Living Together Among the Events

« We have set up games and parties that take place one after another throughout the year, special, wonderful and everyday fun-filled entertainment that drives away sorrow. The significance of the city generates all the resources of the earth and we enjoy the production of both the world and of our country. Ours is a city that is open to all. At the time of the action, we rely more on our own courage than on preparations and ruses of war ». Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, II, 38-39 My father has not seen the tragedy that struck his city. He disappeared a week earlier, he took with him the fears of a child persecuted during the Nazi and collaborationist occupation, the pride of being the son of a great history of progress, freedom and tolerance, and the honour to believe that his generation, as Stéphane Hessel described it to me one evening (I had told him all over again), faced its challenges – the economic and political reconstruction of Europe, the overcoming of ideological and national differences and the decolonization. Accordingly, it allowed the future generations to carry out tasks. Is this optimism still in season ? While preparing to host a Conference on the future of our climate, Paris has become the City of Martyrs resulting from a highly modern form of political violence, a co-ordinated ground attack by enemy commandos. This operation required the permeability between the international jihadist networks and the ground set for operation : this was a mission for the French agents. If the suicide bombers of the Stade of France had been able to persuade the guards to allow them to enter without a ticket, as they had tried to do, their suicide attack would have taken place during the television broadcast of the France-Germany match attended by the French President and the German Minister Steinmaier. The attacks in Paris are reprisals, a response to the ability of Western countries to undertake missions far from their homeland. The response by Daech seems to lie in the very area where we are fighting with them. The States involved in the international system attempt targeted strikes – Daech targets town centres, vulnerable places, if any. The impact of terrible acts affirms their power, motivates volunteers to join them and divides their opponents. On this front, their total victory in Paris augurs tragic consequences despite diplomatic adjustments that would be to the benefit of Bachar el-Assad. The soldiers of Daech come from Europe, as the pilots of 11 September having taken pilot-training courses in the United States. What will be their next target ? To destroy a central infrastructure ? A train station, subway corridors, a museum ? The attackers would have attained their goal with the falling attendance at concert halls and public places, and with these attacks affecting our way of life. We become the Bataclan Generation after standing up for Charlie. Rising to this challenge also means contributing to a reflection on violence and proposing a way of « living together in harmony ». Whether European or not, whether or not returning from Syria, some individuals may sacrifice themselves by assassinating in cold blood, dozens of other young people who came to party on a Friday night. The decision of self-sacrifice is influenced by motivation and such obscure commitments as the individuals. Nothing outside the individual experiences can explain this. Their act is irrevocably an oath of violence leading to suicide. The mercenaries of the Bataclan carried out a military operation and the machine-gunners from the terraces attacked the freedom of an urban …