06-05-2006

EUROPEAN MULTICULTURALISM: NATIONALISM OF THE MINORITIES

Pascal Bruckner, one of the so-called "nouvelle philosophes" who emerged in the wake of the 1960s along with Bernard Henri-Levy and Andre Glucksmann, is one of France's most acclaimed novelists. His books include "Bitter Moon" and his just-published "The Saint and a Gigolo." He spoke recently with Global Viewpoint contributing editor Michael Skafidas in New York.

By Pascal Bruckner

Global Viewpoint: You have described France as a “monochromatic civilization,” which is a more discreet way of replacing the adjective that many older Europeans reserved for the French all these years: “chauvinistic.” Within this monochromatic frame, as you’ve said, France closes itself off, psychologically as well, to the so-called Anglo-Saxon neo-liberal world. In your own words, “If a society is not open, its immigrants won’t be either.” And that’s how what you’ve called the “Asterix Complex” has emerged. Would you elaborate on that?

Bruckner: The Asterix Complex, named after the cranky Gallic cartoon character, is this feeling of the French people that they are besieged by the outside world — besieged by America, besieged by liberalism, by capitalism, by globalization, by immigration.
This is quite paradoxical because France is the most visited country in the world. We have 75 million tourists every year, yet at the same time we maintain this huge suspicion toward the outside world.

You could describe the French attitude today by this motto, “Down with the outside world.”  That’s exactly what we said just over a year ago, on May 29, 2005, when we said “no” to the referendum on the European Constitution. We have this tendency in France to withdraw into our own territory, psychologically and culturally.

But, of course, this is not possible anymore! We need to open up to the outside world.

Global Viewpoint: Yet, you’ve also said that most French citizens are ashamed to be patriotic.

Bruckner: When today you call yourself a nationalist, it is really a kind of nationalism of resentment. You see this not only in France, but also in Greece, in Italy or in Spain. But the idea of nationalism, of course, is rather suspicious because it has dragged us into wars and persecution during the 20th century. So we are extremely suspicious of patriotism, whereas the Americans are not at all.

It seems every American you meet is proud to be American — even now, after Iraq. If you say today you’re proud to be French, people will look at you with some suspicion: Are you a fascist? I think the left has a big responsibility in this, in the cultivation of a postwar European guilt. We should be proud to be what we are. There’s no need to be ashamed of what we are, especially if we want to construct a new Europe together.

In France, this anti-patriotism is also related to the global European history. We’ve had colonialism, slavery, fascism, communism. Our history is so stained with blood and massacres. We are constantly haunted by it. This has led to a pan-European complex of shame. American pride and European shame are very big contrasts.

Everybody in Europe right now accuses America of being a fascist country. But there is another reality. When Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch-Somali who has stood up to radical Islamists, had her citizenship and character challenged because she upset so many people, where did she decide to go? To America. Again, when you have difficulties in Europe, just as during World War II, where do we Europeans go to be safe and free? America.

Global Viewpoint: What happened to European multiculturalism?   

Bruckner: Multiculturalism is an upsurge of Romanticism, since it insists on the identity of  belonging. It stresses cultural and national origins rather than the individual life. Romanticism is thus related to nationalism.

Multiculturalism is, in effect, the nationalism of minorities; minorities as small nations trying to maintain themselves as such in the mainstream, among the majority. This sentiment has not been very strong in France, but it is being asserted little by little.

In France, we have this republican tradition which insists on equality. That’s why we passed a law prohibiting the display of difference whereby Muslim women would wear the headscarf.

But, of course, there had to be a counter-reaction. What we see in France today is what we see everywhere in Europe — more and more veiled women. In France, you can even see women today wearing the burka, totally covered from head to toe. You can’t even see her face. I think that should be prohibited. This is a scandal. This not a human being anymore, it’s a walking jail.

(c) 2006, Global Viewpoint
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