2019年，当我在电视节目中指出法国人让巴黎圣母院烧毁是一种失职时，同台嘉宾都瞪了我一眼。但我的观点很严肃。事后人们普遍注意到，法国地标建筑的维护早已依赖国内外慈善捐赠。随后，为修复大教堂而涌入的巨额外国捐款更是刺眼。如果你没留意，最近几个月屡见不鲜的新闻是：珍贵传世文物从安保薄弱的法国博物馆中被搬走。
I got the hairy eyeball from fellow TV panelists when I said in 2019 that it was careless of the French to let Notre-Dame burn down. But the point was a serious one. In the aftermath, it was widely noted how French landmarks had already come to depend on foreign and domestic philanthropy for maintenance. Then came the glaring foreign millions on offer for restoring the cathedral. If you haven’t noticed, recent months have been replete with stories of heirlooms being walked out of poorly secured French museums.
政府的首要职责是为公民追求目标提供有序且合法的环境。一味迎合公民一切愿望和需求的政府注定会失败，因为这些愿望和需求是无限的。当政府失去设定优先次序的能力时，它就失去了治理能力。法国政府已经到了这一步。
The first job of government is to provide an orderly and lawful environment for citizens to pursue their aims. A government devoted to meeting their every wish and want is bound to fail, because their wishes and wants are unlimited. When a government loses the ability to prioritize, it loses the ability to govern. France’s has.