Alexandre Dalifard
modified to
10:51 a.m., November 22, 2022
“These identities that freeze us”, wrote Julia de Funès in her new book The Age of the Lost. The philosopher, guest of Europe 1 on Tuesday, returns to the question of identitarianism. For her, in our time, looking for an identity sometimes means entering a role or a posture that can push us to distance ourselves from ourselves. But she recognizes that to build yourself, you have to identify yourself.
“We see it in our time, communitarianisms are getting stronger, identity fervor intensifies to the point of sometimes shaking republican principles. It is in this sense that I say that identity leads astray”, specifies Julia de Funès. However, if the reconstruction goes through identification, it still raises some doubts. “Building yourself up means individualizing yourself, making yourself unique and finding your true self. At that point, I believe that identity no longer responds to it,” she underlines.
“National unity does not proceed from a national identity”
Asked about the question of national identity, Julia de Funès specifies that the universalist backhand no longer works at all today. “National unity does not proceed from a national identity. If I ask you to define it, we will surely disagree, it is indefinable. I do not believe in this image of Épinal which is very personal and which was never enough to bring a nation together,” says the philosopher. For the author, a country will unite in tragic or emotional moments, such as during attacks or even in times of war.
“I believe much more in emotion than in identity to create feeling. A football match, for example, can create identity fervor,” she adds.
“The need to belong is an illusion”
Some societies, populations, refuse to be drowned in unbridled globalization and cling to their French, European or even Christian identity. Faced with this, Julia de Funès warns about this need to belong. “It’s completely understandable as a desire, but it’s a decoy, an illusion. What remains the same over time? Nothing”, says the philosopher. For her, “one cannot reduce identity to History.”
Faced with her words, she nevertheless specifies that the past should not be denigrated. However, “History is not a conditioning, it is a condition of existence. It is a starting point, but not a finish line”, she concludes.