Rare birth names. What a fascinating way to measure the degree of individualism in a society. I would never have thought of that, and it’s likely a good proxy.
Yes indeed. But in the French case, until the mid 1970s it was illegal to register a forename that was not on the State’s approved list. My children’s births in England were registered with Breton names that were banned in the country of their mother’s birth. One of her cousin’s married a woman from Tahiti who had to change her name to a francophone one when they moved to France. Any analysis of name changes over time in France needs to take this into account, it was not just about parental choice.
Stephen Walshe
2 years ago
People talk of a two-way split in French society, represented by Macron and Le Pen. But those two won barely 50% of the vote between them on Sunday. Really it was a three way battle with Mélenchon. Whichever two of those camps which combine against the third wins. The broad Right (including Zemmour and Pecresse) won far less support than predicted in the polls – not for the first time recently – with Mélenchon doing far better. Demography is all, and I’m willing to bet that, in the absence of reliable census data, opinion pollsters are underweight Muslims and ethnic minority voters in their samples. For now, the white middle and metropolitan classes, and the white working and rural classes, have herded into two political camps, because both feel the rising challenge of a third group – largely immigrant and very hard left – which on current trends will soon supplant them both.
Exactly. But be careful of putting it so plainly or some moderator will run scared of some hard leftist complainant and pull your contribution – even though you pay for the privilege of making it.
A shame. Even as an Englishman I prefer France to be France. I was rather fond of the place.
Perhaps I see the future of my own country.
Nicky Samengo-Turner
2 years ago
Americanisation has not, thank God affected French levels of education, and I would suggest that France is less ” Americanised” than Britain, with its woke and global warming LGBT and racialism obsessions driven by the moron interweb: having just returned from Italy and France, It is refreshing to note how un Americanised both are in comparison to the Peoples Undemocratic Faux Republiconvenience of nu britn
Jonathan Nash
2 years ago
I lived in Jerez de la Frontera between 2006 and 2012. When I moved there, the town’s annual epiphany parade (Reyes Magos) involved various biblical scenes and used exotic animals from the local zoo (including the elephant) to reproduce the Three Kings arriving in Bethlehem: it was a very Andalusian event. By the time I left it had been replaced with a parade made up of the more popular Ninja Mutant Turtles.
Bennie History
2 years ago
I suppose France has captured America in more ways than just culture. The great divide of the “winners of globalism vs. the losers” is also fragmenting American politics and its people beyond repair.
The elite of America have rallied to one side and turned their institutions against more “average” Americans. Whether it’s the tv news or social media, elitist philosophers that sit in ivory towers ponder on the moral qualities of riots, defund movements, and whether or not it would be generous to let those under them have some relief from the supply chain crisis going on.
While they sit back and argue with each other at the top ordinary people suffer under inflation and gas prices which eat away at their meager budgets.
The reason Le Pen has such a chance in France this time around compared to 2017 is that more and more the “ordinary” person has started to realize that those above them don’t have their wellbeing in their own self-interest. The elitists in America and France love to act like they pity those below them or support policies which might change their lives, but at the end of the day it’s all a facade of pretentiousness.
I hope this facade will come crashing down in France on April 24th as I see Macron as a figurehead of this elite smug miasma that poisons the country and divides them further.
Last edited 2 years ago by Bennie History
David McDowell
2 years ago
Well said and it’s hard to see how PR is the solution.
It increases the likelihood of coalition government because it boosts the chances of minor parties. Of course, the trend in France has been opposite. Since the 2000 reforms, even a basic old-fashioned cohabitation between major parties is now very unlikely.
Very simple.
buy yourself a ticket to France, rent a car and avoid, Versailles, le Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Riviera, Saint Tropez, Megeve and Courchevel…….and all the Ameli Poulin and what’s her name in Paris ………Trust me, the real France is not a nice place to live in.
Go for….Denain, Valenciennes, and everything that is not in the Michelin guide. I guaranty you you will be all for the proportional vote.
The difficulty it brings is that in a country like France, you would never reach any form of consensus. Even my body corporate meetings are a nightmare I dread. Imagine a parliament.
If France was like …..Scandinavia……..it would work :))
Last edited 2 years ago by Bruno Lucy
Matt M
2 years ago
Excellent comment Graham. Thanks!
Douglas H
2 years ago
Thanks for the comment
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
2 years ago
Excellent article. It could in very large measure also apply to the UK
Samuel Ross
2 years ago
As France lost its faith, it lost its greatness.
David McKee
2 years ago
Interesting, very interesting. Fourquet manages to analyse French society, whilst ignoring the European Union. It gets just two mentions, both of which where it acts as a barometer to the convulsions in French society.
I wonder if it can be ignored so easily?
Michael Marron
2 years ago
I lived in France for ten years, worked there off and on for thirty. You are bang on the money.
Yan Chernyak
2 years ago
To correct the (not so innocent) mistake:
no, La Manif pour tous marches drew not tens of thousands of participants who disagreed with the new law, but hundreds of thousands (topping 1mln++ in Paris at least twice), which was almost unheard of in France. People (and there were everybody, including Muslims and, imagine, even homosexuals) who were asking simply for referendum, (which would be, actually, likely lost by them), were ignored, as it were with EU constitution referendum before that. These events will be written into history books as (beginning of) the end of 5th Republic, I believe, and this is the angle which, arguably, makes much more immediate political sense to explore in depth.
Last edited 2 years ago by Yan Chernyak
Sue Sims
2 years ago
Haven’t yet read the article (I shall), but does the author hold the record for the greatest number of Zs in a single name?
Rare birth names. What a fascinating way to measure the degree of individualism in a society. I would never have thought of that, and it’s likely a good proxy.
Yes indeed. But in the French case, until the mid 1970s it was illegal to register a forename that was not on the State’s approved list. My children’s births in England were registered with Breton names that were banned in the country of their mother’s birth. One of her cousin’s married a woman from Tahiti who had to change her name to a francophone one when they moved to France. Any analysis of name changes over time in France needs to take this into account, it was not just about parental choice.
People talk of a two-way split in French society, represented by Macron and Le Pen. But those two won barely 50% of the vote between them on Sunday. Really it was a three way battle with Mélenchon. Whichever two of those camps which combine against the third wins. The broad Right (including Zemmour and Pecresse) won far less support than predicted in the polls – not for the first time recently – with Mélenchon doing far better. Demography is all, and I’m willing to bet that, in the absence of reliable census data, opinion pollsters are underweight Muslims and ethnic minority voters in their samples. For now, the white middle and metropolitan classes, and the white working and rural classes, have herded into two political camps, because both feel the rising challenge of a third group – largely immigrant and very hard left – which on current trends will soon supplant them both.
Exactly. But be careful of putting it so plainly or some moderator will run scared of some hard leftist complainant and pull your contribution – even though you pay for the privilege of making it.
Happened to me yesterday.
A shame. Even as an Englishman I prefer France to be France. I was rather fond of the place.
Perhaps I see the future of my own country.
Americanisation has not, thank God affected French levels of education, and I would suggest that France is less ” Americanised” than Britain, with its woke and global warming LGBT and racialism obsessions driven by the moron interweb: having just returned from Italy and France, It is refreshing to note how un Americanised both are in comparison to the Peoples Undemocratic Faux Republiconvenience of nu britn
I lived in Jerez de la Frontera between 2006 and 2012. When I moved there, the town’s annual epiphany parade (Reyes Magos) involved various biblical scenes and used exotic animals from the local zoo (including the elephant) to reproduce the Three Kings arriving in Bethlehem: it was a very Andalusian event. By the time I left it had been replaced with a parade made up of the more popular Ninja Mutant Turtles.
I suppose France has captured America in more ways than just culture. The great divide of the “winners of globalism vs. the losers” is also fragmenting American politics and its people beyond repair.
The elite of America have rallied to one side and turned their institutions against more “average” Americans. Whether it’s the tv news or social media, elitist philosophers that sit in ivory towers ponder on the moral qualities of riots, defund movements, and whether or not it would be generous to let those under them have some relief from the supply chain crisis going on.
While they sit back and argue with each other at the top ordinary people suffer under inflation and gas prices which eat away at their meager budgets.
The reason Le Pen has such a chance in France this time around compared to 2017 is that more and more the “ordinary” person has started to realize that those above them don’t have their wellbeing in their own self-interest. The elitists in America and France love to act like they pity those below them or support policies which might change their lives, but at the end of the day it’s all a facade of pretentiousness.
I hope this facade will come crashing down in France on April 24th as I see Macron as a figurehead of this elite smug miasma that poisons the country and divides them further.
Well said and it’s hard to see how PR is the solution.
Exactly. No institutional framework will work if the cultural foundation is lost.
I wish there was an explanation on how proportional representation would solve the societal divide. It isn’t obvious to me.
It increases the likelihood of coalition government because it boosts the chances of minor parties. Of course, the trend in France has been opposite. Since the 2000 reforms, even a basic old-fashioned cohabitation between major parties is now very unlikely.
Very simple.
buy yourself a ticket to France, rent a car and avoid, Versailles, le Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Riviera, Saint Tropez, Megeve and Courchevel…….and all the Ameli Poulin and what’s her name in Paris ………Trust me, the real France is not a nice place to live in.
Go for….Denain, Valenciennes, and everything that is not in the Michelin guide. I guaranty you you will be all for the proportional vote.
The difficulty it brings is that in a country like France, you would never reach any form of consensus. Even my body corporate meetings are a nightmare I dread. Imagine a parliament.
If France was like …..Scandinavia……..it would work :))
Excellent comment Graham. Thanks!
Thanks for the comment
Excellent article. It could in very large measure also apply to the UK
As France lost its faith, it lost its greatness.
Interesting, very interesting. Fourquet manages to analyse French society, whilst ignoring the European Union. It gets just two mentions, both of which where it acts as a barometer to the convulsions in French society.
I wonder if it can be ignored so easily?
I lived in France for ten years, worked there off and on for thirty. You are bang on the money.
To correct the (not so innocent) mistake:
no, La Manif pour tous marches drew not tens of thousands of participants who disagreed with the new law, but hundreds of thousands (topping 1mln++ in Paris at least twice), which was almost unheard of in France. People (and there were everybody, including Muslims and, imagine, even homosexuals) who were asking simply for referendum, (which would be, actually, likely lost by them), were ignored, as it were with EU constitution referendum before that. These events will be written into history books as (beginning of) the end of 5th Republic, I believe, and this is the angle which, arguably, makes much more immediate political sense to explore in depth.
Haven’t yet read the article (I shall), but does the author hold the record for the greatest number of Zs in a single name?
I was wondering that!
He is supporting the Russian invasion.