Thursday - March 30, 2006Revolution Revisited?: Reflections on the Student Protests in France“No government has ever been
beneficent,” Woodrow Wilson once asserted, “when the attitude of the
government was that it was taking care of the people. The only freedom consists
in the people taking care of the government.”
The French love to be contrary. I'm not talking out of school. I'm telling you what they proudly say about themselves. They are also stubborn and possess a remarkable ability to cling tenaciously to concepts, opinions, and strategies that most of them openly admit no longer serve them. Their recalcitrance has dug them quite a deep hole. There is now so much wrong with the French political, social, and economic systems that finding a coherent place to begin discussion becomes a monumental brainteaser. French students, however, have honed in on one: Dominique de Villepin’s "First Employment Contract," or Contrat premier embauche (CPE), slated to go into effect in April. Will these latest rumblings of discontent in France ultimately erupt into what that nation needs, something wholly new? |