Friday, June 03, 2005
UNRECONCILED TO MODERNITY
TM Lutas has been meditating on the nature of France:
"Contrary to the mythology of the Resistance dominating French society, it seems to me that it is more the spirit of Vichy that animates today's French elite than that of the Resistance. We do not think much about Vichy in the US and thus misunderstand France at just about every turn because we do not recognize what is staring us in the face. We have a France that is unsure of itself, unsure that it deserves to remain on this planet. It loves the idea of Europe because it no longer truly loves its own identity with all its heart. "
I think TM is close to the mark here except that he is overly charitable in his asumptions about moral qualities the French Resistance. Yes, they killed Nazis and the Maquis were very brave but they were also dominated as a movement by fanatical Communists who proved after the war to be the most robotically loyal group of Stalinists in Western Europe. Had Maurice Thorez become Prime Minister or President of the Fourth Republic he'd have sold Paris for a song to old Joe Stalin. So the French elite really do represent an uneasy cohabitation of the descendants of antisemitic, authoritarian, Vichy and the triumphant anti-Fascist leftists and Gaullists who rode to power on Patton's coattails.
The motto of the Fifth Republic is really Egalite and Fraternite - Liberty can find no place at the table. ¶ 7:57 PM
TM Lutas has been meditating on the nature of France:
"Contrary to the mythology of the Resistance dominating French society, it seems to me that it is more the spirit of Vichy that animates today's French elite than that of the Resistance. We do not think much about Vichy in the US and thus misunderstand France at just about every turn because we do not recognize what is staring us in the face. We have a France that is unsure of itself, unsure that it deserves to remain on this planet. It loves the idea of Europe because it no longer truly loves its own identity with all its heart. "
I think TM is close to the mark here except that he is overly charitable in his asumptions about moral qualities the French Resistance. Yes, they killed Nazis and the Maquis were very brave but they were also dominated as a movement by fanatical Communists who proved after the war to be the most robotically loyal group of Stalinists in Western Europe. Had Maurice Thorez become Prime Minister or President of the Fourth Republic he'd have sold Paris for a song to old Joe Stalin. So the French elite really do represent an uneasy cohabitation of the descendants of antisemitic, authoritarian, Vichy and the triumphant anti-Fascist leftists and Gaullists who rode to power on Patton's coattails.
The motto of the Fifth Republic is really Egalite and Fraternite - Liberty can find no place at the table. ¶ 7:57 PM
