Reissue, along with unreleased interesting, a pamphleteer test as visionary indispensable

A sentence in the bend of a cross collection of quotations, sometimes enough to make them want to read LOEUVRE which it is extracted, "We absolutely understand anything about modern civilization if not admit lon First of what is a universal conspiracy against every kind of inner life ". From this sentence compelling, disturbing news dune, we learn what is signed Georges Bernanos (1888-1948) and what is extracted dun essay entitled The France against the Robots (1947). Except that this text written in 1945 wasnt available more widely; So thanks be made at Castor Astral for this welcome reissue, the specifics of which will be discussed further, due to which contains unpublished texts.

From the first pages, Bernanos wrote that while the Allied victory is emerging more and more clearly warns the Revolution must do, no matter the consequences, because "if we thought that this system is able to reform it can break for himself during his fatal to the Dictatorship Dictatorship money, race, class or nation we certainly would refuse to run the risk of an explosion can destroying valuable things not rebuild with a lot of time, perseverance, unselfishness and love. "Except that the system had already laid its tags in 1945 and that of today say? The technology won the gold "a world for Technical won is lost for Freedom," and that is the great fear here quintervient Bernanos: the emergence of a man under the "dictatorship" of the "Technical", away from "Freedom "Contemporary lhomme, would we want to answer beyond the grave. This technique is the daughter of a "economic determinism" and Bernanos sees him, capitalism so (he sees Russia of the times as a simple variant), the melting pot of all the ills of modern society, as the cause of economic crises as wars, as he removed the idea same lady is hard to refute that argument.

Q But does the technical imprisoning hated by Bernanos? This is the one that "progress is no longer in the man, it is in the art in the development of methods that allow a more efficient use every day human material". This is quen 1945, after attending even close (he was in Brazil, in voluntary exile since 1938, but the Gaullists fervently frequented environments), to the horrors of World War II, after attending closely to those of war dEspagne and the Great War, Bernanos sees the man now degraded by the "machine". The war, for example, is no longer case dhommes layant made their profession, with all that implies dhorrible in their character, but dhommes able to come back to home after flying a bomber and killed thousands of people, to kiss woman Children ("the shredding of many thousands of innocent is a task which a gentleman can overcome without dirtying his cuffs, or even his imagination"). The machine, the man loses all morality excessive judgment? Compare, relatively speaking: how are we to have illegally downloaded works on andto help of our computer (a "machine") then we would cross that he does not even mind to steal a book, a DVD or a disc in a store?

Which could save the man, this is a return to a "French tradition of Freedom", which establishes what Bernanos goes back well before 1789, the existence of parliaments with whom the king had to deal with supporting. This means that it denies only by 1789, on the contrary: "France quon like, this is still the France of 1789, France new ideas. France with this one, like the nineteenth century seems sad! "And do not talk to that DAfter Perhaps his condition is it due to the dominance of" idiots ", those to whom Bernanos caters virulently taken dune healthy hatred against intellectuals:" The intellectual is so often a fool we should always consider him as such, until we have proved otherwise. "At this point in his thinking, he joined Julien Benda and his famous treason of the clerks, perhaps because the two men see the same civilization rise (or seffondrer) before their eyes, ours:" In the struggle more or less underhand against the inner life, Civilization Machine is not inspired, at least directly, no ideology, it defends its essential principle, which is that of the primacy of action. Freedom of action inspires no fear, it is the freedom to think she dreads. "

This reissue Castor Astral is enriched of a critical apparatus as well quéclairant provided: the text published by Bernanos have been added "Conferences and interviews in Brazil," and "Unpublished letters" and "Notes and variations." These particular interest to scholars. The two sets of texts, unpublished in France, are against exciting: in his lectures and interviews, as well as correspondence, Bernanos gradually built his thoughts already LOEUVRE in Great Cemeteries under the Moon, she's going to The crystallize in France against the Robots. In particular, we note that Bernanos has removed any reference of the published text supported to Christian thought, well that he says the opportunity to speak "the language of the old Christendom" and sometimes evokes the struggle against the Machines "inner life"; this component of his thought is much more present in the novel, such as sil had wanted to make the published text, this warning in the face of modernity LOEUVRE, accessible to all and relevant to everyone. It ballast, even more than a half century after it was written; sen can rejoice for the sake of shared ferocity sen and grieve for the state of the modern world. In any case, reading The France against the Robots can only serve as itching powder intellectue, were it quen function of this paragraph filled of hope:

"Obedience and irresponsibility are the two words that will open tomorrow Magical Paradise of Civilization Machine. French civilization, heir to Greek civilization, worked for centuries to form free men, that is to say fully responsible for their actions: France refuses to enter the Paradise of Robots. "

It is never too late to start, dautant Bernanos warned in an interview given to the Diario de Belo Horizonte in June 1944: "The youth of the world na choice quentre extremes: labdication or revolution. "