Log Book; in Praise of Differences
[A short essay once written for French journal Envers (2012–2014), here roughly translated by me]
Globalization widens our horizon to the planet. Foreigner is no longer the one who arrives at nightfall into the village square with a bundle on his shoulder. From now on, world metropolises celebrate differences. But for those who are in no hurry to reach the shore, let the old skeptic hoist the sails!
Wherever we look, crisis is on the horizon. Economic crisis, social crisis, ecological crisis and so on. Science is formal, newspapers are worried, policies have been adventurous. Those who would like to escape their national maelstrom will find the same anxieties about the future of Earth anywhere else. How distant seem the days when European (ahem ahem) imperialism could project itself on unknown seas, towards distant lands! In the age of the Global village, no one thinks no more of ignoring the interests of the neighbor; no one neither dreams of getting utterly lost in the waters of a foreign culture –or is it but me and my own identity issues? Well, can one still fiercely believe in what would yet only be the beginning of a world finally rid of religious, ideological (etc.) dogmas? This Seven Mode skepticism essay, to serve Your Majesty the stranger.
1. Everyone is different. All is relative. These common formulas are too obvious not to contain some truth. However, they hardly stand up to scrutiny. Because if the other person is different, it is because he is not me. But, how can I define both? Because: don’t we admit that everyone evolves until the end of their life? But if everything is relative, then nothing is the same. But, if nothing is the same, then who will judge the differences? As we can see, quick formulas that invite tolerance do not make such a nice roundabout for ideas.
2. Though is it necessary for all that to resolve to meanness and cynicism? Because: it is clear that, for an ill-intentioned mind, one difference does not remain just a difference for long. Whoever wants to distinguish himself, in fact, will not fail to emphasize his differences with others. He will say that so and so has big ears and that he himself has small eyebrows. Etc. Now, isn’t there already some hierarchy here? The Second World War, with its horrors, vaccinated us from excessive trust in Man and his values. Difference, we hear, demands tolerance, otherwise the most benign of differences can turn into a nightmare.
3. Then if man is a wolf to man, is he so in all circumstances? There are, however, situations where a man is holy: when the judge becomes an angel. Psychology teaches us that children learn their first gestures, their first words by imitation, so to say love. The infant, who perceives the adult’s hand and brings it back to his, locates both hands. And yet he has no way of defining one or the other, his own or that of the adult, neither the fingers, large or small, nor the fingernails etc. The child grows up in contact with the adult through an almost magical, labile bond, which has reality, but not the weight of things.
4. But is that example only valid for childhood, since we admitted, in the first mode, that we never cease to evolve until death? Certainly physically, a human being reaches, at a certain age, an average weight, an average height etc. Though as each of us learns to know until our last day, from life derives knowledge that is of vital value. Experience and memory are not only the measure of things but the love of beings as well. The old man who has almost lost his mind is still moved at the mention of those he has known. Don’t we say that you need give life every chance? Difficult to say more. The doctor, confronted every day with new situations, will or will not be, one day, embarrassed.
5. Can we not, however, learn lessons from life? The skeptical Pyrrho, who claimed to take life as a guide, was criticized for not allowing himself to be bitten by dogs. But taking life as a guide does not mean being passive nor acting in bad faith. There are times when we need to take a step back, and times of action that demand a total commitment of body and soul, without at any moment being able to let go of life or act in full awareness. There is no silver bullet to the problem of living. Now, let us see the patient and the doctor. Life is indifferent to sentient beings, and we really do not see why the patient should be in a good mood; the doctor more pleasant than he can be. Conversely, the friendliness of these two ones bears witness for everyone. One has got to measure oneself well against others. A Hercules who would wish to be mild would still appear brutal, wouldn’t he? And, to take care of the patient, the doctor must exercise all his art.
6. Are we then condemned to instrumental relationships?! What follows from the third and fourth modes, however, is that one who has learned to measure his words and actions, since he is not afraid of hurting others, cannot fail to love or to be loved. Learning any instrument is rarely fun. But it does not erase love for things nor for others. But then, if art is free, there is, in principle, no instrument less worthy than any other. So, everyone is free to have a passion that makes them both different from others and good for others.
7. But didn’t we say that metropolitan culture celebrates its differences the better to forget its inequalities? The democratic city requires rationality and measure, as Ancients knew. However, as we have seen in the second mode, blind trust in the established order is sometimes worse than constant distrust. That modern democracy be civilized to the point of indifference, even apathy, worries some historians of Antiquity. However, the praise of difference is not indifference, and does not sell-off social peace. In return, he claims fraternity as a condition of the social life, seduction as the ground for public debate. The agora, urban or media, cannot exist without an effort of beauty. Then hail to thee, galley: sur un air de goudron, de musc et de coco!
