Charlie Hebdo’s Multi-Million-Dollar Pile of Tragedy Money

The staff of Charlie Hebdo in 2000, at the satirical weekly’s offices, in Paris. By Baumann/SIPA USA.

Since the massacre in its Paris offices, Charlie Hebdo has seen a reported influx of $33 million due to skyrocketing sales, subscriptions, and donations. Probing the tension this sudden wealth has created within the staff and the country, Roger Cohen explains why Charlie Hebdo’s fate is so important. LIRE EN FRANÇAIS.

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• Roger Cohen - Vanity Fair

If money lies at the heart of discourse in the United States, and sex is taboo, in France it is the opposite. “Pour vivre heureux, vivons cachés,” goes an old adage, or “To live happy, live hidden.” Money is a reviled non-subject. It is never to be flaunted, preferably not talked about—unlike sex, frequently mentioned because nobody cares. “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” was the revolution’s slogan. The words came in the wrong order. In practice, egalitarianism has almost always held sway over freedom, at least of markets, in the French soul. President François Hollande, who has since changed his tune, propelled himself to the Élysée Palace by declaring, “My principal adversary has no name. It has no face and does not belong to a political party. It has never presented its candidature and has never been elected, but it still governs. This adversary is the world of finance.”
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