In Case You Missed It....

There is an absolutely remarkable socio-cultural shift occurring right now, as jarring as anything from fifty years ago, and the U.S. media can't quite see it because, in part, it is a reaction against large media conglomerates and, in larger part, it has nothing to do with their obsession with the current occupant of The White House.

Let me re-phrase that, you honor.  The current occupant is a symptom of this world-wide socio-cultural shift, not its cause.  Although he might be an accelerant, but we'll rely on future historians to figure that one out.

What is particularly fascinating to me is that these protests have no organzing group or individual, and they are made up of everyone from the far-left to the far-right to the in-between.  The divide between the people and the elites is rather stark and ill-advised in the country that invented the guillotine.

As you will notice, it's not just in France.

NYT: France's Yellow Vest Protests

CityLab: France Gives In to 'Yellow Vest' Protesters' Demands

The Local France:  'Too little, too late': France's 'yellow vests' vow to push on with protests

Netherlands Times:  "Yellow vests" protest planned for Amsterdam on Saturday

Politico Europe:  Police van set ablaze as Yellow Jackets protests hit Brussels’ EU quarter

Well, this is interesting.  How could it have backfired, I wonder?

The French head of state has retreated into the Élysée Palace, ordered his aides and ministers into media silence, and tightened presidential communication to the few calibrated messages he thinks opportune. Power, he thinks, is best exercised when wrapped in a cloud of mystery.

This is the "Jupiterian" concept his team developed in the last few months of the presidential campaign to illustrate his vision of the presidency. Jupiter, of course, is the supreme god of Roman mythology, god of the sky, thunder and lightning.

Applied to Macron's actual presidency, this means former friends and crucial campaign aides have been shunted aside, direct access to the president is restricted to a handful of young advisers, and Macron’s mobile phone seems to have gone silent. 

The president gives marching orders, ministers and bureaucrats are expected to execute. No dissent is tolerated in the ranks, nor are the cozy and self-interested off-the-record chats that long provided fodder for political commentators. 

Macron doesn't speak much, and when he does, he doesn’t say much. He has mostly been heard in almost-daily meetings with visiting foreign heads of state. They’ve come from Guatemala and Senegal, Belgium and Bulgaria, Denmark and Peru and elsewhere to meet the new boy wonder. Sober statements in the Élysée gardens are staged for the media, rarely with time for questions.

Oh, Macron.  If you want to be Jupiter, it may be best to recall what happened to the original Zeus.  Not so powerful these days, is he?

An aside:  I'm beginning to think that Macron is not so much a new type of politician as he is a figurehead promoted by those who wish to manipulate and control from the shadows.

Also, if Brigitte is for it, then so am I.  [Long-time readers will recall my fondness for, and occasional correspondence with, my first crush.]