Marcel For Today

My reading program this year includes the works of the French philosopher and playwrite Gabriel Marcel. I have found some very interesting insights from this "Christian existentialist" that, though written more than 60 years ago, are very applicable today. Consider this passage from Man Against Mass Society (it is a bit long, but please bear with me):

... this sinister ambiguity in the popular argument for equality - that those who demand the greatest equality claim to be thinking of the nation's economic strength, when in fact they may be secretly encouraging its weakness - has not really been cleared away; and that levelling down, that is to say the basest and easiest way of seeking social equality, is the principle which seems to underly most of the legal arrangements which in France weigh so heavily on our day-to-day existence.

Substitute American for France and we have a pretty accurage picture of those who scream "Equality" the loudest. Rather than really trying to help raise people up, hold them to certain standards, the current point of view is to lower the bar.

This is all part of a broader "degradation" that Marcel addresses in this marvelous work that seems to speak across the decades to me. As I read more I promise to share them with you, if for no other reason to show you that not all Frenchmen are bad.