Is Paris Churning?

I have watched with fascination the recent unrest in Paris and other places in the Fifth Republic. Before, however, I make any comments, let me repeat my well-worn mantra that, "I am not an expert on France and don't pretend to be one." If you want expertise, do what I do, and read the excellent NO PASARAN blog.  There you will find spot-on analyses of what is happening in France, and how it is being misreported by the MSM. You might also want to give a read to the always fun and insightful Canadian The Rebel Media. They have posted some terrific raw video of the demonstrations in Paris and provided excellent commentary on what is happening. I will refer back to that video.

These sorts of events prove tough to place in their proper order of historical importance. I want neither to exaggerate nor minimize the impact of the current disturbances in France. Do they rate with those of May 1968? The February and June rebellions of 1848? The Paris Commune of 1871? A re-run of 1789? Perhaps it is just an ordinary, run-of-the mill street riot? I will let others more knowledgable decide, but, naturellement, that won't stop me from opining.

Now, to what I think I know.

France is in real trouble. I mean REAL trouble. That once great country, in fact, is dying. It, along with most of the rest of Europe, has a worthless leadership class that, as we saw at the WWI commemorations, sees nationalism as a bad thing. That leadership argues that true patriotism means going along with the elite's efforts to kill the sense, the very idea of nation; it means allowing one's culture, traditions, and history to be wiped away, and rewritten to justify the on-going social, economic and political destruction. To object, for example, to the importation of hundreds-of-thousands of poor, illiterate and often violent migrants from some of the most failed countries on earth, many espousing an ideology of hatred for all that France and Western Civilization represent, makes you a vile racist and a deplorable, one who should not be heard, a "far right" pariah. In other words, Citizen,  fermé la bouche and let your betters decide for you. Nothing to see, keep moving. Leadership should be left to the professionals; do not attempt decision-making at home . . .

The immediate cause of the disturbances in France is, of course, the "green tax" that the government sought to impose on French people. In the name of protecting Gaia, the already sky-high fuel prices in France were to be hit with additional taxes. That, however, is only the tip of the iceberg. The foolish economic and social policies of France (and the EU) are making average French people into poor people. To an even greater extent than we have seen on these shores, the middle class is being eliminated, ground into dust. I read some interesting stats on France which now I can't find that showed that the average French citizen is out of money by the 20th of the month. Of course, it's all very different if you have a senior government or EU job. As one of the Diplosons commented to me the other day, "What does a young Frenchman do to accumulate wealth?" Most avenues to potential wealth are heavily taxed, regulated, or otherwise controlled and put out of the reach of the average person. The French education system is a leftist disaster--Perhaps even worse than ours? Hard to believe--and produces the usual crop of highly credentialed and useless morons now standard fare in the West. On top of it all, the chocolate on the soufflé, France continues to support the immigration of other countries' poor. What possibly could go wrong? Rhetorical question, folks, the list of answers is too long . . .

Back to the riots. One thing that struck me was some Rebel Media video in which you can see, through the swirling clouds of tear gas, demonstrators waving the Tricolor and hear them--gasp!-- singing La Marseillaise, arguably the most stirring national anthem in the world. I am not French and don't pretend to be, but that gave me goose-bumps. It, more importantly, also showed that these are not your run-of-the-mill Antifa-type thugs on the street. We might be seeing the rise of militant nationalism in revolt against the elitist globalism that has ruled and ruined the West for the past fifty or so years. De Gaulle would have been proud . . .

France's absurd President Macron has backed off for now on the new taxes--Gaia can wait, I guess. I don't think, however, that he and his fellow "leaders" have gotten the message. Perhaps France needs a President Trump to drive home that it's time to Make France Great Again? I also wonder how a Frexit vote would look? Fat chance that will be allowed . . . so, France continues to churn.

California should emulate the French citizens in the street. Right.