BAUDET: Houellebecq’s Unfinished Critique of Liberal Modernity

For a brief moment, just before the end of Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel Sérotonine, a ray of hope seems to galvanize its protagonist. For a short while he seems to recover his lust for life. Having languished for years without a sense of purpose, Florent-Claude resolves to end his reliance on antidepressants. Gradually something akin to a will to live begins to resurface: he notices skirts by the bar in a café, girls, facial expressions, emotion, desire, and irritation at the mind-numbing TV programs he had been watching every day. Indeed, he actually throws out his screen and begins to think again about Thomas Mann, about Proust—about the fate of our civilization.

But it doesn’t last. The sun doesn’t rise. The glow on the horizon fades—just like in the closing passage of Houellebecq’s first novel, Extension du domaine de la lutte, in which the subject’s hope similarly vanishes after a delightful, optimistic afternoon in the country: “It will not take place, the sublime fusion,” he reflects, “the goal of life is missed.”1

And everything melts away into an all-encompassing void. No mercy, no comfort: the project of our civilization has come to an end.

Of course “neighbors” means people geographically near me.

Define geographically near you. Is it measured by distance or time. In other words are neighbors restricted to just those within walking distance, or driving distance? You may think this is a trite question, but the realities are that neighbors has expanded, and those living 5 miles away can now easily be described as neighbors that may adversely affect your immediate neighborhood, and that is why I expanded the traditional usage of neighbors to extend beyond the typical meaning.

You sound pretty confident, so you must know how this will happen.

I've seen it happening for the last 30 years. Manufacturing plants have closed by alarming amounts, and outsourcing was responsible for increasing the decline by considerable amounts.

Manufacturing has taken a big hit. Manufacturing used to provide Americans with good paying jobs that enabled them to have and raise families. Many have closed their doors. This is just one segment of our economy that has been decimated. For full disclosure purposes it is not an industry I have ever been involved in, so no it didn't hurt me personally. But it has affected me nonetheless, as well as, every tax paying citizen. Nothing happens that doesn't affect everyone. Many do not feel the effect as badly as others. But we all are affected regardless.

Americans wanted big cars so our car manufacturers produced big cars. But then the Arab nations started squeezing the oil supply. This of course caused Americans to look for less expensive alternatives that before that time very few Americans were interested in the small car alternative. This along with unions caused a ripple affect through our entire country. Detroit used to be a beautiful city, now it resembles a third world country.

We are not talking about lobbyists per se, but lobbyists also lobby for "free trade", which have enriched few while bringing tremendous pain to far more than the few who have been enriched. Oh sure, we have saved some money on products, but those saving have been far exceeded in other areas to assist those who were negatively impacted by those cheaper goods. So are you not just as bad as a lobbyist when you stop and think about it? You are, for self gratification purposes looking at only your situation while completely ignoring the situations becoming the dire realities of others. You see there are consequences no matter what takes place. So even when they are positives for the majority, in the initial application, what happens in the long term? Does it always remain positive, or do the adverse affects soon catch up so that more of the majority start becoming adversely affected?

I'm glad your neighborhood is idyllic and that you all help each other all the time, but your neighborhood is the anomaly, far from the norm. Many neighborhoods have become decimated with crime that even affect the nicer neighborhoods adversely. Unless you live in gated communities the bad guys can, and do, reach into nice neighborhoods.

Like legalized pot industry is a growing concern, and provides a way to make big money for investors, but in the long run will that industry provided a more positive or a more eroding affect in this country? It removes some of the criminal element without a doubt just like when prohibition was repealed. But did the lifting of prohibition create other ills for this country, absolutely. Did the positives outweigh the negatives? In my assessment not really. The negatives show up in other ways. For me, while the lure of making money in legalized pot is tempting, I cannot allow myself to participate because I think I would be making money while assisting terrible consequences that will occur just like the legalization of alcohol has done.

The only way I have to pay higher taxes when people lose their jobs is if they cannot find other ones.

Really? I think you are gravely mistaken. You pay higher taxes due to a number of things. To name just a few, crime. Crime committed by the criminal at heart, as well as, displaced people. Do you think that if you are not the victim of a crime that you are not paying for the affects of crime? Crimes of theft increase the price of goods you purchase. The incarceration of criminals increases your taxes. The cost of taking in illegal invaders is adding significantly to your taxes. Processing asylum seekers is costing you money. Regulations cost you money. Remember you are not just paying taxes that you see removed from the money you earned, they also exist in the goods & services you buy.

Liberty is extremely important, but it is not limited to just free trade. There are many factors that keep liberty a reality I think this write up explains it nicely, so why should I rewrite it?

Anyone who wants to give up all the fruits of global economic growth

No one is suggesting going backwards, and while foreign trade is usually a positive, that is not always the case. Free trade with China has been nothing but a loss. The single gain, lower priced items of cheaper quality is hardly a stellar endorsement for free trade, strictly for the sake of free trade. Not only has it been a drain on American monetary resources, but more importantly a loss of intellectual property, a major reduction in the security of this nation, and the creation of a much stronger adversarial trading partner that definitely sees us as more of an enemy than a trading partner. If you cannot see that then there is no point in my even engaging in discussion, because you fail to look at the much bigger picture and focus solely on just one aspect. When you start feeling the adverse affects, and trust me you will, then you will understand more fully what I have been trying to communicate to you. All of the items you listed, few foreign products, smaller houses, one or no cars, no modern health care, and of course no computer technology, are a double-edged argument as there have been both positives and negatives associated with each of those. The main destruction has been to the unity of this nation. Without unity the nation cannot and will not survive.

Your last few questions are good questions, and there are many answers, but I will sum up the answer by saying if I hamstrung you would you be as successful? Democrats have hamstrung American businesses, while creating an adversarial atmosphere for them, and burdening them with very costly regulations. In some industries they are further hampered by having had to succumb to allowing unions infest their business, think auto industry, steel, and a host of others.

While you perceive yourself to be pretty savvy when it comes to trade, in reality you just expose that you are not as well versed as you think you are.

You can improve your knowledge on the topic of trade with China if you will listen to Michael Pillsbury talk about: The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower

As China obtains more & more power, it will affect you and your family. Of that I am positive. Time for you to open your eyes and see the world as it really is, not as you perceive it. As Ben Franklin said: A Republic if you can keep it. That Republic is under assault from both internal & external sources. You are unwittingly aiding and abetting the external forces, is that really how you think you promote & preserve freedom?