The French Question

With the riots in France still going strong despite some decreases in violence, many columnists on the right have seized on the violence to reaffirm their views. Among Republicans, the narrative goes something like this: the French people are too weak to impose law and order on the slums encircling Paris, and are paying the price for this weakness. Furthermore, the lax immigration policies of the French have allowed Muslim subcultures to subvert native French culture by refusing to force these minorities to assimilate. Some typical quotes, from a column by Thomas Sowell (column here):

This squeamishness in word and deed [referring to backlash against the labeling of rioters as "scum"], and the accompanying refusal to face blatant realities is also a major part of the background for the breakdown of law and order and the social degeneration that follows.

European countries especially have thrown their doors open to a large influx of Moslem immigrants who have no intention of becoming part of the cultures of the countries to which they immigrate but to recreate their own cultures in those countries.

Of course all of this betrays Sowell's complete ignorance of French culture and politics. Sowell completely ignores the standing French policy of forced assimilation which has attempted to force these immigrants into French customs. Sowell has no idea that many French people are highly xenophobic and hold French culture above all else. This widespread racism and xenophobia is evidenced by the recent near-win of Jean-Marie Le Pen in the presidential election. Le Pen is the openly racist and xenophobic head of the anti-immigrant National Front, and champions the exact policies many right-wingers are pushing for in the U.S. The French government has also gone so far in their cultural cleansing as to prohibit the wearing of religious attire, such as Muslim headscarves, in public schools. This is all exactly what Sowell and other Republicans would do -- use government force to crush anyone who is different or who refuses to conform with politicians' conceptions of what fits a national identity.

What escapes Sowell is that, combined with the rampant poverty and unemployment produced by France's massive socialist bureaucracy, this sort of government suppression of immigrants' identities is sure to breed resentment. Besides being racist and ignorant, attempting to force your culture on others is a sure way to alienate huge portions of society who choose to live their lives as they wish. When the French government creates inescapable poverty caused by foolish socialist programs, and combines it with ignorant, racist programs to force conformity on a population, they get exactly what they deserve -- riots.

Sadly, Sowell and most other Republicans refuse to learn the real lesson of these riots, which is that the government should never attempt to coerce certain cultural characteristics on a population, and that such anti-liberty practices are sure to result only in chaos. Republicans would have you believe that this is more evidence that we need an all-powerful police state to crush everyone into submission. What we really need is to let people live their lives however they choose, and to stop trying to impose politicians' wealthy ruling-class culture on people's diverse and wonderful ethnic traditions.

The entire idea of "if you want to live in our country, you have to live by our rules" peddled by so many ridiculous right-wing pundits and politicians is a worthless statist abstraction built on racism and ignorance, and has no place among those who truly value individual freedom and the right of people to live their lives as they see fit. The government has no legitimate claim to anyone or anything, and has no right to legislate culture any more than it has a right to control speech or any other human freedom.

P.S. Juan Cole also has a good post on French culture, and a good (though a little leftist) take on the events in France. Article here.