Summer is here and here. The many French people who take holidays would like to be able to taste the carelessness to which this period of the year lent itself before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. But nothing encourages it: a new wave of contamination is there; the war continues in Ukraine ; fuel prices remain very high; inflation has taken hold for a long time; a risk of famine hangs over several countries. Even the blue of the sky is threatening: the fires are not lacking; at the top of the mountains, the glaciers are reduced to a trickle; the flow of the rivers weakens and when the sun does not dart, the hail destroys the crops…
The cicadas sing and we watch these storm clouds
hoping that they will spare France. So far so good, we think, as in the story of the man who, falling from the top of a high-rise, comments on his situation as he passes by the fifth floor… Certainly, in his interview with the July 14, the President of the Republic spoke of general mobilization
and entering a war economy
but it displayed at the same time
an optimism that defused the charge of these expressions. Everyone talks about maintaining purchasing power as if, except for inflation, all other things should remain equal.
The bitter truth is that they will not. Neither Vladimir Putin’s belligerent ambitions nor the consequences of accelerating climate change and the ecological crisis will disappear as if by magic at the start of the school year. Certainly, the summer is not going to end on a gentle slope in Ukraine, that is to say in Europe… Without even mentioning a possible suspension of the delivery of Russian gas, autumn promises to be socially critical. And in the Assembly, we chose to sharpen the weapons of political combat rather than prepare the ground for compromise.
Look reality in the face
Simply saying that we are going to have to make an effort to sobriety
et chasing the waste
, it is still to have a train of delay. It is not enough to want to avoid panic, you really have to anticipate… The best remedy against panic is to be prepared to face the crisis.
Our country lacks a real culture of foresight and an ability to get out of habits and routines of thought to prepare for the unexpected. However, it happens that the planets do not align, that history goes off the rails. Let us remember that the impassable Maginot line was circumvented and that few were those who had considered the possibility!
We should already seriously revise our ways of life, weave new bonds of solidarity, especially at the local level. Share more to consume better and less. Experiment with forms of meaning and values other than those of the market and advertising discourse.
A part of the youth has been calling for this change for several years. She feels that so far we haven’t wanted to hear anything. Doubtless the mutation is difficult to conceive, because the problems it raises are enormous. But we will be forced to do so by the violence of the shock.
Are we going to wait for the moment of impact, entertaining the illusion that the state will be there to pull out its checkbook and heal the wounds? Not hiding the truth of what awaits us is not giving in to catastrophism, but believing that we can have the courage to look reality in the face and imagine how to face it together.
–