Politique Internationale — Do you feel that history is repeating itself? That the concept of polycrisis that you coined has never been so pervasive?
Edgar Morin — Tragedies come one after another, with differences and common features. What repeats itself is the unconsciousness and somnambulism of governments and peoples as we live and suffer the race towards disaster. What is new is that the fascism and Stalinism of the 20th century have been succeeded by neo-authoritarianism, populism and the danger of neo-totalitarianism based not only on the police, but also on computer control of each and every one of us, via smartphones, e-mail and facial recognition. What has also taken on a new character is the conflict between the Russian and American imperial superpowers, via the martyred Ukraine in particular. It is the development and crisis of globalisation which, instead of creating solidarity, has given rise to divisions and conflicts. It is the worldwide increase in inequalities under the hegemony of profit. It is a tangle of crises, including a crisis of democracy, which is the first crisis of humanity – which is unable to become ‘Humanity’.
P. I. — Overall, what is your vision of our era?
E. M. — These are dark times. We live in an era when the triumph of illusion and lies is a great defeat for France, Europe and humanity. It’s time for a new resistance. The resistance of the day before yesterday was against the occupier; the resistance of yesterday was against the return of the old barbarism of hatred and contempt, linked to the new barbarism of blind calculation and unbridled profit. It remains relevant today. The new resistance is first and foremost the resistance of the mind to lies, illusions and collective hysteria, and it is dedicated to creating oases of brotherhood. The new resistance takes the side of Eros against Polemos and Thanatos and would like to save the human race from itself.
P. I. — At the time of the Second World War, you were profoundly anti-militaristic. Do you think that today individuals are powerless in the face of global upheaval?
E. M. — I’ve known people, myself included, who have been transformed by upheaval! I’m a pacifist who became a Resistance fighter. I’ve seen communists become fascists, like Doriot, and right-wing royalists from Action Française become communists, like Claude Roy. I am a pre-war anti-Stalinist who became a Communist during the war. I acquired experience and resilience of mind at the age of twenty-eight and I hope that these are definitive.
P. I. — You recently published an autobiographical novel written in 1946, whose title, L’Année a perdu son printemps (The Year Has Lost Its Spring), sounds strangely contemporary. Did you want to bring the two eras, the post-war period and the present day, closer together?
E. M. — It’s the original title from 1947: I was thinking of all my friends in the Resistance who had been killed or died in deportation, and I took as …