Classical Western values such as freedom of speech and tolerance need all the defenders they can find these days, which is why French President Emmanuel Macron has to say thank you to the volunteer. This is hardly an easy task, but it is an important task. Mr. Macron concludes that it is vital to the future of France – and we want to add that to America as well.
Mr. Macron and the ministers in his government have been fighting over the past few months against illiberal and divisive philosophies that they say stem from American universities. Mr. In October, Macron rejected the influence of “certain social science theories that were fully imported from the United States.”
He especially refers to the habit of looking at most issues in grid terms – a core principle of ‘wakefulness’ – and his government wants educational institutions to avoid them. Higher Education Minister Frédérique Vidal this week promised an inquiry into academics “to look at everything through the prism to break and divide.”
It is part of a broader effort to bring French values back to life after many years of Islamic terrorist attacks. Mr. Macron is also campaigning for a new repression of religious extremism, and his law to that effect passed through one chamber of the National Assembly this week.
Macron’s political and philosophical insight is to link the fight against violent extremism from outside France and the defense of democratic values within each other. His October speech outlining his new plan to combat Islamism contained a warning that a focus on ‘postcolonial or anticolonial’ discourse is a form of ‘self-hatred’ of France that could make Islamism flourish. Officials like Mrs. Vidal also warns against ‘Islamo-left’.