Change of foot today, since we are interested in a highly rhetorical text, which has spread like wildfire in recent days, and surprise: it is not a political speech.
“(Look) Nostalgia make them sparkle with the greatness of a past France that they have fantasized about.
(Look) Misunderstanding seizes those who see their faith denigrated without asking for anything.
(Look) Fear will persuade them that strangers will come into their living rooms to replace them.
(Look) Desperation makes them take risks in order to survive where we’ve all packed them.
(Listen) Paranoia make them believe that we can no longer go out in the street without being in danger.
(Listen) The panic makes them scream that the earth is dying and nobody cares.
(Listen) Distrust excites them, saying that we can no longer eat anything, that we no longer even have the right to think.
(Listen) Hate rocks them to extremes, ignites the fire, ignites everything. “
The smell of gasoline, the first single from OrelSan’s new album, Civilization, published Friday, November 19. A text in which the author gives us his vision of the state of the world, marked according to him by xenophobia, climate anxiety and the degradation of public debate. An eminently rhetorical text, therefore, in which OrelSan seeks to share with us its view of society. A testimony likely to orient our reading of the news in depth if we accept to let it… convince us.
And for this, the text contains procedures aimed at winning our conviction. For example, in the excerpt we heard, we have a double anaphora on “look” and “listen”. The anaphora is this figure which consists in starting a series of sentences with the same formula. What is it for ? On the one hand, to create a crescendo, which is perfect for starting a piece and gradually increasing its intensity. But it also gives the impression of a relentless diagnosis of society, since all the sentences seem to flow from each other naturally. And that’s just the beginning :
“No one is listening anymore, everyone is speaking,
Nobody changes their minds, only sterile debates.
Everyone gets excited because everyone gets excited,
Only strong opinions, nothing is ever precise.
No more time to think, tyranny of numbers,
12-year-old kids whose tweets are quoted in the media.
Intelligence sells less than controversy,
Battle royale is everyone for their own little team. “
What OrelSan deplores is the frenzy of public debate, marked by incessant controversies. How does he convince us of this? By a process that does not depend on the way the text is written, but rather on the way it is structured and sung: 4’40 of frantic rap, at a high tempo, without pause or refrain. This is what we call a mise en abyme: the form makes us experience what the substance denounces. Moreover, the mise en abyme is clearly the structuring process of the piece. Still on the issue of social networks, OrelSan says this:
“Caught in an infernal vortex,
We treat evil with evil and the media feast on it.
Only various facts, hen – fox – viper,
Either you are for or you are against, everything is binary. “
We are in the same vein here, OrelSan regrets the Manichaeism and the radicalization of the discussions, which tend to erase all nuances. And yet, what does he say throughout his song? I quote a few scattered verses: “No solution, only criticism. No empathy, everything is hierarchical. Nobody is moving in the same direction, everything is inert. We no longer believe anything, everything is deepfake.” What do we see in these sentences? On the one hand, they revolve around hyperboles, that is to say exaggerations: nobody, everything, nothing, none. On the other hand, they are structured around antitheses, which is precisely the figure of the binary opposition. In other words: OrelSan denounces excess and Manichaeism, in a text written in an excessive and Manichean way. Again, the piece makes us experience what it criticizes.
In any rhetorical text, the conclusion is fundamental. OrelSan’s is also, to say the least:
“We don’t know how to manage our emotions, so we hide them,
Don’t know how to manage our relationships, so we ruin them,
Don’t assume what we are, so we’re cowards.
We never forgive ourselves in a world where nothing is erased.
We spit on each other,
We don’t know how to live together
We fight to be in the front in a plane going straight to the
Crash. “
I move on to the virtuoso rhyme effects, to focus on the last sentence: “We’re fighting to be in the front of a plane heading straight for the crash.” This is what we call an allegory, that is to say a concrete story aimed at transmitting an abstract teaching to us. In all likelihood, OrelSan intends here to make us aware of the absurdity of our political controversies with regard to our inaction on climate matters. And if this allegory struck me, it is because it reminded me of another, uttered 19 years ago at the Johannesburg Earth Summit. President Chirac began his speech thus: “Our house is on fire, and we are looking elsewhere.” The image was striking. Unfortunately, two decades later, it is clear that nothing has changed. Who knows. Perhaps OrelSan’s words will be more successful.