Do not be afraid of your enemies

What happened in the Chateau de Versailles gardens is a sign, among others, of the disruption of our societies and the threats to our weak democracies: a 60-meter steel tube flared like a French horn, monumental work by a famous contemporary artist, Anish Kapoor, and put on display in the Versailles Palace garden, called ? Dirty Corner,? has been vandalised ( three times since its inauguration in June 2015) again, this time with explicitly anti-Semitic graffiti. Nobody protested strongly against this. No one demanded that they be removed. Neither the management of the Chateau de Versailles, nor the Minister in charge of Culture, nor the government, nor any deputies or journalists have been really shocked by these sprayed phrases. And when the artist himself believed he could take a foolish position, stating that these tags were now part of his work, everyone felt relieved and ready to move on to something else. It took the association Lawyers Without Borders (supported, ironically, by a Councilman from Versailles and opposed to the installation of the artist’s work) to bring the matter before the French Court for the judge of expedited matters of the Versailles Administrative Court to order the Palace of Versailles to end ? without delay the public display of anti-Semitic tags, saying that enrollment infringed public order and in particular the dignity of the human person.? The établissement Public de Versailles was committed to mask them, ? under the artist’s control.? And this has been done.

This story is exemplary of the misfortunes of our times. It is astonishing that no protection was made of the work immediately after installation, at least by video cameras. It makes no sense that no one reacted very vividly in the face of such anti-Semitic slurs, which are contrary to the law. It is quite incredible that in the absence of a complaint an artist has the right to let people write insulting slogans on his work. It is unacceptable for an anti-Semitic text to be considered as part of a work of art (and what is true for anti-Semitism is also true for all forms of racism). Finally, it beggars belief that it was not until the intervention of a local opponent of the artist (surely with the intent of seeing the elimination of the work and its tags) that the case was referred to the Versailles Administrative Court.

In what kind of world are we living in if we do not take insults more seriously? In what kind of world are we living in if we no longer prohibit racism and anti-Semitic and if we no longer defend the integrity of works of art? History teaches us, however, that democracy never dies from the strength of its enemies, but always from its own weaknesses. And the first of these weaknesses is indifference towards vandalism and the destruction of works of art. What is at stake in Versailles, what is happening in Palmyra, and what has happened in Bamiyan and Timbuktu relates also to the same issue: when democracies do not defend works of art, then they begin to wind down.

More generally, there is no place in democracy for naivety, indifference and non-violence. It must be protected by an army and a police force. We have forgotten that it is by force that we were able to narrowly avert, more than seventy years ago, the triumph of those who started the destruction of works of art and wrote anti-Semitic slurs. Lowering our guard, no longer being outraged, tolerating the intolerable, not arming ourselves, no longer defending our values and ourselves, it would be the beginning of the end. Today, the West resides close to that end of the spectrum: the United States did not make itself respected in Syria; Britain no longer has a credible army; Germany and Japan no longer have one ever since they had become democracies again. France alone cannot assume Europe’s defense. Our democracies are in danger because they do not have the forces needed. Fear is their worst enemy, courage their best ally. They still need to be given the means.