Season 13 · 9 Aug 2025The repression of the subject in bourgeois civil society- 45:23The worst of parties, which has governed since the disappearance of Gaullism and communism; they are not moderates but extremists.
Extreme center
Worked through in 7 videos · 7 passages.
Summary
Dominique Pagani uses "extreme centre" for the political force that has governed the West since the end of the Trente Glorieuses, or since the disappearance of Gaullism and communism12. He disputes its reputation for moderation: those who claim it are not moderates but extremists, and he calls it "the worst of parties"2. In his view, the obsession with the happy medium causes millions of deaths1. He traces its historical origin: those compromised under the Occupation, who "hugged the walls" in 1945, reinvented themselves under the labels "no label", "miscellaneous moderates" or centrist34. He sees in it the camp of "rather Hitler than the Popular Front"5, and it is there, he says, that the return of the far right is being prepared6. Centre-left and centre-right merge, like the purple point in the middle of a blue and red segment, and this extreme centre passes itself off as liberal and democratic7.
- 1Cynicism of the extreme centre or epistemic heroism? The dialectic of the middle20 May 2021 · 20:44
- 2The repression of the subject in bourgeois civil society9 Aug 2025 · 45:23
- 3Why is Clouscard indispensable?3 Jan 2023 · 6:14
- 4Aragon, “The Paris Peasant Sings”5 Aug 2023 · 6:29
- 5After the vote: entering a zone of turbulence11 Jul 2024 · 34:50
- 6For a “fresh and joyful” apocalypse?24 Jun 2024 · 34:53
- 7War, neo-fascism: libertarian liberalism3 Mar 2023 · 1:04:05
Summary produced automatically from 7 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.
Season 13 · 9 Aug 2025The repression of the subject in bourgeois civil society
Season 12 · 11 Jul 2024After the vote: entering a zone of turbulence- 34:50The camp of "better Hitler than the Popular Front," returned after the war under moderate and centrist labels.
Season 12 · 24 Jun 2024For a “fresh and joyful” apocalypse?- 34:53Centrists pass for moderates, but it was under the centrist label that collaborators took shelter: that is where the return of the far right is being hatched.
Series · 5 Aug 2023Aragon, “The Paris Peasant Sings”- 6:29The extreme centre is anything but moderate: those who were not clearly on the right side under the Occupation reinvented themselves as "unaffiliated" and "various moderates."
Season 11 · 3 Mar 2023War, neo-fascism: libertarian liberalism- 1:04:05Center-left and center-right merge like the violet point in the middle of a blue-and-red segment; the extreme center passes itself off as liberal and democratic.
Series · 3 Jan 2023Why is Clouscard indispensable?- 6:14Whether centre-right or centre-left, it gathers those who were compromised at the end of the war. It kept a low profile in 1945 and ends up leading the Western world.
Series · 20 May 2021Cynicism of the extreme centre or epistemic heroism? The dialectic of the middle- 20:44This is what has governed since the end of the Trente Glorieuses; the obsession with the golden mean and moderation causes millions of deaths.