In the 1920s, a famous French newspaper, named L’Intransigeant, used to run a popular column. In it, they would ask a philosophical question and ask French celebrities and intellectuals to respond. By doing so, they tried to connect their readers to the ideas of Parisian intellectuals and exhorted them to think.
In 1922, the column published a sensational hypothesis by an American scientist, which argued that the human race would soon be extinct. Then, the editors asked Parisian writers, philosophers and intellectuals a question: if the prediction turns out to be true, how would people respond to extinction? How would their perspective on life change in the face of imminent mortality?
In response to the question, the acclaimed French writer Henri Bordeaux sent a piquant response. ‘Half of the humanity,’ he said, ‘would instantly run to the nearest church and the other half, to the nearest brothel.’
Almost a hundred years after that column was published, today, as the world grapples with COVID, Bordeaux’s response seems relevant. If L’Intransigeant would have been running today, the question it would pose before our philosophers would be: ‘In the face of this cataclysmic pandemic, and widespread fear of death, how would people’s perspective towards life change?’ Social distancing, self-isolation, lockdowns and quarantine have become the order of the day. How would people face this isolation?
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