Emotions are taking up more and more space, observe many experts. And it has not abated in 2024. What is this phenomenon a symptom of and how does it harm social cohesion? Free-wheeling exchange between our collaborators Mathieu Bélisle and Marie-France Bazzo.
Published at 7:00 a.m.
Mathieu : And then, Marie-France, how did you find it, this year 2024? Biden ejected and Harris defeated, Trudeau and Legault on reprieve, at their lowest in the polls. Almost everywhere in the world, the leaders in power are breaking records of unpopularity: I admit that I am working very hard these days to understand what is happening…
Marie-France: “Work hard”! It’s very Trudeauesque, that!
Mathieu : My God, I speak Trudeau and I didn’t realize it! You have to believe that 10 years of reign leaves its mark.
Marie-France: It’s true that I too have the impression of a world that is hardening, falling apart. The war in Ukraine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the rise of anti-Semitism. A world that is frightening and insecure. A world over which we have little control, other than that of the voice, of speaking out, for what it is worth. We feel bad, helpless, devastated.
Mathieu : Speaking of emotions, I remember the late-night telephone forums of the legendary Ron Fournier, where fans shocked by a CH defeat came to demand the dismissal of the coach and half the team. Just that! A journalist whose name I forget called these venting sessions the “league of anonymous emotionalists”. In recent years, I have the impression that this league has spread to the entire public sphere.
Marie-France: Social networks are a postmodern telephone show where the host would have been lynched. But not only that. Exacerbated emotions are everywhere. They are in the game politics, from Jean-Luc Mélenchon in France to Haroun Bouazzi here via Donald Trump and Pierre Poilievre; left and right. Many media outlets program opinion shows after commentary shows. Ubiquitous emotion is leading the world at the start of 2025.
Mathieu : I am undoubtedly naive, or idealistic, but I admit that I am often disappointed by our collective reactions. We run from one indignation to another, from one lynching to another, it’s true, as if anger was the only “truth” we could still share. Always in reactive mode, lacking that dose of adrenaline born from unanimity or from the adversary finally unmasked. Looks like moderation has become suspect.
Marie-France: You touch on something essential here: moderation gets a bad rap. Moderation means middle, listening, discussion, center. Ouache. This is the position hated by both the left and the right.
Mathieu : The idea is not to seek the center for its own sake. But to recognize the complexity of reality, the fact that there are several angles to a problem. It’s difficult to do it when you’re already “cracked”.
Marie-France: Yes, moderation requires a step back, time, and silence too, which is desperately lacking in current discourse. You agonize over a situation for three days, then you move on to the next file. One emotion chases the other, and is expressed in only one tone: stuck to the ceiling!
Mathieu : I don’t know if you read The strategy of emotion (2018) by Anne-Cécile Robert, an enlightening essay which describes the invasion of social space by emotion.
Marie-France: No, but you give me the taste. Imagine: 2018, before the pandemic! She just saw…
Mathieu : Indeed, and the pandemic has accentuated this emotionality. But the rise of irrationality is primarily due to social networks, where reactions are instantaneous and cause outbreaks. I think the populists have perfectly grasped the power of these media – after having been the Twitter president, Trump is now the podcast president – by mobilizing an electorate around negative emotions, which are the strongest: fear, anger. Their lies may be lies, but the emotion they arouse is true.
Marie-France: You quote Anne-Cécile Robert, I take you back to Philippe Muray, a straight-minded French essayist but equipped with a formidable sense of observation who, already in 1991, in The empire of goodnoticed that our society was moving from crush to crush, from fads to fascinations. A “cordicole” society, he wrote. Quietly, this society which was fueled by wild enthusiasm was transformed. Emotions, you are right, have replaced the heart. We slipped into a magma of impressions, vague feelings, insignificant affectations. Muray would come back and speak of a “hypersensitive society”…
Mathieu : What you say about Muray makes me think of Justin Trudeau, the hypersensitive-in-chief, always one knee on the ground and his hand on his heart, who pushed empathy to the point of donning the traditional costume of all countries that he visited, as if he wanted to become the other (like the Dupondts, in Tintin!). With Trudeau, we were treated to the version soft of a hypersensitive society, full of good feelings – we had to love, welcome everyone. With Donald Trump, we are now entitled to the version hard of the phenomenon, with its dark side, full of bad feelings – we must distrust everyone, hate, expel.
Marie-France: So 2024: the year when we realized that emotions, our security blanket, our way of understanding the world, are not only positive. You are right: Trump plays on negative emotions. Our great candor takes it for his cold. Yes, in 2024, we will have resolutely lost our innocence…
Mathieu : Ah, I didn’t have much left already, I admit! If I had to make one wish for 2025, it would be that we are mature enough collectively not to give in to emotion. To sort things out, to give us the means to think.
Marie-France: I want to end with a wink: “I lackmy friend, I lack… »
Mathieu : Ha ha!
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