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Frédéric Lenoir: "Human beings have the capacity to adapt to everything"

2020-06-20T17:12:04.538Z


Bouncing back from the Covid-19 epidemic is possible! According to the philosopher and sociologist Frédéric Lenoir, we could even go out f


Confined in his chalet in Haute-Savoie, Frédéric Lenoir, 58, devoted himself to meditation and contemplation of the first days of spring. At the end of a month, drawing on his experience and drawing on numerous testimonies from friends, doctors and anonymous people, he wrote "in a hurry, a manual of personal resilience", to help others live in an increasingly chaotic society.

On the occasion of the publication of “Vivre! In an unpredictable world ”(Fayard), the philosopher and sociologist gives us some clues to better understand the next world.

Faced with the confinement and Covid-19 test, you advocate resilience. That is to say ?

FRÉDÉRIC LENOIR. Resilience is reconstruction after a shock. It is a three-step process, the first of which is resistance. We are in refusal, we close. Then follows a second, more positive step: adaptation. You have to find solutions, you plan your life to face internally. The third step is growth. Maybe this shock is an opportunity to improve, to grow, to make choices. With this book, I try to lucidly accompany this resilience that many will experience after this trauma.

What lessons can we learn individually from this period?

The first question to ask is: how can I see this crisis as an opportunity? The word crisis , in Greek, means you have to choose and, in Chinese, this word is made up of two ideograms: one means danger , the other, opportunity . This crisis brought us out of our comfort zone and made it possible for many people to realize that their habits did not make them happy. Let's take this chance, let's make better choices!

In a way, you are putting power back in the hands of individuals ...

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It is the responsibility of the individual to be happy or unhappy in a difficult situation, to accept or refuse it, to be angry or happy. This is the key to philosophical wisdom: how I react to external events. As the Greek philosopher Epictetus said, there are things that depend on me, others not. What depends on me is how I react to what does not depend on me. Human beings have the capacity to adapt to everything.

The health recommendations rely a lot on "individual responsibility", but you would like it to be pushed further ...

I think we should have gone further. In France, our tradition of the welfare state loses responsibility for the population. Some Protestant countries, such as Switzerland or the countries of northern Europe, have called for individual responsibility instead of confining the population in an authoritarian manner. Citizens could go out but did not do so or only when necessary. We have been forced into strict confinement. Would the French have been able to self-discipline and adopt virtuous behaviors? This is a real question. If such an epidemic recurs, we should try the experience, otherwise, we will not develop a sense of responsibility, we will continue to infantilize people. In France, today, people are even filing a complaint against the State! But death is part of life. You have to take the share of risk that there is in life.

How best to prepare for living in this unstable world, which will experience other epidemics, natural disasters or revolt movements?

I think the world will be more and more unpredictable and that it will be extremely difficult to plan for the medium and long term. But there is something predictable about this unpredictability: we are heading towards major ecological disasters. And in "ecological", I include health problems and the displacement of populations linked to climate change. These issues must be tackled urgently rather than being left in the shade once again. The individual can no longer reassure himself by projecting himself into the future. But living day by day and accepting to let go have great virtues.

Should economic recovery integrate these ecological challenges?

We must prevent the number of unemployed from exploding and support the sectors affected by this crisis, but let us also try to create jobs in fields which are sustainable, which do not damage the ecosystems. For years, environmentalists have been asking the state to finance the ecological transition by investing massively in renewable energies or in non-polluting agriculture, but they have always been told that there is no money. The economic dogma that prohibits widening debt and deficits fell to the ground in a few weeks. We realize that if the states want, they can find money for an emergency. The urgency is to finance the ecological transition!

And yet, one has the impression that ecology will be the victim of this health crisis…

Probably. This is called the "tragedy of horizons". Ecology is the long term, and politicians always choose the short term. Except that, by dint of making this choice, we will experience a major disaster, much more serious than the Covid-19. Ultra-liberalism is destroying and destabilizing the planet. There will be more and more earthquakes, cyclones, global climatic disturbances and probably viruses. For thirty years, 70% of viruses have been zoonoses, that is to say that they are transmitted to humans by animals. The latter come into contact with humans after being driven from their natural habitat, the forest, which we are destroying. The current coronavirus is a warning from nature.

Speaking of death, you castigate the daily death toll, the "sanitary correct" which guides political decisions. Is it healthy for a society to want to preserve life at all costs, even if it means cutting corners on our freedoms?

We can understand the government's desire to save as many lives as possible, but health cannot be the supreme value that guides public action. Certain individual freedoms should not be violated: for example, the use of a tracking application like StopCovid should not be made compulsory. Likewise, I was shocked that people were left to die in hospitals or retirement homes, alone, cut off from their families, in the name of maximum protection against health risks. The right to die with dignity, accompanied by loved ones, seems to me more important than anything.

Should we protect above all the link between individuals?

The Covid-19 epidemic and measures of physical distancing have tested our emotional ties, however essential. We had to cultivate these links, thanks to the telephone or humor. From the start of the confinement, the small videos that circulated on social networks helped us to keep the tragedy at bay.

What are the keys to happiness in this unpredictable world?

Happiness is mainly due to our inner harmony, our quality of being. Someone who is good with himself, he is good everywhere. You have to work on yourself, on your mind, to find the resources that allow us to grow, whatever the situation. One of the great keys to wisdom is to live in the present moment, trying to be attentive to everything we do. Today, neuroscience validates what the ancients tell us for more than two thousand years: to have fun, you have to be present at things. During the confinement, many people realized that it was good to have time to appreciate the small pleasures of everyday life. Let's continue to savor the present time.

Source: leparis

All life articles on 2020-06-20

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