Several important events in 2024 attest to the general decline of democracy. There were the 2 wars in Ukraine and Israel, generated by a dictatorship and a democracy in the process of ceasing to be one. Admittedly, these are not the only wars – we forget Sudan and Burma, for example, because they seem so far away – but they are civil wars, not colonial ones like the other 2.
The war in Ukraine, the first to affect Europe’s borders since the Second World War, is the work of a dictator who is not going to stop there. He’s doing everything he can to weaken Europe and democracy – digital warfare and alliances with rogue states like Hungary, with all its corruption – see the palaces built by Orban’s relatives with European subsidies. Crimes against humanity and war crimes, disregard for human lives, including those of his own people, with soldiers bought with thousands of Euros, the Kremlin dictator belongs in The Hague. His buddy Netanyahu is going to realize his father’s – and Israel’s founding fathers’ – dream of a Jewish state with as few Arabs as possible from the Jordan to the sea. The massacres perpetrated in Gaza -and in the occupied territories of the West Bank- including the number of children massacred, journalists targeted and killed, the policy of starving and destroying all water installations while forbidding the supply of food and water to the people of Gaza and the occupied territories of the West Bank, are just a few examples of this policy. The power of the bombings is greater than the 2 atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There can be no doubt that this is a war crime and very probably genocide perpetrated with the aim of reoccupying Gaza and emptying it of its inhabitants invited by fascist ministers in this government (Ben Gvir and Smotrich) to go elsewhere. It is imperative that the Jewish populations of the Diaspora disassociate themselves from these activities, which are not being committed in our name. We cannot defend the widow and the orphan and act for justice everywhere except for Israel! the millions of US evangelical fanatics (see the beautiful Arte series on this subject) convinced that the final battle of the knights of the apocalypse will take place in Palestine, with the Jews victorious and announcing redemption and the coming of Christ! The return of the archaic vision of the Catholic religion is now complemented by the unexpected arrival of the Jewish religion, at least the one represented by Israel.
That the French far-right, like all European far-right groups, are becoming the best supporters of Jews and Israel should be seen in the context of the shift to the far-right by a large proportion of Jews in Europe and the US, with support for Israel taking precedence over all other considerations. It doesn’t matter that some, like Orban, are reviving the fascists who sent Budapest’s Jewish population to Auschwitz. Unwavering support for the fight against anti-Semitism is right, but that doesn’t mean that any criticism of Israel should be considered anti-Semitism. It’s hard to understand why showing a Palestinian flag would result in the dismissal of a teacher, the intervention of the police to dislodge demonstrators at a soccer match? Why allow Israeli film festivals -which are often excellent- and ban films showing the other side of the coin? This mixture is intrinsically racist and incompatible with democracy. We have the right to support this or that struggle and to express it. Moreover, this overzealousness and amalgam are suspicious, could it be because Israel is absolved of all judgment whatever it does? This support is reminiscent of that of the US establishment – from Biden to Bush to Trump – who supported the struggles of “good against evil” in agreement with the millions of US evangelical fanatics (see the nice série of the French -German public Tv Arte on this subject) convinced that the final battle of the knights of the apocalypse will take place in Palestine, with the Jews victorious, heralding redemption and the coming of Christ! The return of the archaic vision of the Catholic religion is now complemented by the unexpected arrival of the Jewish religion, especially that represented by Israel.
Of course, these wars come at a turning point in our European democracies. As Gramsci, the visionary founder of the Italian CP – greatly admired in recent years by all the right-wingers – taught us, political domination always begins with domination of the mind and the media. It’s hardly surprising to see that public radio and television have been reduced to half-mast, with funding that is far from sustainable, and that the media have been acquired by billionaires in defiance of laws prohibiting the holding of multiple positions. Let’s not forget that a democracy is above all a place where we can debate everything, especially when we disagree. This also implies fair elections with all opinions properly represented, including the extremes – right or left – and therefore a review of the constitution and perhaps a change of regime. The Vth Republic s at the end of its tether, tailor-made for De Gaulle, and less suited to his successors, who are often bankers, businessmen, corrupt or lazy. The argument that the 5th is a guarantee of stability compared to the 4th Republic deserves to be revisited, with governments that last as long as a sigh! Too much power ceded to one man is always dangerous. Failure to respect election results will not increase voter turnout, nor will the extreme homogeneity of government members and leaders (“prestigious” High schools like ENA). We can also add the disrespect for the law by the powerful, with officials accused of corruption who absolve themselves by accusing the very judges who apply the law of wanting to replace the people. Is this because there is a 2-speed justice system? We look in vain among our current politicians for people of the stature of a Mendès-France or a Blum from the previous republics, hated because they were unstable.
Finally, this instability translates into the sacrifice of the future to the immediate moment, “après moi le déluge”. Witness our inability to understand the dangers of human extinction if we don’t tackle climate change and biodiversity loss head-on. To calm farmers – who have good reason to be angry – we give in and authorize pesticides that are dangerous to health, causing thousands of cancers every year, polluting rivers for a long time to come, waging a war on water and incoherent water basins that solve nothing! Of course, there are debts and finances in a calamitous state, coming from a government reputed to be unbeatable in this respect. The fault, of course, lies with the parasites who take advantage of the system without working, with civil servants and the public system in general, and not with the exponential growth in inequalities, with billionaires who pay little or no tax and with the crushing domination of the real economy by the digital economy, which allows all kinds of excesses. Do we really believe that a system is durable when one person owns the equivalent of the budgets of several European states, beating the records of kings in previous regimes? when it’s possible to become a billionaire in a matter of hours by speculating on commodities or currencies? And yet, for those who look askance at the USA, a model country for liberalism with little or no social security, and less investment, we should remind them that we have a far superior record in terms of life expectancy (which is stagnating there), infant mortality and all the criteria used by world authorities to assess a country’s health. As always, including in the animal world, evolution teaches us that sharing and sociability are the keys to long life and protection. For at least 4 decades, all attempts to base the economy on supply and trickle-down have failed. In a rare moment of truth, our President acknowledged this in an interview with Médiapart before the 2017 elections that this economic strategy is doomed to fail but forgot that rapidly with his fundamental banker approach to govern!
In conclusion, things are certainly complex, but in the end, a little morality wouldn’t hurt. After all, we’ve tried everything, we’re entitled to add to GNP and other barbaric terms, a little morality and happiness, and even serious economists are asking the question that maybe it’s not so absurd! this summary is not objective, but it is based on serious and coherent information from a recognized scientific and a curious citizen open to dialogue and, above all, convinced that in science as in everything else, innovation – true innovation – always implies thinking outside the box.
Merry christmas and as a gift this beautiful image of the beauty of nature.
