There is the beautiful Italian word "vergogna", there is the French word emptied of its meaning in modern times "shame".

Who hasn't found themselves in the middle of a dinner with dear friends wanting to flee the place, to flee so as not to have to endure stupidity, incoherence, petty-bourgeois remarks, vulgarity? The need for clean air is felt when our lungs are no longer sufficient to store the little ambient air. Very often these people that we love, who only repeat what they have read in the newspapers, on blogs, irritate us… The Internet can be a pure enemy of intelligence.

Usually at these dinners, the worst will be reached when talking about religion.

The secular and modern world has enacted a monstrous, protean, incandescent law: religion will have to be confined to “the private sphere”. I put this last media expression in quotes for reasons that we will understand, as often with media expressions, it means nothing. I am not against the idea of ​​a certain discretion in the practice of religion, but I am against the idea of ​​hiding from being a Christian. Especially in a country like ours! But wouldn't the problem be there and nowhere else? Doesn't this country stop hating itself?

As religion is private, it is not known, it must not be known, nor divulged, nor even said. She must not be confessed ! The secular world ensures that it is never said what we are, what characterizes us, what differentiates us. The secular world is egalitarian, it flattens or cuts what exceeds. You mean in secular world, republic… Yes, but this kind of tiny republic which characterizes our societies at the end of life. Nothing to do with the other, the Roman. Ours comes from the Enlightenment, that is to say, that says it all… Unfortunately, that says it all. And this is how religious signs must disappear and be erased so as not to offend the secularism of the other, of the majority here. Because there is a fashion for being secular. We are secular as we are tanned. And we become secular after too much exposure to modern light, to media discourse. No one really knows what it means to be secular. But everyone is. Being secular is a bit like having a good conscience. When we said we were secular, we said almost everything. When one has declared to be secular, one has nothing more to say and above all the other, opposite, can only acquiesce, curl up on himself by admitting to being so too, subordinate himself to this iron law. . Besides, the other can only acquiesce. His very existence, his language, his whole being becomes an acquiescence.

I called this article “The secular and modern world”, I could have called it just as well “The secular world is modern”. Secular has become a motto, a mantra. Like all extremely vulgar eras, our era lives only on mantras learned on the fly, inculcated from an early age and above all, but it is a sine qua non, exhausted, emptied of meaning. The other name given to it by those who are not resigned to it is politically correct. And it is a fact, it is, for example, politically correct to say that one is secular, although here again I contradict my reasoning, one does not say that one is secular, one appeals to secular values. Secular values ​​like the values ​​of the republic are simple, they can be summed up in one expression: "Shut up if you don't agree!" ". Because in this marvelous modern world, there is no other, the concept of the other has been so sanitized that there is no more. No tolerance for what is not secular and therefore modern, and to a greater degree encompassing the whole of the known and unknown universe, the republic. It will be understood that I find this article almost useless, this site almost useless, the little attempt at rebellion that my life could represent if someone looked into it to understand the activity that drives me...

This week, the news brought us the example of a country that broke the law. Ireland. Apart from being one of the most beautiful countries in the world, Ireland has committed a law against blasphemy. Can we imagine a greater return to the Middle Ages? Suffice to say that some have had a field day. On blogs, on radio and television, wherever it is possible to express oneself (and nowadays, and this is the problem, it is possible to express oneself everywhere) and indeed the secular interposed and exclaimed to say all the bad things about this small country, which should never, should never have been, part of Europe. This country where it is already impossible to have an abortion. This obscurantist country, openly Catholic. This country of pedophile priests moreover. And there, the layman gave everything, he finished reducing to shreds this religion which gave rise to so many wars, so many abominations, so many monstrosities, this incarnation of evil on earth. Especially the Catholic. Particularly targeted, because at the end of life in our countries… at the end of life (oh yes, there may be a connection). Particularly targeted because weak, weakened, or at least that's what the republic thinks.

The culture of Europe is secular. By modern world, we must understand the modern western world. Anyway, as the Western world considers itself alone in the world… The only culture of Europe is secular culture. The renunciation of Christian references in its enactments is certainly one of the greatest scandals of all time, and it will certainly remain as the most formidable insult that has ever been done to history and future generations never will cease to mock us as soon as they have regained their sight. It is the great revolution of Europe, an almost gentle revolution, of which no one or almost speaks, and this revolution can only have one qualifier: shame. Shame for a band of chilly, vulgar, amnesic and decadent technocrats who, with the back of their hand, have swept away almost twenty centuries of art history, to name just that among their misdeeds.

We cut, we flatten, we section, we shave, we standardize, we uproot.

A concern will arise and appear in broad daylight: as religion must remain in the private sphere, religion is no longer known, even by certain friends, friends who are considered friends, but who are not not often seen for example. And from the junction of these two facts is born the drama: you have dinner with friends, you laugh a little, you are a little bored too, because the one who is interested in all subjects is a socialite and that precisely, you do not you're not, and wham, the subject gets out of hand, you'll never remember how all of a sudden someone talked about religion, someone talked about pedophile priests or young people in the "Jeunesses Hitlerites” by Ratzinger… How did we come to this? For two simple reasons, we don't know that you are Christians and all subjects are the same. And there, at this precise moment, the door is open to what I call: “Le Café du commerce”. And quite frankly, unless you are Antoine Blondin, the commercial café, there is nothing worse for someone who thinks a little. And to support the coffee of the trade, one will remember what a Blondin or, peace with its heart!, a Pierre Chaumet, had to send in the throat.

Everyone knows everything about everything. And this is indeed the problem in our time when everyone is over-informed, but without having all the elements, and particularly the most important: the life of the mind, to understand and analyze this information.

We will also remember the expression: “We can laugh at everything, but not with anyone”.

Even if I am not far from finding it ridiculous to legislate on blasphemy. We understand the will behind this law. It helps to protect oneself from the Café du commerce and from the very strong propensity that the secular world, that the secular culture puts to denigrate religion, and especially the Catholic.

We cut, we flatten, we section, we shave, we standardize, we uproot.

Dialogue is dead. Dialogue is definitely dead and buried. Now there is only right-thinking and sectarianism. There is no more acceptable position than that of watchtower, which from the promontory sees thought, intelligence and refinement sinking a little more each day that God does. Bernanos said that “One understands absolutely nothing about modern civilization if one does not first admit that it is a universal conspiracy against all kinds of inner life. »

The loss of the notion of shame marks the end of civilization. The notion of civilization rests on a certain refinement of the spirit which collapses without feeling of shame.