The apocalyptic mantra in 2020 indicated that nothing would ever be the same after the pandemic. Four years later, it could be said that, in reality, almost nothing has changed, especially everything that would have been healthy to transform. The philosopher Pascal Bruckner (Paris, 74 years old), however, believes that the confinement of the world population has given birth to a new generation of lazy people, men and women afraid to leave the house, to love, to expose themselves to life. Beyond not learning certain lessons, we have come out worse, confined to ourselves and our fears, says the thinker in Living in slippers (Siruela), which is now published in Spain. At the end of the month, participate in the Thought and Debate cycle at the Condeduque Contemporary Culture Center, in Madrid.
Bruckner, member of the New Philosophers movement along with other authors such as André Glucksmann, Alain Finkielkraut or Bernard-Henri Lévy, author of fabulous works such as The temptation of innocence, It also embodies today a common rebellion among a certain class of French thinkers against neo-feminism, wokismo or the supposed condescension with Islamism of some political currents that would seek electoral grounds in the migrant suburbs. All these movements, explains the thinker in his house in the Marais in Paris, quintessence of the modern pijerío of the French capital, do nothing more than separate us. “In the end, we will maintain relations in the presence of a lawyer,” he announces in that tone between provocative and mischievous that is his trademark.
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Ask. You won’t believe it, but on the way I passed two guys walking down the street in slippers and pajamas.
Answer. It’s funny, on Sundays I also see people shopping for sneakers.
P. You don’t even use them at home. How did you experience the pandemic?
R. Very good. I stayed here, separated from everyone. My partner lives in Belgium, we talked three times a day. Also with my children, but I was able to work well. The first lockdown, the second was a horrible repeat, although I managed to escape and go skiing with a friend, so good memories.
P. It seemed that the pandemic was going to mark our memories and change our habits, the border between two different lives. Now it seems that it didn’t even exist.
R. Forgetfulness is society’s most effective weapon. We erase and then build a memory. For my generation it wasn’t that big of a deal, we had friends, we had careers. For young people and those starting out in life, it was terrible. There are mental illnesses derived from that. It was also the test of human genius to confront it.
P. His book seems more like a criticism of a generation rather than a society.
R. In France people loved the first confinement. They were paid to stay at home, you watch the videos and it was like a parenthesis.
P. The idea of living without working endures. In social and philosophical movements. Even Elon Musk himself predicts a future where AI will work for us and we will receive a universal subsidy.
R. Covid-19 has revealed an allergy to the work of the Western world. In the US a little less, perhaps because of the Protestant ethic. But here the most spoiled generations no longer want to work. The counterpart is immigration. Since the French don’t want difficult jobs, they do them themselves.
P. Many went to the countryside. Did they idealize it?
R. Of course, life there is hard. They had Rousseau’s vision. But the life of the peasant was terrible, they were slaves of society. And in the 19th century many Parisians wanted to escape pollution and brutality, and ended up dying of boredom in Provence. It is the difference between utopia and reality.
P. In any case, it is a movement led by people with a medium or high purchasing power who, generally, had second homes or jobs that allowed them to develop remotely: designers, architects…
R. There were stories from chic people who said how wonderful it was to be near the Loire, the good weather… But of course, they were in their second homes.
P. The idea spreads that work is something unworthy that deprives us of our real life.
R. Yes, and with this movement people earn less and societies become poorer. The average American earns the same as the rich Frenchman. Europe is entering impoverishment caused by bad political decisions, and by this idea of young people working less, but having the same social advantages that the State provides. France is on its way to being Greece. Look at the risk premium. We are the kings of Club Med.
Bruckner, photographed at his home in ParisManuel Braun
P. You have had problems with a certain left. Also other intellectuals linked to social democracy.
R. The left has lost the intellectual class. They only accept their own ideology. They have no contact with living thought.
P. A profile in The World He defined him as reactionary, male, white and Western.
R. This left dies of dogmatism. Le Monde lives between two generations, the old one, which is a universalist and open left, and a new one that is the daughter of the MeTooracialist and that repeats all the commonplaces of the wokismo. Even Kamala Harris has officially repudiated it, and we are still glossing over it.
P. Didn’t you like the MeToo?
R. It was useful, there was progress. But it risks being destroyed by its own extremists. Accusations are made without foundation, and those who are innocent remain guilty. I think of Woody Allen or Ibrahim Maalouf, accused by the daughter of friends who later said he lied.
P. Well, they are a few cases against a years-old system.
R. There are many cases, the MeToo It does not come from legality, but from revenge. Many of their lawyers are violent in words, and do not accuse rapists or aggressors, but rather men in general. To the white man. And if all men are guilty, there will be no possibility of relationships between men and women. It is a form of sexism or gender racism. It is not progress. Rape is prohibited, and it is not true that it is inscribed in the cultural and democratic system. It’s fake!
P. Do you not believe that there has been a patriarchal system that dominated relationships?
R. Yes, I believe it. But patriarchy is dying in our countries, and feminists do not denounce it where it exists in its maximum expression: in Muslim or African countries. I am very shocked by the silence of official feminists on Iran or Afghanistan. But there is only one culprit, the Western white man. The others are exonerated because they are racialized, colonized…
P. Have you followed the Pelicot case?
R. Monstrous, the Marquis de Sade in the internet age. A mass rape with ordinary people, the banality of evil. And she, very brave for asking for a public trial.
P. Because of that normality he talks about, many see it as a process for man.
R. 50 men are not half of humanity. And if we start blaming everyone for the crimes of a few, it is not justice, it is insensitive totalitarianism. If some African immigrants steal your car, are they all thieves? It is true that men are more violent than women, but they are easy and gratuitous generalizations that establish suspicion between the two sexes. We are not facing a moment of rebalancing of forces between sexes, but rather a moment of revenge against the male sex. And that will separate us.