Jérémie Peltier is the director of studies at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation.
He is the author of The party is over?
, ed.
of the Observatory, October 2021.
LE FIGARO. - The "French Fractures" study carried out by Ipsos for the Jean-Jaurès Foundation shows that in response to the statement "there are values that are worth dying for", a - short - majority of French people (52 %) agrees. How to interpret this figure? Is the refrain about individualism and the loss of contemporary meaning wrong?
Jeremiah Peltier. -
This figure may be surprising in an era that tends to curl up in its personal sphere and where the sense of the collective seems to have crumbled over the years against a backdrop of increased laziness since the health crisis.
However, this figure can be analyzed in four ways.
On the one hand, with the war in Ukraine, the French are witnesses sitting in front of their screens of courageous individuals capable of taking up arms to defend their country, understanding at the same time that nothing is set in stone acting for peace at work in our society for several decades.
Thus, 64% of French people think that in the months to come, a world war could very well happen.
The significant rate of French people considering that there are values that deserve
On the other hand, if you allow me the comparison, it's a bit like ecology and the fight against global warming: the vast majority of French people agree that we must act, are aware of the seriousness of the issues and know that we have to change a certain number of our habits and lifestyles.
But if you can avoid starting by yourself in the changes to be made, it is preferable.
It's a bit the same here when it comes to values: “Agreed to die to defend one's ideas, but if others can set an example first, so much the better”.
A third reason is also to be found in the quest for heroism in an era in need of admiration.
In effect,
When have the French women and men been able to express a form of “heroism” over the last few decades?
Who are the individuals who arouse admiration by heroic deeds?
Obviously, there are a few examples (we think of Arnaud Beltrame, the firefighters this summer, all those strangers who helped the victims in the Bataclan room on the evening of November 13 or who tried to arrest the terrorist in his truck during the attacks in Nice).
But those times are very rare.
Hence the fact that we have this figure which spontaneously surprises us, a sort of dark figure of patriotism and heroism which only asks to be expressed if the opportunity arises.
there are a few examples (one thinks of Arnaud Beltrame, of the firefighters this summer, of all those strangers who helped the victims in the Bataclan room on the evening of November 13 or who tried to stop the terrorist in his truck during the Nice attacks).
But those times are very rare.
Hence the fact that we have this figure which spontaneously surprises us, a sort of dark figure of patriotism and heroism which only asks to be expressed if the opportunity arises.
there are a few examples (one thinks of Arnaud Beltrame, of the firefighters this summer, of all those strangers who helped the victims in the Bataclan room on the evening of November 13 or who tried to stop the terrorist in his truck during the Nice attacks).
But those times are very rare.
Hence the fact that we have this figure which spontaneously surprises us, a sort of dark figure of patriotism and heroism which only asks to be expressed if the opportunity arises.
The defense of values must therefore also be understood as the defense of a way of life and a style of life that the French believe has been undermined by various changes in society in recent years.
Jeremiah Peltier
Moreover, one of the surprising figures is found among the young generation: if 52% of French people are ready to die to defend certain values, this is the case for 61% of those under 35, undoubtedly the most affected by the inability to admire modern heroes who tend to be missed.
Finally, the fourth reason, we must bear in mind the overall portrait that the French make of the state of our country: a country in decline (75% of the French believe this) which is evolving towards too much welfare (63% of French people think this) where authority is a value that is too often criticized (83%) and in which “one no longer feels at home as before” (62%).
The defense of values must therefore also be understood as the defense of a way of life and
a lifestyle that the French believe has been undermined by various changes in society in recent years: 7 out of 10 French people are increasingly inspired in their lives by the values of the past.
It is also these "values of the past" for which they are ready to die in my opinion.
In detail, we learn that 65% of executives agree with this statement against 51% of workers. However, are they ready to “die” for the same values? Should we see a resurgence of patriotism among executives or a more pronounced taste for signaling virtue?
You are right, it is an interesting fact in this investigation.
I believe that it is primarily an illustration of the differential in commitment and interest in public affairs that exists today between the privileged classes and the working classes.
Indeed, we know that executives stand out from the rest of the population in terms of their greater attraction to politics, to voting, to public affairs in general.
And we see in our survey that the more you are interested in politics, the more you are ready to die to defend values, as Milan Sen showed very well in a recent note.
This greater propensity of executives to die to defend certain values therefore once again reveals their greater "integration" into the great film of public debate and public affairs when do the more popular classes tend to withdraw into a sort of of "patriotic void" in recent years, due among other things, to sociability which is reduced year after year against a background of valorization of his personal sphere.
Thus, over the years, class consciousness and the sociabilities that go with it have undoubtedly become more important among the cadres than among the less privileged, as if one of the groups still had something in common to defend when the other group was no more than a sum of individuals.
This explanation linked to the greater "class consciousness" among executives resulting in a greater propensity to die to defend certain values is illustrated by the difference between sympathizers of the RN and those of Reconquête: when the sympathizers of the RN (more popular) are only 48% to estimate that there are values for which one can die to defend them, this is the case of 66% of Reconquest sympathizers (more well-off and bourgeois).
When the former no longer have much to defend collectively, this is still the case for the latter.
The more you feel "in the film" and integrated into the political game, the more you are aware of belonging to a group, and the more you want to defend it.
Jeremiah Peltier
To put it another way, it is easier to agree to die to defend one's values when the fate of others still interests us and when one has the feeling of belonging to a community.
This is illustrated very well by another figure from the survey on people's trust in each other: when 56% of executives consider that one is never careful enough when dealing with others, this is the case for 84% of workers.
The more you feel "in the film" and integrated into the political game, the more you are aware of belonging to a group, and the more you want to defend it.
Moreover, a quarter of French people (26%, +8 points in one year) think that resorting to violence can sometimes be justified. Is it a legacy of the French revolutionary tradition or the growth of the feeling that the solutions will no longer go through politics?
It is in any case the sign of a society that is more nervous than tired at the moment, which has the feeling of living in an ever more violent environment, which is deteriorating day after day and whose only recourse may be the use of violence to defend and protect themselves: 89% of French people have the feeling that they live in a violent society and 87% believe that violence in society is increasing a lot, with a strong fear of attacks in the public space.
The feeling of belonging to an angry France is increasing (31% in 2021 compared to 36% today) and the proportion of French people who believe that the police frequently use excessive violence is down (55% two years ago). years, compared to 43% today).
Even though the image of the political leaders of
The other element of explanation with regard to this recourse to legitimate violence is also to be sought on the side of the crisis of the "yellow vests" or the violence in Corsica, for example after the death of Yvan Colonna: the French realized that violence made it possible to quickly obtain satisfaction or reparation.
For the former, the violence has led to a number of bonuses and tax exemptions.
For the second, it allowed the transfer to the Isle of Beauty of two prisoners.
Thus, beyond being justified, violence is above all increasingly perceived as effective in obtaining what one wants, contributing to making it more and more "banal" and to making politics less and less central.