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La révolution tranquillisante
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2009
Abstract
Those phenomena that are called revolutions, in the conventional sense of the word, are essentially moments of turbulent acceleration following periods of retardation; and such are the phenomena of the révolution tranquille in Québec, which are confused by some with the inclusive events of long duration. In this perspective, and as a prelude to the analysis of current conceptions of the so-called quiet revolution in Québec, the author offers a study of the economic and social history of the United States from 1920 to 1940. He sees no sharp break between the fabulous twenties and the depression decade; nor does he see a gap between the interwar period and the preceding so-called progressive period. This can be seen through the unfolding of social, political, and economic events, provided that care is taken to adopt the mental set of transcending the conflictual in order to assent to the cumulative aspects of the historical process. Seen from this angle, the issues appear more complex, and contemporaries may easily be pardoned for failing to grasp the fundamental questions or for seeing revolutions where there are none. In the freedom of dancing, smoking, and drinking with women or, again, in the freedom of teaching the theory of evolution in schools (freedoms conquered in the twenties and the early thirties), some have seen a revolution. In a like manner, the New Deal has been described as revolutionary, as has the economic theory of J.M. Keynes. But if capitalism really has undergone such trials, how then can it still carry on so vigorously? In fact, it has learned to adapt itself to the changing conditions of its survival without altering its basic character. New regimes arise and the system carries on. The New Deal created a new regime to which capitalism acclimatized itself; and in the new regime capitalism managed so well that it could take advantage of the change in mentality in order to save the system. Under the New Deal, however, capitalism reached an important stage of its politicization, as it did somewhat later, under the new fiscal policies derived from Keynes’ general theory. Yet, despite all revolutionary appearances, it continued to operate on the basis of usury, and while taking hold of the new media of information it mobilized resources with a view to profit and in so doing it organized things and men with equal indifference and efficiency. The system has continued to operate on the same basis of usury and, in order to sidetrack violent protest, it has adopted the issue of social justice; it has been willing to substitute assistance for employment, destructive idleness for creative leisure. Those benefits that are labeled social security and are now distributed without much regard for human creativity have the properties of a tranquillizing pill. And so we are reminded of the panem and circenses politics of a declining Empire. Are we really prepared to swallow the tranquillizing pill?
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 1973 , pp. 3 - 21
- Copyright
- Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 1973
References
1 Cette optique des variations brusques à l'intérieur d'un événement long ouvre deux voies d'accès a l'étude du changement, objet propre de l'histoire. La Théorie générate de l'emploi, de l'intérêt et de la monnaie, dont il sera question ci-après repose sur une définition d'équilibre de courte période. Keynes, son auteur, n'en reconnait pas moins l'importance des facteurs qui triomphent en longue période; il termine son traité par cette paradoxale remarque: « Les hommes d'action qui se croient parfaitement affranchis des influences doctrinales sont d'ordinaire les esclaves de quelque économiste passé. Les visionnaires influents, qui entendent des voix dans le ciel, distillent des utopies nées quelques années plus tôt dans le cerveau de quelque écrivailleur de Faculté… ce sont les idées et non les intérêts constitués qui, tôt ou tard, sont dangereuses pour le bien comme pour le mal ». Keynes, J.M., Théorie générate, trad. de Largentage, Jean (Paris, 1949), 397.Google Scholar
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5 Temporary National Economic Committee, Hearings, part 9, 3502–03.
6 L'auteur ne révèle pas le nom de cet évêque.
7 Carver, Thomas Nixo, The Present Economic Revolution in the United States (Boston, 1925Google Scholar), chap. 8, 208. La traduction est la mienne.
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12 John Dos Passos exprime dans ses romans la désillusion des jeunes intellectuels de l'aprèsguerre, et leur aversion pour le capitalisme au temps de la crise.
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18 « No longer did even an inch of space separate them; they danced as if glued together, body to body, cheek to cheek », ibid. 108.
19 Sinclair Lewis voit au fond des choses: « What brought Prohibition?… It was the women of America… ». Voir « Is America a Paradise for women? » dans The Man from Main Street, éd. Maule, Harry E. et Cane, Melville H. (New York, 1953), 306.Google Scholar
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23 Ibid., 132.
24 Ibid., 132. La traduction est la mienne.