The Inquisition Returns
Published in Le journal de Montrėal
(Canada) on 4 April 2021
by Nathalie Elgrably-Lévy (link to original)
(Canada) on 4 April 2021
by Nathalie Elgrably-Lévy (link to original)
Translated from
by Emily Sedgwick.
Edited by Michelle Bisson.
Inspired by the deconstructionist thought introduced by Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, cancel culture strives to erase everything that is considered offensive by an often uneducated and emotionally oversensitive minority of people.
From its earliest days, the woke sect has not been taken seriously. On the contrary, the positions they take, as ridiculous as they are extravagant, provoked pity and disdain. But over time, all spheres of society have been contaminated by this intellectual poison. The world of advertising and work, fashion, literature, biology, music, museums, history. In short, the wokes want to put it all on the chopping block. To denounce their heritage is their “stock in trade.”
Intolerant
Now American universities want to banish teaching the classics. According to them, “the production of whiteness resides in the very entrails of the classics.” Who could believe this?
Launching an attack on the classics, that’s going too far! How long are we going to be complacent about the delirious, tragi-grotesque stylings of these intolerants?
We could disagree with Socrates, Plato or Aristotle; however, we debate, we argue, and we pose ideas that we will try to defend. In short, we advance thinking.
But the woke inquisition works differently. It quite simply destroys everything. Without a doubt this is their only weapon for hiding the depths of their mediocrity.
Wakefulness
But to eradicate culture and history, in the universities as well as beyond, is to deny everyone the right to knowledge and to wakefulness. It is to construct an intellectual decadence and a cultural suicide. If we let the wokes do it, they will make us ignoramuses in their image.
The most ridiculous is that the great scholars of wokism seem to ignore that the cancel culture they use to erase the Greco-Roman legacy is in reality “condemnation of memory,” a practice that was invented by the Romans themselves! As George Brassens** used to sing, “When you're stupid . . .”
*Translator’s note: Georges Brassens (1921 -1981) was a famous French singer and songwriter.
From its earliest days, the woke sect has not been taken seriously. On the contrary, the positions they take, as ridiculous as they are extravagant, provoked pity and disdain. But over time, all spheres of society have been contaminated by this intellectual poison. The world of advertising and work, fashion, literature, biology, music, museums, history. In short, the wokes want to put it all on the chopping block. To denounce their heritage is their “stock in trade.”
Intolerant
Now American universities want to banish teaching the classics. According to them, “the production of whiteness resides in the very entrails of the classics.” Who could believe this?
Launching an attack on the classics, that’s going too far! How long are we going to be complacent about the delirious, tragi-grotesque stylings of these intolerants?
We could disagree with Socrates, Plato or Aristotle; however, we debate, we argue, and we pose ideas that we will try to defend. In short, we advance thinking.
But the woke inquisition works differently. It quite simply destroys everything. Without a doubt this is their only weapon for hiding the depths of their mediocrity.
Wakefulness
But to eradicate culture and history, in the universities as well as beyond, is to deny everyone the right to knowledge and to wakefulness. It is to construct an intellectual decadence and a cultural suicide. If we let the wokes do it, they will make us ignoramuses in their image.
The most ridiculous is that the great scholars of wokism seem to ignore that the cancel culture they use to erase the Greco-Roman legacy is in reality “condemnation of memory,” a practice that was invented by the Romans themselves! As George Brassens** used to sing, “When you're stupid . . .”
*Translator’s note: Georges Brassens (1921 -1981) was a famous French singer and songwriter.
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