“Anything that degrades culture shortens the paths that lead to servitude”: this timely reflection that one of the greatest French writers of the 20th century, Albert Camus, had during an interview he gave, as early as 1951 , to the literary review “Cabestan”, has obviously not been sufficiently taken into consideration, nor meditated on at its fair value, by those who, visibly little inclined to cherish, if not simply to respect, their cultural heritage in that it a more historical, rich and popular at the same time, manage today, in 2023, the city of Paris!
Because how to understand this fatal decisionon the part of the administration of what is still left of the City of Light, according to which the famous and very ancient (their existence, whose birth dates back to the 16th century, is more than 450 years old) booksellers on the banks of the Seine – the largest open-air bookstore in the world and one of the most romantic walks in Paris, listed moreover as a cultural heritage of humanity – should be suddenly dislodged and their fragile dismantled boxes (600 out of 950 stalls), for alleged reasons of security in the face of the terrorist threat as well as urban violence, during the Olympic Gamesand the opening ceremony in particular, of 2024?
A culturally and morally shocking symbol
The symbol, when culture is so despised, and the irreplaceable wealth of books sacrificed on the very venal altar of sport business, much more than a hypothetical “security perimeter”, is particularly shocking. And all the more so in the light of this literary city that is indeed Paris!
More: it is also a whole section of economic life which, with programmed disappearance of these ancient but still marvelous book boxes – theoretically temporary disappearance: the time, three weeks, of these Olympic Games – which thus risks proving to be dramatic, in the middle of the tourist season, for these modest booksellers, suddenly deprived in this way, without compensation and up to a potential economic bankruptcy therefore, of a significant part of their necessary financial income.
Like the hypocrites, cowards and daily book burnings
In short: it is the tireless and sad destruction of one of the most beautiful cities in the world – a frightfully methodical destruction in its obtuse permanence – which continues thus, like, in sort of hypocritical, cowardly and daily book burnings which do not say their name, its insidious, base and culpable work!
The Olympic law of exception, voted in order to allow the execution of what is impossible in normal times, is one of the favorite weapons of all businessmen, public or private, wishing to appropriate, the time of a competition or definitely, public space. Democracy then withdraws, and then cultureregardless of the city and the host country of the barnum Olympic, is promptly attacked. Because the intelligence of all the arts, whether literary or not, is opposed to the spectacle of the industrialization of sports bodies which only aim for performance.
The statue of Voltaire unbolted
It is true, to crown this mediocre but dangerous enterprise of degradation (to precisely use Camus’ words here concerning this disdain for culture) of the intelligence, if not of the very soul of an entire city, that the Paris City Hall was even, not so long ago, to the point of unbolting, on the pretext of better safeguarding it in this way from possible vandals, but above all in defiance of one of its greatest men of letters and wit, the statue, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés , of the insignia Voltaire (see, in particular, his admirable ” Treaty on Tolerance), yet immortal guest, through “the grateful homeland”, of the Pantheon.
THE paradox was there, in this other tragic circumstance, at its incomprehensible height: shot down, in secret, at Saint-Germain-des-Prés even though he was enthroned, in majesty, in the Pantheon!
The lights of Paris against the darkness of tyranny
Moral, in the form of an interrogation, of this very bad story: how much longer will France, reputed fatherland of Human Rights and cradle of the Enlightenment, shamefully sell off its inalienable and beautiful spirit of freedomwithout which there is in any case no democracy that is worth or does not hold in the long term, against the infamous and perilous challenges – those of international terrorism as well as urban violence – of the most obscurantist, if not criminal, tyranny?
From Camus to La Boétie: critical discourse on voluntary servitude
Failure to respond urgently to this critical question, in a serious, pragmatic and effective manner, would constitute, not only an insult to the generous but vigilant warning of Albert Camus himself, as has been quoted higher in this gallery, but, in a much more serious way still, symptomatic of the spineless abdications and other pusillanimous renunciations of our very irrational time, a dangerous, even accomplice, preliminary to this famous ” Speech of voluntary servitude » such as this immense, learned and profound spirit of the highest Renaissance that was La Boétie expressed it, under the benevolent gaze of his friend Montaigne, at the peak of his most enlightened humanism.
A solemn appeal to the competent authorities: do not touch the booksellers or their books!
Thus, we, the signatories of this solemn appeal, urge the competent authorities in the matter, to leave the booksellers of Paris free to be able to sell their books in peace, in their traditional and secular locationwithout them having to move from these prestigious and historic places, throughout the period of these 2024 Olympic Games, as, moreover, throughout the rest of the year.
It’s also there a stake, one of the richest, noblest and most sacred there is, of civilization in the face of rising barbarism in these times already sufficiently troubled, including on the political-ideological level, by a growing, disturbing in many respects and sometimes even aggressive, lack of culture!
The title is from the editorial staff. Original title: The call of intellectuals for the booksellers of Paris during the 2024 Olympics
SIGNATORIES:
Daniel Salvatore Schiffer (author of the text): philosopher, writer.
Dominique Baqué: philosopher, art critic.
Stéphane Barsacq: writer.
Marie-Jo Bonnet: historian, writer.
Erick Bonnier: editor.
Jeannette Bougrab: essayist, doctor of law, former Secretary of State for Youth and Associative Life (France).
Jean-Marie Brohm: sociologist, professor emeritus of universities.
Belinda Cannone: writer.
Sophie Chauveau: essayist, writer.
Nadine Dewit: painter, photographer.
Jean-Philippe Domecq: novelist, essayist.
Emmanuel Dupuy: President of the Institute for Prospective and Security in Europe (IPSE).
Luc Ferry: philosopher, former French Minister of National Education and Youth.
Renée Fregosi: philosopher, political scientist.
Elsa Godart: philosopher, psychoanalyst.
Dominique Jamet: writer, journalist.
Alexandre Jardin: writer.
François Kasbi: writer, journalist, literary critic.
Arno Klarsfeld: lawyer.
Michel Maffesoli: sociologist, professor emeritus at La Sorbonne.
Bruno Moysan: musicologist.
Véronique Nahoum-Grappe: anthropologist.
Fabien Ollier: director of the magazine “Quel Sport? and QS editions.
Michelle Perrot: historian.
Christiane Rancé: writer.
Robert Redeker: philosopher.
Jean-Marie Rouart: writer, member of the French Academy.
Stéphane Rozès: essayist, political scientist.
Emmanuel Rubin: journalist, editor-in-chief of the magazine “Gestures”.
Frédéric Schiffter: writer.
Pierre-André Taguieff: philosopher, political scientist, historian of ideas, director of research at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).
Patrick Vassort: sociologist, director of the journal “ Illusion “.
Alain Vircondelet: writer, academic.
Olivier Weber: writer, great reporter, former Ambassador of France, Pierre Loti Prize 2023.
Elisabeth Weissman: essayist, journalist.
Jean-Claude Zylberstein: lawyer, publisher, writer.
){kind=link}