Let it be said, Mathieu Slama is vaccinated and strictly respects the barrier measures. This 35-year-old essayist, who teaches political communication in Paris, is nothing like an angry trucker ready to storm parliament. Yet that doesn’t stop him from worrying about how our governments have responded during this outbreak. And above all the unanimity that surrounded the suspension of certain fundamental rights, such as that of moving freely.
Because the “confinement” from which we are barely emerging is far from being a trivial experience, he writes in a powerful essay entitled Farewell freedom. Essay on the disciplinary society (The city). “I am one of those who think that this pandemic is serious. I have loved ones who died of it or almost died of it. I am not minimizing the pandemic at all. But I see that it showed us that our democracies were fragile. From one day to another, we changed our political model. We have entered a state of exception. Suddenly, just stepping outside required permission. The role of Parliament has been reduced and the main decisions have been taken in the Defense Council. The constitutional courts have been silent. We have been living in a state of exception for two years. »
What about a society that allowed us to take our dog out, but not visit our grandparents? asks Mathieu Slama. According to him, a measure as drastic as confinement, accompanied by the deployment of 100,000 police officers to monitor compliance with the rules, should at least have been the subject of a small opposition. Yet it was approved by 94% of the French population.
In an attempt to understand how the demand for security has suddenly replaced the demand for freedom, Slama evokes this democratic, gentle and peaceful despotism, of which Tocqueville speaks, which makes the democratic state a “guardian” that alienates men “without tormenting them “. It takes up the image used by Michel Foucault of Bentham’s panopticon, this prison architecture designed in the 18and century which allowed a guard to see each prisoner in his cell. The difference today, he says, is that “the guard has disappeared to make way for citizens who constantly spy on each other”. During the first confinement, he recalls, the mayor of the XXand district of Paris had launched an appeal to the inhabitants so that they stop clogging the emergency lines, so many calls to denounce a neighbor were numerous.
“We have witnessed the generalization of denunciation. Traditionally, it was power that enslaved. This time the demand came from below. It was the French themselves who asked the State to take the most repressive measures and who still demand today that we be more punitive towards the non-vaccinated. »
Was it fear that prompted such reactions? “It would be an easy explanation, says Mathieu Slama. I believe that it is rather the authoritarian, disciplinary and repressive impulses of society that have awakened. A few years ago an ideology of “safe” which gives priority to security over freedom. In our societies, freedom becomes a secondary value, when it is not unacceptable. Even dangerous. »
Organic first
Mathieu Slama points to the security regulations adopted over the past decade against terrorism, many of which have become permanent. According to him, the ideology of safe “, they are also the ” safe spaces and the censorship demanded by the students of American universities so as not to be exposed to ideas contrary to their own.
“In part of the left, in the name of the right not to be offended, a punitive and repressive ideology is taking hold. Part of the left today wants more prison sentences and an end to the presumption of innocence. It even practices censorship. Forty years ago, however, she wanted to dismantle prisons and preached freedom of morals. She went too far at that time. »
On October 28, 2020, by proclaiming in a televised address that “nothing is more important than human life”, Emmanuel Macron made biological the absolute criterion, recalls Mathieu Slama. “That says a lot about current hygiene. We let science tell us how to live. We considered life in its only biological dimension stripped of its social and relational depth. Certainly, containment can save lives. But how many does it destroy? In the name of real life, old people were left to die alone. »
The mask could also become the symbol of this anonymous society. “The mask, you obviously have to wear it. But it should not be taken lightly. Social life is only possible with faces. Without a face, there is no more individuality. Society becomes an organic body. While it is totally contrary to our traditions, I nevertheless fear that it is becoming normalized as in Asian countries. »
Obviously, the question arises as to what the essayist would have done in place of the politicians. Could we fight the epidemic without adopting such drastic measures? “We could have trusted the company, answers the essayist. We could have taken inspiration from countries that have been less restrictive, such as the Netherlands or Sweden. I am convinced that the French would have followed the directives anyway. They didn’t need the state to infantilize them. »
All conspirators?
By the way, Mathieu Slama does not hesitate to congratulate Emmanuel Macron for having refused to reconfine the population in January 2021 and for having left the schools open for as long as possible. But he does not forgive him for having painted the non-vaccinated as “conspirators” to make them scapegoats.
“The conspiracy exists, it must be said. We saw it with September 11. But what I criticize is the refusal to try to understand it. If there is conspiracy, it is because there is distrust. You have to see what that says about a certain social downgrading. But the worst thing is to suggest that the majority of non-vaccinated people are conspirators. The same technique had been used against the Yellow Vests. There are a thousand different sensitivities among the opponents. There are vaccines. There are even people who are just mad at the president. »
In the words of philosopher Barbara Stiegler, these accusations are just a way to get opponents out of the circle of reason. “It is not extremist to say that the confinement as it has been imposed is a barbaric measure and that the vaccine passport breaks with our republican tradition. The reason is not on the side we believe. It is not reasonable to say that we are going to “annoy” the French. »
Basically, says Mathieu Slama, since this epidemic, democracy seems to have become a relative thing. “A sort of Netflix democracy that you can turn on or off as needed. As if the idea of freedom that has been our fundamental value was disappearing. »