Pétain

Summary

Dominique Pagani often returns to the opposition between two Frances: Pétain's France is no less French than that of De Gaulle or the Resistance, so "France" remains too general a notion, since one chooses the France one loves1. He points out that every party except the Communist Party voted him full powers, which makes him the example of a power that is legal but illegitimate23. In his view, those who voted these full powers later invented the notion of totalitarianism to whitewash themselves. He notes several times that Pétain's regime sought to honour Bergson, who was Jewish4. He treats the phrase "the earth does not lie" as the mark of a localism that he finds again in ecologism and in medieval nostalgia, and he links it to Blut und Boden5. He also compares the speech that blamed the defeat on the Popular Front with the one that presents Covid as a punishment. Finally, he mentions the photo in which Mitterrand is introduced to Pétain, and Pétain's hostility to income tax.

1. 1#8 Philosophising under threat27 Jan 2022 · 40:40
2. 2And what about the subject in all this? Hölderlin, Mallarmé and Baudelaire28 Sept 2022 · 2:17:50
3. 3The essence of evil: innocence of nature, horror of naturalism!17 Dec 2024 · 30:43
4. 4Pagani without detours21 Sept 2019 · 1:12:18
5. 5#7 Harnessed to confinitude5 May 2020 · 1:46:31

Summary produced automatically from 53 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.