Reflecting on Parisian Student Rioting

Parisian student rioting ain’t what it used to be. 

A teacher highlighted the difference for me: “This generation doesn’t want to change society. They just want to be able to get a job good enough to pay the rent and that’s why they’re worried about the quality of their education.”

Nonetheless, when sufficiently fired up and organised, French students have shown in recent years that no government can afford to be complacent once they take to the streets.

Last week the right-of-centre newspaper, Le Figaro, summed up that perception with a quote which, not surprisingly, remains anonymous:

“The young are like toothpaste, easier to get out of the tube than to put back in again.”