Quote:
Originally Posted by 1andrew1
There's an interesting article in the FT talking about the similarities between Britain and France. One thing it mentions is how good the statistical data is in the UK so that we can target spend appropriately whereas in France it's open to more anecdotal direction.
The article concludes
Google: "When it comes to counting, Britain is number one"
https://www.ft.com/content/e276e8aa-...3-17fc62cca79e |
Good article that!
There are some fundamental differences between France and the UK that also come in to play here. Modern France was born of revolution of course and the French culture stems from this. There are two guiding principles from post-revolution times that have the potential to cause conflict. First is that France and the French are one and the same - the country was born from the people. This works both ways so if you are born in France, you are expected to act ‘French’ with no excuses or leeway. Questioning the accepted and expected behaviours is questioning the country itself. This leads to tensions where freedom to act and express yourself in a ‘non French’ way is regarded as a direct affront on the country. It’s not just race and religion here - see how vigorously the French work to defend themselves against the influence of the anglosphere.
The second strand is France being an extremely secular country. Expression of religion is not encouraged. Compare this with the US for example where you would never see an atheist president. In France, an overtly religious president would be very unlikely. Following on from my first point, being openly religious is just not French. This is what lead to the burqa ban in France as the burqa is a clear symbol of religious affiliation. Due to secularism, the state does not fund religious institutions of course. However, there is funding for the grand cathedrals of France for preservation so there is a kind of funding for Christian places of worship through the back door.
Secularism is all well and good (I am very much atheist so have no skin in the game) but if it impacts some religious groups more than others, those groups will feel unfairly marginalised.
France is an unusual country where equality but on French terms stokes division rather than bringing people together. You could indeed argue that not enough multiculturalism is causing the problems in France rather than too much.
Sorry, long post! I find the French culture and attitudes fascinating since I read ‘Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong: What Make the French So French’ by Jean-Benoit Nadeau 20 years ago