Deconstructing in complete freedom!

Sébastien Gengembre

Translation Tony Dickinson

Wokism, intersectionality, decolonialism, cancel culture… A wind of panic blew across France as barbaric words swept through public debate, stirring up a moral danger from across the Atlantic that could undermine the foundations of our civilisation. A symposium held at the Sorbonne identified the origin of the evil, contained entirely in the word « deconstruction « . An evil whichhas come back, like a boomerang, to hit us in the face, since the concept was first coined by French philosopher Jacques Derrida.

For me, it was a shock: I had retained from my philosophy studies a balanced appreciation of a term that indicates above all a serious approach to thought. So much so that you’d expect criticism of it to be just as rigorous. To hear the cries of outrage raised by many at the mere mention of the word, we are a long way off that. There have undoubtedly been excesses and misunderstandings in the use of deconstruction, and the mention of a « deconstructed man », for example, may have made people smile. But deconstruction deserves better than that.

What does the stir caused by the deconstructionist movement really mean? Is it the fear of a relativisation of values, or even their outright destruction? But deconstruction is not the same as destruction. Deconstruction is a portmanteau word, a subtle blend of destruction and construction, the aim being to build something else, to take the lid off dogmas and habits that have become burdensome, to allow us to breathe differently, and better. Contrary to the image that some would like to give it, deconstruction is not nihilism, nor is it a new totalitarianism.

This media-political campaign perhaps betrays an anxious recognition of the disturbance that deconstruction reveals: a disturbance of the established order, of established hierarchies, of gender… All of which is a source of discomfort to those who find satisfaction in the status quo. And what if there breathed into what is being decried in this way the same liberating spirit that comes to us from the Bible? Would it be possible to see deconstruction no longer as a threat but as a hope?

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