Word: frenchmen
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With its aim of freeing the country "rom 75% of its imported energy requirements by 1985, the French government's nuclear power program is mighty ambitious-much too much so, many Frenchmen complain. Socialist Party Chief François Mitterrand, who clearly plans to make the atom an issue in next March's elections, charges that the policy of headlong nuclear expansion was reckless, "launched like a railroad engine at 400 kilometers an hour." In August, some 30,000 protesters tried to slow the train down by staging a noisy demonstration at Super Phenix, the big French plutonium...
...excited people, but now the plot has become too complicated, the actors have confused their lines, and the audience is tired. "J'en ai marle" ("I'm fed up with it") is the most frequently-heard comment concerning politics. Only extremists retain unwavering loyalty to their causes, while most Frenchmen find themselves increasingly disaffected with the parties they support. And nearly everyone worries about the prospect of political critis this spring...
...course, there is still a glimmer of hope for France. Perhaps the politicians will be able to strike a bargain of reconciliation and compromise; perhaps the economy will improve, and event which would certainly moderate political divisions and tensions. But Frenchmen are all too aware of the potential dangers that lie ahead. As the mood of impending crisis began to spread and darken last week, the newspaper "Le Figaro" counseled courage and moderation: "Let us stop hating and stop being afraid."But one must wonder, given the current political atmosphere, whether the French are willing, or able, to follow this...
Salinger was, of course, kidding about his countrymen. Reciprocally, the descendants of Tocqueville do entertain a continuing, if critical, interest in things American. Salinger has carved a new career as the American in Paris who provides Frenchmen with native insights into the inscrutable Yankee mind. As a grand reporter (roving editor) specializing in U.S. affairs for the French newsmagazine L 'Express, he has become the most prominent American apologist and explicator in Paris since CBS Commentator David Schoenbrun left in 1962. Salinger presides jovially over several music and film festivals in France. He is a regular commentator for Europe...
...many thoughtful Frenchmen applaud the New Philosophers' message. The French left, notes Author Jean-François Revel (Without Marx or Jesus), has suffered serious losses of faith in Marxism before-notably with the Hungarian tragedy in the 1950s and the Soviet Union's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. "Nonetheless," Revel adds, "the French left has to hear it played again on another instrument. They had it last time on the piano, now they are getting it on the tuba." In the current context of French politics, the leitmotiv of the New Philosophers may well be the theme...