So generations of French “intellectuals” became modern while clinging to their Divinely inspired tradition. “There is something very touching about the French faith in reason,” notes Kevorkian. “It is no accident that in the most fanatic period of the French Revolution, the Christian deity was replaced by the Goddess of Reason.”
But that worship of reason had also led to an almost churlish French obedience to authority. Along with it comes a tolerance for conflicts of interest and a disturbingly myopic view of governmental and corporate corruption.
Some believe – and I tend to agree – that for all their republicanism, the institutions of France are still dominated by clerical-monarchial perceptions. For all its liberté, égalité, et fraternité, France adheres to authoritarian values. If the United States is a horizontal society where ethics and standards are set by a consensus of the public, France is a vertical society where rules and regulations come from on high. In prerevolutionary days it came from the king and from the princes of the church; today, law, rules, and decrees come down from the central republican government. Under the rules of the Fifth Republic, the French presidency carries far more executive power than its American counterpart.
uit: The arrogance of the French : why they can’t stand us and why the feeling is mutual - Richard Z. Chesnoff
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