Woman recounts apocalyptic Saturday

A woman of Asian origin described the events of an apocalyptic Saturday when her tobacconist and café on Rue Beaurepaire, near Place de la République, was vandalized and looted. She noted that among the vandals were women and children as young as twelve years old.

Continuity among vandals

She suggested there is a continuity between the vandals in terms of age, ethnicity, social origin, and religion, from the most Muslim to the most Catholic. Some young people may have previously supported Léon XIV and are now participating in looting luxury shops in central Paris.

New book explains societal changes

The causes of this phenomenon are attributed to an anthropological change described in a new book, Homo occidentalis, by Jérôme Fourquet and Ruben Rabinovitch. The book suggests a shift in dominant ideas, politics, and education in the last decades of the 20th century, moving from duties to rights, from transmission to innovation, and from sacrifices for others to the triumph of extreme individualism.

Shift in judicial identity

The authors also note that magistrates now see themselves as social workers rather than judges. Freud's concept of the "superego" is said to have vanished, with young people no longer having a conscience as described by Rousseau.

Education shapes conscience

Those who still have a superego and a conscience are those who received a different education, either because they are older or had responsible parents. The book The Psychology of Crowds by Gustave Le Bon, published in 1895, is referenced as a reading that can enlighten us in these times.

Crowd behavior explained

It describes how individuals in a crowd can feel a sense of "invincible power" and lose their inhibitions, performing actions they would not do alone. This is especially true in anonymous and heterogeneous crowds where individuals are difficult to identify afterward.

Misconceptions about crowd segmentation

Commentators who segment the crowd of vandals, such as those who claim that good students were vampirized by the bad Black Blocs, are said to be in error. A good student from Henri IV might join in the looting of a shop, later telling his father that it was "cool."

Criticism of Black Bloc attribution

Xavier Raufer, on Atlantico, is criticized for attributing the chaos to the Black Blocs, which are described as German, Belgian, invisible, and omnipresent. Christophe Guilluy is mentioned in relation to his new book, Peripheria, and his views on Metropolia.

Call for severe repression

A call is made for severe repression as the only remedy to French chaos, but no one today dares to apply it.