Statement from the Denis de Rougemont Foundation.
Observation
The ongoing pandemic will have lasting consequences. Will these be for the better, for the worse, or will we return, virtually unchanged, to the status quo ante? Some enjoy imagining the post-crisis world; and they wonder: what might it look like? We thus risk getting lost in attempts at forecasting, in often fragile hypotheses, when we must say it again and again: that is not the main issue.
Indeed, what matters is not to speculate about the future, but to shape it, since the future will be nothing more than the result of our actions—or our inactions—which will ultimately stem from who we are, and above all from what we are capable of undertaking as human beings living in society.
This is the central message of Denis de Rougemont’s *L’avenir est notre affaire*, a book written at the height of another crisis—the 1973 oil shock— the ensuing economic crisis marked by the emergence of mass unemployment, and the first reflections on ecology that foreshadowed the concept of sustainable development, which was developed ten years later in Geneva by the United Nations Brundtland Commission.
In Geneva, there is a wealth of experience that draws directly on the spiritual legacy of Denis de Rougemont. It is important to ensure that this legacy endures in the years ahead. For crisis is striking once again. This legacy must therefore be harnessed as a resource to help overcome it.
Reflection
Rather than trying to predict a future that, by definition, defies certainty, let us ask ourselves what the main issues are… These issues arise first and foremost in terms of values—those centered on the human person and that organize society around the concrete exercise of freedom and responsibility, to which Denis de Rougemont adds love for one’s neighbor and for nature. This must be the starting point to reaffirm, rediscover, and update in order to respond effectively to circumstances and guard against the dangers that are sure to arise.
For there are dangers. The first of these is to see our societies—already deeply shaken—gradually slip away, lose confidence in themselves, fall apart, become divided, wander aimlessly, and go adrift. Everything is cracking: the economy, employment, the environment, culture… even our increasingly fragile democracies, which seem to be on the verge of falling apart. To avert what lies ahead if we do nothing, we must restore meaning to our lives. Not just to our individual lives, but to our lives as a society and all that this entails.
Let’s not kid ourselves: the pandemic has given our societies an opportunity to lay bare their difficulties, revealing some of their weaknesses in a sometimes harsh light, while at the same time Asian societies achieved far superior results and—with China leading the way—no longer hesitated to assert, as a form of historical redemption, the superiority of their model. However, this model is not based on values that align with our own, and we will inevitably lose them if we copy it. This is the second danger: uniting society around values that are not our own. We sometimes see this temptation emerging, in the name of efficiency, we are told.
Action
There are at least four complementary centers in Geneva that are directly rooted in the thought of Denis de Rougemont.
In the academic sphere, there is the ongoing “Rougemont 2.0” project to fully digitize his work and make it available online at https://www.unige.ch/rougemont/. In terms of historical legacy, there is the European Center for Culture, founded by Denis de Rougemont in 1950, which continues to thrive. In terms of concrete action, there is FEDRE, operating in various fields where partnerships are formed with forward-thinking organizations such as the Nomads Foundation, which works to train people for the jobs of the future. And, bridging the gap between conceptual thought and practical action, there is the Denis de Rougemont Foundation, whose mission is to promote Denis de Rougemont’s work by making it relevant to today’s world.
Each of these four clusters has its own network, covering different areas and bringing together a wide variety of groups that do not always interact with one another.
One of the top priorities will be to fully harness this potential by creating synergies among these various networks, thereby acting as a catalyst for change. The key will be to inspire people.
All we ask is to move forward, bring together small groups, have them work on priority issues that lead to concrete, exemplary actions, to restore our courage and make the ongoing transformation truly “our own.”
What if that were what the “Geneva spirit” means today? In any case, that’s what we believe.
François Saint-Ouen, January 12, 2021