Aloha,
Re: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M9P0kLxElY
Thanks Fred for the London explainer of rise of the Zemmour comet in the French
political firmament. He is bad news indeed - if you ask me. But also very
temporary so.
Looking at the Zemmour phenomenon, a Zhou Enlai quote (yes, him! ;-) may be
appropriate. Asked what his take was on the French Revolution, he replied "it
is too early to decide". And yes, the French Revolution is still not over,
there is still a solid core in French society that rejects its values of
'liberty, equality, and fraternity'. That part of France gave us the Vichy
regime during WWII (which even abolished the 'Republic' and replaced it by the
'French State' (slogan: 'work, family, fatherland' ). These are the
'conservative', I'd say reactionary, values promoted by Eric Zemmour and his
ilks.
Zemmour is being portrayed as an 'intellectual' (also in the YT clip above),
but he's rather an anti-intellectual one - not an uncommon phenomenon, btw, and
as so many more, he also will describe himself as 'anti-political' ... He also
appeals to the 'higher layers of society', loath to be associated with the
vulgarity of populist politicians (in France the Le Pen family) and its
supporters, even though their largely share their ideas. Hence the comet-like
rise of such 'acceptable' extreme-rightists, syphoning of voters of traditional
right-wing parties who had not dared to cross-over yet, despite their parties
having increasingly espoused the same political ideas, bashing immigrants,
established foreigners / ethnic minorities (without saying so too openly),
'sexual deviants' (LGBTQ), and anything left of the center right, described as
'communist' - or worse.
Will Zemmour get elected, or even make it to the second turn? I do not think
so, because there is reason for optimism. We have seen (something like) it
before ... in the Netherlands. There too we had a 'Front National' look alike
political movement (it never registered as an official party), the 'Party for
Liberty' led by Geert Wilders, when quite suddenly, Leiden University lecturer
Thierry Baudet sprang to the fore, attracting Zemmour-like 'better educated'
demographies that Wilders couldn't reach. The same expectations/fears of a
political break-out and shake-up arose. And then the Thierry Baudet machine
emptied like a pierced balloon when Baudet turned gaga voicing increasingly
demented claims around the #1 controversy of the moment: Covid vax or no vax
("The unvaccinated are the new Jews").
I have reasons to believe that Zemmour will follow the same trajectory. 'The
wish is the father of the though' - Dutch saying - of course, but the extreme
right ideology, unfortunately largely presented in India, and also on this
list, is something that rather be commited to the mad house - and ultimately
consigns its political representatives to it - sometimes literally.
My 2 old centimes ...
PS Western Civilization? - a very good idea! - Mahatma Gandhi
