Remember Russel Brand’s demand for a Socialist revolution a few months back? In his 4500 word essay published in the New Statesman, he called for “total revolution of consciousness and our entire social, political and economic system.” He then goes on to propose the question, “Is Utopian revolution possible?” His delusional tangent gained incredible support from young Americans.
A recent Pew Poll has shown that 49% of American’s aged 18-29 now favor socialism and 47% view capitalism negatively. This poll confirms that Brand’s idea might end up picking up further momentum. What surprises me is that Brand, along with a vast majority of the youth, are unaware that their idea for revolution isn’t original. France is reaping the consequences worse than ever from the unorthodox movement of May, 1986.
There isn’t a clear explanation as to what provoked these spontaneous strikes and protests in student activists and over 11,000,000 workers in 1986. They protested multiple different ideologies established by left activists: revisionist socialists, Trotskyists, Maoists, anarchists, surrealists and Marxists. Some appeared anti-industrial, anti-institutional, even anti-rational. Many critics considered it to be just a Freudian act of rebellion towards mom and dad or a childish re-enactment of the Storming of the Bastille. It also may have been, paradoxically, an unwitting reinforcement of the individualist consumer capitalism that it claimed to oppose.
Regardless of what the root cause was, the French government is now one of the most established welfare states and in response, its citizens are now fleeing. 26,000 French families left the country in 2010 and an additional 35,000 in 2011. President Francois Hollande received approval from the country’s constitutional court to proceed with his plan to tax salaries above 1 million euros at 75% causing most businesses to pull out.
John-Philippe Delsol warns Americans, “The US is following in the footsteps of France with Obamacare and an exploding welfare state that will be unsustainable. The French can teach the US a thing or two about the trap of the welfare state and how hard it is to escape.”
Millennials especially need to be warned that a welfare state isn’t the “utopia” they imagined. While a majority of the American youth is rejoicing in the idea of socialism, the French youth are, or wishing, they could escape it. A poll has shown 50% of 18-24 year olds and 51% of 25-35 year olds would if they could leave France.
France’s young people have become hopeless in the possibility that they can succeed and prosper in their own country.
An article on Alochonaa entitled “French Identity, Globalisation & Unemployment – Gloomy Prospects For The French?” tells the story of a young French woman gives insight on what it means to be French and lashes out on her government. She hilariously expresses her contempt for her government by declaring, “They have made France the b*tch of Europe – and worse one who pays to be abused… we have so many different social welfares available, that almost anyone can come to France, and will somehow receive free money without having to work.”
Taking a more serious tone, she goes onto to talk about the inequality, corruption, selfishness, and censorship she sees in her government. She concludes by declaring “being French is a paradox – we have a brilliant past with no future.”
Is America heading towards a similar fate?
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