In November 2005, long-time French broadcaster Claude Reichman initiated an informal movement announced as “The Blue Revolution”, in an attempt to rally France’s splintered conservatives and forestall the economic, social and, indirectly, moral decline so prevalent in post-Christian France. They place a value on entrepreneurialism, self-responsibility and liberty, therefore it should not be surprising that they find themselves pilloried as “pro-American” by Chiraquiste France for being in favor of a renewal of Western values in one of the most infantilized of western European nations.
Following a career as a dental surgeon and politician, Mr. Reichman had long been on the front lines in a struggle to wean France from its dogmatic addiction to state monopolies, particularly its penurious form of social security. Whereas here in North America, we have a sizeable alternative media to also champion many of the conservative and libertarian values shared by members of Reichman’s Blue Revolution, France has no such comparable alternatives to its gallery of CBC-style state run media. Therefore it is all the more remarkable that their message has found as many fellow-believers and converts as it has.
Adopting the unassuming blue scarf as a symbol of solidarity, blue to symbolize the clear horizons they work so diligently to bring about for their nation, the Blue Revolution meets regularly on the streets and cafes throughout France, to valiantly renew the promise of progress so inherent to western civilization. The odds against them are great, to say the least, yet they soldier on, determined to Make A Difference in the destiny of their nation.
Last year, we hardy few began meeting as well, inspired by Mr Reichman’s example to recreate similar meetings on the other side of the world as his voice of sanity from the wilderness. What could be done to forestall the similar decline becoming so prevalent in Canada? Alone, solutions seemed elusive, and progress felt unlikely. In numbers, it is easier to think positively, and dare to envision a change for the better.
Action by action, day by day, conditions can be changed. That is also the promise of western civilization, which accumulates the knowledge and lessons from experience often so painfully acquired from the ongoing march of generation after generation, each determined to leave the world as a better place than the way they inherited it.
Canada is not France, we are not (yet?) accursed with the civic and cultural decay which, like a cavity, has set in to rot away its ivory tower. Our roots are not yet severed as assuredly as the new class of nobility are sawing away at the stems of France's connection to the glories of its past.
And we meet again this Thursday, donning blue scarves once more in solidarity with the Blue Revolutionaries of France, as our weekly check-up into what ails our nation.
From 7:00 to 9:00 pm, in the Atrium of the Central Branch of the Vancouver Public Library, we meet to discuss the state of liberty in Canada. Our freedom to do so is a cherished opportunity not available to every citizen of every nation; therefore the need for those who can take action, to do so.
Take a walk tonight to our meeting, take a step to create meetings of your own at your library, on your streets, at your cafes, wear your own blue scarf and work, as Claude Reichman, Gerard Pince, Jean-Christophe Mouniqc, Olivier Pichon, George Clement and so many others do, to safeguard the progress made from the long hard road of progress undertaken by the West.
3 comments:
Canada is not as decayed as France? It can certainly look that way if we are counting, say, burned out cars. But that could also be read as a sign that ordinary people in France are simply refusing to have anything to do with the young from certain dysfunctional, segregated, communities, and getting a predictably barbarian reaction, whatever the bafflegab of the state, media and politicos. There are other measures - I don't think Canada's sub-replacement fertility rate is any better than France's, for example. Our education system no longer knows how to teach shared cultural values, beyond shallow victimary platitudes, or provide a basis for seriously independent thought.
But can we really satisfactorily measure such a thing as social decay? Part of the problem in getting people to stand up and fight is that they often don't really know they need to until it's too late. Sometimes it is best just to ignore; sometimes you have to fight to the death - it depends how real the threat really is.
We get wrapped up in illusions and often the veil only really drops when there is very little left to hide. Most Canadians rest righteously in the certainty that America is to blame for the world's problems and that Canada's class of elite bureaucrats and mediacrats has our interests in hand. The Blue Revolution, and this is what it seems Reichman is doing, must provide an alternative understanding of reality, one that in bits and pieces convinces people it is an understanding closer to, and increasingly involved in, reality than that of the old left-liberal elite managerialism and its defense of white guilt and the welfare state that erodes the independence of families, small communities, and the individualism and local self-rule that depends on same. Vive les bleues! A bas le CBC! Enbrace a new horizon, clear or not!
We can see clearly how bad things are in the world when Al Gore wins an Academy Award and all you get is world-wide acclaim from the non-voting masses.
Al Gore, touche.
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