Seduce and convince

By Rorik Dupuis Valder for France-Soir

It seems to me that we cannot truly understand the disintegration of traditional values ​​- those which form the basis of civilisation: effort, commitment, courage, education, etc. - without understanding how these have been diverted by an illegitimate authority which, via the pseudo-freedom offered by consumer society, will have worked in favour of a culture of seduction designed to serve its interests. 

Politicians of all stripes, promoted artists and authorized journalists are definitely no longer committed to justice, order and aesthetics - in other words to the true, the beautiful and the good - but are now content to feed this new culture of seduction, heir to the reign of advertising, which makes them, more or less, auxiliaries of the power in place. 

We no longer seek to do, but to please. To always win more voters, listeners, followers , as if the quantity acquired could be, to the detriment of real quality, an end in itself. As if we had, in some way, "sacrificed substance for form". With all that this entails of dangerous lies. 

In this sense, the term "  follower  ", specific to the virtual world of social networks, is quite significant of this conformism of mediocrity, which seems to be more a matter of an admitted incapacity for autonomy than of any herd reflex. Thus, how can we describe the popularity of a virtual personality "followed" by millions of ghosts and stragglers? Isn't its "legitimacy" entirely relative? 

In the same way, what is the legitimacy of the representative of a human group elected by a "majority" of voters who are seduced (if they are not fictitious...) rather than convinced  ? Are we not reaching here, through an obligatory media-political collusion and the impunity of lies, the limits of democracy? 

This is the drama of the society of the ephemeral, where everything is accessible to you in the name of irresponsible progress and the sacrosanct "purchasing power": seduction has replaced conviction, producing a world of spoiled children, jealous people, false scholars and false rebels doomed to misfortune. Because a being without principles is an unhappy being: his sole desire and his consumer whims will never make him someone fulfilled. He will always lack the taste for transcendence. 

This is how we moved from politics to ideology, or from politics to electoralism, the intellectual laziness of rigor competing with the cynicism of predators ready to do anything to stay in power. A taste for disguise and an aptitude for chatter are clearly sufficient qualities for governing. The substance matters little. As long as the general interest serves the private interest of those who govern. 

Today, with the digital revolution and the vertigo of artificial intelligence — which seems to herald the generalized profiling of populations as much as an inevitable mass unemployment — we are living in a crisis of temporality. In this new technocratic era, where the false principle of seduction parasitizes and distorts relationships in all areas, it is urgent to remind imposters, small and large, where their place is. 

If we can personally choose community life, isolation and stoicism in the face of the tyranny and perfidy of a sprawling system, the question is what models we intend to propose to this innocent youth who are assaulted daily with unnatural injunctions. Can glory, the illusion of wealth and the assurance of privilege reasonably serve as drivers for man? Should the ephemeral prevail over the durable in the name of a self-centered materialism, product of the dictatorship of the ignorant and the nouveau riche? 

What is a world where commitment is no longer valued, recognized, encouraged? A world without firefighters, without doctors, without teachers? This dystopian project, initiated in a more or less grotesque way by globalist leaders and other noisy crooks of progressivism, will never see the light of day: man, even if he must take the blows of the powerful and his proudly enslaved peers, watches in silence, like the feline ready to pounce to defend its territory and its offspring. If the fur is soft, the bite can be fatal… 

As long as the political domain is not frankly purged of its impostors and seducers, as long as the media and the educational institution do not fulfill with the necessary requirement their role of educating the population - education in independence and critical thinking - we cannot hope for a peaceful society, rich in its sense of commitment. As long as we do not return from demagogy to pedagogy, the abuse of authority will be the rule. 

Because it is independence and critical thinking that lead, in a social and personal journey based on trust and experience, to commitment. Constraint and lies - even if they are cleverly disguised as dogmas and norms - are the means used by predators and the incompetent, whom power systematically attracts like honey attracts flies. And should we be satisfied, as the only spectacle in the city, with the agitation of flies? 

Source : https://www.francesoir.fr/opinions-tribunes/seduire-et-convaincre