False Hope, François Hollande and Barack Obama

by Bruno Fournier

The French have elected François Hollande of the Socialist Party as their new president, and now everyone is dancing in the streets, convinced that this election somehow actually means something.  In a capitalist society such as France, the primary role of electoral politics is to bedazzle the population into confusion, to make them believe that it is a man who runs society, when this is, in fact, not the case.  It a capitalist society, it is Capital that rules.

Everyone is now saying that EU austerity measures might face a direct challenge.  It is possible that Hollande could find some way to prop up the French welfare state a little longer without having to implement austerity measures, but we here at Selecting Stones find this unlikely.  A more probable scenario is that Hollande will achieve nothing more than finding a different way to talk about austerity, that he will develop a new language, and change the terms of the debate.  In the end, though, the French will discover much to their dismay that words mean nothing.  If you take an object and merely change the words used to describe it, you have in no way whatsoever changed the actual object itself.  It remains untouched.

Back in 2008, countless Americans believed that a new age of peace, justice, and tranquility had dawned with the election of Barack Obama.  Look how that turned out!  Now, the same thing is happening in France.  Wow, and they say Americans are naive!

We would like to ask the French voter: What were Mitterrand’s achievements?  It was no time at all before those who panicked back in 1981 began to look quite silly.  After all, who could have imagined, in all seriousness, that such a loyal servant of Pétain would join the Warsaw Pact?  Preposterous!  The “Socialists” of yesterday just like those of today know who their real masters are.

So, if you happen to be a wealthy member of the vested property-owning classes, we just want to reassure you that you have absolutely nothing to worry about from François Hollande.  He will undoubtedly be just as harmless and docile as an Obama.  Breathe easy, make your investments, and keep on appropriating the surplus-value of your workers.  Nothing to see here!  The Socialist Party will be your faithful servant.

And there is no need, either, to worry about all this talk of Change.  Remember, after all, that all bourgeois politicians speak of Change any chance they find.  We close with a few examples:

Our friend François Hollande likes Change

Barack Obama is famous for how much he likes Change

David Cameron of the British Conservative Party likes Change, too

And even Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy likes Change, so now that bastion of washed up old Francoists known in Spain as the People’s Party can seem hip and cool.

source.

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