If I had one piece of advice to give to my children, just one, it would be to be wary of people and ideologies that promise paradise on Earth.
Because as the Czech playwright and politician Vaclav Havel said: “The earthly paradise, where all people love each other, where they are courteous and kind, where everything is beautiful and evolves harmoniously, will never exist.”
Hell is paved with good intentions, as the saying goes.
THE COURAGE OF CENTRISTS
This is why I love democracy.
Democracy is humble, modest, realistic. It doesn’t promise paradise on Earth, just a world that’s a little more bearable.
It is not the best system, as Churchill said, but the least worst.
Democracy is the constant search for compromise. Everyone needs to put water in their wine. Everyone must temper their passions.
Democracy is the safeguard that prevents us from slipping and falling headfirst into the precipice of our whims.
It’s the exchange. Debate. Arbitration.
- Listen to Richard Martineau’s editorial broadcast live every day at 9 a.m. via QUB :
In a world that thrives on extremes (extreme sport, extreme sex, extreme politics, with the rise of the extreme right and the extreme left), democracy targets the center, the lukewarm.
Moderation.
Does that make the world flat? Annoying?
No: a calm world. Civilized.
What do you prefer? That democratically elected representatives calmly discuss the best ways to combat climate change in Parliament, or that gangs of madmen storm into museums and throw cans of paint at the canvases?
Ah, that, to be spectacular, it’s spectacular!
But what does that give, concretely, apart from allowing young people to play revolution between two games of Resident Evil 4?
Strictly nothing.
Unfortunately, the times are only for young people.
The enthusiasm of youth! The excitement of youth! The temerity of youth!
We want everything! Right away!
THE AFTERMATHS THAT DISAPPEAR
It’s natural for young people to throw themselves into limbo and dream of absolutes.
The most distressing thing is that the older people who should be extolling the virtues of the measure applaud the feats of arms of these excited people and go on their trips.
Taking down statues? Cancel conferences? Censoring books? Ban certain positions for white men? Blowing up pipelines?
Ah, yes, why not!
- Listen to the meeting Mathieu Bock-Côté and Richard Martineau via QUB :
These gray-haired men and women should know, however, that the more we feed the extreme left, the more the extreme right grows and gains strength.
But no…
They are there, multiplying their silly smiles while their grandchildren set fire to the curtains.
It is not the charge of young people against authority that is worrying. It is the very resignation of authority figures.
The protectors of democracy who help extremists destroy the regime that allowed them to live in peace and security.
“Come on, young people, revolt! Be outraged!”
Now that he has one foot in the grave, Grandpa encourages the barbarians to throw everything out the window.
Result: Wokism and Trumpism soar while the center collapses.
We are preparing for a bright future…