Jean-Paul Brighelli recalled the disrupted Samuel Paty tribute and denounced the increasing violence among students for whom there are no longer any taboos.
You are a teacher and have published several books (La Fabrique du crétin, C’est le français qu’on assassine…). A commemoration of Samuel Paty was made in all the schools of the Republic. On that day, 98 worrying events were registered. It is as if we were counting them like the number of cars burnt on New Year’s Eve. Is this becoming some kind of permanent condition?
I think that it will be like the burning cars on New Year’s Eve, and that it will be downplayed so that there is no stimulus to copy.
A hundred cases across the country may not be much. A hundred cars burnt on New Year’s Day may not be much, except for those whose cars are burnt. A hundred incidents may not be much either, except for the teachers in the schools where they happened and who now know that their students are future jihadists. That is what it is all about. It’s not just a question of the zeitgeist. These children know very well what they are doing when they protest against a tribute, be it to Charlie or Samuel Paty. They know very well that they are in opposition to the republic. This means that for a certain number of people, Islamic law is above the laws of the republic. According to a survey, this is the case for 40% of them. It also means that tomorrow, for 150 euros or perhaps less, they will not hesitate to name the identity of the teacher who has angered a pathological murderer from Chechnya or Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.
After the recent disturbing events, what are we to make of these groups that want to break away from the republic?
The barriers and taboos were broken. As a student, everyone may have wished for a teacher to die, dreamt of beating him or her up on the spot. But we never did that. From now on, this behaviour is a natural one.
A society without taboos – see Freud or Lévi-Strauss on this subject – is not a society. Those who ignore taboos are already in a future society, in a kind of state of barbarism.
I am thinking especially of the female teacher who was pushed to the ground by one student and filmed by another. All this was posted on TikTok and seen millions of times. What should she have done? Slap him? She has no right to do that. Students now have more rights than teachers. This is the result of the Jospin law and the subsequent dismissals.
At the political level, several personalities had tried to play down the murder of Samuel Paty. In your opinion, was it a desire to initiate a debate or a refrain from doing so?
In the case of Alexis Corbière, it is the elections. The France Insoumise party is trying to appropriate these new potential voters, which the Jean Jaurès Foundation has identified and which the Socialist Party has tried to attract in the past. I don’t think they have a clue, because these people we are talking about are not particularly interested in elections.
Laurence De Cock is different. She is interested in the intersectionality of struggles, if I may say so. Everything that comes from the Maghreb or from Africa is good, even if the women are mutilated, even if they are veiled, and everything that comes from here is bad. When I think that this woman is a history teacher, I would rather not imagine the quality of her teaching and her attitude towards students who, unfortunately, do not agree with her positions.