Our lives, our days, our evenings are filled with digital impulses. In fact, from the morning, we take our cell phone, watch the news, but above all, we scrupulously observe social networks via different platforms. We zap from one video to another, from one piece of information to another, and we decide quickly.
I like the famous expression of Michel Onfray, French philosopher, “we like or we fuck”. A vulgar formula for some, but so real in our lives. Emotion, but especially moralism, takes the place of rational thought, prudence and reflection.
We could summarize this tendency to react promptly and morally as the evil of the century of social networks (or asocial, depending on our perspectives). This desire to approve or disapprove without taking the time to think about it is what the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche called moralism.
Obviously, the philosopher created this term in conditions different from current life, but this meant adopting a simplistic moralizing discourse, devoid of nuances, caught in the immediacy by reducing the complexity of reality to a form of dichotomous morality (good/bad, acceptable/unacceptable).
In today’s world, it is easy to like or hate, to vilify or not this or that individual, this or that statement; in fact, whether you are on Facebook or X, there is this little button allowing you to like. Moreover, lurking behind your screen, it is always easier to judge without even taking the time to question, validate and choose your words.
Not to mention a form of temporal injunction, where the slightest delay in reaction can be perceived as an approval or disapproval of this or that fact. In itself, the judgment is so hasty and sharp that many feel obliged to act quickly by commenting or liking (or not) the content. We are then caught in a form of emotional and moralizing tyranny: react quickly, otherwise you will be condemned.
Faced with these injunctions and demands for reactions, we alone are responsible. After all, we can choose not to respond, not to share, not to comment, but rather to research, to question, to document and to abstain in the absence of sufficient elements to decide intelligently and rationally. In itself, we must force ourselves to think before acting, to exercise caution and, above all, not to succumb to the temptation of easy moralizing.
Let’s not be fooled, one day or another, we all fall into this scourge of knee-jerk reactions. Ease, emotional reactions, the desire to give one’s opinion on everything are much more present than those requiring intellectual effort. Not to mention that social networks and technology push everyone to act and react without delay. However, let’s remember that the latter are the fruit of our inventiveness and our choices as a society.
I invite everyone to memorize and keep deep inside themselves a little phrase, quoted by Étienne de La Boétie, namely: “Be resolved to serve no longer, and you are free.”
The solution to this disordered and moralistic reaction lies within each of us; it is called free choice. Let us choose prudent thinking instead of untimely and moralistic reaction.