Dear subscribers,
Confined as most French people, the Figarovox team continues to mobilize to provide you with weekly analyzes, deciphering and forums from philosophers, economists, sociologists and writers. Never has the distant and profound gaze of intellectuals been so necessary to understand an unprecedented crisis which constitutes a challenge to intelligence.
This catastrophe, this great reversal, manifests the worst and the best of our civilization and the "chiaroscuro of the French archipelago" , according to the correct formula of Vincent Trémolet de Villers. What does it reveal about our shortcomings and our strengths? What lessons will we learn from it? “The life of an old man is worth as much as a person in full possession of his means. The affirmation of this egalitarian principle in the turmoil we are going through shows that nihilism has not yet won and that we remain a civilization ” , underlines the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut in the interview he gave us. “Anticipation of the threat almost no longer exists in European consciousness. It is in a sense our privilege and it proves to be a huge weakness in a situation like this, ” notes the philosopher Marcel Gauchet. "We must already think of the next world," says economist François Lenglet, for whom the virus is only precipitating the end of globalization that had already started.
Our columnist Luc Ferry invites him to be wary of those who "rejoice in disasters, would like more to" sound the revival ", inflict just punishments" . "The future will quickly show that this crisis will ultimately change very little , " he predicts.
Also find the writer Pascal Bruckner, the philosopher Robert Redeker, the former minister Hubert Védrine, and many others.
Good reading!
Eugenie Bastie
Grandstand and interviews of FigaroVox
French people facing mourning: some lessons from the past by historian Philippe Ariès - In these times when death resurfaces in our collective concerns, the history professor Guillaume Gros recommends the reading of Philippe Ariès, who was - among others - a specialist in the history of mourning. According to him, everything today demonstrates the power of the presentiments and observations of this great historian.
Pascal Bruckner: "We are forced to make our seclusion an art of living" - The writer and philosopher describes with finesse the amazing experience of mass in camera. How to reorganize your days, stay dignified and stand in such circumstances?
"In a context of crisis, it is risky to depend on foreign imports" - The abandonment of certain strategic industrial sectors has weakened us in the face of the crisis, estimates the economist Laurent Izard. According to him, the post-crisis will represent a unique opportunity to better preserve our economic independence and defend our strategic industrial heritage.
Chronicles and analyzes of FigaroVox
Laure Mandeville - Borders, protectionism, return of nations ... what will the world of tomorrow look like? A war of models is emerging between the United States and China, against the backdrop of the marginalization of Europe.
Bertille Bayart - The world economy is entering unknown territory. The economic crises of 2008 and 2018, it was finally small beer.
Renaud Girard - France must not die healed! This health crisis, coming from China, will be for the French economy even more deleterious than was the financial crisis of 2008, coming from the United States.
Eric Zemmour - This virus which shows the strength of Asia and underlines the downgrading of Europe. It reveals our past mistakes.
Test of the week - Mindfuck , by Christopher Wylie
Christopher Wylie. MANDEL NGAN / AFP
In Mindfuck , brilliant computer scientist Christopher Wylie reveals how Cambridge Analytica developed algorithms that can influence the course of an election.
This testimony has nothing to reassure us: it reveals how political discourse has been "privatized". The candidates no longer present a program in public places but send tailor-made promises to each voter, scaffolded according to their preferences.
Find our reading report.
The quote of the week
To mock future alarms by reminding them that the worst has not happened would be the height of injustice: it may be that their odd is their merit.
Hans JonasWhy do we have such a hard time predicting the worst? This is because our cognitive biases often prevent us from preparing for exceptional events. Find on this subject our analysis on the difficulty of acting in front of the "black swans".