How The Croissant Killed the Donut
Recently I’ve had encounters with friends and/or spouses that are so laced with personal contempt for not seeing the world as they…
Recently I’ve had encounters with friends and/or spouses that are so laced with personal contempt for not seeing the world as they do that it frankly scared me.
Everywhere else in this time, debates often devolve into hostility, with online echo chambers amplifying divisions and reducing empathy. I would hope we can break that pattern here. But it will be difficult in a forum where we cannot see faces and body language.
Consider the old men who used to gather in donut shops, sipping coffee over glazed pastries, engaging in lively political banter. They’d argue passionately—over taxes, war, or the latest election—yet the tone remained light, grounded in camaraderie.
Disagreements rarely severed bonds; instead, they’d finish their coffee, set politics aside, and head to the golf course together. The game was a ritual of reconciliation, where a good swing mattered more than a good argument.
Those donut shop debates and golf outings symbolized a time when civility endured, not because disagreements were absent, but because relationships were prioritized over ideology—a stark contrast to the fractured discourse of today.
I have traced the loss of the coffee and glazed donut civility to the rise of the croissant.
Which of course points to the French.
You cannot have a discussion about worldviews without agreement on whether or not there is truth.
If there is no truth then we are all right, and all wrong for it is impossible to KNOW.
Why is it always the French?
French philosophy, particularly in the 20th century, played a significant role in shaping the concept of truth as relativism through the development of existentialism, structuralism, and postmodernism. These intellectual movements challenged traditional notions of absolute truth, emphasizing subjectivity, cultural context, and power dynamics. Below is a concise overview of how key French philosophers contributed to this shift:
- Jean-Paul Sartre and Existentialism
Contribution: Sartre (1905–1980) emphasized individual freedom and the absence of inherent meaning or universal truth. In works like Being and Nothingness (1943), he argued that humans create their own meaning in a world without predefined essence or objective moral truths.
Impact on Relativism: By rejecting absolute truths (e.g., religious or metaphysical absolutes), Sartre positioned truth as a product of personal experience and choice, laying groundwork for subjective interpretations of reality. - Michel Foucault and Power/Knowledge
Contribution: Foucault (1926–1984) explored how truth is constructed through power relations. In works like Discipline and Punish (1975) and The History of Sexuality (1976), he argued that what is accepted as “true” is shaped by societal institutions, discourses, and historical contexts, rather than being an objective fact.
Impact on Relativism: Foucault’s ideas undermined the notion of universal truth, suggesting that truth is relative to the systems of power and knowledge that dominate a given society or era. - Jacques Derrida and Deconstruction
Contribution: Derrida (1930–2004) developed deconstruction, a method of analyzing texts to reveal their inherent contradictions and instabilities. In Of Grammatology (1967), he challenged the idea of fixed meanings, arguing that language and truth are fluid, contingent, and open to multiple interpretations.
Impact on Relativism: By questioning the stability of meaning, Derrida contributed to a relativistic view of truth, where no single interpretation holds absolute authority. - Jean-François Lyotard and Postmodernism
Contribution: Lyotard (1924–1998) defined postmodernism as an “incredulity toward metanarratives” in The Postmodern Condition (1979). He rejected grand, universal explanations of history, science, or morality, favoring localized, contextual “small narratives.”
Impact on Relativism: Lyotard’s rejection of overarching truths reinforced the idea that truth is pluralistic and relative to specific cultural, historical, or social contexts. - Broader Cultural Context
Post-War Disillusionment: After World War II, French intellectuals grappled with the collapse of traditional authorities (e.g., religion, colonialism, and Enlightenment ideals). This skepticism fueled a turn toward relativism, as absolute truths seemed untenable in a fractured world.
Influence of Structuralism: Thinkers like Claude Lévi-Straussand Roland Barthes, while not relativists per se, emphasized how meaning is constructed through cultural systems (e.g., language, myths), further eroding the idea of universal truth.
Synthesis and Legacy
French philosophy contributed to truth as relativism by:
Shifting focus from objective, universal truths to subjective, constructed realities.
Highlighting the role of language, power, and context in shaping what is accepted as true.
Encouraging skepticism toward traditional authorities and metanarratives.
This intellectual legacy influenced global philosophy, literature, and social theory, fostering a worldview where truth is seen as contingent rather than absolute. Critics argue this relativism risks undermining shared values or facts, but its proponents see it as a liberation from dogmatic constraints, reflecting the complexity of human experience.