She was not expecting “cheers”. She was right. On Wednesday, the European Commission presented a “New pact on migration and asylum”, among the most flammable subjects between the twenty-seven countries of the European Union (EU), sources of endless inertia as evidenced by the dramatic situation from the Moria refugee camp in Greece.
In this failure, the responsibility of European leaders is heavy. Selfishness, demagoguery and myopia of electoral calculations play their part. And on these subjects, it is all the easier since, in fact, the reception and integration of migrants are not simple and rapid processes. No more today with populations fleeing Afghanistan or Guinea than yesterday with those who came from Poland or the Maghreb.
But we, the citizens, what is our share of responsibility? If our leaders are so often paralyzed by these questions, it is because they anticipate our reluctance to welcome these distant foreigners, all the more worrying because they are unknown to us.
The recent survey by the Ipsos Sopra / Steria Institute on French fractures (1) says a lot about the state of our anxieties. In a France considered massively “in decline” (78% of respondents), it would be advisable to “protect yourself more from the world” (65%).
Contrary to this reflex, a 32-year-old Dutch historian, Rutger Bregman, has just published at Le Seuil an essay which gives us a little oxygen. His title : Humanity, an optimistic storye. The caption drives home: “Most people are good people. A conviction that he builds step by step, in 400 pages, after having questioned the work of many philosophers, sociologists, biologists.
“The good is more widespread”
Bregman does not deny the existence of evil and its tragically powerful effects: this is the trap that terrorists of all stripes always seek to reactivate. He only recalls that “the good is more widespread. Humans, for centuries, have known how to adapt, cooperate and ultimately show themselves capable of generosity, welcoming strangers and forgiveness. The proof: despite all the perils that remain, we are here, less poor, less sick, less exposed to violence than our ancestors.
Why then are we so resistant to admitting this reality: “most people are good people”?
First, out of conformism. For fear of sounding like a naive, what is more in an information society which necessarily pays more attention to explosions of violence, spectacular but exceptional, than to the happy cooperation of everyday life, numerous but commonplace. At the risk – too low – of ending up suffering from a sort of “bad world syndrome” which, like a self-fulfilling prediction, further amplifies our anxiety and our problems.
Second, out of prudence. When faced with strangers, it seems reasonable to adopt a posture of distrust. Yet, a neglected truth, systematic mistrust increases danger more than it removes it. Social animals, we are designed to interact together, mirroring each other. As a result, mistrust generates mistrust, fear, fear, violence, violence.
The best news is that we can see what we have left to dare to avoid the trap. When in doubt, the most reasonable attitude is to assume that others do not want to hurt us. It is the surest way to resist the conformism and the ambient cynicism which threaten us.
(1) Produced for Le Monde, the Jean Jaurès Foundation and the Institut Montaigne.
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