A fire has been smoldering for some time in a luxury apartment block; the building’s managing agent knows about it; so do the tenants and owners; they sometimes talk about it, vaguely, at their meetings, without ever deciding to take the necessary measures to avert the danger. They’re too busy discussing the new paint job for the entrance and the sharing of charges. Too proud, too, to show off their gardens and common rooms to admiring and envious visitors. One day, a fire breaks out in an attic room; the residents are informed, and at that moment, once again, they are in a meeting with the building’s syndic, who has decided, by surprise, to change the composition of the board of directors governing the residence. A fire in a machine room? No one cares, because nothing is more important to these people than securing their place in the future governance of the condominium. We debate, we argue, we take a break, we come back; without deciding anything; without even taking the basic measures to put out the fire in the annex room; without checking the conformity of the fire extinguishers; without renewing the insurance or paying the maintenance staff. Until the fire reached one floor, then two, then the meeting room of these august figures. And destroyed the building.
This little fable is a metaphor for what’s happening in many families, towns, companies and countries. Particularly in France.
Everywhere, at all times, the same fault, the worst: procrastination. Everyone knows that France, such a magnificent country which, for a few days recently, had the world under its spell, is very deeply threatened. Everyone knows that a fire is brewing: trade deficit. Budget deficit. Primary deficit. Balance of payments deficit. Every month, new statistics confirm this. Very recently, a report reaffirmed that, to avoid going completely off track, the country will have to find 100 billion euros by 2027. 100 billion euros in savings, because there can be no question of increasing the country’s tax burden, which is already one of the two highest in the world. But how? Where are the savings to be found, when there are so many unsatisfied needs, so many cruel shortages of healthcare staff, teachers, security personnel and engineers?
The country cannot afford to continue wasting its time in procrastination at the top, greed in the middle and resentment at the bottom. It needs to kick the can down the road. And act.
I’m not offering a solution here; I’m simply stating the obvious: France can’t afford another six months, a year, three years like this. She has to realize that she’s about to slide into financial bankruptcy, that investors are already preparing to leave; that her true elites, the engineers and workers of the life economy, are going to leave her. Everyone, not just the President, must stop procrastinating. Action is urgently needed.
The same diagnosis applies to the European Union. It is still an immense power, envied, admired and coveted by all. And so, hated by all, who think only of taking from it the best it has to offer, and trampling it underfoot. It doesn’t act; it remains open to all winds and does nothing to reindustrialize, unite or train.
The same diagnosis applies to the values built up over nearly three thousand years by European civilization: reason, individual rights, individual freedom. They are under threat everywhere, trampled underfoot. Particularly in Europe, where they still survive, nothing is being done to really defend them.
Finally, the same indictment can be levelled at humanity as a whole, which is in no better shape than our beautiful country and splendid continent. It too procrastinates. It too refuses to see the multiple fires that are smoldering. It too divides itself into derisory clans; worse still: while threatened with death, it kills each other with delight, sadism and barbarity, each wanting to prove to the other that he has better reasons to stay alive.
It’s all, on every level, suicidal.
And yet, with a little courage, a lot of willpower, tenacity, audacity, imagination and solidarity, the future can be wonderful. France could set an example. The right example. By stopping procrastinating. By rallying around a serious, lucid project that tackles the country’s most difficult problems head-on. Such a project could soon exist. Provided we build it together. But here’s the thing: we need to unite rather than fight. Act rather than talk.
j@attali.com
Image: Pexels.