French philosopher and novelist Tristan Garcia argues that current protest movements should not be treated as evidence of a crisis of authority or the state. Doing so, he says, risks obscuring protesters’ demands and recasting political opposition as a feeling of powerlessness.
Garcia, who teaches at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, has published “L’autorité est un chantage” (“Authority Is a Form of Blackmail”), in which he describes authority as presenting a choice between chaos and respect for the established order. The book examines ways to move beyond that framing, which he says can limit people’s ability to act and diminish the political significance of dissent.
In the interview, Garcia responds to survey findings cited in the question: 85% of French people agree that authority is “a notion that is being lost,” while 73% want “a true leader to restore order,” according to studies by IFOP and OpinionWay.
He says discussions of authority often begin with regret over its supposed decline. That view, he argues, casts individual gains such as greater freedom and autonomy as coming at the cost of psychological and social disorder, a loss of bearings, or the disappearance of something transcendent and greater than oneself.
Sources: Le Monde Politique.