Generals: Stop National Disintegration Or Face Civil War

No, not our own Deep State commanders speaking. That was the message in a letter that French generals sent to the young little guy with the old wife, in Paris. 

Apparently the French military is one of those all chiefs and no--um, Native Gauls?--outfits. There are said to be thousands of retired French generals. Well, from what I hear we're getting to that point, too--so, no aspersion intended.

The major point in this is: How did the French public react, given that France does have a bit of a history of military involvement in politics?

Majority Of French Agree With Military Generals That Nation Is Nearing "Civil War", New Poll Finds

...

A survey by Harris Interactive found that 58% of respondents “support the words of the soldiers,” reports Valeurs.

A clear majority – 84% – said violence was increasing in society and 73% thought the country was disintegrating.

Almost three quarters think the “anti-racism” movement is having the opposite impact and making race relations worse.

Almost half (49%) also think that the military should be sent in to occupy problem areas, “which would act on its own to restore order.”

Only one in three respondents said the signatories should be punished, despite the minister in charge of the armed forces, Florence Parly, indicating that active duty members would face sanction.

Maybe Macron needs to launch a Domestic War on Terror. But that remedy can prove dicey--the military could heed the voice the people and "act on its own to restore order." It wouldn't be the first time by a long shot, and surely not the last.

The Elite And Control

I've been having some right hand, arthritis related, problems lately. Last night, having overdone mousework during the day (I'm trying to integrate more keyboard shortcuts) I decided to try reading some Christopher Lasch--whom many praise. I tried The Culture Of Narcissism: American Life In An Age Of Diminishing Expectations (1973), but found it turgid. So I picked up The Revolt Of The Elites And The Betrayal Of Democracy (1994). That, so far, is much more to my taste and has the advantage--again, so far--of being far more connected to our current situation. I was struck by this passage in the first chapter which, in a partial way, plays into the themes we explored a bit yesterday (The Plight of Privileged Private Education):

Control has become [the Elite's] obsession. In their drive to insulate themselves from risk and contingency--against the unpredictable hazards that afflict human life--the thinking classes have seceded not just from the common world around them but from reality itself.

The culture wars that have convulsed America since the sixties are best understood as a form of class warfare, in which an enlightened elite (as it thinks of itself) seeks not so much to impose its values on the majority (a majority perceived as incorrigibly racist, sexist, provincial, and xenophobic), much less to persuade the majority by means of rational public debate, as to create parallel or "alternative" institutions in which it will no longer be necessary to confront the unenlightened at all. (20-21)

Lasch speaks, even two and a half decades ago, of a growing 'populist' sentiment in America. He describes the Elite's obsession to control not only their own lives but the lives of their children as well--to guarantee their children's place within a type of hereditary or, at the least, ideological elite. That certainly resonates with Bari Weiss's description of the privileged parents, who will tolerate or remain silent about almost anything in order to ensure their own and their children's continuing elite status. Of course the children are insulated from Deplorable America by attending the right Left schools, as the parents are by living in Holmby Hills. Above all, however, these are class markers, and these parents are engaged in a gentrified form of class warfare.

Now, it's true that we're seeing far more aggressive efforts on the part of the Left to coerce the majority. Note that well. The Left is not engaged in what Lasch calls "rational public debate." In fact, "rational public debate"--how surprised would Lasch really be at this development?--is now viewed as an instrument of White Supremacy by the people who run elite schools and most of our public life. They are interested in conditioning, control, coercion--they feel that they have an ascendancy fueled by social media. But at bottom this is still mostly a defensive effort at insulation from the real world, as Lasch says.

A Barometer Of Despair

I just read an interesting article that addresses something that's been on my mind all during the lockdowns:

Experts sound the alarm on declining birth rates among younger generations: "It's a crisis"

The article works off an interview with a USC professor who studies demographic trends, Dowell Myers. While most experts expected the lockdowns to lead to a baby boom--nothing else to do, when you're shut up at home. That didn't happen. 

New data is confirming [that] a baby boom that some doctors expected was actually a "baby bust." Health departments in more than two dozen states provided records to CBS News, showing a 7% drop in births in December — nine months after the first lockdowns began. 

Researchers say it continues a much bigger plunge in fertility in recent decades.

The reason?

It’s not the main reason births have declined during the pandemic, but social distancing doesn’t exactly lend itself to romance.

No, the main reason seems to be an increase in anxiety and insecurity--financial concerns.