Back at City Journal, the concerned doctor addresses the mayhem and disorder that has gripped France since last week’s killing of an Arabic teenager by a French policeman.

It is as if France were not only two countries, but two continents, the one of beauty, prosperity, and contentment, the other of ugliness, poverty, and seething hatred. This is an oversimplification, of course, for intermediate layers exist between the two extremes; nevertheless, it is the contrast between them that is so startling.