In case my previous post a week ago didn’t make it clear, the situation in France makes me incredibly sad and angry.
I’m sad that not enough of the French youth understands that, without an economic incentive to hire young employees, companies simply will not do it when they might be stuck with someone who has no incentive to do a good job. Sad that, as the chancellor of Oxford said, young French men and women are becoming so unadventurous that most of them want a government job for life, a job from which they can never get fired. Is there no competitive spirit left? Is there no desire to be given responsibility, responsibility which inevitably comes with accountability? What possible goal in life could you have if you never want to risk anything?
And I’m angry that those folks who do understand the above got silenced, once again, by the overly powerful French unions, by the protesters who blocked high schools. This is unacceptable. It wasn’t okay for the protesters in the Fall to set cars on fire, and it certainly isn’t okay for protesters today to prevent honest, hard-working other citizens from going about their daily lives, whether that is getting to work or getting to school so they can learn something (like, say, economic theory.)
Being angry does not give you the moral upperhand. Being loud does not make you right. Deciding that your point of view is more important than your neighbor’s right to live his daily life is wrong. When did civil disobedience become a “right?” The entire point of civil disobedience is that you’re ready to go to jail for that issue, but these protesters are blocking high schools, blocking roads, violating others’ freedoms, and there are no sanctions, there are no arrests, except maybe if you destroy a car.
On this issue, I am ashamed of being French.
Benlog 