There were revelers who gathered at the counters in the evening of last Saturday, just before the closing for an indefinite period, bars and restaurants. These families and groups of friends who, the next day, gathered in numbers to enjoy the Sunday sun in the parks, the squares or even on the Parisian quays along the Seine or the Saint-Martin canal. Not to mention the long queues in front of the supermarkets, where the rule of distancing of a minimum meter was only very little respected, and these markets still crowded this Tuesday morning, a few hours before the entry into force of the containment general.
How to explain such collective indiscipline? A simple stand-off before a period that everyone knows will be difficult to live with or exacerbated individualism? The evil is deeper, according to sociologist Nelly Mauchamp, researcher at the interdisciplinary laboratory for economic sociology (LISE-CNRS) and author of the book "les Français" (editions of the Cavalier Bleu).
Why are we so unruly?
NELLY MAUCHAMP. In France, we are almost institutionally urged to break the rules. At school, the clown, who defies the teachers and makes his comrades laugh, is always dubbed by the others while the first in the class is always made fun of by the rest of the group. This forges a particular typically French state of mind: the one who respects the rule is weak… and the one who breaks it, sometimes with a touch of pleasure, is dubbed or, at least, not denounced.
It is as if we could not help acting against the recommendations from above!
We are the heirs of a highly critical teaching, continues Nelly Mauchamp. At French school, we learn to make dissertations, to confront ideas and to take counterpoint.
Does our religion play a role?
Yes. To this must also be added a strong Judeo-Christian tradition. France is a cradle of Catholicism, a religion which puts forward the concept of forgiveness very much. To put it simply, we make a mistake, we absolve ourselves and everything is forgotten… It is a common point that we share with the Latins, Spain and Italy in mind. In the majority Protestant countries, in northern Europe for example, there is a social contract which prevents the individual from acting outside the group under penalty of being singled out. A Frenchman will easily cross a street outside the nails - he will even take a kind of pride from it - while a German will find it unacceptable.
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Will things go back to normal now that the conditions of confinement are stricter and, above all, subject to sworn statements under penalty of sanctions?
Yes, it is the other facet that makes French people what they are, believes the sociologist. They agree to join the ranks ... but only under duress. Make no mistake, if things get better in the coming days compared to the acceptance of the recommendations vis-à-vis the epidemic of the coronavirus, it will not be at all by civility but simply because of the fear of the gendarme.