The responsibility of the honest word, expression of a thought that between philosophy, literature, defense of human rights and democracy, experiences on the living terrain of history, Bernard Henri-Lévy, French philosopher, journalist, essayist and director, one of the most engaged intellectuals of our time, testified to journalists in a press conference preceding the long-awaited meeting this evening in Piazza IX Aprile where at 9pm he will discuss The responsibility of thought with Paolo Valentino, to define what remains of trust in democracies liberals, challenged by misinformation, political violence and the erosion of a shared public language. The philosopher does not deny his assertive strength in the face of the questions posed. What he chooses to trust, he was asked. «I have faith in the future, in truth in democracy. But the problem of our age is the loss of trust. Nobody trusts anymore, I am surrounded by women and men who no longer have faith in Europe, in social values, in the bonds between human beings, in the difference between good and evil. For this reason I accepted with enormous pleasure to come here to Taobuk, but I must clarify one thing: I have confidence.” And then he reflects on the fragility of democracy which is not just a thing of today, even if it is greater in some eras: the fact is – he says – that «when a leader stops being a “shepherd of the people” as the Greeks said, it is suicide for his entire group. In short, the Greeks already “knew” about Trump’s collapse!
On the exploration of evil in literature, from Bataille onwards, he reiterates, as a philosopher, that he writes about the question of evil, distancing himself from classical philosophy which has hidden the reflection on evil. And he is convinced, Henri-Lévy, that there are people who do it voluntarily. An example? Putin and Trump. And speaking of Ukraine, where he has been going for four years, also traveling on the front, he remembers having seen with his own eyes the barbarity on the part of the Russians. Yet, he says, Russia, its culture, its literature, its people, are great, and yet even after four years consciences do not turn against evil. As for anti-Semitism, which Henri-Lévy never tires of denouncing, he warns that the laboratory of anti-Semitism today is the United States, extreme left and right that favor mass anti-Semitism, which can cause a moral atomic bomb to explode. Finally, a memory of Roman Gary, an immense writer, whose fame was overshadowed by his name, a friend about whom Henri-Lévy is writing a book “Provisional Memoirs”, due out in October.