In this new collection composed of texts that have appeared over the past thirty years in newspapers and various online media, the French philosopher Jacques Rancière reverses received ideas about politics, revealing the fundamentally unequal structure of the Western democratic model. Most often short and imbued with sharp humour, these prophetic texts are essential for understanding the political events that have marked the last decades, both in the West and locally. Readers here will find relevant tools to reflect on the events of Maple Spring, the debates surrounding Bill 21 and the very recent freedom convoy movement.
Speaking about landmark revolts such as those of Occupy Wall Street and the Yellow Vests, Rancière argues that the very nature of politics is ” [d’altérer] the normal order of domination, that is to say the established distribution of places, functions, identities and capacities”. Thus, for the philosopher, the refusal to grant any legitimacy to political movements which depart from the usual forms, for example those which are without designated leaders or which carry demands which are not articulated in long-term strategies, is a matter of a single thought closer to totalitarianism than true democracy.
The current division of democratic societies has less to do, for Rancière, with the clash of ideas than with the denial that everyone, qualified or not to do so, can express ideas and hold their own discourse. Contrary to what is commonly said about the notion of people, alternately designated as barbarian or holder of a profound truth denied by the elites, the philosopher affirms, among other things, that “conspiracy and negationist theories stem from a logic that is not reserved for simple minds and sick brains. Their extreme forms testify to the share of unreason and superstition present at the heart of the dominant form of rationality in our societies and in the modes of thought that interpret its functioning.
Thus, the archaism conferred on the supporters of these theories rather constitutes, for him, the reverse side of so-called advanced thought. Continuing in this vein, Rancière points out that today, it is first and foremost governments that capitalize on old feelings of fear of others and insecurity.
In his analysis of the implementation of eminently racist laws by the various French governments since the end of the last century, he emphasizes that, for want of exercising their control over the issues that they have abandoned to the markets, it is on the questions of identity that the ruling classes have turned down. On the left as on the right, the parties have worked to enact laws aimed at curbing at the same time as at stoking the insecurity justifying their power and state intervention. Faced with this consensus, it is important for Rancière that the desire for community continues to be expressed through the movements of revolt.