There is something remarkably convenient about a political explanation that makes a person throwing a brick disappear. A window breaks, a shop is looted, a car burns, and immediately an expert appears on our TV screens to explain that the real culprit is “inadequate public education.”
Coverage of the riots in France provide such an intellectual escape, but demonstrations that began with complaints about schools have broadened into a call to tear down the entire system— capitalism, Western institutions, the existing political order, and, of course, the nation of Israel.
Wanting more teachers sounds like a reasonable request, but setting someone’s livelihood on fire is not in any way reasonable. The difference between these two cannot be reconciled simply by waving a sign. A person who smashes a shop window has appointed an innocent stranger to pay for his anger.
How does a movement containing legitimate grievances become permission to resort to destruction? It’s not complicated: Unhappy people—and there are millions of them—are always waiting in the wings, ready and willing to find an excuse to co-opt a morally sound protest. The modus operandi of the global left is to borrow the moral credibility of people who are pursuing a legitimate objective while they themselves pursue an objective the peaceful demonstrators may never have endorsed.
This is where the so-called “red-green alliance” comes in. It’s an expression that can refer to cooperation between the radical left and environmentalists or leftists and radical Islamists. These groups have only one thing in common: the desire to welcome almost any movement that weakens the existing order. People with incompatible visions of society can discover a temporary affection for one another if they agree on what they hate. (“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”)
Regardless of their stripes, unhappy people find it easy to agree on the first order of business: dismantle the existing societal structure. Once that is accomplished, the parties can discuss such mundane issues as freedom of speech, women’s rights, religious freedom, private property, and, most important, who gets to give orders to whom. History offers overwhelming evidence that this sequence is a very poor investment for people of goodwill.
Milton Friedman famously warned that “You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state.” If he were alive today, he might add that a country cannot survive if it treats assimilation as optional and disregards lawbreaking as an expression of “cultural authenticity.” The importation of millions of people whose cultures are antithetical to Western values is a perfect example of suicidal empathy.
Which brings us back to the looting, arson, and violence now overwhelming France. One cannot help but wonder what such destruction offers the person engaging in it. Perhaps it’s excitement … or status … or free stuff … or just the anonymity of blending into a crowd. For others, destruction may just supply emotional fuel for resenting the fact that somebody else owns something, succeeds at something, or appears comfortable in a world the resentful person sees as criminally unfair. Through revolution, the aggrieved party becomes the aggressor and the accused aggressor becomes the target of his wrath.
Civilized people endure disappointment without believing a neighbor owes them compensation. Misery is not an automatic exemption from moral judgment, but envy takes dissatisfaction a step further. Ambition says, “I would like to improve my position,” while envy says, “I would like your position to be diminished.” The former can produce businesses, discoveries, and better lives, while the latter believes it can find satisfaction only in hurting others.
Dissatisfaction gives someone a reason to seek positive change, but it does not give him ownership of his neighbor’s life. A society that forgets this distinction eventually discovers that the people promising liberation have instead delivered enslavement. France has been down this road before, which resulted in the bloody Jacobin revolution more than 200 years ago. The result was a Napoleon Bonaparte dictatorship, but not before thousands of Frenchmen were introduced to the guillotine.
France is one of the most generous welfare states in the Western world, and what is happening there is yet another reminder that you cannot appease people by giving them more and more free stuff. This is especially true of those who come from cultures where violence is seen as the only solution to their unhappiness. When it comes to cultural issues, the carrot does not work. Western countries are learning the hard way that the only thing uncivilized people understand is the stick—especially a big stick.
Contrary to what the mainstream media and radical leftists would like us to believe, diversity is not America’s greatest strength; on the contrary, it is America’s greatest weakness. Sovereignty and a common culture are what hold a country together; diversity is what tears it apart.
I always try to find a silver lining in every situation, and perhaps the silver lining here is that if Republicans pull off an upset in the midterms despite their horrendous messaging, they may have France to thank. I say that because the riots in that country have given Republicans the best message they could possibly convey, to wit:
What is happening in France is part of a global revolution that is already well entrenched in America, and if Democrats take control of the House and Senate, the revolution is coming to a city near you. And that, my friends, is a far greater threat to your family’s well-being than the price of gasoline.
The only question is, can Trump and Republicans succeed in delivering this message in a convincing way in less than two weeks? Doubtful, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
Copyright © 2020 Robert Ringer
ROBERT RINGER is a New York Times #1 bestselling author who has appeared on numerous national radio and television shows, including The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, ABC Nightline, The Charlie Rose Show, as well as Fox News and Fox Business. To sign up for a free subscription to his mind-expanding daily insights, visit www.robertringer.com.
