Lettre à la génération qui va tout changer

The Boghossian Foundation will welcome Raphaël Glucksmann for an evening at the Villa Empain. The novelist will reflect on his latest book, Lettre à la génération qui va tout changer (Letter to the generation that will change everything), and the causes that drive him.

What a crazy thing to be twenty today!
These days, no matter where you listen, you will undoubtedly hear the mournful chant of the resigned and the nagging lament of helplessness.
The climate emergency? Inexorable!
Species extinction? Irredeemable!
Financial globalisation, delocalisation, escalating inequalities?  Ineluctable!
The decline of democracy, the erosion of our rights, and the increase of hatred? Inevitable!
Everyone tells you that this is simply how it is and there is nothing to be done about it.
But this is false! Nothing is set in stone, never ever, and you can change the course of things.
I have seen you in action, from Lille to Marseille, via Reims, Corbeil-Essonnes, Villeurbanne and Clermont-Ferrand. In you, I saw the spontaneity and vigour that our leaders are so desperately lacking.
Your emergence onto the political scene will change the game. You will turn the fatalists and cynics into liars.
Never underestimate your power.
Use it, you will see.___R. G.