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Sure but the country is not a war zone. At the moment, actual physical violence is mostly limited to fights between young protesters and the police in some subu

Sure but the country is not a war zone. At the moment, actual physical violence is mostly limited to fights between young protesters and the police in some suburbs. It's the usual misguided answer to a sadly very real issue except it's harder to reason with kids.

paganel 3y ago
“Kids” who play video-games, I presume. Macron’s paternalistic tone won’t help France one bit, it wasn’t “kids” who just beat two off-duty cops in Marseile (one of them was left unconscious on the street), it wasn’t a “kid” the guy screaming “les arabes vous enkulent!” while live-streaming the whole thing.
- orwin 3y ago
  Depends on what you call 'kids'. To me it seems way different than 2005. I was working (illegally, I was 15 and unpaid) with my father in a 'quartier ZEP' to help kids do their homework (we also played sport, board games and taught 'La vie en communauté' in general). For some reasons, I'm at the same place 18 years later, and it's not the same public. I'm living right in front of were the 'chaos' was last night. It feels way younger (I might just be way older, but truth to be told, I don't think it's that), more diverse (not just concerning the skin color and the religion, more socially diverse especially), more frantic, more violent at times but less focused. That might end in like two days. It doesn't feel like the usual social crisis. I'm not sure it's social at all. It might be mostly generational. I think they are scared. Also, we're back to the 70s it seems. Michel Rocard's inheritance is definitely gone. I'm afraid we're becoming the US in Europe, it surely seems we're racing the British toward that goalpost.
- WastingMyTime89 3y ago
  It's nothing to do with paternalism. Anyone who has ever worked as a teacher in the suburbs of Paris or has an actual understanding of what's happening gathered outside of the very right wing news channels could tell you that violence is now carried by younger and younger individuals. You can listen to Martin Aubry explaning what's happening in Lille for exemple. But sure, as usual, the average French (nowadays 50-ish, dubiously educated, enjoying a remarkable prosperity which decades of chronic mismanagement have made but a dream for their own children) will blame the "foreigners". The right will complain that the country is too laxist while ignoring the real issue of police violence and more broadly police management. The left will blame the government while ignoring that policies they themselves put in place are a large part of the social problems creating the current situation and remain in denial of, well, modernity. Peace will more or less be back in a fortnight and things will resume their usual course towards utter irrelevance and failure. Gosh, I hate this country.

paganel 3y ago

“Kids” who play video-games, I presume. Macron’s paternalistic tone won’t help France one bit, it wasn’t “kids” who just beat two off-duty cops in Marseile (one of them was left unconscious on the street), it wasn’t a “kid” the guy screaming “les arabes vous enkulent!” while live-streaming the whole thing.

orwin 3y ago
Depends on what you call 'kids'. To me it seems way different than 2005. I was working (illegally, I was 15 and unpaid) with my father in a 'quartier ZEP' to help kids do their homework (we also played sport, board games and taught 'La vie en communauté' in general). For some reasons, I'm at the same place 18 years later, and it's not the same public. I'm living right in front of were the 'chaos' was last night. It feels way younger (I might just be way older, but truth to be told, I don't think it's that), more diverse (not just concerning the skin color and the religion, more socially diverse especially), more frantic, more violent at times but less focused. That might end in like two days. It doesn't feel like the usual social crisis. I'm not sure it's social at all. It might be mostly generational. I think they are scared. Also, we're back to the 70s it seems. Michel Rocard's inheritance is definitely gone. I'm afraid we're becoming the US in Europe, it surely seems we're racing the British toward that goalpost.
WastingMyTime89 3y ago
It's nothing to do with paternalism. Anyone who has ever worked as a teacher in the suburbs of Paris or has an actual understanding of what's happening gathered outside of the very right wing news channels could tell you that violence is now carried by younger and younger individuals. You can listen to Martin Aubry explaning what's happening in Lille for exemple. But sure, as usual, the average French (nowadays 50-ish, dubiously educated, enjoying a remarkable prosperity which decades of chronic mismanagement have made but a dream for their own children) will blame the "foreigners". The right will complain that the country is too laxist while ignoring the real issue of police violence and more broadly police management. The left will blame the government while ignoring that policies they themselves put in place are a large part of the social problems creating the current situation and remain in denial of, well, modernity. Peace will more or less be back in a fortnight and things will resume their usual course towards utter irrelevance and failure. Gosh, I hate this country.