Not since 1968 has France seen so many educational institutions occupied and on strike. Thousands of students and young people have brought Paris to a standstill.

Source: Thibautcho

They are protesting a new labor law that would permit probationary employment for the first two years of employment for all new workers. That would affect them most of all.

France’s young people grow up without the big dreams their American counterparts. But at the same time, they have their consolation. That compensation is that if they can land a job, no matter what kind of job, and no matter what kind of job they do, they have that job for life, with no regard to how hard they work or how productive they are. It’s a tradeoff for freedom. But it’s what they worked for, lived for, and looked forward to.

Egalite is all in this setup.

If you can get past the gate.

Now, the gate is being opened, but there is no trap door to spring behind you to ensure you can’t be sent right back where you came from unless you succeed. For these young people, with different expectations in life, with expectations of being accepted into the elite of The Employed For Life, it’s a terrible blow.

But ought the setup have existed in the first place? In my opinion no. It’s a gloomy antirevolution, its only thing worth fighting for is a welfare check or the right not to have to work hard. Is this worth dying for? I do not think so. But there are youthful antirevolutionaries who say it is. And thus, the gloomy scenes we see in the Paris setting, the sad need to be one of the elect, one of the employed, and do it with no effort whatever, to do it as a matter of entitlement.

What happens when the real world intrudes? Suddenly it looks a lot like 1968, once again, in Paris.

Source: Thibautcho

A great photo collection of France’s student occupations is here. How hard it is not to feel sad for them.

UPDATE: Our friend Academic Elephant has a knowledgeable and thoughtful essay that’s a must-read here.