Suchergebnisse

"Il existe assez de racismes véritables pour que l'on n'en invente pas d'imaginaires. Depuis trente-cinq ans, le terme d'"islamophobie" anéantit toute parole critique envers l'islam. Il a pour double finalité de bâillonner les Occidentaux et de disqualifier les musulmans réformateurs. Une grande religion comme l'islam n'est pas réductible à un peuple puisqu'elle a une vocation universelle. Lui épargner l'épreuve de l'examen, entrepris depuis des siècles par le christianisme et le judaïsme, c'est l'enfermer dans ses difficultés actuelles. Et condamner à jamais ses fidèles au rôle de victimes, exonérées de toute responsabilité dans les violences commises en son nom. Démonter cette imposture, réévaluer ce qu'on appelle le "retour du religieux" et qui est plutôt le retour du fanatisme, célébrer [extraordinaire liberté que la France donne à ses citoyens, le droit de croire ou de ne pas croire en Dieu : tels sont les objectifs de cet essai."--Page 4 of cover

The planet is sick. Human beings are guilty of damaging it. We have to pay. Today, that is the orthodoxy throughout the Western world. Concern about the environment is legitimate, but catastrophism transforms us into cowering children. Distrust of progress and science, calls for individual and collective self-sacrifice to 'save the planet' and cultivation of fear: behind the carbon commissars, a dangerous and counterproductive ecological catastrophism is gaining ground. Bruckner locates the predecessors of today's ecological catastrophism in Catholicism's admonishment to give up joy in the present for the sake of eternal life and in Marxism's demand that individuals forsake personal needs for the sake of a brighter future. Modern society's susceptibility to this kind of catastrophism derives from what Bruckner calls the 'seductions of disaster', as exemplified by the popular appeal of disaster movies. But ecological catastrophism is harmful in that it draws attention away from other, more solvable problems and injustices in the world in order to focus on something that is portrayed as an Apocalypse. Rather than preaching catastrophe and pessimism, we need to develop a democratic and generous ecology that addresses specific problems in a practical way. This sharp and contrarian essay on one of the great issues of our time will be widely read and discussed.

Happiness today is not just a possibility or an option but a requirement and a duty. To fail to be happy is to fail utterly. Happiness has become a religion--one whose smiley-faced god looks down in rebuke upon everyone who hasn't yet attained the blessed state of perpetual euphoria. How has a liberating principle of the Enlightenment--the right to pursue happiness--become the unavoidable and burdensome responsibility to be happy? How did we become unhappy about not being happy--and what might we do to escape this predicament? In Perpetual Euphoria, Pascal Bruckner takes up these questions wit

Happiness today is not just a possibility or an option but a requirement and a duty. To fail to be happy is to fail utterly. Happiness has become a religion--one whose smiley-faced god looks down in rebuke upon everyone who hasn't yet attained the blessed state of perpetual euphoria. How has a liberating principle of the Enlightenment--the right to pursue happiness--become the unavoidable and burdensome responsibility to be happy? How did we become unhappy about not being happy--and what might we do to escape this predicament? In Perpetual Euphoria, Pascal Bruckner takes up these questions wit.

A handbook on how to live right and an antidote for today's Prozac society, the book decries today's evasions and prevarications, the "poor-little-me" mentality that allows us to cop out when we should be taking responsibility for shaping our lives