The EU is dead. Short live the EU.

Frog The Vote

My anarchist credo states that voting is an act of submission to the state. Not that I don't bow to the Rule of Law on a daily basis, but I can legally spare myself the humiliation of the polls. There are not that many legal transgressions left us in the enslaving Age of Information. On top of which, had I broken my golden rule for the referendum on the European Constitution in Paris, I'd be fuming even more today. Because the anarchist's assumption that, whatever the election, the dumbest almost invariably wins, was once again proven right.

As a translator and writer fluent in two foreign languages, what was at stake for me-as a member of the qualified cosmopolitan work force of a Western European country-was the possibility to export my skills on a grander, globalized scale, away from the narrow networks of influence that have forever made European social mobility a joke. So, believe it or not, as a concerned consumer afflicted with a self-conscious wallet, I could have made the mistake of voting. That E.U. Constitution shit was the key to an exciting future. I don't care about Polish or Lithuanian plumbers selling cheap labor over here. French plumbers could go to Poland and open franchises all over the place, if they only had a tenth of the immigrants' guts. I don't want to be kicked around by bureaucrats, and wait until the day I'm withered enough to kiss ass and start having opinions on tired Franco-French issues-I just want to look good and get a better job. I want the world to open up, and the unique European experience to make an impact and survive.

Now, I'll be so bold as to paraphrase Rakim: "A whole generation's left in doubt!" Constitutions are a lame read in general, and this one was no exception. I couldn't get past the first paragraph; mostly, I read the headlines. I wasn't too keen on the reference to Christianity, that's where the damn Poles went wrong if you asked me; you wished the Pope had kicked the bucket earlier and hadn't leaned on the E.U. But who agrees to every single part of a Constitution? That thing was meant to forge a war machine capable of tackling a good chunk of the world market; and to do it our way, smoothly and lasting, as opposed to the fast-talking, hulking-hustling of the US of A. I mean we could be the new explorers, the Livingstone's of the new era-and hit pay dirt too. Oh? Yes, corporations got a good piece of the pie. Tell me when they don't.

But really, worst of all, as always in our wretched Frogland consciousness, politics got in the way big time.

Politics means the Right, the Left, and the extremes on either side, all special-interest groups whose power is locally based, and whose experience could be summed up as "grassroots". (You almost wish you were American sometimes, say, if you were spared the extra weight and sexual hang-ups). The only people with any European experience are the people in office who have a grasp of the Union's power potential. Now Chirac's team is a shoot-yourself-in-the-foot collective, having brought the Socialists to power a few years ago, thanks to a very swift and very dumb dissolution of the parliament; having let thousands of elderly die in August 2003 during a heat wave in big cities, while the government was in recess, by the pools of their lavish mansions. None of these brilliant minds came up with the simple idea that if there was no referendum to be organized on the whole European territory at once-however difficult, that would be the first and decisive unifying move-the issue had to be settled in parliament.

But it runs deeper than the classic dumbest-right-in-the-world factor.

The right itself is deeply conflicted on the issue, and in fact much of the French government's behavior, in favor of the "OUI"-as every Chirac's pleading speeches confirmed the inevitability of the final "NON"-could be summed up as a Freudian slip. Because capital is globalized, anyway-the spread of ignorance through capitalist chaos American style invaded our streets long ago. Whatever Chirac's and others' last minute rally, the European free trade space is a reality and global forces don't necessarily need a transnational super-state to implement it any more-some might even find it easier to buy their way into each state, as they are used to doing. Chirac was in dire need of major corporate fuel to fight the fight. But the capital stayed on neutral.

This Constitution disaster reflects a glaring contradiction between interior and exterior-"domestic" and foreign"-policy. The former is provincial and short sighted, the latter is grand, but how long can you be grand with no unifying muscle? That's where Europe trips over itself; its politicians can't handle an interior policy electrified with the concerns of a bigger space, of world destiny. Catch-22.

Well, the dumb right factor plays a part after all, as Chirac-and most European politicians-failed to attract the sizable qualified work force (myself included) with any grand scheme liable to spark an outburst of support. So who'd come to the rescue to save a regime renowned for its grandstands outside, and its pettiness inside, including in the damn French-African former colonies, where it insisted on a private neo-colonialist 60s-style policy, doomed to fail in the 21st century?

From then on, it was easy and no one from the Fascists to the Antiglobalists would miss an opportunity to hold the reins. The extremes too have missed a chance to appear on the world scene other than anecdotally. Talk about self-defeating strategies. Right now I have no choice but to pitch my skills to some ruthless globalized body-likely to be American-ready to plunder the Earth and vaporize the remnants of a once great culture, keeping everything it taught me for my retirement fund, instead of putting it to use for an extraordinarily powerful collective design.

So at the very least, I'm glad I didn't vote. I still have some measure of insight to sell.

Thierry Marignac, a French writer and translator, was born in Paris in 1958.