Guest of the Great Rendezvous on Europe 1 on Sunday, Michel Onfray reacted to Valérie Pécresse’s tweet in which the presidential candidate gave her definition of “being French” in response to the controversy over foie gras. For her: “To be French is to have a Christmas tree, it is to eat foie gras, it is to elect Miss France and it is the Tour de France.” A reductive definition for the philosopher who denounces “a contempt” of the political class. “Love the gypsies and run on diesel too? (…) I think that these people, the political class, absolutely want the people back. It’s even a bit like Zemmour when he comes to tell us, roughly speaking, we will remove the points license. ”
“Not just people who eat foie gras”
For the philosopher, this definition of French transcribes a lack of “culture” of the candidate LR. “That’s not the people anyway. It’s not just people eating bad foie gras at the foot of a Christmas tree. I don’t mind people saying things like that. is not completely wrong. But she could have appealed to the Mythologies of Roland Barthes, for example, by explaining that it was the DS, the steak frites, the Abbé Pierre, the Tour de France. ”
A lack of culture therefore which would not allow “to embrace French civilization” as it is. “One can imagine that there is nevertheless a different story in France than that of the foie gras of the Christmas tree.” For the philosopher, being French is above all “to love France, period”. And this, whatever “his skin color, his religion or his origin”.
A thunderbolt”
But then, is loving France the result of “love at first sight” or a love that is being built? Both, answers the philosopher. “I’m going to say that for a New Zealander, it will be necessary to build an image of France. But for someone born in France, it also depends on his background, his parents, the time, the school, what we will have made him read, listen, hear, etc. So, love exists with love at first sight, but it also exists with construction. life with someone. ” This love is also born from an understanding.
Love and understand France
“I am not saying that if you are a Muslim, then you will never be able to love France. I remember Renaud Camus who, in the past, said that a certain number of individuals could not understand Racine’s theater because you had to have this and that. No, to understand Racine’s theater, you have to read French enough and I think that there are plenty of people who are French (with ten generations of French parents) and who have difficulty today. today to read Racine. No, it is not only to love and understand Racine, but it is to love and understand France. ”
To love and understand these figures as “this species of genius of Montaigne” or even “the madness of Rabelais” but also the “literary and political greatness of Victor Hugo”. In other words, “all these people who, whatever their religion or their origin, loved France and contributed to its influence”, concludes the philosopher.
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