English translation of the French transcript, made with AI and not yet proofread — click a paragraph to jump to it. Show the French original
Confinement and economic crisis 0:00 What did you say? Dear friends, dear comrades, you can imagine I'm rather happy to meet you again for what we've decided to call, not these workshops, but these harnessed-ones of the con-finitude that we are, you and us, if I may put it that way.
0:30 Harnessed, we hope that people will come and harness themselves to these few virtual sessions, since we're not allowed to embrace each other, old fool that I am, aren't we, but only to contact each other through a screen. And for an indeterminate period. It's a strange situation all the same. I'm 75 years old, and that's been the case for a little while now.
1:04 And I've never seen anything like it, just as I've never seen the gravity of the economic crisis, which has only just begun, like the thunderclaps that announce a storm, to make its first rumblings heard. So you're going to say, that's it, that's Pagani starting to mix everything up again. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's on the contrary the intertwining of all this, isn't it, of an economic crisis as, I'm speaking of those concerned, of the professionals in the field, aren't I.
1:40 If you consult the specialized media, who are already saying — even though they're generally the ones most inclined to minimize the gravity of the crises of capital — that the crisis we're living through is not only more serious than the absolute reference point up to now, which was 2008, but that it's even approaching the throes of '29. We haven't yet reached the point of bankers throwing themselves off the 30th floor into the void after going bankrupt in Manhattan, no, no, from the skyscrapers of Manhattan.
Time regained through confinement 2:14 We're not there yet, but well, we're not far off, and they're already talking about 30 million unemployed by the autumn. Anyway, let's not spoil the topic. That's one aspect. The present, you know that as good Hegelians — yes, listen, we're at my place, we're at home. Philippe Moreau is kind enough to put all his technical know-how at the service of my imposed homebody side, as is the case for all of us. So the form of our discussions will be a bit more informal than a talk given in a room, in public, in front of a flesh-and-blood audience.
2:55 There you go. Yes, actually, I'm delighted. It's a positive aspect of this confinement. Allow me to point out a few of them anyway. I'm finding time again. I have time at home. I no longer had time at home. I had to wait for retirement to be busier. And that's saying something — don't think I was a lazy so-and-so back when I was working. I never did shift work. But still, I mean, I had the torments of being an executive, someone who never had a weekend, who always had files to bring home, isn't that right?
3:33 There you go, you know, you're familiar with it. Those of you who worked in the service sector, as they say, have all known people who tell you, 'Oh, I can't take it anymore, I woke up at 5am, I have files to work on at home.' In fact, they're just blowing hot air — they're the ones who do the least at the office. But anyway, they're the ones who complain all the time about being stressed, that's how it is. So working-class misery, isn't it, gets filtered and reappears in the form of stress for the advanced bourgeoisie.
4:03 So there you go. But anyway, I was very busy, yet I don't remember ever being so short of time, maybe because time — as I approach the end of my life, time seems a bit limited downstream, I don't know — but I have the impression of always being short of time. And now, thanks to the confinement, I'm at home, I can practice more difficult piano pieces than usual, because I have time to work on and polish the details a bit more, even if plenty of imperfections remain.
4:35 I can help our volunteer webmaster Stéphane, whom I greet in passing, who is in Bordeaux, to help with the indexing he's carrying out of six years of monthly videos, by watching long hours of workshop footage, in order to make thematic or author indexes. There you go, I'm finding time to do all that, which I was a bit slapdash about not so long ago.
Live sessions, from analysis to current events 5:08 So, as a result, we're going to talk about things in a way that's both apparently light, like this, and at the same time more in-depth than usual, paradoxically, you see. And I'm announcing to you that Philippe and I have agreed that we're going to invite you to two live conversations — 'lives,' I'll say, just to make those who, rightly, rail against the invasion of English-speaking terms, jump.
5:42 But I'm not sure that if I say 'live,' now that we've come to that, I'll be understood by everyone. To a few live sessions, let's say bi-weekly, twice a week, you'll be notified in advance, we'll have this kind of conversation, through a screen, for as long as the confinement lasts, since it is, I repeat, indefinite for now, hoping that the unit of measure for the duration of this confinement remains the week, that it will last a few weeks and not a few months, or even a few years, who knows.
6:28 But, bi-weekly, and I'm also announcing to you in advance, on themes that will be proposed to you a little beforehand, but which will take a form — if I may allow myself this redundancy — more informal than usual. You'll tell me that's saying something given my approach, but which will in any case be more thoroughly explored, more in the mode of analysis, rather than broad synthesis.
7:03 I mean, to be clear, I'll try to start from texts, from particular cases, either texts or musical examples, in order to arrive at what? Not an escape into aestheticism, but quite the opposite — to show how, no matter where you start from, you always end up back in the most burning current events, without any artifice. A bit like what Seneca tried to express in a letter to a friend who traveled a lot, to whom Seneca had written: 'You can go as far as you like in the world, wherever you are, the distance to the underworld is always the same.'
7:42 There you go. So, following this announcement, we hope you'll be as numerous as possible to join us and become, with us, the harnessed-ones of con-finitude. As good news never comes alone, the good news is that you're going to be condemned to seeing me again, for those willing to play along, which we could no longer do in person.
Interactivity, inequalities of confinement, and guests 8:22 Since these are live sessions, I'd like to remind you all the same that your initiative becomes essential again, as does interactivity — that is, you'll be able to intervene, ask questions. We've set up a feedback system, I was going to say a monitoring system, you see, look how I'm even letting myself get contaminated.
8:52 One virus can hide another. I have another screen that lets me see the most recurring questions, as we've already experienced on the few occasions we did live sessions last year. So there you go, don't hesitate to participate, especially since we're not the only ones moping — or feasting, depending — in con-finitude; it depends a bit, of course, let's be serious, on each person's housing and financial circumstances.
9:39 It's more or less funny depending on whether you have five young children underfoot and only two rooms to work from home in, work that's severely monitored by both your ministers and your employers — well, mine at least, since I'm a bit old for that — or whether you had time to take refuge in a country house somewhere in rural France, where you can gallivant through the fields without ever running into an inspector asking you 'Papers!', right?
10:15 There you go, so, since we're learning to meet up again, we will certainly call on a guest who isn't necessarily obliged to share our views on everything — though I myself never have the same view on everything — and I'm thinking of personalities who I know are dear to you, and some of whom won't fail to join us and engage in dialogue within our shared con-finitude.
11:00 There you go, that's the good news I wanted to announce to you, along with the holding of these workshops for the harnessed-ones of con-finitude. Yes, I'm trying to launch the phrase, I hope it will flourish, but at the same time that it won't last too long. There you go. See you very soon, dear friends. Thank you.
