Because You Never Asked

        (This essay was written in 2002, after the surprising electoral showing of one Jean Marie LePen in the French elections of that year. Given the urban rioting that has rocked France in the winter of 2005, propagated by the country’s Moslem immigrants, this essay becomes timely as I put it up on this website.)

     As the writer has moved further into middle age, he has taken on attributes of the migratory bird, a lifestyle he has always looked upon with some degree of envy. This pen is now being put to paper in visual proximity to the azure tones of the Spanish Mediterranean. As has been the case for the last 15 years, this bird has arrived to its early summer home.

     The big story sweeping Europe as I settle in by the Roman Sea is the political success of one Jean LePen, a French fascist truly deserving the title. His ultra-nationalistic, anti-immigrant, anti-crime, throw-them-all-out rhetoric has earned him more votes in the first round of Presidential elections than the traditional left-center Party (the French version of the Democrats), and almost as many as the traditional right-center Party (the French version of the Republicans). This has provided him a place in the runoff election and, for the vast majority of Frenchmen, prolonged this embarrassment for 2 more weeks.

     I am not fond of having my thoughts and ideas labeled as anything more than just that, but we live in an imperfect world. There are those who would put me on the “far left”. I remind the reader that just about everything now occupying the political “center” was once considered the far left, nay, even radical. Notwithstanding this fact, one would assume these developments in France would dishearten me.

     Guess again.

     For one such as I, whose repulsion for business as usual is well documented in this work, any serious assault to the status quo will be looked upon favorably and LePen has landed a telling, if far from mortal blow. The fact that this blow has come from the wrong direction is, at this point in history, less consequential to me than the unrest it has caused. The important thing is to shake things up, to get people out of their NASDAQ-CNN coma. It is an indication of unrest, of an embryonic call to battle, of a mustering of forces from all sides of the political spectrum. It is a challenge to the neo-liberal omnipotence that has currently grabbed the world by the neck. In this sense --- and only in this sense --- I say “Viva LePen”!

     It’s relevant to note that LePen’s election coup is not just a French phenomenon. All the western “democracies” have, in similar degrees, recognizable champions of the so called “extreme right”. In America, Pat Buchanan is the standard bearer and any number of Republican politicians --- Trent Lott, Jessie Helms, Tom DeLay, Dick Armey, Bob Dornan and many others --- would go as far down this road as sensible politics will permit. In Italy, the official ringleader is Humberto Bossi, leader of the secessionist Northern League. The Head of State himself, Silvio Berlusconi --- who is little more than a gangster disguised as a media magnate-politician --- would also, like his just mentioned brethren in America, go as far in this direction as the socio-political climate will allow …

     In fact …

     If we examine the personality of business as usual politics, we might find some clue as to why this stinging blow to the “powers to be” came from the Right, or what we’ve already referred to as the wrong direction.

     Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the political configuration of Occidental politics has been bunched ever more tightly into the center, where the center-right Parties (Republicans, Conservatives, Christian Democrats, etc.) and the center-left Parties (Democrats, Labor, Social Democrats, etc.) wage a quasi-war on a shrinking amount of ideological terrain. This has become the burlesque of western democracy, and it is played well within the borders of neo-liberal socio-economic practice. Anything outside these borders is now considered “radical” and unacceptable.

     But it is not just a question of overcrowding in the center. With the constant erosion of State sponsored social services, jobs and benefits, the center has drifted to the right. The “private sector” has become the heroic warrior of contemporary Occidental politics.

     None of this could have happened without a media establishment easily bent to this reality. As elaborated upon previously in this work (most recently in the long essay “Sept. 11th”), the commercial news sources dominating our public discourse are not just allies of the neo-liberal-globalization-mafia, they march in the same army. They all gain from the same set of circumstances. With the use of their monopolistic ability to deliver their message effectively, they’ve just about eliminated the true left from the debate, not because it has nothing to offer, but because it runs contrary to their interests. “Competition”, “entrepreneurs”, “creativity”, “initiative”, “ambition”, the “individual”, etc., have become the glorified code words propagated by the self interest of corporate greed. (It’s almost as if such concepts have been kidnapped by global economy business interests, as if they can‘t exist outside this context.) Anything having to do with finances, money, business, etc., now coerce an exaggerated chunk of media diffusion. This not only legitimizes, but glorifies their concept of what is good or bad for us. It turns their idea of how we should live into Gospel truth; more jobs, more production, more spending, more consuming = “good”. The opposite = “bad”. For the Wal-Mart masses to understand any more than that is not desirable.

     The neo-liberal globalists have correctly seen the left as the true threat to their interests and they’ve been quite efficient, since the fall of the Wall, in cleaning that mess up. As a result, and probably because the LePens of the world, even if triumphant, are not all that damaging to them, the extreme right has gone unattended to and has been able to throw out some roots. It can be confidently said that the road from Thatcher-Reagan to LePen is shorter and better maintained than the gravelly, pot holed, muddy track, probably with a bridge or two out, that leads from Clinton-Blair to Che Guevara. By now, the latter must be considered impassable. That is why the far left now only exists in the form of marauding, army surplus clad rioters, shunned to the side and marginally covered at the Babylonian armed fortresses that have become the sites of the most important Armani honcho conferences. In stark contrast to this is a well funded, well organized far right operating within the confines of legitimate political theater.

     Perhaps what has just been expressed can be more effectively shown schematically. I will now present 2 charts: one for Europe and one for the United States. “C” will represent the Center. “CR” will represent the limit of the Center-Right. “CL” will represent the limit of the Center-Left. On the Extreme Right: LePen-Buchanan. On the Extreme Left: “Che”. I remind the reader that there are about the same amount of votes on each side of the center line.

 

 

    

     Contributing to this political configuration, in addition to the defamation of the true left by Nike-Microsoft news sources, is the easy to understand message of the far right. It offers simple solutions to the world’s complex problems --- “execute them”, “lock’em up”, “throw them out”, etc. This is why the word “demagoguery” exists.

     At first glance, it might seem peculiar that France, a country that has always been at the front of the line with regard to progressive thinking, be it politically, socially, or artistically, might fall prey to such retro-thinking. The French Revolution could be considered the first salvo fired in the creation of the more liberal, inclusive idea of modern occidental culture. France was the only great power in WWI fighting as a republic and not in representation of a decadent, oligarchic royal class. For centuries now, France has been the preferred refuge for exiles fleeing tyrannical regimes from all over the globe.

     So why France?

     Upon further scrutiny, we see that LePen and his fascists have been able to strike this telling blow because France still is in the vanguard of progressive thought. One must remember that LePen, in qualifying for the runoff, has only polled 17% of the vote. This is not much different than any other western democracy. It is my guess he will not pick up any more votes in the second round. (This proved true). What this means is that LePen’s initial success is the result of a fragmentation of the once solid neo-liberal center. France is the first country where these cracks in the foundation of Thatcher-Reagan ideology (or Clinton-Blair et all.) are beginning to appear. It might be seen as an early warning that the neo-liberal center cannot adequately deal with the world’s problems.

     “Viva Le France“!

     Relevant Material: an elderly man, who had fought on the side of the Republic, reminisces about the Spanish Civil War: “I am red, the same as my father, and proud of it. But in the midst of so much confusion, they called reds red as if it were an insult, with the same hate those who took the power still say it.” From the poetic novel, “Cielos de Barro” (Skies of Clay), by the Spanish woman, Dulce Chacon.