Quelles solutions pour l'UMP ? / French right in crisis

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Robert Peel, founder of the Conservative Party / fondateur du Parti conservateur britannique

L’UMP se déchire sous nos yeux, spectacle mi-consternant, mi-désopilant. Quelques faits : l’UMP a été fondée en 2002. Son homologue britannique, le Parti conservateur, en 1834. Quant à nos partis centristes, le MoDem de Bayrou, fondé en 2007, et la toute nouvelle UDI de Borloo, née en septembre 2012, ils font figure de jeunots à côté des Libéraux Démocrates britanniques, qui portent ce nom depuis 1988 seulement, mais viennent essentiellement du vieux Parti libéral fondé en 1859. Evidemment, les noms et les dates ne font pas tout ; les héritages, les courants existent par-delà les appellations. Mais tout de même. Et puis il y a cette étude (cliquez ici) qui montre que plus les instances politiques ont de femmes en leur sein, plus elles sont stables.

Je me permets donc d’adresser ces conseils tout simples à MM. Copé et Fillon : 1. soyez britanniques. 2. soyez des femmes.

The UMP, the main opposition party in France, is probably heading for a split as the leadership battle between Nicolas Sarkozy’s political heirs is reaching peaks of irrationality. Facts: in the UK, the Conservative Party was founded in 1834. The French UMP was founded in 2002. In the UK, the Liberal Democrats formed their party in 1988 only, but mainly out of the Liberal Party which had been founded in 1859. In France, the centrist Mouvement Démocrate and Union des Démocrates et Indépendants, who are now rubbing their hands as disgusted UMP members are joining them en masse, were founded in 2007 and 2012 respectively. Obviously there is more in parties than dates and names, and ideological roots and legacies reach out beyond labelling, but still. Also there is this study (click here) showing that the more women in political organs, the more stable these organs tend to be.

My advice to Messrs Copé and Fillon is therefore: 1. be British, 2. be women.

Bugarach, Edgar Poe, and the end of the world

Bugarach

According to Mayan calculations, or rather to disreputable self-appointed Mayan experts, the world will come to an end in one month exactly, which leaves me little time to pay my taxes. I wonder what it will be like. Shall we have the time to realise what is going on, boosting the profits of our mobile phone operators one last time? “Yeah, I can see it – it’s big and green and gooey and – oh my God it just swallowed the petrol station! I love you darling! [sobbing] I love you!” Probably not. I expect something swift, quick-fried blue steak type. (Did the Mayas eat steaks?) Arguably, the odds of seeing the UMP, France’s right-wing party, split in the next four weeks are much greater, but of course of lesser magnitude worldwide. France, however, or at least one tiny part of it, might be the winner. Apparently the little village of Bugurach in the French Pyrenees will be the only place on earth left standing after 21 December. Follow this link to read Angelique Chrisafis’s excellent report from Bugurach for The Guardian. Of course one can sneer at those lunatics who have started gathering there, or fear there might be suicidal doomsday cult members among them. But one can also see this as living literature – and from what I read most of those who are planning to go there on 20 December, or who have been looking for the treasure of Abbé Saunière in the same region (remember the Da Vinci Code?), fall back on a massive suspension of disbelief, which is, after all, rather uplifting. In literature proper, apocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science-fiction concerned with the end of human life or the end of the world as we know it. One of the first examples (Biblical and other mythological stories set apart) is Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion.” Eiros died in the apocalypse (a comet hit the earth) and describes the scene, as well as people’s attitudes over the preceding days, to Charmion, who had been dead for some years when it all happened. The story is very short; click on this link to read the full text. Here is the last paragraph:

Edgar Allan Poe

“Why need I paint, Charmion, the now disenchained frenzy of mankind? That tenuity in the comet which had previously inspired us with hope, was now the source of the bitterness of despair. In its impalpable gaseous character we clearly perceived the consummation of Fate. Meantime a day again passed, bearing away with it the last shadow of Hope. We gasped in the rapid modification of the air. The red blood bounded tumultuously through its strict channels. A furious delirium possessed all men; and, with arms rigidly outstretched toward the threatening heavens, they trembled and shrieked aloud. But the nucleus of the destroyer was now upon us; even here in Aidenn, I shudder while I speak. Let me be brief—brief as the ruin that overwhelmed. For a moment there was a wild lurid light alone, visiting and penetrating all things. Then—let us bow down, Charmion, before the excessive majesty of the great God!—then, there came a shouting and pervading sound, as if from the mouth itself of HIM; while the whole incumbent mass of ether in which we existed, burst at once into a species of intense flame, for whose surpassing brilliancy and all-fervid heat even the angels in the high Heaven of pure knowledge have no name. Thus ended all.”

Fifty Shades of Hesitation

   Should I or should I not buy—and read—Fifty Shades of Grey? Call me a snob but worldwide media hype about a book, film or triangle player is usually enough to put me off. However, am I not missing out on a cultural phenomenon here? Just consider the amazing number of people who not only read it but subsequently ran to their local sex and music shops and stepped out with armloads of CDs by Britney Spears, Chopin, and the Tallis Scholars, as well as with various silk or leather or studded or wobbling contraptions. Unless of course this is part of the hype too. Has any serious study proved that all this happened? Did it happen before they said it was happening? So back to the old problem: so many books, so little time. Should I or shouldn’t I? Henry Miller wrote an essay called “To Read or Not to Read” which might help all “hesitating purchasers” like myself. Just follow the link below—the text is very short, less than 4 pages. (Scroll up as the link will take you to page 160 while the beginning is on page 157.) Isn’t it fun reading it with E. L. James’s novel in mind?

http://books.google.fr/books?id=1Pr2wywtSjAC&pg=PA160&dq=henry+miller+books+clouds+shadows+trees&hl=fr&sa=X&ei=26WfUImBCojE0QXN9IHwBA&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=true