Pascal Couchepin's reading: «Apocalypses»

Cach month, we feature a column by one of the personalities we have the pleasure of alternating between. Current affairs, history, politics and philosophy: former Federal Councillor Pascal Couchepin's readings.

First of all, the title! According to the dictionary, «apocalypse» has two meanings. Either it refers to a Jewish literary genre dating from two centuries BC, or it corresponds to a catastrophe that evokes the end of the world. The Apocalypse of John - which is an optimistic text, since it ends with the triumph of Good over Evil - belongs to the first category. A nuclear war falls into the second category. Niall Ferguson, professor at Oxford and Harvard, evokes events that have overwhelmed mankind. We don't know about many of them because they happened in ancient times or in remote regions. Southeast Asia, c