One of the week’s big stories is the riots in France.  The violence raises questions about how well people with Middle Eastern and African heritages have been integrated into French society.  This goes right to the definition of France as a nation.  It also raises interesting questions about cultural compromise and nationhood in the US and elsewhere.  With such big questions swirling around, I consulted the I Ching with the question: what is the meaning of the French riots?

    And the answer that came back was a apt description of both the possibilities for, and the challenges of, intercultural accommodation, and, also, an admonition to the French political leadership that they should turn inward to understand how their actions may have sparked the recent outburst of protest.

     The specifics of the reading: Hexagram 8, "Holding Together," with a pure yin line in the third position, moving in the direction of Hexagram 39, "Obstruction."

    "Holding Together" describes very well the process of integrating various cultures in a democratic polity like France’s.  Water, and especially water flowing toward water, is a central image here.  The commentary seems especially relevant to the question at hand:

What is required is that we unite with others, in order that all may complement and aid one another through holding together…

     And if we find ways of holding together, we will find "good fortune."  But what is needed is a "central figure," a leader around whom people can come together.  This immediately raises the question of whether Chirac can be that person, of if he has been that person up to this point.  Whether he has or not, the I Ching is telling us what a leader needs to do to become the central focus of broader social cohesion:

It requires greatness of spirit, consistency, and strength.  Therefore let him who wishes to gather others about him ask  himself whether he is equal to the undertaking, for anyone attempting the task without a real calling for it only makes confusion worse than if no union at all had taken place.

   And so, as with so much of the advice in the I Ching, the character of leadership matters.

   There is also another issue here, raised by the moving line in the third position:

  Six in the third place means:
You hold together with the wrong people.

We are often among people who do not belong to our own sphere.  In that case we must beware of being drawn into false intimacy through force of habit.

    Is the oracle suggesting that the integration of people from the Middle East and Africa into the French nation is somehow wrong and inherently doomed to failure?  I think not.  The words and spirit of the I Ching are too generous and accepting to accept racial exclusivity.  Rather, instead of a ban on whole groups of people, I suspect the I Ching is warning us about individuals: there may be individuals – white, black, or brown – who may resist multicultural integration, and it is these individuals we must be careful about, lest they undermine the broader work of understanding and accommodation.

    The movement toward Hexagram 39, Obstruction, suggests that, if the French leadership fails to find a focal point for holding together, problems will persist.  It is a perilous situation, an abyss before us and a mountain behind us. Great care and introspection are needed to find a way out:

Water on the mountain:
The image of obstruction.
Thus the superior man turns his attention to himself
And molds his character.

    To me, this suggests that Chirac, and perhaps other high French officials (the Prime Minister?) should look "inward," not only to their personal integrity, but also to the policies they have been employing in the realm of social integration.  It may be time for a "retreat," as suggested elsewhere in this hexagram, away from the policies of the past, which in some ways denied the possibility of racial discrimination, toward a new effort to bring all French people together.

UPDATE: Sun Bin helpfully put me on to a source (Wikipedia, of course) for hexagram images.  Here is Hexagram 9:

   And here is Hexagram 39: