Ok, I admit I never identified with Charlie and from day one refused that frenzy to “be” whatever these lunatics wished us to be. I could almost see them, joking “what are they going to be next, at the toilets?”…
Yet I always enjoy a terrace and think that if I’ve got to be shot, I’d rather enjoy a good drink or cup of coffee with people from all walks of life, religion, origins and interests rather than with a specific crowd.
Here I am, again, in my lovely Canadian Island between New Brunswick and Maine, watching the sunset on the ocean,
listening to all kinds of birds…
yet awakening to the horrible news of a beheaded priest.
At the same time, George Brassens’ song “Mourir pour des idées” was being played at the radio and his lyrics should really be inspiring for these empty heads easy to fill with rage and fake hatred, especially the lines
Les Saint Jean Bouche d’Or qui prêchent le martyre,
Le plus souvent, d’ailleurs, s’attardent ici-bas.
Mourir pour des idées, c’est le cas de le dire,
C’est leur raison de vivre, ils ne s’en privent pas.Dans presque tous les camps on en voit qui supplantent
Bientôt Mathusalem dans la longévité.
J’en conclus qu’ils doivent se dire, en aparté
“Mourons pour des idées, d’accord, mais de mort lente,
D’accord, mais de mort lente.”Des idées réclamant le fameux sacrifice,
Les sectes de tout poil en offrent des séquelles,
Et la question se pose aux victimes novices
Mourir pour des idées, c’est bien beau mais lesquelles ?
Et comme toutes sont entre elles ressemblantes,….
I met recently some charming Muslims, well read and educated, who still believe in a Jewish conspiracy and as such, am becoming quite sad and discouraged….If I’m ruling the world, I’m doing a bloody bad job right now….And we, secular people are attacked as if secularism meant anything else than the peaceful cohabitation of different minded people…What Aragon in his splendid poem The Rose and the Mignonette (La Rose et le Réséda) called “Celui qui croyait au ciel et celui qui n’y croyait pas”, “The one who believed in Heaven and the one who didn’t”
Celui qui croyait au ciel
Celui qui n’y croyait pas
Tous deux adoraient la belle
Prisonnière des soldats
Lequel montait à l’échelle
Et lequel guettait en bas
Celui qui croyait au ciel
Celui qui n’y croyait pas
Qu’importe comment s’appelle
Cette clarté sur leur pas
Que l’un fut de la chapelle
Et l’autre s’y dérobât
Celui qui croyait au ciel
Celui qui n’y croyait pas
Tous les deux étaient fidèles
Des lèvres du coeur des bras
Et tous les deux disaient qu’elle
Vive et qui vivra verra
Celui qui croyait au ciel
Celui qui n’y croyait pas
Quand les blés sont sous la grêle
Fou qui fait le délicat
Fou qui songe à ses querelles
Au coeur du commun combat
Celui qui croyait au ciel
Celui qui n’y croyait pas
Du haut de la citadelle
La sentinelle tira
Par deux fois et l’un chancelle
L’autre tombe qui mourra
Celui qui croyait au ciel
Celui qui n’y croyait pas
Ils sont en prison Lequel
A le plus triste grabat
Lequel plus que l’autre gèle
Lequel préfère les rats
Celui qui croyait au ciel
Celui qui n’y croyait pas
Un rebelle est un rebelle
Deux sanglots font un seul glas
Et quand vient l’aube cruelle
Passent de vie à trépas
Celui qui croyait au ciel
Celui qui n’y croyait pas
Répétant le nom de celle
Qu’aucun des deux ne trompa
Et leur sang rouge ruisselle
Même couleur même éclat
Celui qui croyait au ciel
Celui qui n’y croyait pas
Il coule il coule il se mêle
À la terre qu’il aima
Pour qu’à la saison nouvelle
Mûrisse un raisin muscat
Celui qui croyait au ciel
Celui qui n’y croyait pas
L’un court et l’autre a des ailes
De Bretagne ou du Jura
Et framboise ou mirabelle
Le grillon rechantera
Dites flûte ou violoncelle
Le double amour qui brûla
L’alouette et l’hirondelle
La rose et le réséda
We have no more tears nor screams…the more we do so, the more publicity such people enjoy which allows them in turn to recruit more empty heads who, obviously, don’t seem to enjoy what we consider sacred, our culture, our liberated way of life, our passion for all others and the strong conviction we are ONE WORLD…
I wanted to simply share my thoughts with you, encourage my fellow Borderless Academicians to constitute a think tank, join forces to think out of this mad box.
After all, what is THEIR alternative to our way of life? Feeling strong again and enslaving women? misreading a Coran they in fact profanate? Who is encouraging and financing them? A french sociologist said it was a simple generation issue, like the previous ones who went to war in Vietnam or participated to the Bader Meinhoff Red army….
As a Jew, I know how much I would feel angry and ashamed when people told me how Israelis were a bunch of racists. I knew they were not, yet I knew also I wouldn’t have liked to be a Palestinian, especially in the West Bank….I know how I have a pang everytime the media describe a jewish hacker or crook or deviant. I should know better, yet, I feel responsible…So my thoughts today go to all Muslims who recoil at this horror and are truly devastated at this new massacre, and I know some aren’t really that sad, yet the VAST UNFORTUNATELY TOO SILENT MAJORITY isn’t…and chances are it won’t remain silent any longer.
I heard the french former Minister Hervé Morin today claim we should “israelize” our way of life…as if it were a viable way of life to be in constant guards! when I see the number of Israelis who have emigrated I doubt about such a solution!
Talking to the youth, not letting any hateful expression be uttered without clarifying its underlying reality, EDUCATING them properly, i.e. giving them the analytical tools preventing them from being enrolled, giving them stronger IDEALS instead of being blasé….
I referred in a previous post to the Good Country Index and believe this is the way to go, making young people get out of their smartphones and more into the real world…Maybe Pokemon Go can achieve some of this….except I heard that all the kids do, really is go, get the photo and get even more in their App….So I let the qualified people here create an Appless App!
I created an e-shabess group on the internet to invite people to at least once a week get away from their machines. I’ve been doing so (well…I’m not a fanatic, so there are quite a few exceptions!) since the year 2000 and admit it gives me more time to think, interact and read…We can’t blame a generation which has only known TV, the internet and their smartphones, who admires people making quick money and despises their teachers who have become the symbol of an imposition, lazy civil service and poor salaries…
As one who really chose that profession after an international career, I can assure teachers are great people and given the chance, can be a real gate to knowledge of oneself through others. Let me simply quote Albert Camus on this, in English and his native French:
English:
Each generation doubtless feels called upon to reform the world. Mine knows that it will not reform it, but its task is perhaps even greater. It consists in preventing the world from destroying itself. Heir to a corrupt history, in which are mingled fallen revolutions, technology gone mad, dead gods, and worn-out ideologies, where mediocre powers can destroy all yet no longer know how to convince, where intelligence has debased itself to become the servant of hatred and oppression, this generation starting from its own negations has had to re-establish, both within and without, a little of that which constitutes the dignity of life and death. In a world threatened by disintegration, in which our grand inquisitors run the risk of establishing forever the kingdom of death, it knows that it should, in an insane race against the clock, restore among the nations a peace that is not servitude, reconcile anew labour and culture, and remake with all men the Ark of the Covenant. It is not certain that this generation will ever be able to accomplish this immense task, but already it is rising everywhere in the world to the double challenge of truth and liberty and, if necessary, knows how to die for it without hate. Wherever it is found, it deserves to be saluted and encouraged, particularly where it is sacrificing itself.Français
Chaque génération, sans doute, se croit vouée à refaire le monde. La mienne sait pourtant qu’elle ne le refera pas. Mais sa tâche est peut-être plus grande. Elle consiste à empêcher que le monde se défasse. Héritière d’une histoire corrompue où se mêlent les révolutions déchues, les techniques devenues folles, les dieux morts et les idéologies exténuées, où de médiocres pouvoirs peuvent aujourd’hui tout détruire mais ne savent plus convaincre, où l’intelligence s’est abaissée jusqu’à se faire la servante de la haine et de l’oppression, cette génération a dû, en elle-même et autour d’elle, restaurer, à partir de ses seules négations, un peu de ce qui fait la dignité de vivre et de mourir. Devant un monde menacé de désintégration, où nos grands inquisiteurs risquent d’établir pour toujours les royaumes de la mort, elle sait qu’elle devrait, dans une sorte de course folle contre la montre, restaurer entre les nations une paix qui ne soit pas celle de la servitude, réconcilier à nouveau travail et culture, et refaire avec tous les hommes une arche d’alliance. Il n’est pas sûr qu’elle puisse jamais accomplir cette tâche immense, mais il est sûr que partout dans le monde, elle tient déjà son double pari de vérité et de liberté, et, à l’occasion, sait mourir sans haine pour lui. C’est elle qui mérite d’être saluée et encouragée partout où elle se trouve, et surtout là où elle se sacrifie. (…)
Let’s never forget that Camus dedicated his nobel Prize to the work and dedication of his primary school teacher, M. Germain,
(…) quand j’ai appris la nouvelle, ma première pensée, après ma mère, a été pour vous. Sans vous, sans cette main affectueuse que vous avez tendue au petit enfant pauvre que j’étais, sans votre enseignement, et votre exemple, rien de tout cela ne serait arrivé. Je ne me fais pas un monde de cette sorte d’honneur mais celui-là est du moins une occasion pour vous dire ce que vous avez été, et êtes toujours pour moi, et pour vous assurer que vos efforts, votre travail et le cœur généreux que vous y mettiez sont toujours vivants chez un de vos petits écoliers qui, malgré l’âge, n’a pas cessé d’être votre reconnaissant élève.
(…) when I heard the news, my first thought, after my mother, was for you. Without you, without this affectionate hand you extended to the poor little child I was then, without your teaching, and your example, none of all this would have been possible. I don’t fuss over that kind of honor, but let it at least be the opportunity for me to let you know what you have been and always are for me and to assure you that your efforts, your work and your generous heart will always be alive in one of your little schoolboy, who, despite the years, has never ceased to be your grateful pupil.
Je vous embrasse, de toutes mes forces. Let me hug you with all my strength, Albert Camus
There’s nothing to add to such a precious and everlasting testimony of how important our role as educators could be…maybe the teachers of the people who these days commit stupid acts should realize how, given the chance, they could have changed the course of history too…
I’ll simply conclude on a glance of the peaceful and eternal beauties I’ve been watching in the breathtaking Canadian Maritimes, none of which photos does any credit to the utmost splendor of these landscapes, for your peace of mind, and mine….Starting with the peaceful chapel of Sutton as a reminder of today’s tragedy…and in the slide show, you’ll see lots of photos of beautiful churches. I have a real admiration for their beauty and diversity, but today, they are all dedicated to an 84 year-old priest who, instead of enjoying quietly his retirement, was still devoted to his God and his congregation, le Père Jacques Hamel de l’Eglise St-Etienne du Rouvray, in Normandy near Rouen.
References:
- The Huff on Camus
- Discours de réception de Camus sur Youtube
- Camus et l’éducation
- Un autre son de cloche sur l’émotion immédiatique
- Another approach by an ontology professor
COSMO POLITIQUE 
One thought on ““Nous sommes tous”… en Terrasse…immédiatique!”