The recent one-day work strike in France was a clear message to Premier Nicolas Sarkozy: the French do not welcome the adoption of American ideals to their nation. Since assuming office, Mr. Sarkozy has for weeks taken measures that many viewed as inherently pro-American. In the shortness of the protests, though – France is famed for long forceful revolts and revolutions – the French seem to be accepting the precariousness of their economic standing.
France is a nation defined by its past as much as it is by its present. Mention France and vivid images of romanticism, liberalism and intellectuals appear. In popular culture, meanwhile, the French are often parodied as the emblem of snobbery, evident in their taste for the haute couture and classy lavishness.
Modern France, however, is not the economic powerhouse she once was. Unemployment is high and bills of a 35-hour workweek have been enacted to law. One can’t help but wonder if France knows how to overcome her economic quagmire. For a nation that led the Enlightenment, the irony of France’s current situation is that France is confused about her own economic direction.
The global capitalist world is one that demands vigilance and industry. In its perfect form, capitalism asks for a meeting of needs, where a free interaction of mutual wants occurs through the marketplace. Precisely because it is the avenue where buyer meets seller and supply meets demand, exchanges are conducted when both parties are capable of fulfilling these needs. To ensure the smooth operation of this mechanism is to ensure that both parties can deliver the goods.
France’s economic malaise has roots in its labor force. For most people, more work is generally an unwelcome distinction. But as Mr. Roger Cohen, the respected International Herald Tribune columnist, remarked, the French take it to one extreme: they believe that work is an act of “exploitation.” According to the French philosophy, an idle time is the period when the human intellectual capacity is at its most active phase, when man could contemplatively study life’s vagaries and the comprehensively understand societies’ problems. Henceforth, a greater amount of labor is tantamount to serfdom, because man is then deprived the time to reason, to think and to contribute.
Contrast the French sneer to work with the American concept of long working hours. In America, freedom is often equated with the equality of opportunity to climb the social and professional ladder, as long as one is willing to invest the necessary energy and enthusiasm. In France, freedom is defined by the liberty to think independently, comprehend rigorously and act justifiably. This disconnect is a difference in philosophy: The French emphasize an intellectual richness rather than a monetary richness.
And this psyche could probably trace its roots to the nations’ respective national heroes. In the American capitalist mindset, our heroes are frequently the elegantly dressed Wall Street investment executives, the financial planners and the business owners. In France, their heroes are the revolutionary Enlightenment philosophers. Success in France often entails the ability to quote eloquent lines from agricultural peasants at a dinner table.
Mr. Cohen believes that the French renaissance at the world stage is necessary for Europe to finally counterbalance itself as the dual superpower to America. France, he believes, holds the key to this vision. In a way, for France to lead is akin to a Gallic remobilization to re-revolutionizing schools of thought once again. This success will depend on how receptive the French will be towards Mr. Sarkozy’s calls, as legions of thinkers rethink their priorities.
History offers us an insight into the past, but history has a tendency to repeat itself. Long live the republic!
ZACH HAN sneers at the amount of work he has this week, but still welcomes your emails to zklhan@ucdavis.edu.
