The double look
Hookworm, human needle worm Albert Schweitzer, in Respect and Responsibility for Life: “I fished twice on the line with other boys. The torture of hook-impaled worms and fish that were tore their mouths inspired me with such horror that I refused to continue this cruel game. I even had the courage to turn my comrades … Read more
The citizen’s restrained dream Exercising complete and unmediated power over one’s own life is the dream of every citizen. Ouch! The title of ‘citizen’ immediately curbs the dream. Others surround me, with their competing hopes. They must be reconciled. “Complete and unmediated” remain theoretical. Roughly the darker the color on the local population density map, … Read more
The most insidious of upheavals The greatest upheaval of the 21st century went unnoticed. It is even more insidious, it is true, than the predicted climate catastrophe. Catastrophe, it may not deserve this title, but it radically transforms our individual relationship to reality. It depersonalizes it. The individual is dissolving. Without being able to realize … Read more
Dear Collective We tend to grant it a material existence, to endow it with a responsibility to us. A bit like Gaia, the mother planet. We gladly confuse the Collective with the government, or one of its ministries, or even with the imprecise sphere of people of power: their mission would be to make society … Read more
Human psycho, a psychotic super-organism Question answered by Sébastien Bohler, neurobiologist, interviewed by Science&Vie and in his book ‘Human psycho‘. He sees humanity as a superorganism sick of its oversized ego. Psychosis that must be treated by stopping the delusional discourses on human superiority, and find a realistic vision of the disastrous role played by … Read more
Stagnation of meaning? No cash value Willingly critical debater of our friends at Philosophie Magazine, I must today sing the praises of Octave Larmagnac-Matheron for his remarkable article on the crisis of the public hospital. Everything is there. Based on the foresight of Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist, Octave remarkably clarifies the “loss of meaning”, … Read more
Non-democrats in democracy Neologisms are convenient, I create my share of them. But is “egodemocrat”, that of Eric Thiers, well found? Not only is there a very precise term for what it describes: anarchist. But ‘egodemocrat’ is a decoy, a sneaky, a contradiction in itself. An egodemocrat is indeed not a democrat. He is a … Read more
Three friends, an asymmetry Ariane Nicolas tells in Philomag a relationship between three friends that works in a particular way: Linh feels comfortable with Ariane as with Clara in isolation, while Ariane and Clara have a fluid exchange only if Linh is present. Yet it is Ariane and Clara who are the most similar. Ariane … Read more
Two very different personalities I recounted the spectacular Martinez-Peres affair in Noumea, a clash of egos at first sight. In second sight the personalities are very different: a clientelist opposed to a collectivist. Unusual outcome: the collectivist killed the clientelist. Let’s take a closer look at these two types of characters, often confused. The clientelist … Read more
Pure altruism does not exist When I transmit information on the net, do I do so out of altruism, for the simple pleasure of spreading knowledge? I would like to be selfless, but no. ‘Simple pleasure’ is far more important than it seems. I seek to stimulate my reward circuits. Without this initial starter, I … Read more