not enough room for them! Staff space is hotly disputed, and Florence’s office was stolen when she went on vacation. Even after she got her office back, she had to spend much of her time circumnavigating obstacles placed in her path by the leftover Gaullist or Giscardian civil servants who are still around, still doing much of the detail work of government, and still quite determined to undermine change. Such are the joys of political victory! In one fabulous but diabolical political debate, Florence, her new-Left American husband, and I juggled positions for hours, eventually sort of trading places entirely. Florence defended the Socialist Party and Mitterand for their choices — the abolition of the death penalty, the selective nationalizations — as well as accusing Brice Lalonde of treachery to the Left. It was well known, she said, that he had taken money from those supporting Giscard d’Estaing and had even gone to see Giscard (upon my investiga- tio’n, this turned out to be not true). Florence’s husband and I took a new-Left or new-age tack, pretty much a la Brice, asserting that the Socialists were not even asking the right questions, pointing out Mitterand’s reneging on his cancellation of new nuclear power plant construction, suggesting that nationalizations are just the same forward march into centralized technocracy that happened in the Soviet Union. Worn down by the less-than-glorious realities of day-to-day reorganization, Florence eventually came ’round to our side, lamenting the amount of compromise necessary for the Socialists to survive. tinct type, Jean is a thoroughly delightful, intelligent, rather courtly person who also happens now to be the vice president of the powerful Bank of Indochina We ended up encouraging her to hang in there with the Socialists for history’s sake, for the sake of the future. “The eyes of the world are upon France!” we shouted. TO PROTECT LIFE Concerns include a continuing and broad genetic and natural resource patrimony, the future of agricultural lands and farmers, human health, and the elimination of the nuclear industry. TO OVERCOME SOLITUDE Even though France is now urban, its habits are still rural. Concerns include the problems of isolation, the length of the work day, land-use planning and its control, automobile use, government-controlled radio and television, government invasion of privacy, and encouragement of initiative instead of rigidity, both in school and industry, and of technology devoted to human needs. TO TAME AND LOCALIZE THE ECONOMY To control the development of the economy on the national level, and at the same time “return it to the household level.’’ To pluralize and differentiate. To fight waste and planned obsolescence. To create work sharing. To choose desirable progress. TO DEVELOP WORLD SOLIDARITY To address international relations in new modes, outside of the traditional exclusively economic considerations. TO LIMIT AND REDUCE THE STATE (while increasing everyone’s civic existence). To distribute power and responsibilities as closely as possible to the level of those concerned. What is needed is nothing less than the Sixth Republic (a new government!). Over on the far side of the spectrum, my French acquaintance of. longest duration is something of a closet monarchist. Nearly an exand Suez, which was being nationalized during my very visit! Jean’s reaction to the nationalization was totally different from what I expected. He was quitting the Bank, but he was really happy to be able to leave Paris for a more reasonable life somewhere in the provinces, maybe Dijon. I had heard him talk in years past of the entry of “management” thinking into the Bank in which seemingly shallow, humorless types were tending to impoverish his life. “Now,” he said, “the Bank will just go further in that direction. My life has nothing to do with that.” Jean wanted to know all about Brice — all the good stories. “He’s not bad, your Brice,” said Jean. What is the source of Brice’s appeal to the French? At least a small part of it comes from their curiosity about the unique obliqueness of his stance. Three out of four who voted for him for President were women, of all ages. (Raised by women, he talks a woman’s language.) The rest were either young men or older men. Those facts speak for themselves. As to why the French have been more willing than Americans to try something new (Barry Commoner’s percentage of the vote for President of the U.S. was miniscule), there is, of course, the old saw that says the Mediterranean personality is the most politicized of any. And France is definitely a highly centralized (perhaps repressive) nation with no built-in pressure valve, like, say, the possibility of referendum. More importantly, according to Brice, both the Left and the Right are equally willing to advance into the technocratic state, where human values do not come into play in decision making (it was in late January that Mitterand signed a long-term natural FREE GLASS Save up to 30% on framing call for details Posters, prints and graphics available at 4237 S.W. 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