The French Choose Enlightenment: Descartes Wins.

The Tipping Point in the Election was Culture.

Hindsight, they say, is easy. But I think it’s actually hard. Looking backward to try to understand why things turn out the way they do means you don’t have the luxury of selecting out only those facts that support your interpretation of why things happen. You have to be especially open to all the factors that may contribute to the outcome, not just those that support your own position, which is something we humans, with all our individual agendas, often find difficult to do. It takes a valuing of, among other things, rational thought and logical analysis above all else, even when doing so may conflict with our preferences and feelings. It’s a perspective that’s often uncomfortable, not automatic, a process of mind that needs to be taught and practiced, and it also happens to constitute a fundamental pillar of western culture, gifted to us from that dusty historical period that began in France traditionally known as The Enlightenment, and founded on the seminal writings of the philosopher, mathematician and all around 17th century French mover and shaker, Rene Descartes.

So it seems only fitting that we apply some Cartesian logic when trying to understand how it happened last weekend in the French election that Macron, to the relief of much of the western world and despite the enormous…