[MD] French ingredient in the soup of sentiments

[Joseph Bromley]

Dear all, I was in France at the time of the student protests, lots of 
people sitting down talking amongst themselves, just as they would anywhere 
else at any other time. The only difference being that they had banners and 
that their location and timing went against the normal patteren of daily 
life. No shouting and bawling slogans as I would expect at an English 
strike. The town wa Nimes near the meditereanian, a town that is very proud 
of its Roman heritage, they still have an ampitheatre in use today! How many 
"modern" stadia will be in use in two thousand years time? The Romans where 
masterers of construction, how much will it cost did not enter into the 
design process, what is it for? how big should it be? how can it be built to 
last? are the valuations, Noble par excellence. No dollar sign just for 
eternity. Life is hard but lets make it beautiful, we all shead blood, sweat 
and tears so let them be worthwhile.

The French have always been more self centered when compared with other 
European races, it is what makes them more cultured. The moral morass spoken 
off in the newspaper article is IMHO an eddy for the revolution, which they 
still view as a good event, and not a step downwards which it was in a way. 
It is glorified on all their coins, or was until the introduction of the 
Euro. The protests and the riots also smell of the revolution, rebellion of 
the unfortunates and the vengeful.

With regards to the students, you can view it in severel ways. It is one 
static patteren of value protesting at a new pattern of value, anything new 
is viewed with suspision, IMHO a very old survival instinct. Most animals 
learn from bad experience at an early age that new things are to be 
treatedwith caution, dogs learn not to catch wasps, cats learn not to jump 
on hedgehogs. We all favour the patterns of value that we hold, weare them. 
The freedom of the employer is of more value than the freedom of the 
individual employees as the employees depend on the employer for their 
employment, as such the government is morally right to instigate the change. 
It should incourage the employee to look over his shoulder at at himself, 
but this is only an ideal, the reality may work put very differently. The 
students are protesting as they have lost some of their traditional right to 
secure employment. The cab driver I spoke to about it seemed inclined 
towards their side, as I suspect many French are.

France for me is the most interesting political scene in Europe at the 
moment. State is trying to become ruler, which again has revolutionary 
roots. This is what I see behind the resent change in employment law and the 
banning of Religious iconography from schools. In France one is first and 
formost a Frenchman. With a devout religious practitioner you are your 
belief system and then a nationality, a conflict of two social values, 
though Pirsig views democracy as intellectual which would make its plan of 
attack moral. It has for many months litteraly been a battle on the streets 
in France, riots, followed by more riots. Will state emerge victorious or is 
France doomed to go backwards yet further down the cultural ladder? Only 
time will tell. My money is on a state victory and then further growth 
intellectualy when victory has been secured.

It is the french self interest that brings them such stick. Why go to Iraq 
we have France?
"They are no longer French fries, from now on they will be merely known as 
fries." or something like that George W Bush, most powerful man on Earth, it 
causes me no end of giggles, how is such a dumb specimen of the sapien 
geneous, general in chief of the worlds most powerful nation??? And people 
wonder why no politician will say "God is dead." They would win very few 
votes, that is what I see a major flaw in democracy, you can not take the 
hard course of action, even if it is the wisest course of action because it 
will "lose" votes. Lets say an intellectual political party where to one day 
form and state how things could be put right, no-one would vote for them 
because they would loose "rights", have to sacrifice for the greater good. 
"No, to hell with them, give me the dumb bastard who will keep things the 
same, even if it runs us into the ground in the long run, even if it is of 
lower quality, I am quite happy with my shallow static values and easy life. 
Why should I have to help set everything right, some other generation can do 
that." All on the never, never, still an idol of a beyond, no personal 
responcibility, no compassion for life in general, no clue about quality.

The French have a love of culture that is rarely found, they have 
periodically revovated their Roman inheritance, possibly more so than the 
Italians. French culture flowered after the Italian renaisance.The park in 
Nimes is a good example of that culture, lots of stone work, water and a lot 
of space. They have even impossed a building standard in the old quarter, 
new buildings have to fit in, not suprising after seeing the ugly post 
second worldwar purple post office, surrounded by beautful mediterianian 
buildings, a real ugly duckling. A far cry from Liverpool the European 
capital of culture, "where anything goes, just get it up yesterday will 
you." Another case of mirth, it is the only defence. What I call culture 
strives for perfection across the board, this is far from evident in 
Liverpool. You have Victoria grandeur, which is about as far as Liverppol's 
roots are tracable at a glance, standing next to glammed up "moden" trash, 
no sign of excellence, no sign of beauty. All the best buildings where built 
on the wealth of the slave trade, just as Roman buildings where built on its 
army and conquered peoples, the Egyptian pyramids on subjugated peoples 
indiginous and foriegn. But slavery has become a bad word, it is against 
human rights. Well it costs beauty in architecture to uphold this right. But 
are not most people a slave to the dollar? Me, I would have the rabble, 
those who operate predominantly on the biolgical level, us their biological 
energy to build great buildings, everyone benefits. The rabble need 
controling, eithout control they breed like rabbits and control the streets. 
But in a demoncracy, all people equal to a vote, they rule, for there are 
more of them. Is this intellectually moral, letting the biological have a 
say on what the intellect can do? Even Socrates and Plato had higher visions 
but the world will have to wait for philosopher kings, or to coin a phrase, 
Arete sapien, an evolutionary step forwards.

Yours sincerely Joseph Charles Bromley. (JCB).

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