An internet post from "American Daily News and Commentary" states: "Admit it. The average American would just like to smack Chirac every time his face is shown on the television screen. Chirac and the French use the U.N. to hang on to what little power France has left, and the fact the United States can survive quite nicely without any help from France just drives the French crazy. How dare the United States be so darn successful!"
Of course the US can survive without France’s help or advice. As the world’s only superpower for the time being, the US can survive without help from any other country. But the author shouldn’t be so convinced that France is jealous of the success of the US. Many in France measure success in terms very different from the way it tends to be measured in the USA. Rather than sitting around consumed with envy of the US, France is thoughtfully carving out its own path, one that we may one day want to consider if Americans finally become fed up with the excesses of the work-obsessed, hyper-materialistic and increasingly uncivil lifestyle we have created for ourselves.
The rejection of the EU constitution is neither a repudiation of globalization nor of Europe. What was rejected was a flawed document that was unassimilable to the citizenry and lacked the structure of a framework of guiding principles that a constitution must have to work. The leaders need to listen to the people and make another attempt at crafting a European constitution.
Globalization is a reality embraced by the elites but also largely accepted by the masses in France. A country the size of France cannot afford to be isolationist. Even José Bové, the famed agricultural activist, is not against globalization. He a self-proclaimed "paysan du monde" ("global peasant"). One can be against a certain manifestation of corporate rule without accountability (call it McDonaldization or whatever you will) but still be a globalist. The French are not anti-global despite the May 29 referendum’s result.
The French do not measure wealth in the same way that Americans often do, i.e. in sales figures of durable goods like new cars, refrigerators, and television sets. The idea of well-being and quality of life is based on factors that go beyond consumption. The idea that France is a country on the dole, where citizens depend on the State to satisfy their every need is simply not true. Ronald Reagan constructed the straw woman of the Cadillac-driving "welfare queen" in the 1980's and in the US successfully discredited the idea of a social safety net benefitting anyone but society’s worst parasites. The French have never bought into the idea that because a system of social assistance can be abused, those with a legitimate need should be deprived of it. A well-managed social safety net benefits even those who do not use it. For example, we pay for the lack of a social safety net in higher healthcare costs as hospitals must pass on to patients with the ability to pay their losses incurred while treating the indigent. We live with higher rates of violent crime since the social fabric becomes frayed in a money-driven culture. Whether you prefer to quote the Bible, the Torah, the Qu’ran, or the Enlightenment philosophers, a lot has been written that backs up the French way of thinking when it comes to social welfare.
As the French seek an alternative path to the unfettered free market and corporate forces that are driving much of today’s globalization, they have better things to do than to be tormented with jealousy of the US. If indeed they were jealous of the success of our money-driven society, they would systematically attempt to emulate it. Why should it bother anyone in the US if they don’t?
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