#DSK - The hangover

Updated May 24, 2011 15:55:17

In a piece published on The Drum, James Pender reviewed the downfall of Dominique Strauss-Khan and concluded that “the myth of the French political man, a man seemingly at the mercy of his sexual desire for the fairer race, continues to be both understood and excused by politicians and commentators alike in France.”

Whist Pender rightly questions those who defend DSK by denying the alleged accusations without any knowledge of what really happened in New York, his piece totally ignored the fact that a significant debate is currently taking place in France. It is understandable if he sourced his information from US or UK media. Had he tuned into the French channels he would have discovered that a large part of the country is far from being in denial.

It would be misleading to restrict the Gallic reactions to the parodic interventions from ‘intellectual’ Bernard-Henry Levy who was asking for a VIP treatment ("I feel nothing but loathing for the judge who delivered him to that pack of newshounds in front of the police station, on the pretence that he was a citizen like any other”) or journalist Jean-Francois Kahn who referred to the alleged sexual assault as “an act of imprudence, a bit of domestic tupping”.

Contrary to what Pender implies, these comments triggered mass reprobation. Their authors have been absolutely vilified across the media. BHL who is already considered to French philosophy what Foster’s is to Australian beer is confirming his status: only foreign consumers still believe the brew is popular back home. As for Jean-Francois Kahn, the enormity of his reaction was such that he had to issue an apology explaining that he was mortified by the events and that is words were “totally inacceptable.”

The second reason why Pendler’s piece is misleading is that it is built on the innuendo that sexual abuse would be excused by a typically French “general acceptance of the need for a clear separation between the public and private lives of politicians” - or of all citizens for that matter.

To mention the two types of sexual behaviours in the same breath is frankly as dubious as to insinuate that Australians would collectively endorse cover-ups when Rugby players step off the mark too.

The reality is that instead of “demystifying the Lovable French Rogue” this case is turning into a massive hangover about the relationship of the political and the media echo chamber. It might have happened to a French politician this time, but it is fairly painful universal wake-up call to reflect on how our democracies deal with the weak and the powerful.

It is a political hangover for the French Socialist Party, which had stacked all its hopes of winning the next presidential election in 2012 on the return of the providential man. The design of a coherent political program was hijacked by the party's spin-doctors to prepare the home coming of the former head of the IMF and impose a de facto endorsement of his politics. The climax of this marketing operation was probably a documentary recently aired on national TV, “a year with DSK”. A film crew followed his daily activities to portray him as “a man of the people” to counter-balance the image of an international banker, even “cooking his own food” as a famous scene had it. The events of Sofitel room 2806 have now made it a wasted piece of political storytelling.

It is also a massive media hangover. Very few of the traditional commentators have come out clean from the race to provide an opinion in the hours following the arrest. Shock and disbelief pushed them to react as if their social circle was under attack. Instead of analysing the situation and maybe deciding not to speculate before knowing the facts, they lashed out against what they perceived as an injustice done to one of them.

Here Pender is right in his observation, but he is wrong to attribute it to the French factor. It is a problem of oligarchy and media echo-chamber, a manifestation of the promiscuity of the press gallery and the politicians (DSK is married to a star TV anchor from the 80s and 90s so you can imagine their address book across the 'elite'). The real insight during this past week was to witness how the corporate media entanglement with the political class has prevented them from fulfilling their mission with objectivity. To the point that most of the level headed comments basically came from amateurs bloggers on new media channels, who seemed to be the only one able to step back and exert a critical eye.

Finally, it is an ethical hangover in an aspect that is probably most relevant to the Australian and US observers. This ethics is not about the fantasised sexual life of French politicians. Past performances from Bob Hawke, Bill Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Elliot Spitzer show that the relationship between power, fame and sex transcends borders. The real ethical hangover comes from the fact that a man’s reputation got totally trashed overnight before any trial; and one week later he was able to put one million dollars on the table for bail and get a different treatment than a Latin American emigrant in the same situation. It comes from the fact that male public figures’ first instinct – without any knowledge of the facts – was to deny the possibility of a sexual abuse, in a pattern all too familiar witnessed in recent scandals within the Australian Defence Forces and rugby clubs.

Contrary to James Pender’s belief of the Gallic tacit acceptance of this culture, a range of people have strongly reacted to this. Feminist associations demonstrated in Paris this week to assert that such attitude was unacceptable. A group of Libertarian activists even collected signatures online and symbolically sent roses to the hotel maid who is accusing DSK. Notwithstanding that some of those actions are politically motivated, they definitively illustrate a general 'ras-le-bol' with misogyny.

So yes, there is something rogue to be demystified, but it is not about the French. Instead it might be about the way the chroniclers and leaders of our societies swing from being blinded by the rich and powerful, to vilifying their failed icons once they burn out in hubris, and abandon all form of critical thinking between those two extremes.

Xavier Rizos works in the finance industry researching relationships between economics, governance, regulation, politics and culture.

Topics: banking, sexual-offences, law-crime-and-justice, ethics, community-and-society

First posted May 24, 2011 15:48:32