On Macron’s novlangue

Dear friends, I have to tell you about a reading event that never happened to me before. A few months ago, in the middle of covid, I heard — no one is perfect — a speech by Macron. I was stunned, petrified. And I asked myself: is he the one who is delusional? Or is it me? I had to know for sure, to systematize the experience, just to check. So — forgive me again — I embarked on a masochistic enterprise: I read (almost) all of Macron’s prose. I read the thick Revolution manifesto he wrote for the 2017 presidential election, and I listened-read all of his speeches, before, during, and after the lockdown. As a result, it was the first time in my life that I saw someone take me so rudely for a fool. And then immediately afterwards, as there are limits to masochism, I thought: « What if the jerk was him? » The problem is that there is no definition of bullshit. I looked for Aristotle, Kant, Castoriadis, Kairos, but I did not find any. So I wasn’t very advanced. Until another image comes to …