BloguesRichard Martineau

Liberté, égalité, médiocrité

The Strangest Revolution the French have ever Produced – Un texte très intéressant sur la crise du CPE qui a bouleversé la France, publié dans le Time Magazine.

Une révoluttion, cette levée des boucliers? Non, une anti-révolution bourgeoise, qui aide les privilégiés du système, et cale les vrais exclus, c'est-à-dire les jeunes immigrants, ceux-là même qui se sont révoltés il y a quelques mois.

À lire!

Extrait:

"The French are justly proud of their revolutionary tradition. After all, 1789 begat 1848 and 1871 and indeed inspired just about every revolution for a century, up to and including the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Say what you will about the outcomes, but the origins were quite glorious: defiant, courageous, bloody, romantic uprisings against all that was fixed and immovable and oppressive: kings, czars, churches, oligarchies, tyrannies of every kind.

And now, in a new act of revolutionary creativity, the French are at it again. Millions of young people and trade unionists, joined by some underclass opportunists looking for a good night out, have taken to the streets again.

To rise up against what? In massive protest against a law that would allow employers to fire an employee less than 26 years old in the first two years of his contract.

That's a very long way from liberty, equality, fraternity. The spirit of this revolution is embodied most perfectly in the slogan on many placards: CONTRE LA PRÉCARITÉ, or "Against Precariousness."

The precariousness of being subject to being fired. The precariousness of the untenured life, even if the work is boring and the boss no longer wants you. And ultimately, the precariousness of life itself, any weakening of the government guarantee of safety, conformity, regularity.

That is something very new. And it is not just a long way from the ideals of 1789. It is the very antithesis.

It represents an escape from freedom, a demand for an arbitrary powerful state in whose bosom you can settle for life."

(Merci à Sylvain Archambault, qui m'a envoyé le texte.)