In France, the sinking Sarkozy desperately tries to salvage his re-election prospects by priding himself on outlawing hijab as one of the crowning achievements of his otherwise-lackluster presidential term. He says that the spread of halal meat is a major problem in today's France and threatens to shut France's borders to stem the flow of immigration. Of course, in the crisis-stricken France, hijab and halal food are the biggest problems. These are the real threats to the economy, security or dare I say the overused term 'identity'? It speaks of a deep crisis of social intellectual outlook when such primitive rhetoric finds the greatest resonance among populace. He "got the loudest cheer of the rally when he reminded his supporters he had banned Islamic veils in France", Al Jazeera reports.
When populist political leaders find themselves in deep trouble, they always resort to the basest, most primitive and barbarian form of political activism – ethnic nationalism. Ethnic nationalism relegates human beings to the their mere gene pool, their biological features, skin color, hair color, facial traits… It's nothing but primitive. It arouses the basest emotions and instincts. It's like sex. It's so un-complicated, instinctive and easily digestible that it wins followers in an instant. That’s what politicians in trouble exploit to garner easy votes. They abuse ethnically nationalistic discourse when they have nothing else to pride themselves on, when the economy is in shambles, when the morale is in ruins… When there's nothing else that can save them, they blame the immigrants for national malaises. But in the collective psyche, the immigrant is not only the one who entered without visa. It is anyone who is different, it is simply the Other. Exploiting nationalist rhetoric is dangerous because it inevitably results in racial animosity, tensions and at times even crimes.
That continues to happen in Russia where the unambiguously racist slogan "Russia for Russians" (in Russian, it means for "ethnic Russians" – russkie –as opposed to Russian citizens, which is unmistakably racist) was rampant. Any country in crisis needs lasting solutions and politicians who can gracefully address them without degenerating their discourses into the primitive verbiage of "us vs them".
