Opinion and reflection

Le Regard Libre N° 60 - Jonas Follonier

If there is to be a renaissance of the press, part of it will be through the reflective press. Reflective journalism, as we experiment with it in these columns, offers democratic prospects. Especially at a time like the present, when the uncritical consumption of information can be extremely dangerous. Forget the label of «opinion journalism». In the final analysis, every sentence is the expression of an opinion, whether or not it is preceded by an «I'm of the opinion that». Simply put, an assertion will be true if an empirical fact verifies it.

The news press is therefore also the press of opinion.. Except that the information it conveys is true, or probably true. In short, all press is press of opinion, and a reliability barometer - difficult to conceive - will be able to distinguish the so-called «reference» media from the canards and other blogs. Some of these are just as interesting, if not more so, simply because they don't focus on the news. For example, they may focus on analysis and reflection.

After all, thinking is about more than just opinions. Reflection is self-confrontation; it's debate, real or fictitious. That's what makes an article «engaged». As some people have asked us on several occasions whether Le Regard Libre was oriented, we responded in an editorialYes, three times yes, oriented towards reflection, towards the debate of ideas - and it's essential to add towards a passion for culture, which is itself committed to this love of discussion. No matter how impertinent.

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Why has impertinence, versus political correctness, become a hot and ubiquitous topic, on both sides? Well, because the times demand it. One of the components of what we're experiencing is the invitation of moral judgment - in an absolutist conception of morality, even though, it seems, we each have our own morality - into fields of discussion that had long been preserved from it. And again, a gang morality and a morality on the cheap - a «moraline» in Nietzsche's word, which holds to Christian and republican virtues gone mad.

Publicly stating that liberalism is the least bad of economic systems makes you look like a privileged villain; refusing to open up borders indefinitely, like the nastiest of Nazis; questioning French-speaking Switzerland's adoration of its sacrosanct EPFL, like a sad sire. These are just three of a thousand examples. The more time passes, the more our salvation seems to lie in evenings with friends, in private, where exchange and nuance are still possible - as is blasphemy.

But public debate is just as important, This is despite the fact that the social networking arena, which was intended to be inclusive, has become the greatest engine of exclusion, both intellectual and social. Public debate, that is to say, debate that is assumed and at the service of collective reflection, is a duty for the citizens that we are. And, by the way, for the troublemakers we sometimes like to be. And so much the better!

What would life be without irony, the humorous counterpart to questioning in the realm of thought? Very little. So it's worth being alarmed by the flashing lights in the world of humorists and cartoonists, who will soon no longer have the right to mock anything. This is a clear sign of the defeat of thought.

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com

Drawing: © Nathanaël Schmid for Le Regard Libre