Excerpt of The Cultural Fatigue of French Canada by Hubert Aquin: Difference between revisions

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== Excerpt 1 ==
== Excerpt 1 ==
[[Image:Pierre-trudeau.png|thumb|left|Pierre Elliott Trudeau, lawyer, future Prime Minister of Canada]][[Image:Hubert-Aquin.jpg|thumb|Hubert Aquin, writer, editor, producer, director, militant of the independence of Quebec]]Is the [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Nation-State Nation-State] an odious trap in which the best elements of the left foolishly fall into because they are emotive; does this concept imply a kind of malefic and intrinsically negative [http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/ipseity ipseity] that we should agree to ban forever from our minds as a "transitory phase" of humanity, like others had to sublimate cannibalism? Here is the question to which [[Wikipedia:Pierre Elliott Trudeau|Pierre Elliott Trudeau]] gives a brilliant and rhetorically convincing answer{{Refl|1}} which, nevertheless, seems to me like a charade-question or, better, a dialectical trap.
[[Image:Pierre-trudeau.png|thumb|left|Pierre Elliott Trudeau, lawyer, future Prime Minister of Canada]][[Image:Hubert-Aquin.jpg|thumb|Hubert Aquin, writer, editor, producer, director, militant of the independence of Quebec]]Is the [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Nation-State Nation-State] an odious trap in which the best elements of the left foolishly fall into because they are emotive; does the concept of Nation-State imply a kind of malefic and intrinsically negative [http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/ipseity ipseity] that we should agree to ban forever from our minds, as one of the "transitory phase" of humanity, like others had to sublimate cannibalism? Here is the question to which [[Wikipedia:Pierre Elliott Trudeau|Pierre Elliott Trudeau]] gives a brilliant and rhetorically convincing answer{{Refl|1}} which, nevertheless, seems to me like a charade-question or, better, a dialectical trap.


Let me explain. By posing as a premise that separatism postulates a Nation-State, it is relatively easy if not agreable to refute this aspiration of the French-Canadian nation to transmute into a Nation-State. Now, precisely, the Nation-State is a concept that is truly outdated and which does not correspond neither to reality nor to the latest data of science.
Let me explain. By posing as a premise that separatism postulates a Nation-State, it is relatively easy if not pleasant to refute this aspiration of the French-Canadian nation to transmute into a Nation-State. Now, precisely, the Nation-State is a concept that is truly outdated and which does not correspond neither to reality nor to the latest data of science.


The nation is not, as Trudeau lets us understand, an ethnic reality. There no longer are [[Wikipedia:Ethnic group|ethnies]], or so little. Population displacements, immigration, [[Wikipedia:cultural assimilation|assimilation]] (which [http://www.demo.umontreal.ca/personnel/Henripin_Jacques.htm Jacques Henripin] rightly refers to as "[[Wikipedia:language shift|language shifts]]") produced an interpenetration of ethnies for which one incontestable result, in French Canada for example, is the grouping no longer according to the principle of the ethnic origin (the race, as we were still saying only twenty-five years ago) but according to a homogeneous cultural group whose only verifiable specificity is to be found at the linguistic level.
The nation is not, as Trudeau lets us understand, an ethnic reality. There no longer are [[Wikipedia:Ethnic group|ethnies]], or so little. Population displacements, immigration, [[Wikipedia:cultural assimilation|assimilation]] (which [http://www.demo.umontreal.ca/personnel/Henripin_Jacques.htm Jacques Henripin] rightly refers to as "[[Wikipedia:language shift|language shifts]]") produced an interpenetration of ethnies for which one incontestable result, in French Canada for example, is the grouping no longer according to the principle of the ethnic origin (the race, as we were still saying only twenty-five years ago) but according to a homogeneous cultural group whose only verifiable specificity is to be found at the linguistic level.


It only suffice to look around oneself, among the people that we know, to quickly count the number of pure wool French Canadians: they are no longer the "true" French Canadians! The Mackays, the Johnsons, the Elliotts, the Aquins, the Molinaris, the O'Harleys, the Spénarts, the Espositos, the Globenskis, etc., say a lot about the French-Canadian ethnie-nation. The "language shifts", of which speaks Henripin, have occurred to our benefit as well as to our expense, so much that the kernel of immigrated colonists which accomplished the ''survivance'' is today mixed, at the ethnic level, to all the contributions which immigration or the randomness of love have added to our national ethnic purity.
It only suffices to look around oneself, among the people that we know, to quickly count the number of pure wool French Canadians: they are not the only "true" French Canadians! The Mackays, the Johnsons, the Elliotts, the Aquins, the Molinaris, the O'Harleys, the Spénarts, the Espositos, the Globenskis, etc., say a lot about the French-Canadian ethnie-nation. The "language shifts", of which speaks Henripin, have occurred to our benefit as well as to our expense, so much that the kernel of immigrated colonists who accomplished the ''survivance'' are today mixed, at the ethnic level, to all the contributions that immigration or the randomness of love have added to our national ethnic purity.


In fact, there no longer is a French-Canadian nation but a cultural-linguistic group homogeneous by its language. So will it be for the [[Wikipedia:Wolof people|Wolof]], the [[Wikipedia:Serer|Serer]] and the [[Wikipedia:Peul|Peul]] of [[Wikipedia:Senegal|Senegal]] who will, if nothing intervenes to stop the schooling process whose upcoming result will be to give birth to a cultural-linguistic group of multiple ethnic origins, become one day the Senegalese.
In fact, there no longer is a French-Canadian nation but a cultural-linguistic group homogeneous by its language. So will it be for the [[Wikipedia:Wolof people|Wolof]], the [[Wikipedia:Serer|Serer]] and the [[Wikipedia:Peul|Peul]] of [[Wikipedia:Senegal|Senegal]] who will one day become Senegalese, if nothing stops the schooling process whose upcoming result will be to give birth to a cultural-linguistic group of multiple ethnic origins.


'''Cultural Homogeneity and Pluralism'''
'''Cultural Homogeneity and Pluralism'''
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This system (had it been thought out that it could not have been any more coherent!) works very well and since a long time, and does not at all imply the disappearance of the French fact in Canada, but rather domestication at all levels and in all consciences.
This system (had it been thought out that it could not have been any more coherent!) works very well and since a long time, and does not at all imply the disappearance of the French fact in Canada, but rather domestication at all levels and in all consciences.


The proof of its efficacy reside in its diffusion inside French Canada where all its best defenders are located because, in French and with emotion in their voice, they easily persuade their compatriots of the necessity to remain French-Canadian and prove ''d’un vieux souffle'' that "it is up to us to prove ourselves, because it is by being better French-Canadians that we will give to English Canada the image of a vigorous French-Canadian culture."  
The proof of its efficacy reside in its diffusion inside French Canada, where all its best defenders are located because, in French and with emotion in their voice, they easily persuade their compatriots of the necessity to remain French-Canadian and prove ''d’un vieux souffle'' that "it is up to us to prove ourselves, because it is by being better French-Canadians that we will give English Canada the image of a vigorous French-Canadian culture."  


"If Quebec became an exemplary province, if in it men lived under the sign of liberty and progress, if culture occupied a place of choice, if universities were brilliant and if the public administration was the most progressive of the country - and nothing in this presupposes a declaration of independence! -, French Canadians would not need to fight to impose bilingualism, the knowledge of French would become a "status symbol" for anglophones, it would even become an asset in business and administration." - Pierre Elliott Trudeau, "La nouvelle trahison des clercs", in ''Cité libre'', April 1962, page 16. {{Refl|1}}
"If Quebec became an exemplary province, if in it men lived under the sign of liberty and progress, if culture occupied a place of choice, if universities were brilliant and if the public administration was the most progressive of the country and nothing in this presupposes a declaration of independence! , French Canadians would not need to fight to impose bilingualism, the knowledge of French would become a "status symbol" for anglophones, it would even become an asset in business and administration." Pierre Elliott Trudeau, "La nouvelle trahison des clercs", in ''Cité libre'', April 1962, page 16. {{Refl|1}}


'''A derealisation'''
'''A derealization'''


The logic of the system seems unconsciously faithful to its goal. Is it necessary to assess the operation, surely unconscious, of "derealisation" of French Canada in its globality? The one who wants to succeed must renounce to the cultural push given to him by French Canada, and, initially, find himself in a situation of cultural fatigue, this interior dragon from which he must individually triumph to prove that, through him, French Canada has the right to exist!
The logic of the system seems unconsciously faithful to its goal. Is it necessary to assess the operation, surely unconscious, of "derealization" of French Canada in its globality? The one who wants to succeed must renounce to the cultural push given to him by French Canada, and, initially, find himself in a situation of cultural fatigue, this interior dragon from which he must individually triumph to prove that, through him, French Canada has the right to exist!


But we forget that this can only be realized at the level of exception and, consequently, only values the individual since, for the culture which he incarnates, its devaluation finds itself involved in the "exceptional" triumph. "[...] The personal and localized success all the more tends to become an essential moment for oneself since collective success appears more compromised or more distant. ([[Wikipedia:Jean-Paul Sartre|Jean-Paul Sartre]], ''Critique de la raison dialectique'', Paris 1960, page 572. {{Refl|2}} )
But we forget that this can only be realized at the level of exception and, consequently, only values the individual since, for the culture which he incarnates, its devaluation finds itself involved in the "exceptional" triumph. "[...] The personal and localized success all the more tends to become an essential moment for oneself since collective success appears more compromised or more distant. ([[Wikipedia:Jean-Paul Sartre|Jean-Paul Sartre]], ''Critique de la raison dialectique'', Paris 1960, page 572. {{Refl|2}} )
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But why must French Canadians be better? Why must they "succeed" to justify their existence? This exhortation to individual superiority is presented as an inevitable challenge we must undertake. But let us not forget that the cult of challenge can only be conceived as a function of an obstacle, of an initial handicap, and can be reduced, in final analysis, to a test to which each individual is subjected.
But why must French Canadians be better? Why must they "succeed" to justify their existence? This exhortation to individual superiority is presented as an inevitable challenge we must undertake. But let us not forget that the cult of challenge can only be conceived as a function of an obstacle, of an initial handicap, and can be reduced, in final analysis, to a test to which each individual is subjected.


Only the exploit valorizes us and, according to this precise requirement, we must convene that [[Wikipedia:Maurice Richard|Maurice Richard]] did better than our federal politicians. We have the sporting spirit nationally and since we dream of fabricating heroes rather than a State, we endeavour to win collective fights individually.
Only exploit valorizes us and, according to this precise requirement, we must convene that [[Wikipedia:Maurice Richard|Maurice Richard]] did better than our federal politicians. We have the sporting spirit nationally and since we dream of fabricating heroes rather than a State, we endeavour to win collective struggle individually.


''Le Devoir'' <br />
''Le Devoir'' <br />
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The French-Canadian culture offers all the symptoms of an extreme tiredness: it aspires, at the same time, to strength and to rest, to existential intensity and to suicide, to independence and to dependence.  
The French-Canadian culture offers all the symptoms of an extreme tiredness: it aspires, at the same time, to strength and to rest, to existential intensity and to suicide, to independence and to dependence.  


Independence can only be regarded as a political and social lever for a relatively homogeneous culture. It is not historically necessary, no more than the culture which reclaims it. It must not be considered a superior and privileged mode of being for a cultural community; but, unquestionably, independence is a cultural mode of being just like dependence. In the field of knowledge, the modes of being of any given cultural group are equally interesting. Knowledge is concerned with realities, not values.
Independence can only be regarded as a political and social lever for a relatively homogeneous culture. It is not historically necessary, no more than is the culture which reclaims it. It must not be considered a superior and privileged mode of being for a cultural community; but, unquestionably, independence is a cultural mode of being just like dependence is. In the field of knowledge, the modes of being of any given cultural group are equally interesting. Knowledge is concerned with realities, not values.


'''The running away'''
'''The running away'''


[...] Another way of derealising French Canada is to only accept its administrative translation as a province. "Quebec is a province like the others", which amounts to accepting the reality of the French-Canadian culture only according to the legalist terms of the [[Wikipedia:Canadian confederation|Confederation]] which regionalizes and provincializes this culture. This reasoning is the inversion of the Other according to the size of the confrontation pole, but is also the same reasoning, structurally, in that it retracts the French-Canada/English-Canada axis which, historically and politically, is the most constitutive, which does not exclude the multidimensional relations of French Canada with the world and history.
[...] Another way of derealizing French Canada is to only accept its administrative translation as a province. "Quebec is a province like the others", which amounts to accepting the reality of the French-Canadian culture only according to the legalistic terms of the [[Wikipedia:Canadian confederation|Confederation]] which regionalizes and provincializes this culture. This reasoning is the inversion of the Other according to the size of the confrontation pole, but is also the same reasoning, structurally, in that it retracts the French-Canada/English-Canada axis which, historically and politically, is the most constitutive, and which does not exclude the multidimensional relations of French Canada with the world and history.


Altogether, our thinkers on several occasions refused the historical dialectic which defines us and called upon another dialectic which, by widening the confrontation or by reducing it excessively, meant a refusal to look at French Canada as a global culture. This refusal has constituted the ideological basis to several systems of thought in Canada.
Altogether, our thinkers on several occasions refused the historical dialectic which defines us and called upon another dialectic which, by widening the confrontation or by reducing it excessively, meant a refusal to look at French Canada as a global culture. This refusal has constituted the ideological basis to several systems of thought in Canada.
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