Patrick Moreau is a professor of literature in Montreal, editor-in-chief of the journal Argument and essayist. He notably published These words that think for us (Liber, 2017) and contributed to the collective work edited by R. Antonius and N. Baillargeon Identity, “race”, freedom of expressionwhich has just been published by PUL
Who does not know this adage that we owe to the ancient Romans: Errare humanum estto which Saint Augustine or even Saint Bernard would have added: perseverare diabolicum ? This formula, which may seem like an easy excuse, sounds more like a call for indulgence, because no one, she reminds us, is immune to making blunders.
For my part, I confess here very humbly: I caused the premature death of the novelist Milan Kundera; and I will be eternally grateful to the editor-editor of the Homework which saved me from publishing the text that contained such a blunder. Without a doubt, this one would have earned me its share of snide remarks and ironic remarks, in part deserved.
Let’s admit that, for a professor of literature, burying one of the greatest novelists of his time too early is not very strong. But let’s also agree that it’s easy to get lost in the meanders of memory, to confuse two writers from Eastern Europe, one of whom died, but not the other, and, in short, to make mistakes.
But, to all appearances, we no longer have that wisdom of recognizing that to err is human. Basically human. We saw this during the Gala Dynastie, which was held recently, during which Benoit Charette, Minister responsible for the Fight against Racism, deplored the death of the dancer and choreographer of African origin Lamine Touré… who was not only very much alive , but who was also present at this ceremony where he was to receive an award shortly after.
The latter did not take offense, taking it with humor and, above all, showing understanding. He explained the minister’s blunder by saying, according to what an article in the Homework “Even I, in his place, see ‘homage to the person’, and in my head, [je me dis] : he is dead ! The men then spoke to each other and both seemingly laughed at the unfortunate mistake. But that obviously didn’t stop the video of the incident from going viral on social media and prompting all sorts of sarcastic comments. Some Internet users have thus enjoyed criticizing and ridiculing the minister, in defiance of what was once called the “wisdom of nations”.
Amalgam Festival
Social networks encourage this kind of malevolence, this culture of denigration and permanent denunciation, where the slightest misstep is mocked by people who, of course, are never wrong. They also encourage the immediate capture of events that are delivered to their users without context or explanation, and in the form of instantaneous images or films of a few seconds to which they must react in the moment. This lack of hindsight in turn favors prepared interpretations that are invoked automatically.
As was foreseeable, it didn’t take much for the minister’s gaffe to be blamed on racism, at the cost of a festival of amalgams of which Fabrice Vil won the prize by establishing correlations between this too “human” error “And” the lack of consideration of the present government for black communities “, the” systemic racism “of which, he recalls, the said” government denies the existence “and even the slogan” Black Lives Matter “, since Mr. Charette, by paying “so little attention” to the life or death of Lamine Touré, shows that black lives do not count…
It is characteristic of ideologues to indulge in such over-interpretations. As far as they are concerned, there is no worthwhile error. A bit like in the eyes of the psychoanalyst who delves into the unconscious, the slip, the blunder can only be revealing for them, even if what they reveal above all are their own presuppositions. Nor is there much room for the fallible human being in their universe saturated with meaning and from which all unpredictability must be banished.
In this regard, the contrast between the grain of salt with which the main party concerned took the premature announcement of his death and the spirit of seriousness and the feeling of indignation which constantly animate the militants who exert themselves without counting on the social networks is striking. The first demonstrates humanity, this one never going without a minimum of altruism and sometimes amused indulgence. The latter seek, rightly or wrongly, only new reasons to be indignant and cast only suspicious and resentful glances at others which prevent them from asking themselves about the intimate sources of this animosity. This malevolence and this blindness are also human; what is diabolical, on the other hand, is to persevere in it.