Allons enfants de l'université

There seems to be a popular myth in conventional political theory that suggests the French governmental system is particularly conducive to dramatic and violent change. Edmund Burke favored the slow-to-evolve British institutions against the vicissitudinal shifts of power experienced during the French Revolution (which French nationalists have pegged at the singular event of the storming of the Bastille), and the virtues of the American political system of checks and balances are always taught in opposition to the French Ancien Régime. Despite its symbolic significance, however, the early days of the Revolution seem to have been characterized by little political turnover. Louis XVI and his court, though forced to rule from the Tuileries in Paris (and not Versailles), still wielded considerable political influence for years before going to the guillotine. Thus it may have happened that the Parlement of Paris evolved just as slowly, if not slower, than the British House of Commons. Certainly it would take many successive “revolutions” to establish a real parliamentary system in France with popular sovereignty at the fore.

On the contrary, I don’t think Parisians like change all that much. It may even be that they so detest change enough to shed blood, money, or die for its preservation. Since the Counter-Reformation (or even Roman rule if you want to get picky) there’s been a lineage of Parisian resistance to almost any form of change. Popular figures such as St. Genevieve, Joan D’Arc, Robespierre, and Charles De Gaulle all gained clout and fame through resistance movements of their own. But why the recalcitrance? I don’t know exactly why myself, but there does exist in Paris a special quality of life spurred on by art and learning, so much so that Parisians typically favor its patronage through state control itself, as “deregulation” has an ominous connotation for Parisians ever since the Terror.

Maybe that’s why on April 28 I felt very Parisian for joining thousands of university students, researchers, professors, and med students in a massive manifestation protesting President Sarkozy’s new line of policies aimed at privatizing universities and curtailing the academic freedom of professors and researchers. To be a part of a student protest is like writing yourself into Parisian history, because when Robert de Sorbon instituted his little theological school on the Left Bank over 700 years ago, Parisian students have been barricading streets and leading resistance movements ever since (not to mention decrying any attempts at marginalizing their intellectual freedom and bohemian way of life; see the poems of former 15^th century Sorbonne student François Villon).

So I got to march from Montparnasse south towards the Senate, which

now occupies the ornate Luxembourg Palace, a dwelling which once housed Marie de’ Medici. What I think most impressive about many Parisians, with special regard to students, is their ability to mobilize and use monumental public spaces to their advantage. Ever since Sarkozy’s infamous law was introduced to the Senate in late January, about half of Paris’ public universities have been on strike, physically blocking the entrances and forbidding professors to lecture on school premises. This may not have been necessary, though, as professors themselves have been on strike, many of whom have since taken up freelance lecturing in public spaces on several topics. So the students shrewdly barricaded the extremely busy thoroughfare of Rue de Vaugirard, which connects Montparnasse to the Luxembourg Palace and ends at the Robert de Sorbon’s now-secularized and world-famous Sorbonne.

As onlookers and commuters glanced curiously (some impatiently) at the procession, pamphleteers made their rounds, effigies of legislators were defiled, chants were chanted, drums were pounded, and trumpets were blaring. The bystanders, though probably superficially informed, must have been wondering whether this was at all warranted. I myself don’t even know, but the theatre of it was too much fun to begin asking questions. All I knew was that Sarkozy and his senatorial henchmen were trying to change something institutionally Parisian, and that there was no danger in partaking in a peaceful demonstration of collective grievance.

I recently read that Sarkozy also wants to build skyscrapers in the heart of old Paris. I wonder how that’ll go over...