Blinkered

The Times is carrying translations of editorials in the major French papers, amongst them, this from France Soir:

“The helplessness of the Government to restore order and to propose a political solution is shaking citizens’ trust in the republican pattern. Can republican fraternity still win, or is our country turning to social apartheid, which we thought was the privilege of US society?”

Their hatred of America -- and their arrogance -- runs so deep they are completely blinded to their own social problems and divides; what's more, what is completely obvious to anyone from the outside is that whilst there are deep social divisions in the US as well, in the US most of the socially disadvantaged still identify themselves as (and want to be) American, whilst France has a large minority population which literally hates France and does not in any way consider itself French. If France's reaction -- as the France Soir piece indicated -- is to try and dig its heels in, and insist on trying to make its beloved, but failing, social model work, it will just dig itself deeper into the hole in which it currently finds itself.