Whatever their social class, religion, ethnic group, race or even political orientation, French citizens marched together and reaffirmed as a single voice and body the sacredness of their political values, the sacredness of freedom and the sacredness of French secular citizenship. A securitist state would not be able to organize such mass demonstrations of solidarity because, after it creates fear, it subsumes the rights of citizens to the rights of the state, and generates apathy and alienation in citizens who know in the recesses of their heart that the state does not care about their fundamental rights. Thus the Israeli right wing sold us and continues to sell us an enormous lie: Its politics of fear is not strong but weak, because it does not stand for any values; it does not unite but divides. More crucially: The politics of fear does not create patriotism, because it cannot create true solidarity. True solidarity can only emerge from sharing, and cherishing, common values. And what enables values to be shared? It is the fact they are universal. Only the affirmation of a universal moral project can unite vastly different groups and in a sustained way, because only universal values can mobilize the vast diversity of human beings as human beings.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 12:05:09 +0000
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