Dalrymple writes that the victory of les Bleus in the World Cup
no more solves the social problems of France than did the victory of Evonne Goolagong at Wimbledon solve the problem of Australia’s Aborigines.
The outburst of hysterical optimism in France
is destined not to last very long — as it did not the previous time, in 1998, and as the riots in the Champs-Élysées and elsewhere indicate.
Of course, he says,
the desire for a magical or symbolic solution to intractable problems springs eternal.