Luc Brunet – 10 February 2016
An article on France published in French on www.europesolidaire.fr last April.
As usual, I observe events in Europe from Moscow, my city of residence for 23 years, and my point of view is undoubtedly influenced by this voluntary exile and by my experience in Russia.
However, I do my best to understand the developments that have taken place in Europe over the years, as well as the reactions and moods of my former fellow citizens. Even if it may seem easy, I have adopted here a construction a la ‘J’accuse’ by Zola. My style is of course far from that of Zola, but I think that this construction best reflects what I feel. Your turn to judge!
I accuse European leaders of treason
What is the fundamental role of an elected representative, whether at local or national level, or even European? Is he representing and defending the people who elected him, as his name ‘representative’ seems to indicate? My answer to this question is definitely yes.
This role fits in my opinion within the framework of the Nation, or possibly of an association between several Nations, as one could hope with the creation of the European Union. The Nation is indeed, with the national territory, the living environment of those who elected these ‘representatives’ and the economic microcosm in which they live or survive. These elected representatives are of course supposed to defend the interests of all, whether entrepreneurs, craftsmen, workers, civil servants, the unemployed, young and old. Of course the exercise is complicated, but no one said that leading a country was a cakewalk.
Observing French and European elected officials for a few years, however, gives a completely different impression.
What did Hollande promise you before being elected? Remember ‘my enemy is Finance’. A silly sentence in itself, but which, put in the context of the post-2008 financial crisis, gave the impression that the new government was going to be tougher on the financial powers and adopt a policy closer to that of Iceland which let some of its banks fail, putting a few bankers behind bars along the way.
…Betrayal of his promises and betrayal of his voters
Do you remember the speeches on the export of Democracy in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and more recently in Syria?
Do you remember the incantations on the virtues of these ‘liberating’ wars against tyrants that the same ones embraced some time earlier? But since moral values are elastic like an old chewing gum, these same people receive the bearded and so friendly leaders of Qatar or Saudi Arabia, hoping to sell them a few helicopters, as we had sold to Saddam or Gadaffi. If a small Legion of Honor can help, we do not hesitate.
…Betrayal of the principles of Democracy and betrayal of geostrategic allies as soon as they no longer serve
How many times have you been told of a return to growth or a drop in unemployment, of course if you make extra efforts?
…Betrayal by lying
How can a man like Valls joke during a meeting with workers, saying that he too has a CDD (temporary job contract)? Does he remember that he, even with having been ‘fired’, will continue to receive a cumulative pension as Prime Minister. Under these conditions, everyone would like to have a CDD!
…Betrayal by indecency and total contempt for blue collar workers
And finally what are these elected officials doing to protect populations from terrorist acts? Even if of course 100% security is impossible, I was very surprised during a visit to Paris at the end of March, after the attacks in Brussels. The forecourt of Notre-Dame was cordoned off, creating a long queue. Soldiers were nearby, armed with automatic rifles, but screening was very rudimentary, and no security gate was in sight. At the Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre, we didn’t even see a single policeman and we could have entered without any problem with a few kilos of explosives. Compared to what I see every day in Moscow, the measures in France seem mainly intended to impress the crowds! As for plans aimed at tackling the conflicts at the origin of terrorism, or at confronting the financiers of this terrorism, not a trace.
…Betrayal of the duty of protection.
I accuse the French media and intellectuals of lies and single thought
All Western mainstream media of course largely avoid questioning the ‘system’, the quasi-religious faith in irreversible globalization, unregulated financial neo-liberalism, and the fact that actions and wars waged by the west are for the good of humanity. Even when the truth appears later, they are careful not to broadcast it on the evening news.
One can however hear in the United States, and in quite a few European countries, dissident voices, like Greenwald or Chomsky in the United States, and whose words and writings are relatively well diffused. In France, on the other hand, these dissident voices are well set aside and rarely appear in the mainstream media. Even Emmanuel Todd has been heard very little since the publication of his book on Charlie, which shocked many Parisiens Bobos (boheme bourgeois). Where are the great French intellectuals, land of freedoms? Where are the Sartres, the Camus or the Zola of the 21st century? Not available, but we have a BHL in stock…
Reading the European media leaves you speechless. The enemies of the system are systematically accused of war crimes, of having dictatorial regimes, of not respecting international rules, and the list is endless. The friends of the system, or at least those who are classified in the ‘friends’ box, are entitled to all possible extenuating circumstances. If Saudi women are veiled and cannot drive a car, it is because of respectable centuries-old traditions. If Russian women put on a headscarf to enter a church, it is a sign of a retrograde, authoritarian society that is deeply hostile to European ‘values’. The worst part is that I’m not even exaggerating in this example!
Not only do the media lie and distort present events, but they have selective memory. When their conclusions and predictions are completely contradicted by reality, they do everything not to talk about it and everything that does not confirm the editorial ‘line’ is forgotten, neglected, distorted. Pravda was no better in the 1960s.
I accuse the European middle classes of cowardice
The passivity of the middle classes in Europe frightens me. I speak of the middle classes because it is always from them that the waves of change have started over the centuries, the most disadvantaged classes being illiterate a few centuries ago, and today lobotomized by television and the medias, leading to the same result.
Of course, some, and I think many among our readers, are aware of the issues and some are active on the Internet or in associations. But it must be recognized that most of the middle classes are above all clinging to their way of life, trying at all costs to prolong the game, to avoid unemployment, repeating to themselves that after all the crisis will pass like the other times. Young people are the only ones who have recently been active in the streets, but very few adults are sufficiently concerned to go and demonstrate, even if, and I admit it, the protest movements themselves seem disconnected from reality. But after the revelations of the Panama files, who went to demonstrate under the windows of the politicians in question? The Icelanders in large numbers, the English on the sly, the others stayed by the fireside.
Unlike the Russian people, who have lived through terrible upheavals since the 80s, the European people think that their way of life will remain the same forever, and that they cannot fall back into poverty. Europeans are rocked by the songs of their politicians and their media, smoky and numb.
This passivity is also bought by simulacra of ‘liberal’ reforms such as marriage for all, wanting to demonstrate to Europeans that all other systems are oppressors of minorities, and therefore harmful. But what is marriage worth for all when marriage among heterosexuals is in freefall and when more than half of French children are born today to unmarried parents? Minorities have been lulled and smoked with devalued ‘gifts’ of no consequence to the ruling classes.
The French as a society have not even succeeded in bringing new faces into the political world, and continue to hesitate between the right of the Republicans and the PS. The so-called out-of-system parties like the National Front are in fact only stale anti-system politicians dreaming of entering the system. The US, for its part, has spontaneously generated two anti-system leaders, Trump and Sanders, who we may like or dislike, but who radically stand out from the classic Clinton candidates. Will they be safe from electoral manipulation and assault rifle bullets, time will tell. Even the United Kingdom has its anti-system heroes like Farage or Corbyn, or the Germans with Wagenknecht. In France – nothing – silence – everything is fine.
My European friends, and in particular the French, where has your taste for Freedom, for protest, gone?
What remains of the sovereignty of your state and your cities?
Have you completely abdicated and put your future in the hands of your (badly) elected masters?