Cities of Darkness
What's going on in France? Theodore Dalrymple answered that question before many people thought to ask it:
Whether France was wise to have permitted the mass immigration of people culturally very different from its own population to solve a temporary labor shortage and to assuage its own abstract liberal conscience is disputable: there are now an estimated 8 or 9 million people of North and West African origin in France, twice the number in 1975—and at least 5 million of them are Muslims. Demographic projections (though projections are not predictions) suggest that their descendants will number 35 million before this century is out, more than a third of the likely total population of France.
Indisputably, however, France has handled the resultant situation in the worst possible way. Unless it assimilates these millions successfully, its future will be grim. But it has separated and isolated immigrants and their descendants geographically into dehumanizing ghettos; it has pursued economic policies to promote unemployment and create dependence among them, with all the inevitable psychological consequences; it has flattered the repellent and worthless culture that they have developed; and it has withdrawn the protection of the law from them, allowing them to create their own lawless order.
No one should underestimate the danger that this failure poses, not only for France but also for the world. The inhabitants of the cités are exceptionally well armed. When the professional robbers among them raid a bank or an armored car delivering cash, they do so with bazookas and rocket launchers, and dress in paramilitary uniforms. From time to time, the police discover whole arsenals of Kalashnikovs in the cités. There is a vigorous informal trade between France and post-communist Eastern Europe: workshops in underground garages in the cités change the serial numbers of stolen luxury cars prior to export to the East, in exchange for sophisticated weaponry.
A profoundly alienated population is thus armed with serious firepower; and in conditions of violent social upheaval, such as France is in the habit of experiencing every few decades, it could prove difficult to control. The French state is caught in a dilemma between honoring its commitments to the more privileged section of the population, many of whom earn their livelihoods from administering the dirigiste economy, and freeing the labor market sufficiently to give the hope of a normal life to the inhabitants of the cités. Most likely, the state will solve the dilemma by attempts to buy off the disaffected with more benefits and rights, at the cost of higher taxes that will further stifle the job creation that would most help the cité dwellers. If that fails, as in the long run it will, harsh repression will follow.
Whether France was wise to have permitted the mass immigration of people culturally very different from its own population to solve a temporary labor shortage and to assuage its own abstract liberal conscience is disputable: there are now an estimated 8 or 9 million people of North and West African origin in France, twice the number in 1975—and at least 5 million of them are Muslims. Demographic projections (though projections are not predictions) suggest that their descendants will number 35 million before this century is out, more than a third of the likely total population of France.
Indisputably, however, France has handled the resultant situation in the worst possible way. Unless it assimilates these millions successfully, its future will be grim. But it has separated and isolated immigrants and their descendants geographically into dehumanizing ghettos; it has pursued economic policies to promote unemployment and create dependence among them, with all the inevitable psychological consequences; it has flattered the repellent and worthless culture that they have developed; and it has withdrawn the protection of the law from them, allowing them to create their own lawless order.
No one should underestimate the danger that this failure poses, not only for France but also for the world. The inhabitants of the cités are exceptionally well armed. When the professional robbers among them raid a bank or an armored car delivering cash, they do so with bazookas and rocket launchers, and dress in paramilitary uniforms. From time to time, the police discover whole arsenals of Kalashnikovs in the cités. There is a vigorous informal trade between France and post-communist Eastern Europe: workshops in underground garages in the cités change the serial numbers of stolen luxury cars prior to export to the East, in exchange for sophisticated weaponry.
A profoundly alienated population is thus armed with serious firepower; and in conditions of violent social upheaval, such as France is in the habit of experiencing every few decades, it could prove difficult to control. The French state is caught in a dilemma between honoring its commitments to the more privileged section of the population, many of whom earn their livelihoods from administering the dirigiste economy, and freeing the labor market sufficiently to give the hope of a normal life to the inhabitants of the cités. Most likely, the state will solve the dilemma by attempts to buy off the disaffected with more benefits and rights, at the cost of higher taxes that will further stifle the job creation that would most help the cité dwellers. If that fails, as in the long run it will, harsh repression will follow.
posted by Kate Marie | 10:25 AM | Permalink
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3 comments
3 Comments:
It occurs to me that the French should have been having the sort of "where are we going with all this?" conversations that have arisen from Peggy Noonan's own (and in my opinion, a bit too dire) column from last week.
Dutch legislators are in hiding for fear of their own Muslim constituents; Danish political cartoonists are in hiding this week after depicting Muhammad in a series of drawings; Paris is dealing with its fourth day of rioting; there were "Asian" riots in the UK just last week--and while we have no such problems here in the States, our European cousins, among them Prince Charles, continue to scold us for our supposed intolerance and simplicity.
All of this on top of the Ponzi scheme that is the western European welfare state, the increasingly cowed citizens who depend on it, the brain-drain from their universities, the growing tyranny of Brussels, and institutions that don't reward innovation...if Europeans don't get their act together and stop taking their own civilization for granted, then their future is bleak--and as a Europhile, I say that sadly and without any trace of schadenfreude.
Sing it, Brother Jeff! I am also a Europhile (well, at least an Anglo- and Italophile), but I'll be snarky enough to note that your characteristic generosity toward the Europeans doesn't seem to be reciprocated by many of those Europeans who make dire predictions about America.
And Prince Charles wagging his finger at us is rich, isn't it?
After I posted my comment, I went out to read the paper over lunch, and I came across a story about the rebuilding and rededication of the cathedral at Dresden over the weekend. "How great," I thought, "that the Germans understand the importance of this cultural landmark." Now, if you look at the online BBC story, you'll learn that the reconstruction was funded primarily by private donations from all around the world. Read the Washington Post story and you discover that more than half of the reconstruction funds came from donors in the United States and Great Britain. Good for us; good for the Brits; but how dismal and apathetic of Germans themselves.
Curious, I checked to see if major American newspapers were covering the Parisian riots, now into their fourth day, but there was nothing in the New York Times, the L.A. Times, the Boston Glove, or the Washington Post. I guess rioting by French Muslims doesn't fit the Euro-narrative preconceived by reporters who romanticize their long-ago semesters in London or Paris. Europeans have no sense of the extent to which they benefit from the American unwillingness to acknowledge the real Europe, warts and all.
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