The Ephemeral Era: Gilles Lipovetsky

Abstract

brief reference to the immigration question within the general framework of the global door-slamming by rich nations on immigrants from poor neighboring countries, no special mention is made of France as a particularly troubling spot in the world. While there are references to important elections in Germany and Russia, nothing is said about the French upcoming April presidential elections, as if an election that will change the nature of a fourteen-year r6gime (and for which only a few seem eager to be candidates) were not important. There is an old French proverb, Happy people do not have History. It's probably too rash to conclude from the absence of France in the Newsweek article -that that country has now reached the blissful status of a happy people that time has forgotten. However, if this were the case, there is no doubt that the philosopher of such a nation would be Gilles Lipovetsky. Contrary to the other French jeunes essayistes (such as Bernard-Henri Levy, Pascal Bruckner, Alain Finkielkraut, Luc Ferry, and others), Lipovetsky is a supporting chronicler of a post-1968 French society perceived as indulgent and narcissistic, living in a satisfying democracy organized as a free market and driven by the opiate of advertising and frivolous desires generated by fads. This stance places Lipovetsky at odds with the French intellectual tradition, which has always considered individualism as a social poison. Although French intellectuals have valorized a right social disobedience to oppose a perceived mistake by the majority, individualism for the sake of personal gratification has always been rejected as not socially conscious. The whole social fabric of France, in a sense, has been shaped since the French Revolution so as to counteract the idle, narcissistic characteristics of its former aristocracy. Fraternity has been elevated to the status of key-word in the new egalitarian order of the Republic, and it is assumed that the genius of our great figures is due largely to their caring for the community, and not indulging in a selfish pursuit of individual happiness. Even Tocqueville, a