France 2.0 is "tres Americaine"

Opinion: A new France seeks to emulate the worst of what America has to offer.

Mort RosenblumAugust 29, 2009 07:57Updated May 30, 2010 12:06

A man smokes a cigarette during a demonstration by more than 350 tobacconists in Lille, France on Nov. 6, 2006, to protest the French government's now existent smoking ban. The red words on the sign read: "And my freedom?" Not everybody is in favor of the cultural changes in France. (Pascal Rossignol/Reuters)

PARIS — A recent headline in Figaro proclaimed: World Ends; No Survivors. Actually, it said stores could now open on Sunday. But, for many, both amount to the same thing.

The French are not generally wild about being told what to do — or not do. Yet every week, it seems, the Juggernaut of global change mows down something sacred.

And now even Sunday lunch, where families bond and pass along tradition, is falling victim to people who see “24/7” as a universal measure of progress.

Take Gustave, the unhappy headhunter I met at a beachside cafe near St.-Tropez. Gentle and wry, he is old enough to recall his joy when Allies stormed Normandy.

He admires America but not its profit-obsessed model. As he sees it, an imported scourge of heartless executives, soulless technology and moralizing nanny-state authorities is ruining the nation that civilized the rest of us.

Because France apes the United States, he said, mass mediocrity blunts a quest for individual excellence. That old joie de vivre is waning fast. “France is now a police state, thanks to you Americans," he said. Gustave glanced around for cops before lighting his pipe and then grimaced at the big black words – Fumer Tue (Smoking Kills) – stuck onto the tobacco package.

“Everything is forbidden,” he said. “Liberte is over. Egalite? Hah. That’s for the rich. Big business and government run France. As for fraternite, forget it.”

Such grumbling at outside influence has made France French since Asterix directed rude gestures at the Romans. Yet there is some substance to the complaint.

France 2.0 still provides free healthcare and higher education for all. But, more and more, workers are seen as components of production rather than humans with families.

Global hard times are part of it. Gustave, for instance, finds plenty of talented heads but few corporate bodies on which to stick them.

In Paris and workaday cities from Lille to Marseille, visceral reaction to a meaner, leaner France has led to scattered violent protest.

Beyond the economy, people are seeing cultural underpinnings come loose. Surface signs suggest a tectonic shift deep down in the heart and belly of France.

When Domino’s first opened in Paris, its slogan seemed to be: “If your pizza is not there in 30 minutes, go (expletive) yourself.” Now there seems to be a celebration of fast food and there are Subways by the metro.