Michel Onfray : "La prochaine étape ? Détruire le peuple français"

Summary

Philosopher Michel Onfray discusses the despair and abandonment felt by French farmers in light of recent protests, touching on the contempt shown towards rural people by urban elites. He argues the EU and economic liberalism aim to industrialize food production and destroy small farms and terroir. The future envisioned is one of lab-grown meat and radical ecological ideology that ignores farmers' wisdom. Onfray sees civilization in ruins, with no dialogue or intelligence valued over market forces. He recommends local micro-resistance movements to confront the death of Judeo-Christian civilization, relying on elegance and dignity rather than optimism for the future.

Takeaways

• 😡 Farmers feel abandoned by the government and elites for years
• 😞 High debt and low income are pushing some farmers to suicide
• 🤔 Liberalism and globalism threaten traditional French farming
• 😕 Europe prioritizes international trade over French farmers
• 😢 Industrialization is destroying small farms and rural communities
• 😠 Ecologists are hypocritical - they claim to care about nature but support policies that hurt farmers
• 🤨 Marxism disdains farmers as backward petit bourgeois land owners
• 😌 De Gaulle understood the importance of farming to French civilization
• 😣 The younger generation is losing connection to the land and traditional values
• 😟 Dialogue and intellectual debate are being replaced by insults and ideology

Q & A

What is the main topic being discussed in the video?

The anger and feelings of abandonment expressed by French farmers and Michel Onfray's perspective on the crisis in the French agricultural sector.

How does Michel Onfray relate to the farming community?

Michel Onfray's father was an agricultural worker so he understands the hard work and precarity faced by farmers. He feels emotional support and empathy for their situation.

What does Onfray say the politicians behind the EU want?

Onfray believes the politicians behind the EU want to destroy French farming by industrializing food production and eliminating small rural communities and terroir.

What is the ideology behind the destruction of French farming according to Onfray?

Onfray says it is driven by a Marxist ideology that hates peasants and wants industry and technology to replace traditional agriculture.

What does Onfray think about the animal rights and vegan arguments regarding meat?

Onfray is critical of arguments about avoiding animal suffering in order to produce cell-based meat, which he calls "eating cancer." He thinks real food comes from real farms and peasants.

What warning does Onfray give regarding protests in Paris?

Onfray warns that centralizing farmer protests in Paris will allow the authorities to more easily repress, divide and delegitimize the movement, as happened with the Yellow Vests.

How does Onfray link the decline of industry and farming in France?

Onfray sees the abandonment of French industry and now French farming as part of a broader dismantling of French culture, identity and civilization by globalist politicians.

What is Onfray's view on the survival of Western civilization?

Onfray believes Western civilization is in terminal decline much like the Roman Empire in its final days, and that it likely cannot and does not want to save itself.

What does Onfray recommend as a way forward?

Onfray advocates for local citizens across France to resist by building "micro-fascisms" - small autonomous communities preserving culture and tradition.

Who does Onfray credit with imposing industrialized farming in France after WW2?

Onfray credits the American Marshall Plan after 1944 with bringing industrial tractors and equipment to revolutionize and destabilize traditional French agriculture.