France’s state-subsidised intellectual elite has united in protest against what it describes as the government’s "war on intelligence". Perhaps following their lead on the war on terror, we should really be talking about the "war" on "intelligence". In any case, around 20,000 intellectuals, academics, writers, film makers and media folk have signed a petition and manifesto in the music magazine Les Inrockuptibles. The signatories denounced the centre-right government’s attempts to dumb down French life with a "coherent policy (designed to) impoverish and weaken every field considered ... unproductive, useless or dissident." Big names on the petition include philosopher Jacques Derrida, film-makers Bertrand Tavernier and Francois Ozon (whose recent work could be said to define unproductive and useless), former culture minister Jack Lang and clapped-out 1968 militant turned MEP Danny Cohn-Bendit.
Usually protests from such heavily-subsidised quarters translate as "give us more money." The current petition is no different. Dreamed up by journalist Sylvain Bourmeau, the manifesto hopes to unite disparate groups who have a gripe with the government. Actors and performers have seen their generous welfare payments cut despite last summer’s strikes. Lawyers feel weakened by a new bill designed to speed up convictions for organised crime. Teachers are unhappy with government plans to reform education. And intellectuals? Well, in France, being an intellectual is a full-time job. Just as one would hope that one’s doctor held certain beliefs if he was to live up to his title, French intellectuals are expected to think in a certain way. Voicing grievances against the government - and America, and business, and popular culture, but rarely against dictators, mass-murderers and terrorists - is simply part of the job. Opposition to economic reform is another article of faith: Jack Lang describes the current government as ’Thatcherite.’
They have been infuriated further by the government’s obvious contempt for their feelings. President Jacques Chirac may be a peerless political player, but he is well known to prefer deep-frying to deep thought. His prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin sees the demise of the 1968 generation as a cause for celebration and has described their ideologies as "manipulative simplifications". Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy is a particular hate figure for France’s elite. Sarkozy too makes no secret of his disdain for the intellectual community, sneering at ’caviar socialists’ who cruise past impoverished hookers on Paris’ ring roads but refuse to do anything about them. He has complained about ’professional civil libertarians’ who oppose his tough line on inner-city crime. Despite - or possibly because of - the intellectuals’ loathing of Sarkozy, he remains by far the most popular of France’s politicians. |