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The Courage of Nuance is an essay about the current state of the public and public debate, characterized by social networks, Manichean and hardened attitudes, and entrenched, previously unexamined opinions called truth. With it, Jean Birnbaum wants to warn of the need for a nuanced discussion, and for this purpose he mobilizes literature as a perfect tool for opposing ideologies.
By rereading the texts of Albert Camus, George Orwell, Hannah Arendt, Raymond Aron, Roland Barthes and other intellectuals who were never satisfied with opposing ideology to ideology and slogan to slogan, the author pays tribute to these famous figures. But he points out that honoring them does not mean only naming them and highlighting their achievements, but gathering strength, restoring hope and the ability to announce in the present that there is nothing more radical than nuance in the general noise of conviction.
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Social networks have become a front where struggle has replaced debate: in fear of encountering a challenger, everyone will rather pursue a hundred enemies. Not only on Twitter or Facebook, the entire intellectual and media field turns into a battle where all blows are allowed. Fierce preachers everywhere encourage hatred rather than the enlightenment of the mind.
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I wanted to give voice to that marginality, at a time when it can be of great help to us. I wanted to make it possible to hear that small group of courageous minds, devoid of all fanaticism, who agreed to live in contradiction and chose to think instead of hate. With this hope on the horizon, let's restore the fragile heritage and give it the strength to be strong, or at least strong enough to spread among us, as well as through these pages, a persistent desire for confrontation and correct behavior.
- ISBN: 978-953-369-035-3
- Dimensions: 128x190 mm
- Number of pages: 124
- Cover: paperback
- Year of the edition: 2024
- Original title: La Courage de la Nuance
- Original language: French
- Translation: Dubravka Celebrini