Imane Kurdi At first I thought it was hilarious. The French Syndicat de la Magistrature, a union representing around a third of French magistrates, has been found to host what it terms a ‘wall of jerks' in its Paris offices, a whole wall where names and photos of ‘jerks' are pinned up for all to see, some with added annotations. Members are encouraged to add to the wall but a sign reminds them to “please check before you add a jerk that he is not already there.” I found it all the more entertaining that the authors of this rather infantile prank were judges, those ever so august arbitrators of justice were shown to have a sense of humour, albeit a rather poor one. The French expression used is the wall of ‘cons'. This short word is essential for anyone who wants to spend time among the French: They use it a lot. The literal translation is in fact anatomical and refers to a part of female genitalia, but its every day usage covers English words like idiot, jerk, moron, and so on, going to stronger language depending on the context and the tone in which it is used... That a group of people should dedicate a whole wall in their office to naming and shaming all the idiots they encounter is kind of reassuring, at least on first impression, don't we all get exasperated every day by people who just behave like total jerks? So I thought, give it a try, create your own wall, not in my office but on a computer screen, name and shame, surely it must be very therapeutic! My first conclusion is that there are so many potential candidates. It reminded me of an anecdote regarding Gen. Charles De Gaulle. When Paris was liberated from the Germans at the end of World War II, the first jeep to enter the city was tagged with the inscription: ‘Mort aux cons' or ‘Death to all jerks'. De Gaulle famously looked at the inscription and commented “Vaste programme!.” And he was right, removing stupidity, idiocy, short-sightedness, selfishness, ignorance and everything else that turns men and women into ‘cons' is indeed a vast program! My list didn't get very far, because it became just that, a list, and making lists with peoples names began to make me rather uneasy. There is something quite distasteful, reactionary even, in coming up with a list of names of people you disapprove of or disagree with. There is also something quite immature in labelling ‘a jerk' anyone whose politics or opinions you dislike, we should be intelligent enough to move beyond such juvenile thinking. In the case of the French judges, their wall was highly political. Started when Sarkozy was president, it essentially tagged everyone and anyone with right-wing views, from Sarkozy himself, to a large component of his government, to journalists, intellectuals and television personalities. Again my first impression was how amazing that in a country like France people can do that, they can post a photo of a former president and tag him an ‘idiot' without facing any nasty consequences, surely that is a mark of a highly evolved civilization, not the juvenile ‘idiot' remark, but the intelligence to accept that criticism, even when it is tasteless or stupid, is part and parcel of engaging with others, and only through open debate can a society genuinely move forward. However, as it happens, the wall of jerks was not shrugged off as just a tasteless joke by those it named. The French Right has been up in arms and falling over itself with righteous indignation. As always this is a political game, a chance to score a few political points against the Left and get some stories in the papers, but there is some justification to their anger. Had this ‘wall of jerks' been in the offices of striking metal workers or the back office of a private business, or in someone's home, or even in a restaurant or a bar, it would just be an expression of the opinions of private citizens, and as such be privy to freedom of speech, but these were judges and judges have a duty to be impartial. France's justice minister, Christiane Taubira, has duly intervened, she called the wall unacceptable, unhealthy and stupid. Moreover she has now consulted the Supreme Judicial Council, France's highest legal body, for advice on whether the wall is a breech of ethics. In any case the ‘wall of jerks' is no more, it has been taken down. It is one thing to hold a private joke among friends, another to bring politics into the justice system. No doubt it looked like a harmless piece of fun to those who put up the first pictures, but judges should be above politics, even when politicians bait them as Sarkozy's government often did. In the final analysis naming and shaming those whose views we find unpalatable may feel good, but it is ultimately self-defeating. — Imane Kurdi is a Saudi writer on European affairs. She can be reached at [email protected]
