RECURRENT RIGHT WING NONSENSE

No later than this morning on the french national radio channel, a right wing essay writer was denunciating the abusive influence of islamic culture in some parts of our cities, that supposedly threatens our "french culture". 

The funny thing with right wing people is that they always use the same argument to compete with   oppressive signs of arabic culture such as women's veil : they bring out the best of french history from two hundred years ago. Its always about Racine, Voltaire, Rousseau, the French Revolution, the ideals, the great philosophers. 

They don't talk about the great culture of botox and fake breast, which would be the relevant exemples to compare arabic women condition to, not Voltaire or Diderot.

As it is completely legitimate to criticize oppressive tendancies in islamic culture, it should be done in a fair and relevant way, by opposing and comparing them to something comparable :  external visible signs that would illustrate french culture and women condition as it is today, not historic references of  something that doesn't exist anymore. Or if one could say that what our present time is somehow a product of Voltaire and Rousseau writings, there is a lot more factors that should be taken in consideration to define what "french culture" has become.

French culture of today is nothing to be proud of, as it is an unexciting mix of materialistic concerns and TV fame, people main cultural references being the most embarassing tv shows and hosts, and as for women (since their oppression by the veil seem to gather all the attention) we're so ahead of our time its amazing :  G-strings now available for 8 years old, the apology of being young and sexy, and probably more exemples of women destroyed and ridiculed by esthetic surgery than we have women in veil.

Don't see no Racine or Diderot anywhere.

It is absurd to focus on one oppressing sign (the veil) to dismiss arabic culture and compare it, not to our own deviances and oppressive signs of domination, but to the best exemples of our cultural history.

Right wing thinkers seem to be in denial of their own illusion about what french culture really is. 

Their incoherence doesn't just stop here : they can simultaneoulsy mention their atttachment to the XVIIIe century philosophers in order to disqualify islam and mention their attachement to our catholic tradition (as Sarkozy did), which doesnt make much sense as Voltaire and Diderot were precisely the ones who drove us free from the catholic system by doubting about God existence and the legitimacy of kings rights to rule....

In the end, my personal position is that the veil tradition doesnt threaten me or french women more than the underlying pressure for "being sexy". On the contrary it broadens the scale of choices. We can happily go from one extreme manifestion of male domination to an other.

Lucky us.

AP