The refreshment stand and the bourgeois breath

Free remarks on the bourgeois spirit that I have been feeling very often lately, here on the occasion of a comment referring us around the refreshment stand for the "together for autonomy" meeting on June 20. I want to say here that the Breton spirit has nothing to do with the bourgeois spirit. It is the antithesis. What spirit blew in Liffré on the occasion of the "Breton sulfur"? The Breton breath or the bourgeois breath? Each to their own answer.

A few days ago, I received a singular comment from Stéphane Péan of the Breizh Civic Lab - a comment that seems to have been removed since - on one of my Facebook posts announcing the public meeting "together for Autonomy" in Carhaix on June 20. The comment praised the initiative in these flattering terms: "you will gather around the refreshment stand..." implying that your meeting will serve no purpose other than drinking. At least, that’s what I understood.

At the time, I didn’t react much. You read so much nonsense on social media. And I found the individual rather likable and relevant in his critique of centralism. Then I saw that Stéphane Péan was at the "Breton breath" in Liffré and was glorifying that pleasant moment spent under the auspices of the great Breton, Loig Chesnais-Girard.

And then it all clicked! Because the important thing is the spirit! I first wondered if there was a refreshment stand in Liffré to welcome François Hollande and the other Parisian stars. Certainly, I thought, but they must have served good champagne there. I don’t know, but I can imagine. A very different refreshment stand, in any case, from that of the Glenmor space in Carhaix, where one would rather drink beer, or even if they did serve champagne, it wouldn’t be done with good manners. A refreshment stand for bumpkins, in a way.

And I thought that Stéphane Péan's remarks about the refreshment stand betrayed the self-satisfaction of the bourgeois spirit of the metropolises towards the bumpkins of the countryside.

Upon doing a bit of research, I realized that the Breizh Civic Lab aims to embody modern Brittany of the metropolises, with all the required political intelligence, of course, a Brittany that perhaps is not thought of enough, to the detriment of medium-sized towns and our ultra-privileged countryside.

All these ingrates who benefit from "trickle-down" and show so little gratitude in return...

Far from me to be slanderous, it just happens that I am sensitive to the spirit of people. Coming from the peasantry of Léon, I grew up in Brest where the bumpkins we were faced a merchant bourgeoisie from the city center, often coming from elsewhere after the war and very condescending. That’s actually how we recognized them. I feel that condescending gaze on the bumpkins better than anyone.

So what is the Brittany of the metropolises? Is it still Brittany with this bourgeois spirit?

I would say no. The bourgeois spirit is the reign of individualism and the break with otherness, to borrow from Roland Barthes' reflections. I would just add that it is also arrogance.

And well, I say that this is not Brittany. Brittany is not present when one looks down on the little people, those from medium-sized towns and the countryside who gather around the refreshment stand to talk about Brittany;

Brittany is the connection, the simple pleasure of gathering around the refreshment stand or not, it is the link with those who preceded us and it is still our link with our land, its culture, its languages. It is also the will to choose a common future, where people do not live in a "each for themselves" mentality, or bourgeois individualism.

Brittany is everything but bourgeois contempt. So on June 20, we will be around the refreshment stand of the Glenmor space to recreate Brittany.

It is always dangerous to want to make the dead speak, but I believe I can say that our great awakeners, Xavier Grall, Glenmor, Youenn Gwernig, and all the others, would not have been found at the Breton breath of Liffré, but with us around the refreshment stand.

Before, of course, joining the fest-noz to dance with all the "backward" people dear to Béatrice Mace, a member of the LCG team.

In Liffré, LCG's speech spoke a lot about France, and little about Brittany. I was told he could have given the same speech in Berry. Why Berry? I don’t know. Not surprising, after all, since in Liffré, it was not the Breton breath that blew, but the bourgeois spirit, probably to please those gentlemen from Paris and to bolster, for a day, a stature that one would like to be national. That too is the bourgeois spirit.

Paul Molac was not there, I was told. And that is a good thing. Because knowing him a bit, I think his place is more in Carhaix with us.

Thanks in particular to Stéphane Péan and Béatrice Mace, I finally understood the trickle-down theory dear to Laurent Davezies and I thank them for that. It is not money that trickles down to our towns and villages of bumpkins from the metropolis, but contempt. And it trickles down hard!

And if in return, our Breton spirit could trickle down a bit on the metropolises?

Yvon OLLIVIER

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