French farmers staged a dramatic protest against the European Union a few years ago by hauling sections of wheatfields that had been uprooted, and cattle and sheep, to the center of the Champs Elysees. The police rushed to surround this sudden imposition of the countryside on the city, which disrupted business and traffic, and they braced themselves for fistfights between the citizens and the farmers. When the Parisians caught sight of the wheat and the animals, however, instead of reacting angrily, they ran toward them and began to stroll in the fields--lawyers, lovers, farmers, cops--dreamily together. For a few hours on...
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