If I remember rightly, Louie XIV was supposed have said, "I am the State." The current president of France appears to be saying, "I am the taste." He proposes to ban burqas because he believes that they are a symbol of female subservience. Having grown up around a lot of black clad women, grannys and nuns, I just don't see this as the core issue facing the French nation. But, politics is anything but rational, especially in the nation that fetishes reason. President Sarkozy should be happy that his wife likes to dress the way she does and let it go at that; he invites far right nationalists to play the card of Muslims as outsiders, not good Frenchmen or women. This is a dangerous game. It is well known in the sociological literature that generational change comes as the younger generations assimilate and pick and chose their cultural styles. Force of law in this case will only keep people on the defensive. I hate to sound like a NYT editorial. Sarkozy is usually good for a laugh or two; this is not funny, even if it sounds that way.
Perhaps he did not get his history lesson correctly on the Louie quote? Maybe Carla hates black.? Who knows.?In the land of the Enlightenment, Dior and Chanel are the taste/State. Very odd.
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