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Fascisme, Totalitarisme, Religion Séculière : Trois Concepts Pour Le Xxe Siècle

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Fascisme, Totalitarisme, Religion Séculière : Trois Concepts Pour Le Xxe Siècle MARC ANGENOT FASCISME, TOTALITARISME, RELIGION SÉCULIÈRE : TROIS CONCEPTS POUR LE XXE SIÈCLE NOTES D’UN SÉMINAIRE D’HISTOIRE CONCEPTUELLE VOLUME I: IDÉALTYPE – FASCISME Discours social 2012 õ Volume XXXVII õ Discours social est une collection de monographies et de travaux collectifs relevant de la théorie du discours social et rendant compte de recherches historiques et sociologiques d’analyse du discours et d’histoire des idées. Cette collection est publiée à Montréal par la CHAIRE JAMES MCGILL D’ÉTUDE DU DISCOURS SOCIAL de l'Université McGill. Elle a entamé en 2001 une deuxième série qui succède à la revue trimestrielle Discours social / Social Discourse laquelle a paru de l’hiver 1988 à l’hiver 1996. Discours social est dirigé par Marc Angenot. Nouvelle série. Année 2012, volume XXXVII Marc Angenot, Fascisme, totalitarisme, religion séculière : trois concepts pour le XXe siècle. Volume I Un volume de 245 pages (16 par 21 cm) © MARC ANGENOT 2012 Prix de vente franc de port au Canada: $ (CAD) 25.00. En Europe: € 18.00 plus frais d’envoi éventuels. MARC ANGENOT L’HISTOIRE DES IDÉES : PROBLÉMATIQUES, OBJETS, CONCEPTS, MÉTHODES, ENJEUX, DÉBATS Volumes I & 2 Discours social 2011 õ Volume XXXIII & XXXIII bis õ Vient de paraître (2011) en deux volumes de 792 pages. L’ensemble: $ 75.00 - € 55.00. Fascisme, totalitarisme, religion séculière ;L< *, ² $"F48,4" ² ¦:0 @Û6 ¨FJ4< ¦<J,ØJ,< Jean, 18: 36. Les maux les plus épouvantables sont descendus sur les hommes à cause de l’instinct de justice qui n’était pas doublé de la faculté de jugement. Friedrich Nietzsche, Considérations inactuelles En tournant le dos aux pratiques du passé, c'est notre présent immédiat que nous risquons de ne plus comprendre. Régis Debray, Critique de la raison politique. Gallimard, 1981, 14. ! L’horreur du 20e siècle et les mots pour la dire «Aucun siècle de l’histoire n’avait encore provoqué autant de passions idéologiques, de sacrifices consentis, de guerres, d’actes de cruauté et d’Inhumanité que le 20e siècle.»1 Norman Cohn face à la Shoah, aux décimations de populations entières, aux massacres et aux guerres du siècle passé, pose candidement la question la moins susceptible d’être éludée et la plus problématique dans sa simplicité: «How can this extraordinary phenomenon be explained?»2 La réponse à cette terrible question, s’il en est une, est loin d’être acquise. «L’événement qui l’a marqué le plus profondément requiert plus que la durée d’une ou deux générations pour se faire une place dans la conscience».3 Les philosophes et les historiens contemporains ont recyclé et redéfini des mots qui avaient été inventés jadis par les acteurs mêmes (et disputés entre eux) pour désigner d’un concept global la nature du mal politique inventé par le 20e siècle. Le mot de «totalitarisme» par exemple, mot employé dès les années 1920 pour qualifier le régime de Mussolini. Jerzy Borejsza et Klaus 1 Nolte, Ernst. I presupposti storici del nationalsocialismo. Milano: Marinotti, 1998. (= original en italien) S Les fondements historiques du national-socialisme. Monaco: Éditions du Rocher / Jean- Paul Bertrand, 2002, 111. 2 Cohn, Norman Rufus. Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World-Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1967, 15. 3 Bouretz, Pierre. Témoins du futur. Philosophie et messianisme. Paris: Gallimard, 2003, 9. 3 Ziemer titrent The Totalitarian Times of 1917-19894, Hans Maier intitule son livre Das totalitäre Zeitalter, le Siècle totalitaire.5 «Siècle des génocides», identifient d’autres historiens, ou encore «Siècle des camps». La question posée par de tels titres est celle du changement d’échelle dans l’inhumanité au 20e siècle.6 Certes, les régimes qui furent qualifiés de «totalitaires» se sont terminé désastreusement et ils ont disparu, mais leur souvenir hante l’Occident. L’idée d’une «parenthèse totalitaire» qui serait à jamais refermée est probablement bien naïve.7 Par ailleurs, un tel idéaltype qui prétend caractériser des régimes de domination politique inédits ne pointe pas vers la source «intellectuelle» du phénomène. Quelles sortes de convictions ont fait concevoir et souhaiter la mise en place de tels régimes et ont fait absoudre par anticipation ses violences et ses crimes? Légitimant l’horreur et la préparant à couvert, il y a évidemment eu des idées, des idées d’une certaine nature, à définir, et qui «remontent» plus ou moins haut dans la modernité. «Les pires catastrophes de notre ère nous ont été infligées par des êtres conduits par certaines idées. Comment de telles aberrations mentales ont-elles pu s’imposer?»8 Quelles sortes de convictions de quelle intensité sont à la source du mal et de l’horreur du siècle et de quel nom les nommer? Il est un vieux néologisme emprunté par Karl Marx à Destutt de Tracy et aux «Idéologues» du temps de l’Empire qui pouvait servir à donner un nom à la chose. «Siècle des idéologies» 4 Borejsza, Jerzy & Klaus Ziemer. Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes in Europe: Legacies and Lessons for the 20th Century. In cooperation with Magdalena Hu³as. New York, Oxford: Berghahn, 2006, 4. 5 Maier, Hans. Das Doppelgesicht des Religiösen. Religion. Gewalt. Politik. Freiburg iB: Herder, 2004. Voir aussi: O’Kane, Rosemary. Terror, Force, and State. The Path for Modernity. Brookfield VT: Elgar, 1996. 6 Les 43 guerres inter-étatiques au 20e siècle ont fait en tout 84 millions de victimes; les 4/ 5e de ces guerres ont impliqué l’Europe... 7 Au reste pour qui voudrait croire la «page tournée», il lui suffirait de noter qu’à la périphérie du Monde occidental prospèrent toujours, si l’on peut dire, des régimes à parti unique régnant par la terreur – de la Syrie à la Corée du Nord – qui satisfont haut la main et un à un, aux critères idéaltypiques, un peu statiques il est vrai (voir chap. 3), fixés jadis par Carl Joachim Friedrich et Zbigniew Brzezinski dans leur fameux Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy. Cambridge: Harvard UP, [1956] – à savoir: une idéologie «totaliste» d'État, un parti unique, une police secrète pleinement développée et trois monopoles: des communications, des armes, et de toutes les organisations civiles, notamment économiques. 8 Conquest, Robert. Reflections on a Ravaged Century. London: J. Murray, 2000. S Le féroce 20e siècle, réflexions sur les ravages des idéologies. Paris: Éditions des Syrtes, 2001, 19. 4 titrent derechef de concert le Français Jean-Pierre Faye, et l’historien allemand Karl Dietrich Bracher.9 Le 20e siècle aurait été pour le malheur des hommes, «l’Âge des idéologies», l’âge de la violence idéologique et du crime idéologique. C’est bien l’axiome et c’est le mot de Soljénitsyne au début de L’Archipel du Goulag: «C’est l’idéologie qui a valu au vingtième siècle d’expérimenter la scélératesse à l’échelle de millions.»10 Il va de soi que toute doctrine ou programme politique n’est pas englobée par le romancier russe dans cet emploi hyperbolique et scélérat d’«Idéologie». Lénine et le bolchevisme sont en cause, mais l’accusation de Soljenitsyne est plus englobante; il raisonne à partir d’un contraste: les scélérats de Shakespeare se satisfont d’une douzaine de cadavres, – pour en accumuler des millions, il faut une autre forme de cruauté et d’inhumanité inspirées et c’est cette chose moderne, inconnue du dramaturge anglais et impensable en son siècle, que l’écrivain russe désigne sous le nom d’«Idéologie». On peut souhaiter le renfort d’un adjectif: «Idéologies totalitaires», «Totalitarisme» derechef appliqué à ces idées et ces manières de penser qu’on a pu désigner encore comme l’«esprit totalitaire» ou la «pensée totalitaire». Ces expressions ont pu servir à spécifier la sorte de doctrine par delà le bien et le mal qui a conduit tant d’hommes armés de telles doctrines à commettre tant d’atrocités. Toutes les «idéologies totales» du siècle passé, qu’elles fussent classées de gauche ou de droite, ont créé des «vies inutiles», elles ont légitimé le meurtre de misérables par milliers, elles ont conçu et justifié le recours à la terreur en vue de soumettre la société à un remodelage intégral. De quel nom désigner la nature de telles convictions? D’innombrables chercheurs qui ne se satisfont pas du banal «idéologie» même spécifié d’épithètes, identifient, à la source du malheur du siècle, la «sacralisation de la politique», à savoir l'émergence, l'hégémonie et puis la dissolution de politische Religionen, de religions politiques. Je me propose d’étudier dans ce séminaire les trois concepts en conflit qui prétendent au premier chef englober l'horreur du siècle et contribuer à l'expliquer, – concepts appariés, souvent confrontés, parfois censés s’étayer, 9 Bracher, Karl Dietrich. Zeit der Ideologien: eine Geschichte politischen Denkens im 20. Jh. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1998. – Faye, Jean-Pierre. Le siècle des idéologies. Paris: Colin, 1996. Dans une périodisation longue de deux siècles et demi, on trouve la même caractérisation globale: Schwarzmantel, John. The Age of Ideology. Political Ideologies from the American Revolution to Postmodern Times. New York: New York UP, 1998. 10 Archipel du Goulag, I, 132. 5 non moins que vigoureusement disputés et rejetés par certains: à savoir Fascisme (chap. 2), Totalitarisme (chap. 3), Religion séculière ou politique (chap. 4). Le conflit potentiel entre eux est patent d’emblée : le concept de «fascisme générique» repose sur l'idée que les dictatures ultra-nationalistes d'extrême droite des années 1920-40 étaient semblables entre elles par des traits essentiels mais fondamentalement différentes
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