"When you see how quickly anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, anti-foreigner stereotypes can reappear, there is a colonial impregnation that goes back a long way and is still very strong. It remains in the collective unconscious. It takes the form of a certainty, incredible to me, that our world is superior to any other. It is clear that the West, i.e. the last expansionist powers, considers itself – and is considered by the majority of its population – as the panacea of modern civilization. In reality, it is an imperialist and unequal construction, creating irreparable disparities. There is a blind violence in equating the ne plus ultra of civilization with something that in certain respects is monstrous.
When we talk about violence, we must keep two criteria in mind. First, that violence is rarely good and should be avoided. That’s a moral judgment, which I accept. If objectives can be achieved without resort to violence, that’s much better. I’m definite that violence is not something I’m happy about. The second aspect is that violence is sometimes inevitable when you are dealing with a conflictual matter. Your opponents do not hesitate to use violence when they feel desperate. So you have to be prepared for it. My doctrine is that legitimate violence is generally defensive. In other words, it seeks to protect gains or orientations made. In the world as it is, it seems impossible to me to be systematically against violence.
The electoral process has always been a godsend for the far right. We need to question it. Even Hitler took power in 1933 following regular elections. We have never seen communists win national elections. It does not seem that the ballot boxes allow radical revolutionary communist movements of the far left to really come to power. In 1981, there was a fiction of such a state of affairs with the election of François Mitterrand. After two years, we realized that it was a continuation of the previous order. On the other hand, the far right has come to power. And it will happen again! Why? Because this type of suffrage is not designed to change society. It is a consensual system, whose rules are accepted by everyone. If this is the case, it is because it is in accordance with the existing dominant order.
I do not understand how people continue to think that elections are a free space in which the fundamental direction of a country can be determined. As former information minister Alain Peyrefitte rightly said when Mitterrand was elected: ‘Elections are about changing governments, not society.’ He told the truth, because this is a rule that everyone seems to have agreed. It means that the rulers of our society, who everyone knows are a small core of big capitalists, would not accept elections that do them harm. When things get a little too hot, when the risk is too great, they rally to the far right as their last line of defence. It is not extraordinary to say that elections are a consensual system in which the imperialist bourgeoisies thrive.
There is this idea that nothing else can work. It’s a largely negative allegiance: If not him, what's it going to be ? Something worse!'"
An interview with Alain Badieu
When we talk about violence, we must keep two criteria in mind. First, that violence is rarely good and should be avoided. That’s a moral judgment, which I accept. If objectives can be achieved without resort to violence, that’s much better. I’m definite that violence is not something I’m happy about. The second aspect is that violence is sometimes inevitable when you are dealing with a conflictual matter. Your opponents do not hesitate to use violence when they feel desperate. So you have to be prepared for it. My doctrine is that legitimate violence is generally defensive. In other words, it seeks to protect gains or orientations made. In the world as it is, it seems impossible to me to be systematically against violence.
The electoral process has always been a godsend for the far right. We need to question it. Even Hitler took power in 1933 following regular elections. We have never seen communists win national elections. It does not seem that the ballot boxes allow radical revolutionary communist movements of the far left to really come to power. In 1981, there was a fiction of such a state of affairs with the election of François Mitterrand. After two years, we realized that it was a continuation of the previous order. On the other hand, the far right has come to power. And it will happen again! Why? Because this type of suffrage is not designed to change society. It is a consensual system, whose rules are accepted by everyone. If this is the case, it is because it is in accordance with the existing dominant order.
I do not understand how people continue to think that elections are a free space in which the fundamental direction of a country can be determined. As former information minister Alain Peyrefitte rightly said when Mitterrand was elected: ‘Elections are about changing governments, not society.’ He told the truth, because this is a rule that everyone seems to have agreed. It means that the rulers of our society, who everyone knows are a small core of big capitalists, would not accept elections that do them harm. When things get a little too hot, when the risk is too great, they rally to the far right as their last line of defence. It is not extraordinary to say that elections are a consensual system in which the imperialist bourgeoisies thrive.
There is this idea that nothing else can work. It’s a largely negative allegiance: If not him, what's it going to be ? Something worse!'"
An interview with Alain Badieu
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