TO THE BARRICADES III

As the riots in France continue to spread, I want to take a moment to reflect on the title of my last two posts, which I have used again for this one.

"To the barricades!" is a phrase that is taken straight from the history of France. It refers to the riots and disorder in Paris after the French were defeated by the Prussians in 1870. That was the Paris of the Commune, a pre-communist radical government formed amid the ferment and deprivation of a Prussian siege. I have used it in the last two posts to refer to the natural human tendency to retreat to one's own pre-conceived notions and the comfort of one's ideological or spiritual comrades in the face of danger, real or perceived.

What is happening in France is just another manifestation of that human phenomenon. The young people of North African or Arab descent who live in France have for many years found themselves stuck, physically, intellectually, and spiritually as well as economically. They live in a nation that has warehoused them in suburban ghettos and then pretended that they were "French", in the most absurdly secular meaning of the word. But these young people know that the concept of "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite" is a hollow one for them. The government pays them lip service by providing a social welfare net, but it surely appears to them not as a safety net, but rather a fishing net, and they are the fish. Trapped in a country that will not allow them economic or social access, and unable to return to their ancestral homes (after all, these young people were born in France, which would make them as much the outsider in Algeria or Morocco or Cameroon as any of their lighter-skinned countrymen), they have reacted by going "to the barricades". In this sense, they are acting very "French". Their version of the barricades is the act of arson, whether it is cars, buses or buildings.

The thing to watch for as this moves forward is whether or not the violence, and the establishment's reaction to the violence, will change the character of the Muslim community in France. Until now, that community has remained within its ghettos, accepting its lot. This may now no longer be possible. Because "to the barricades" also means choosing sides. The character of the violence will reach a tipping point if the middle-aged Muslims choose to join, even if only spiritually, the rioters. Then France will be faced with a true crisis and, perhaps, a true revolution.