Do the mainstream media knowingly report ironic things without noting the irony, or are the journalists involved just too lacking in historical perspective to realize the irony?
On November 14, Jacque Chirac gave his first televised address to France since the riots began on October 27. Thousands of French citizens whose cars were been destroyed by arson and whose neighborhoods have been terrorized by violence were surely waiting to hear some uplifting and rousing words from Chirac. If the Reuters news account and translation are accurate, however, this is the sort of speech they got instead:
"These events bear witness to a deep malaise," he said, sitting behind a desk with the French tricolor flag and European Union flag behind him. "It is ... an identity crisis."
Where have we heard that word "malaise" before? Hold on; we'll get there.
The solutions proposed by Chirac were not particularly inspiring. Reuters reports, "Chirac, who has been under fire for saying little during the crisis, announced the creation of a voluntary task force to help young people find work but ruled out ''positive discrimination' that would favour ethnic minorities for jobs." According to the New York Times, Chirac "said that he had asked Parliament to extend a national state of emergency to February and that he would set up a program that would provide jobs and training for 50,000 youths by 2007."
I'm sure that the French people will rest easy now, knowing that a "voluntary task force" is on the way. And providing jobs for some of the "youths" who torched their neighbor's cars seems like a sure-fire way to discourage more of the same. It will also add at least 50,000 proven "go getters" with no job experience other than an ability to locate matches and gasoline to the French payroll. It will be interesting to see what these soon-to-be-rewarded arsonists will "go get" next.
Contrast Chirac's address with the memorable and stirring speeches in history that, in a moment of national danger or trouble or tragedy, seized the moment and elevated it beyond the ordinary. Winston Churchill's speech before the House of Commons on June 4, 1940 is one example of such a speech: "We shall not flag nor fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France and on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets and on the hills. We shall never surrender . . . .."
Or from American patriot Patrick Henry: "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
Also memorable was Ronald Reagan's speech after the shocking explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in January 1986, with seven astronauts aboard, including a school teacher, Christina Mcauliffe: "The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.'"
Not every speech can be a home run, but there are some speeches that go down in history not because they elevated the souls of their listeners, but rather because they dragged them down. One such speech is then-president Jimmy Carter's speech to America in 1979 that came to be known as his "malaise" speech. Here's an excerpt:
"The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our Nation. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America."
There is much more in Jimmy Carter's 1979 "malaise" speech that was equally depressing, including a collection of quotes from ordinary citizens that Carter thought should be shared with the whole nation, like this one: "Our neck is stretched over the fence and OPEC has a knife." Jimmy Carter's malaise speech is a good example of how not to rally a nation.
Sometimes a poor speech is only that -- one poor speech. Other times, the inability to rouse the spirit of the listeners is a symptom of a larger problem such as a leader's inability to accurately diagnose a problem, find a solution that will actually work, and rally people to that solution. That may indeed be the reason that Jacque Chirac's latest speech, like Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech, left so much to be desired.
For more on this subject, check out the excellent and insightful post The Jimmy Carter of France at Captain's Quarters. Other posts on the "malaise" irony can be found at Gateway Pundit; The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill, Super Fun Power Hour; Below the Beltway; and Daily Pundit. (Update: See also a fun post to read, Les Muslimerables in Deep Malaise, at All Things Beautiful.)
Related posts on the violence in France:
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