A matter of life and death
Epic struggle of church vs. state. Tim Engleman/Flickr. Some rights reserved.Secularism has become a matter of life and death. Literally so. It is not by chance that it constitutes the most crucial matter of democracy. This is true even if we have forgotten about it, even if we have taken secularism for granted – to the point that even the prestigious 'secular' thought has theorized its overcoming by means of its realization (the inescapable Hegelian Aufhebung): the so-called post-secular society.
On 7 January, Islamic terrorism brought democracies back to reality. The massacre of Charlie Hebdo’s editorial team is a declaration of war against freedom of expression, secularism, disenchantment, modernity. That is, the furthest and deepest logical and historical stratifications that make up the foundations of democracy.
That the very foundations of democracy were at stake was proven by the subsequent enlightement-based and republican outburst of the people of Paris and the whole of France, who had the greatest street demonstration ever recorded since the heroic days of the Liberation. This widespread feeling – even more significantly as it was unconscious – represented the peak of lucidity and rational understanding of the event: the terrorists have aimed at the heart of 'western' freedoms as freedom tout court. That is, the consistency of disenchantment.
