{"id":8128,"date":"2015-01-16T14:22:43","date_gmt":"2015-01-16T14:22:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress72\/?p=26723"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:26","slug":"being-angry-at-the-world-is-an-important-driving-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2015\/01\/16\/being-angry-at-the-world-is-an-important-driving-force\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Being angry at the world is an important driving force\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

He actually did not want to go to work. Etienne Aug\u00e9 was that upset about the attack on the Paris head office of Charlie Hebdo<\/em>. Thanks to the massive \u2018Je suis Charlie\u2019 gatherings across Europe, the French lecturer in Media and Communication headed to campus anyway, mainly to introduce the satirical weekly to his students.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father always used to say \u2018Hey, you\u2019ve bought that porn magazine again\u2019\u201d, Aug\u00e9 says even before we shake hands. \u201cBut Charlie <\/em>is much more than vulgar cartoons. It\u2019s important for everyone to know that.\u201d Armed with a pile of old issues, he gave a lecture the day after the attack to explain to his students why the magazine is so important. Aug\u00e9, who constantly calls it Charlie<\/em>, has been a faithful reader for 25 years.<\/p>\n

Who will fight for us?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t believe it at first. I thought: \u2018It\u2019s not possible.\u2019\u201d Having lived in Lebanon for 12 years, Aug\u00e9 knows a thing or two about violence. Or, as he put it himself: \u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of shit.\u201d It is why he wanted to return to Europe, \u2018and then you see this\u2019. After he realised who had been killed in the attack, he felt abandoned. \u201cI\u2019m not ashamed to say that I cried. Who will defend us? Who will fight for us now? Who will fight for me?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cCharlie <\/em>is very important to me and Charb [St\u00e9phane Charbonnier, the chief editor killed in the attack, ed.] was a very important man.\u201d Aug\u00e9 explains that French journalism is in fact rather mediocre. France is indeed only in 39th place in the World Press Freedom Index of Reporters without Borders. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a press that is based on and provides information, we have a press that is based on opinion. Charlie <\/em>is also about opinion, but at least it questions everything. Other French newspapers don\u2019t do that. They operate on the basis of preconceived ideas. Charlie <\/em>really criticises everything. It is a continuous form of opposition.\u201d <\/p>\n

Farts and butt plugs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leafing through the copies of Charlie Hebdo<\/em> that he had brought to lend weight to his words: \u201cIt\u2019s very French and refers to many details in French culture, so I\u2019m not sure you\u2019ll understand it.\u201d There was an array of cartoons about politicians and religious extremists, and one in which someone farts and rips his trousers as a result. \u201cAs a grown man with a doctorate perhaps I shouldn\u2019t be laughing about it, but I still think it\u2019s hilarious.\u201d He points out a cartoon of a bomber from which objects that look like butt plugs are falling. The cartoon is not only about French involvement in the fight against IS, it is also about an artist who could exhibit a work on a prestigious square in Paris. \u201cThe artist had set up a kind of Christmas tree at Place Vend\u00f4me, but most passers-by thought that it looked like a butt plug.\u201d The weekly ridicules everything.<\/p>\n

Pissed off<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Aug\u00e9, Charlie Hebdo<\/em>\u2019s subtitle is an accurate reflection of the publication\u2019s non-conformist nature: \u2018Journal Irresponsable<\/em>\u2019. \u201cThey\u2019ve been using the subtitle as a proud nickname ever since the then president Jacques Chirac called the magazine irresponsible in 2006 following the publication of Mohammed cartoons.\u201d Although the magazine projects a kind of adolescent, bad boy nature, most of the authors and cartoonists are actually quite a bit older. \u201cSome are in their sixties or even seventies. I find that very hopeful. Maybe I\u2019ll also still be rather pissed off at that age. I really hope so.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Aug\u00e9 was living in Paris, he always bought Charlie Hebdo<\/em>. One morning, he was sitting in the metro and reading when founder Fran\u00e7ois Cavanna took a seat across from him. \u201cWe spent half an hour talking about why he thought it was important for young people to read Charlie<\/em>. I was so happy. And he was so angry at the world. It made a tremendous impression on me that an old man could still be so pissed off.\u201d That being pissed off is exactly why Aug\u00e9 wanted to show the magazine to his students. He would personally not wish to work in academia if he thought that the world was a beautiful place. \u201cI consider it a very important driving force. I want my students to have it too. I want them to be angry and willing to make the world a better place.\u201d TF<\/p>\n\n\t

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