First, let us notice youth's intolerance toward the skepticism which marked the political thinking of my generation. But that side is not evident now, with polls showing that most French people are still opposed to the labor law. If, in particular, the young generation could oblige democracy really to bring the domination of financial interests under control; if it could inspire it to show more courage in crises, more willingness to take risks on behalf of worthy causes; if it could force it to renounce the cult of well-being, which in some countries it practises to the extent of making one wonder whether it is not sacrificing national dignity and independence to it -- if the young generation were to bring these things to pass, then I should say that by its very excessive severities it would have deserved well of civilization. the August Decrees). However that may be, the "order" which the Rightists promise will be different from that which history has seen. Paris’s police prefect has released photos of union members ripping up paving stones to be used as projectiles. In other words, the soldier is free within the army -- which allows him not a single free gesture! Besides, by conviction they oppose all violence, and so attract little attention from anyone studying the political battle. Many French Communists resented dictation from Moscow, and the decade saw a long series of resignations and purges; by 1930 the remnant had been thoroughly “bolshevized” on the pattern of Lenin’s own party. But they are rare, and their generation on the whole inclines to reject them. To put it another way: What, from the political point of view, is the effective power of youth and of its opinions in France? For the old generation, again because of its devotion to the Rights of Man, individual liberty is almost sacred. France had to wait for the railways to really ‘take-off’ into its industrial revolution and its main impact, meanwhile, was in its ideas – nationalism, civil equality, sovereignty and meritocracy, which were born in the last decades of the ancien régime and propagated through Europe by French armies. Nevertheless, it may be admitted that the older generation was primarily intellectual and that the younger is, at least in fervor for the values just mentioned, comparatively moral. ©2020 Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. the platform of the Blum ministry). Lessons of the Harvard Dining Hall Strike Victory. Does this mean that democracy should remain indifferent to the criticisms of the young? Some of them support vigorously the thesis put forward by Pierre Lasserre in his famous book "Le Romantisme." We also remember how at the same time we felt sure that the opponents of Dreyfus kept alive the specter of war with Germany merely to further their own cause. The contrast is explained: political modesty is a commonplace when your chief task is to develop your own mind within a tolerable social framework set up by others; but you believe only in your own generation and belabor your elders when you become convinced they bequeathed you a world which is falling to pieces and which must be entirely rebuilt. Throughout the 1920s, much of the working class remained alienated from a regime that showed little concern for social reform. the Sixth of February) and support it when it undertakes social reforms which they consider right and desirable (e.g. “You’ve got to respect the hierarchy of norms,” he told reporters on Friday, while leaving the door slightly open to possible exceptions. Economic growth proceeded at 1.9% per annum in the late 18. century, a rate only matched during the era of the Empire and its artificial Continental System. This is apparent at elections. IX. By this comparison youth deems itself unhappy. The first is made up of those who were thirty years old or more at the outbreak of the war, and whose ideals, consequently, had already been formulated; the second is made up of those who were twenty or less, and who therefore set up their system of values after the catastrophe. Verbatim copying and distribution of articles is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. If so, the union leader is doing a good job. Here, the moral system of our young people, like their above-mentioned conception of truth, shows itself clearly pragmatical. The French Revolution was a watershed event in modern European history that began in 1789 and ended in the late 1790s with the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte. “Work Is a Crime Against Humanity,” read another. Censorship in the last decades of the ancien régime was relatively light and forbidden books and pamphlets could be bought even near the entrance to the Palace of Versailles, where they found willing customers amongst the aristocrats and courtiers who as often as not were the subjects of their vitriol and ridicule.