FRANCE HAS ALWAYS STRUGGLED to keep up with the more advanced countries in their pursuit of democracy, modernisation, equality and the well-being of their populations. I am not, of course, going to include the expression "pursuit of happiness" here, as the last thing any French citizen would ever wish for is happiness, given that they would be left with no raison d'être if a need to complain was removed from them.
BUT IN THE ABSENCE OF THE REALITY of being a modern cosmopolitan state, French statesmen have always had the inspiring ability to create an illusion of a modern cosmopolitan state, much in the manner of how the morose philosopher René Descartes managed to reduce the world to nothing and then build up a simulacrum of the same world and pretend it was real. Without ever leaving his bedroom. Which is an ideal state for a large number of Frenchmen, preferably when in the company of someone young and with whom to indulge in a little amourette.
IF FRENCH SOCIETY has been turning its back on the real issues de nos jours for some time now, then that time, it appears, has come to an end, as we now see that recognition of the déraciné condition of so many of those who live in France and should thus feel French is no more than an idée reçue that never became based on fact.
CURRENT FRENCH PRIME MINISTER Manuel Valls spoke valiantly last week in the wake of the murderous attack on a Parisian satirical magazine, stating "France is one nation (...) one republic". The determination he showed, as a semi-anonymous politician, was to appear to be a statesman of the first water, which is extremely rare among French prime ministers, whose names are often unknown even to the population of France.
EARLIER TODAY, HOWEVER, M. VALLS seems to have suffered an attack of realpolitik as he stated that France had collapsed into a state of "apartheid" in which the country was divided into ghettoes and leaderless ethnic enclaves. This remarkable volte face could possibly suggest that France is coming to accept itself as it really is rather than pretending to be a liberal democracy, or that M. Valls would like to become better known than most French prime ministers. I suspect neither will come to pass.
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