June 10, 2003
'DEATH OF FRANCE' -- NOT MUCH TO DEBATE
The Death of France? Part I and Part II (FrontPage Magazine, 6/9 and 6/10/2003)[T]he death of France ... is an increasingly plausible possibility ...
Frontpage Symposium has put together a distinguished panel to deal with this phenomenon.... [W]e have the pleasure to be joined by Jean-Francois Revel ... Charles Kupchan ... Guy Milliere ... Alain Madelin ... Toni Kamins ... and Yves Roucaute....
Madelin: I hope it's still possible to change the situation, but it would be necessary to act now. Within a few years it will be too late....
France would like to build Europe to make of it a kind of rival of the United States. The other European countries do not share this vision of Europe....
Milliere: France is declining fast, demographically speaking and economically speaking. France does not serve its own interest: as a part of the West, if it was the case, she would have to be on the side of the West, and so on the side of the United States.
France behaves more and more as if she does belong to the West anymore and as though she is the leader of the third world. Doing this, France has nothing to win, maybe just second-rate contracts and an ephemeral popularity among all the frustrated in the world. France will win only one thing, and for a short time, peace inside France: it will avoid riots among Muslims living in France now....
Kamins: There are similarities between France's historical relationship with its Jews and its relationship with its Muslims....
The Muslims in France are regarded with fear, suspicion, and hatred....
Interlocutor: The more I study the history of France in the 20th century, the more I come to the conclusion that the psyche of the French people might justifiably warrant an entire psychiatric conference.
Throughout the entire 20th century, the French seemed to spend most of their time desperately craving being crushed by some kind of foreign totalitarian power. Their dreams, obviously, were shattered by the Americans, who rescued them from the Nazis and subsequently protected them from the Soviets. But now the French have cleverly figured it all out: to be taken over by Islam from within....
Milliere: I think you're right, France is a very sick country. Many French still dream about the time when France was the main power in the Western world. It has been over for three centuries now, and so they are full of envy when they think about the countries that became more powerful than France after the death of Louis XIVth. Great Britain first, then the United States. For the French, the United States has no past, no legitimacy, no culture and if they are the first power in the world it's really unfair....
For years, France has searched to create alliances against the United States.... The French dream to see the United States defeated. Just by envy. Just because France is very socialist and hates wealth and creativity....
The French love leaders that give them the appearance of strength, even if it brings them to disaster, and in front of a strong enemy, they surrender very easily. They surrendered to the Nazis in six days; they have already surrendered to radical Muslims thirty years ago.
The people I meet in France are not ready to fight: they say "soon our women will have to wear scarves, that's life"...
Madelin: It's more necessary than ever to explain to French people why anti-Americanism is stupid. America is our ally and France will be saved only if it stays the ally of the United States....
Roucaute: It's not really the fault of the French people; they receive very bad information and almost all the books they can find in bookstores are anti-American. It's the fault of the politicians who have no courage and explain nothing. It's the fault of journalists who prefer Islam to America because the majority of them have been leftists in the sixties when they were young....
Jean-Francois Revel: France is the prey of an anti-American obsession. For the French, Americans are the enemy they have to hate in every circumstance. They have to hate Americans because Americans are successful, because Americans are powerful, because the French prefer resentment to achievement. They are so obsessed by their hatred of the United States they do not see anymore the real dangers confronting France. It's a very dangerous situation. I do not know how we could go out of this situation. I honestly don?t know if it is even still possible....
Milliere: France has to pay a price for sacrificing freedom and the greatest protector of it.... America would help its French friend if it made it pay a price.
I think the panel focuses too much on Islam and too little on French socialism. Freedom would create carrots that would draw Muslims out of their ghettos and into moderation. A socialist France is doomed with or without Muslims, just as Japan can decline without Muslim immigrants. In France, radical Islam may be catalyzing a quicker downfall, but it is not the cause of that downfall.
The ultimate problem for Europe -- for though the problem is most advanced in France, it is Europe-wide -- is to find the will to care about the future. Too many Europeans care only about the present. When a problem arises, the goal becomes to put it off, hopefully onto the next generation. None of these problems are beyond solution. But there is no desire to solve them. Europe has become simultaneously nihilist and narcissist: its desire is to sleep comfortably, and to drift into a gentle death ...
Milliere is right that if the U.S. were well disposed to France, then a dose of "tough love" to expose the truth and punish irresponsibility would be a kindness. But I don't think the U.S. can afford to put France's fate at the top of our foreign policy agenda: we have more pressing concerns. Our concerns may be best served by letting those who want to die, sleep. France is going to have to help herself.
MORE:
Is Europe a Province of Islam? The Danger is Called Dhimmitude (Sandro Magister, Express Online)