Regis Debray Quotes

religion is no longer the opium of the people but the vitamin pills of the feeble.

Difference is not the opposite of harmony but its condition.

Truly, more than removing the partition between vectors and values, we would have needed to talk about strengthening crisscrossed lacings: an intertwined kind of understanding that would de-ideologize 'ideologies,' desanctify sanctities, but also mentalize the material bases of systems of inscription, and psychoanalyze not souls but tools. That is, in one and the same gesture, make our mnemo-technic equipment intelligible as mentality and our mental equipment intelligible as technology.

gouverner l esprit des autres, et non faire le salut de son âme, ni rechercher le vrai ou le beau.

C est quand notre milieu (naturel ou culturel) commence a nous faire du mal qu on s avise de son existence, et plus il nous decouvrira ses fragilites, plus nous y aurons mal. Ainsi decouvre-t-on sa langue quand, a l etranger, on ne peut plus la parler - ou qu on avait une patrie, quand on est exile.

There is something of the ghoul in the page-swallower and of the novel-reader in the stroller through cemeteries.

Ni fetichiser ni stigmatiser: remplacer Versus par Verso.

Homo innove par ce qu il stocke.

Nous ne savons plus si les médecins ne provoquent pas la mort au lieu de nous protéger. Si ce que nous avons dans notre assiette va nous alimenter ou nous intoxiquer. D ou une évidente crise de confiance - envers des technologies que nous tendons a désinvestir après avoir mis trop d espoir en elles, ajoutant ainsi la techno-frustration au déboussolement moral.

There is no way of knowing, but history can supply clues, and there was one historical comparison that immediately presented itself to Kissinger the European, the pessimist, the worrier who bit his fingernails down to the quick. The example of Russia in 1917 was never far from his thinking. From February 1917 to October 1917, Russia was ruled by a moderate revolutionary and democrat, Alexander Kerensky. But in the turmoil of war and upheaval he was unable to maintain power against the more radical Leninists with their simple answers to complex questions. He was overthrown and Europe, not to mention the rest of the world, was upended for the next 70 years. Every revolution, in Kissinger’s view, tossed up its Kerenskys—sane, reasonable, well-meaning idealists with no grasp of the realities of power. For them, good intentions were a substitute for weapons (whereas hard-headed Marxists from Regis Debray to Mao Zedong believed power came out of the barrel of a gun). Inevitably, they ended up being devoured.

Un’idea sciocca incanta l’Occidente: l’umanità, che sta andando male, andrà meglio senza frontiere. D’altronde, aggiunge Flaubert nel suo Dizionario dei luoghi comuni, la democrazia ci porta diritto in un mondo senza fuori né dentro.

I nostri rifugi sono meno ambiziosi. Il sonno, giustamente detto riparatore, ne fa parte: ogni sera, spegnendo la luce, riguadagniamo l’utero e cerchiamo di rimediare alla catastrofe che ci ha espulso dal recinto divino.

«Quello che c’è di più profondo nell’uomo è la pelle», diceva Paul Valéry. La vita collettiva, come quella di ciascuno, esige uno spazio di decantazione. L’imballaggio viene prima, la profondità segue, come l’intendenza.