Nostalgic ? Luc Ferry is certainly not. For the philosopher, and former Minister of National Education under Jacques Chirac, the world today is certainly more peaceful and prosperous than in the past: “We must stop messing around. We must stop telling children that everything is bad, when the world is a billion times better than before. “
Declinists in the crosshairs
A debate that he is ready to start with those who today defend a return to the past such as Michel Onfray, Alain Finkielkraut, or Éric Zemmour: “These people who talk about decadence, but where do they want to come back? 1970s, 1960s. The Chinese Cultural Revolution is 70 million dead. In the heart of Europe, Franco is still alive. The Greek colonels are a fascist regime. Portugal, the carnation revolution is not over. You are going to Latin America, it is the abomination of desolation. Videla, Pinochet … Me, I’m going to study in Germany, I’m going to Berlin, it’s absolute horror. It’s the KGB. The countries of the East, Russia, China, let’s not talk about it… You go back to the 1930s. Hitler and Stalin divided the world between them. The Second World War will kill 65 million people. Are you coming back to the 1914 war? 20 million dead, 17-year-olds a little more complicated than today’s. […] »
Ecology has taken the place of communism
For the teacher, the disappearance of ideologies has served as a crucible for the rise of political ecology. An ecology described as a religion: “the green religion, that ecology rightly or wrongly, has taken the place of defunct communism. Communism in the years 1950-1960, rose, in some elections up to 30%. In my youth, roughly speaking, that represented 25% of the French electorate. It is at 2% today. “
And the philosopher regrets the collapse of the great visions of the world: “There were great liberal traditions: Tocqueville, Constant, Guizot… There were great socialist and communist traditions. Marx, it is not nothing. Jaurès, it’s not nothing. They are great intellectuals. But there there is nothing more. And so the green religion has taken its place. “
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