In March 2020, when nearly the entire globe was locked down in an effort to limit the damage caused by COVID-19, novelist and philosopher Pascal Bruckner was initially horrified. Not one to go around in circles, he quickly grabbed his copy ofOblomov, a great classic of Russian literature that he promised himself to read forever, without ever finding the time. The context, this time, could hardly be more ideal.
Indeed, Ivan Goncharov’s novel tells the story of a landowner suffering from abulia and apathy, who, by dint of spending his days encrusting himself in his favorite piece of furniture, ends up doing nothing but one with his couch. “The book seemed to me to present many similarities with the situation of the world, raises the novelist and philosopher, joined in Paris by the Homework. So I started working on a book project whose hero would be a man lying down, in slippers and a dressing gown, like an echo of all those people who no longer bothered to dress up and worked in their underpants. »
From this reflection resulted The sacred slippers. Renunciation of the worldan essay that tries to grasp the philosophical roots and the historical contours of the progressive erasure of public life, of the mentalities of renunciation and withdrawal into oneself that would isolate us from each other and lock us in a cozy and connected cocoon, sheltered from reality, its shocks and its adversities.
Freedom, fallen ideal
For Pascal Bruckner, the pandemic has sealed the fate of freedom, which is moving further and further away from its ideal status. “In the face of the threat, people immediately opted for security over freedom. It’s normal, we didn’t know what we were dealing with. We therefore relied on the advice of the government, which was just as lost as we were. Extremely strong administrative control has taken hold, in France at least, and a pandemic bureaucracy that continues today. »
Although he is critical of the measures taken by his government, as well as of the demands of the anti-vaccine protesters, the essayist is well aware that the solution to the moral dilemma proposed by the health crisis does not exist. “Democracies have fared much better than totalitarian regimes. But today, as we do everything to get the pandemic out of our heads, we can see that nothing is over and everyone is dropping like flies. »
By restricting access to borders, complicating exits, transforming a bus trip or a trip to the supermarket into a risky experience, COVID has accentuated a trend that has been gaining ground since the beginning of the 21st century.e century: that of the disproportionate enlargement of the domestic space to which responds the shrinking of the public space. This phenomenon, according to the philosopher, would be a response to a politics of fear, by fear and for fear, which has governed since the beginning of the century.
“This fear began with the attacks of September 11. Then, in 2003, a heat wave caused more than 15,000 deaths in France, heightening fears linked to the climate crisis. Then there was the pandemic, then the war in Ukraine and our friend Putin, who regularly threatens to vitrify us. We are living in a historic moment conducive to chaos. Threats combine to assert our helplessness and make us go back into our burrow. »
This carelessness forever shattered constitutes the triumph of what he calls the “negative passions.” “We now define ourselves by subtraction – we want to consume less, spend less, travel less – or by opposition, we are against: we are antivax, antimeat, antivote, antimask, antinuclear, antipass, anticar”, he writes.
The limits of the Web
The whole thing, of course, reaches its climax when you plunge your nose into your cell phone; Internet representing the perfect tool to keep us riveted to ourselves. “This planetary agora which was to enable us to communicate with the whole world has become a machine for imposing a sedentary lifestyle. To open up to others, you must first be seated. The Internet is therefore above all a lesson in siege. In the past, adventurers took to the sea. Today, they put on their virtual reality goggles and go to bed. »
The promise of immensity that the Web represents has also proven to be in vain, since algorithms, targeted advertising and natural reflexes instead lead users to navigate in a very restricted circle, made up of people who look alike and who share the same opinions. “It was utopian to believe that the Web would allow us to connect with the entire universe. While it’s fun and even dizzying to be just a click away from anywhere, it’s far from enough to connect with the world. Slippers are good, especially in winter, but going on an adventure is also worth it. »
A strengthening test
In his essay, Pascal Bruckner is critical of both the far left and the far right, of catastrophism, declinism and “wokism”. Far be it from him, however, to pretend that everything was better before. Moreover, he says he is pleasantly surprised – and again optimistic – at Europe’s reaction to the invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
“I was certain that Europe was going to sleep. It’s been ten months since the war started, and most of us continue to show solidarity with the Ukrainians. Ukraine woke up Europe and allowed the United States to rebuild its reputation after twenty years of defeats. Something fundamental is happening in my opinion, which shows a slightly more heroic aspect of the contemporary citizen, less soft-spoken, less frightened. War is never desirable, but it is true that it is hardship that strengthens us, while peace numbs us. We do not know what we are worth as a person or as a nation if we have not had the experience of a real war. »
The philosopher considers that democracies are at a historical crossroads. “This is our chance to regain control of totalitarian or autocratic societies. Russia is in a very bad position, China is in retreat, Iran is in chaos and Turkey is also faltering. It will be up to us to see if we will seize the moment or if we will rather give in to inertia. »