, made by the man we remember as the Father of Medicine, is no less valid today than it was in his time, however one might want to interprete the meaning of individual words : 'The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different' (Hippocrates).

I think of The Chained Elephant Syndrome, whenever I try to explain to myself the persisting 'remnants' of feudalism in the French mentality. Considered to have ended with the overthrow of the monarchy and the aristocracy in the 1789 Revolution, the feudal class structure still thrives in France today, barely concealed behind the trappings of democracy, but otherwise intact and little changed-- in fact, perfectly compatible with our modern Consumer Society.

This enduringly rigid class system, with its characteristic domination by a mystically superior elite (does it matter that today it's not the monarchy and the aristocracy, but only the bourgoisie, and its offspring, the opportunistic criminal elements which dare to infiltrate, and which fit so comfortably into, the Government, its related burocracies, and business?), in fact the whole 'modern' French system is merely 'trompe l'oeil', despite the lot of the common people having supposedly evolved over five republics, into the hypothetical freedom to be and to do as an individual pleases, within the law. But every Frenchman and French woman knows (without being told, and although never putting it into words) that there is no freedom to rise from one class to a higher class, or to join, on the basis of merit, the ruling elite... Mirage, all of it. Despite this, like the unchained elephants who continue to sway in place, the French continue to accept de facto rule by a bourgeois elite which has proven, again and again, to be not only largely incompetent, but devoid of any pretense of 'noblesse oblige', and, instead, corrupt, greedy, and contemptuous of all but its own welfare... And, again and again, the people let the wool be pulled over their eyes, never putting their finger on the problem which sabotages their Republic.

Indeed, the common people in France do not expect political leaders to come from their ranks, and despite the technical freedom to elect such candidates, the people almost never do. A recent, rare, but instructive exception in this regard is that of Christian Estrosi. Elected Mayor of Nice in no small part because of the personal appreciaton of President Sarkozy (who early on in his reign rewarded the Niçois politician's staunch loyalty by making him a righthand man), the Nice Mayor was eventually named France's Industry Minister. Sometimes referred to as 'Monsieur Bac Moins Cinq' by those who would disparage him for being a secondary school dropout, Mr Estrosi's single 'pre-political' professional experience was to have run a motorcycle shop in Nice (a 'moto-didacte', instead of an 'autodidacte' |or, self-taught man]), which (why should we forget?) went bankrupt. At that point in the future Mayor/Minister's fortunes, he married a daughter of an old Nice political family, and was groomed to get ahead in local politics.

Mr Estrosi counters the blemish of his lack of education by claiming that French society allows the meritorious to rise. In fact, in the Sarkozy 'Godfather' system, utter loyalty to the leader and the right physical appearance/public image are the primary qualities determining inclusion-- 'If I rise, you rise-- if I fall, you fall...'

The Common People are only too aware that they were not born into privileged situations, that they didn't go to the 'right' schools and do the 'right' studies. And they certainly don't know the 'right' people in this society which is run unofficially, but nonetheless flagrantly, by networks of 'friends' ('le relationnel').who have, from generations, sewed up all the areas of activity which generate money and influence, and who keep these as private preserves for themselves and for their friends, closing out everyone else, whether French or non-French. And what could the Common People do anyway, even if they did get themselves elected into their 'democratic' government? Who are Common People, they have been conditioned to reason, to know what's going on? To have the distance and intellectual skills to make a social analysis, and then the confidence and the clout to act on it? And even if they did, who among The People would follow them, conditioned as The People are to look to another kind of leader?

In contrast to 'ordinary' Americans, with their money and free time and (particularly) their confidence in themselves, coming as they do from The Land of Opportunity, the French are kept in their place through the conditionings of fear and chauvinism, which also keep them mostly at home. Or, if they do go out to 'see the world', they tend to do so in groups, where they are comfortable in their linguistic isolation, and little challenged by foreign ideas and non-French ways. Still, the rights that ordinary Americans take (or at least once took) for granted, and the self-esteem that goes with them, move the French to envy, which then breeds resentment ('why them and not us?'), sadly transforming into the famous French arrogance towards foreigners, instead of inspiring demands for an accounting from their own political leaders, who are on top of the situation.

So, the mystique of education among those who have not had one, is an illusory chain holding common French people in their position of subservience. And the fruits of the Consumer Society are also effective psychological chains... The people have 'stuff' now to worry about losing --color TV sets, houses, cars, even five weeks of vacation each year-- so they are not likely to make a fuss over notions of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity which, practically, they do not believe in, since these ideals have always been, and seem set to eternally remain, unachievable.

The French are, above all, practical and are accustomed to accepting what their ruling elite deigns to give them. Despite occasional rantings for more, they seem ready to go on accepting this condescending (feudal) situation, rather than to assume responsibilities for which they not only know they are not prepared, but which they may even believe themselves incapable of assuming.

Marx said that post-industrial social revolutions would be led by the bourgeoisie, which has the intellectual training and time for reflection to make the necessary analyses of the social situation, so as to direct the motor of the people's anger over exploitation, and their hunger for a better way of organizing society. But he seems to have taken for granted that the bourgeoisie would produce selfless leaders... whereas we see today how ready the bourgeoisie has always been to co-opt the power and privileges of the elite for themselves, and to continue to exploit the people to their own advantage. And, of course, the rule of the elite is backed up by the 'Rapport de Force', the brutal, naked. threat of state violence and repression, the tools of which also passed into bourgeois hands. These tools (the police, the army, the prisons...) are all at the ready, like the busloads of CRS riot police routinely stationed around the city center of Paris, and occasionally around central Nice, too, should the psychological chains ever begin to wear thin.

How much this 'Rapport de Force' and the Chained Elephant Syndrome have come to operate in the other so-called 'advanced' and 'developed' democracies in our present 'world civilization' is an open question... And it is perhaps a question that should preoccupy us as we are led, willing cattle, or with arms twisted behind our backs, along the road to globalization...