English

English

“When the question of manipulation is raised, that of freedom sooner or later emerges. The haunting fear of manipulation is linked to the fear of understanding, or of knowing, that our way of thinking or acting is not dependent on our free will and instead depends on an external power. This is why the universe of manipulation and propaganda is often — wrongly — associated with that of totalitarian systems. It is very difficult for us to admit that propaganda is also an essential component of democratic systems. The specter of a Big Brother observing us and towering over us haunts every discussion about manipulation and propaganda. But do we really need others to manipulate us, when we are perfectly capable of manipulating ourselves? And above all, what does our freedom mean and where does our free will lie, knowing that we are always inclined to accept a form of servitude?”

Benoît Heilbrunn, Psychologie de la manipulation, Pocket Agora Essais, p.227

Voici une version anglaise corrigée, où l’analyse porte explicitement sur le mot français demeure / demeurer (afin d’éviter la fausse étymologie de dwelling), tout en conservant la structure, les tirets et le ton du dialogue.

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– Tell me… what do you know about the French word “demeure”?
– According to our master, the word demeure appears simple, almost domestic. Yet it shelters a surprising historical and ontological depth.

– Where does it come from?

– Etymologically, the French verb demeurer comes from the Latin demorari. In it we find the root morari, “to delay or remain,” itself linked to mora, delay, the duration that suspends the ordinary course of things.

– And what does the prefix “de-” add… or separate?

– Here it does not mark a separation but rather an intensification or a completion: demorari can also mean to stop completely or to prolong one’s stay.

– So originally, demeurer means taking the time to remain.

– Exactly… this first meaning is decisive. Before designating a habitation, the demeure is first a pause within the flow, a thickness of time before it becomes a space. It is not merely a place where one lives, but a place where one consents to remain.

– So there is a passage…

– The passage from time to space… How does that occur?

– It happens quite naturally. Remaining somewhere eventually produces a stable place. The demeure then becomes the house. This inhabited place is the space that receives and protects. Yet even in this concrete sense, temporality has not disappeared.

– Please elaborate.

– A demeure is not simply a building: it is a place invested with duration. A ruin may still be a building, but it ceases to be a demeure once a presence… human… or otherwise… has withdrawn from it.

– If I understand you correctly… what makes a demeure is not the stone or the construction, but the persistence of a life.

– To demeurer is to inhabit. When we say, for example, “we dwell in this blog,” it means that we have fixed part of our existence there.

– But demeurer also means to subsist, to remain, to survive: “only a few traces of us will remain,” “this remains nonetheless.” Here the place disappears in favor of time. What remains is what endures erosion, what persists after the wearing away.