LISTS OF THE DISLOYAL HAVE BEEN COMPILED

Not going out again today, although I have plans for later in the week. As to the preoccupations of today, I am nonplussed by the goings on France. There is clearly across the globe a great deal of dissatisfaction with a variety of governments and failures to deal with economic stability, or at least an  economy that allows the average person’s income to buy food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, security, travel to and from work and have funds left over for saving as well as rest and recreation, without having to worry about expenses outstripping their expectations.

One has to acknowledge that most societies believe that their governments are to a large extent responsible for providing some of these requirements, or are, at the very least, capable of providing the facilities and circumstances to allow the populace to fulfil their expectations. 

In today’s world much is expected of governments, even though many aspects of life are impossible for a democratic government to control. Human behaviour is as difficult to predict as it is to control. Societies who live by the rule of law and duty of care, expect fellow citizens to behave in a civilised manner and stand by the implied covenant of citizenship to abide by that rule of law and duty of care. So long as there is some equilibrium between individuals, or a striving towards equality backed up by their government, then some kind of stability will survive. 

The perceived failure of governments by sections of the population can cause criticism, complaints  leading to protest and demonstrations by the individuals feeling aggrieved. This is accepted as a human right and indeed generally encouraged by governments in order to be better informed as to how their stewardship of the country is progressing, and to be able to find ways of fixing the problems complained of. 

The problem arises however, where inequalities persist and are enlarged and exacerbated by time. Where government solutions have been inadequate or failed completely, then protest can become more pronounced and frustrations can lead to serious malcontent, thoughtless violence and a breakdown of adherence to the rule of law and duty of care. 

The questions asked, if they are asked at all, are: “Why should I stick to the rules if by keeping to the rules I’m still overlooked and get nowhere in my life?”, and “What do I need to do to get noticed?” Discontent that leads to despair and violence unfortunately is like an epidemic and the contagion of mindlessness can spread and generally leads to violence, destruction and a complete loss of decorum.. Wholesale looting and pillaging are all that remains. The so called integrity of the mob takes over. 

The ‘government’ is then in the invidious position of having to restore order and at the same time claiming that it is capable of solving the problems that are at the root of the outburst, only once it has actually found the root cause. One has to, of course, try to understand just what is being achieved by the burning of vehicles in the squares and actually destroying buildings and bus shelters. To what purpose is that being done? One has seen that time and again with riots. In effect the burning down of ones own house. Why? It makes no sense.  

There are those who say, the hell with understanding, we will restore order. We will clamp down on all until every thing is back to normal. This reestablishment of ‘order’ is the sort of order we have seen countless times before in Stalin’s Russia, Hitler’s Germany, Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker  in East Germany, where the Staatssicherheit (Stasi = Secret Police) employed ordinary citizens to spy on each other. That is what restoring order is all about. IT is what Trump hopes his ICE agents will become and indeed are becoming. This is the playbook of the far right. ‘Because  the liberal left is disorder and chaos and unable to resolve problems, we will step in and bring order back to society’. It would seem the signs are there all over Europe, with the present move towards the right in Germany and the burgeoning mobs in the UK brought about through Reform and Restore. We now have, as a result of mob violence in France, a prediction of the election of Marine Le Pen as future president. All in the name of the restoration of order. 

What started out as a protest by young students to have their school buildings made secure and up to date, to have more teachers and smaller classes, to have a better learning environment - and just generally shake up the powers that be into doing better with education - it has escalated into workers pensions and rights, cost of living protection and a general discontent about living conditions in the inner cities and the surrounding suburbs of the larger cities. Those peripheral housing estates which have become difficult and perhaps repositories of forgotten people. 

This is not like the Gillet Jaune or Les événements of May 1968. This is something very different and much more worrying. Is it any wonder the French are perplexed. Those previous demonstrations had a wider goal to do with social issues and group concerns, whereas this current violent raging seems much more to do with individual selfishness as opposed to selfless. It may have started out as ‘one for all and all for one’, but it has turned into reacting in the style of a disgruntled Trump. It is all about the ‘me me me’. I may be all wrong about this, but it is what appears to be the case. 

La République Française is a vital nation in this world. Its culture and history are an essential part of the development of democracy and human rights. It has taken many blows throughout its long journey towards a better democracy and a ‘joy de vivre sans pareil’. Like anywhere there are the seekers of dictatorship and bigotry, but they are outnumbered, at least for now. ~It would be very sad to see that disappear. The city of Paris is jewel in any crown, it would be tragic if it were to disappear under a cloak of despotism and return to grey. I cannot imagine what it must have been like during the occupation of 1940-44. I can only say Vive La France, Vive La France Libre!

As usual there is a film clip that speaks of the potential of dictatorships, hence the tile of this blog: