DSK and the French-American Misunderstanding

Three weeks ago, Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) was only known to the French and other countries as a modern socialist who might finally lead the French Left from Marxism to globalization. Only 10 minutes were enough from his arrest by the NYPD and the departure of his flight to Paris to reveal that DSK was nothing but an impostor, a false modern who found himself in the wrong era and country.

DSK thought he was still living at a time when the “great men” of the age could act as sexual predators without incurring any risk. In the worst-case scenario, the girl keeps the secret; in the best-case scenario, she thanks the Prince for the favor.

It is clear that DSK was ignorant of the sexual revolution and the equal dignity of the sexes. He also forgot about the information revolution. In the information age, any inappropriate act of this nature cannot avoid being exposed.

A few minutes after his detention, blogs around the world went crazy about the scandal. This era is no longer one in which powerful people can buy journalists or try to silence them. As a result, his reputation has been left “in ruins,” and whether he was violent to the maid or not it makes no difference at all. The outcome of his trial will determine his immediate fate, but will not change anything in this matter, or the fact of his political inadequacy.

DSK chose the wrong place to commit his offense. Perhaps he thought he was in a Parisian hotel. It was his bad luck, because he was still in New York. Silence and complicity might have been possible in France, but in the United States they are inconceivable.

The problem is that the French do not understand the situation. Judging by the comments of those on the left, as well as public opinion in general, it is clear that a complete misunderstanding prevails. The different ways in which the French and the Americans have focused on the accusation against Dominique Strauss-Kahn demonstrate how France and the United States are truly and profoundly different countries.

In the United States, more exactly in New York, the rights of the alleged victim and her word prevail over the presumption of innocence of the accused, especially when the victim is a black woman. This situation surprises and shocks the French but not the Americans. The alleged victim is the one who is heard first, and the one who is most legitimate a priori.

Americans are extremely afraid of neglecting a victim, which is clearly the legacy of the country’s historic brutality against the weak, especially with black people. In this sense, the United States is always in a permanent process of atonement. There is no doubt that a white woman in similar circumstances might not have caused the same compassion and judicial attention.

We can add to this situation the fact that there is a democratic journalistic tradition, which leads the media to always take sides in a childlike and spontaneous way for the little guy against the powerful. In France, it is quite the opposite.

American journalists act as a true counter-power, while traditional French journalists see themselves in the power, or as if they belong to the ruling elite. The follies of DSK (sexual and financial), which were known for a long time by French journalists, did not become public. That might be a tangible sign that both belonged to the same world, or to the same court.

And there is another fundamental difference between France and the United States. It may be very banal, but we cannot repeat it often enough because of how wrongly it is understood, and how little assimilated it is. Americans are spontaneously democrats, while the French have aristocratic reflexes.

As Alexis de Tocqueville explained long ago, this is not about institutions but about social behavior and manners. Tocqueville is present in the American school curriculum, but not in the French. When we quote Tocqueville in France, without reading him, we often necessarily encounter a contradiction with the word “democracy” by not understanding that Tocqueville spoke of a society determined by customs rather than accepting that laws govern society.

Given that the United States is profoundly democratic, or tries its best to be democratic, the American police and justice systems worry about dealing fairly (sometimes with the same brutality) with the greatest as with the humblest men of the world. DSK has been treated, without a doubt, with a unique severity because of his aristocratic background due to money and power. Giving him any special consideration would have been inconceivable in an American society that boasts of its egalitarian culture and claims it incessantly.

It is clear that in France the contrary prevails. Aristocrats are either very honest, or they feel they are above the law. In any event, they rarely end up in preventive detention. In the United States, wealth and influence confer more social obligations than rights. DSK is being punished for abuse of power as well for the serious offense that he may have committed.

Are the police and justice systems tougher in the U.S. than in France? As far as I know there is no index of police brutality, but regarding the same serious offenses criminal sanctions are harsher in the United States. Ironically, this severity is due to the multicultural nature of American society. In the United States, legislators and judges believe that a society that shares a different cultural heritage can only survive with a certain harmony if the rules of the game, in this case, the law, are severely enforced.

The more diverse the states are, the more important immigration becomes (New York is multiethnic) and the more repressive the police and justice systems are. This severity, which is known by the phrase “zero tolerance,” and which was first adopted by New York in the ’80s, is an essential prerequisite for order.

Therefore DSK found himself in a world that was totally strange to him, a world that he, as the French aristocrat that he is, did not understand. Those in France, such as the well-known intellectuals who give him their support, with or without reason, usually do not understand how American society works. DSK is not an unequal victim of repression, but the eloquent representation of a civilization that is radically different from France.