B.-H. Lévy: I am amazed to see that when somebody (I’ve…

““B.-H. Lévy: I am amazed to see that when somebody (I’ve been given leave to speak, so I will) starts to explain something here, to put on trial the institution of philosophy, to put on trial those men who for years have benefited from this system and who react only when they feel threatened, that person is told to shut up. [. . .] I’m amazed that, when I myself am given leave to speak, a certain number of men come over to grab the mike from me and trigger an incident. As far as I’m concerned, that’s what I wanted to say: I’ve been amazed ever since yesterday to hear people putting the media on trial: do you think it was the philosophy professors who were the first to denounce the Gulag? It was television and the media. Do you think that it’s in his capacity as a philosophy professor that, a year ago, when Brezhnev came to Paris, Glucksmann opened his ‘opinion column’ to three dissidents from the East and caused a scandal? That was the media. It wasn’t the Estates General of philosophy. I’m amazed that today, as 76,000 Vietnamese are castaway by the Malaysian government, nobody even mentions the fact. I’m amazed that, the day before Corsican militants are scheduled to appear in the State security court, including a philosophy teacher, Mondoloni .””

— Benoît Peeters