Laudator Temporis Acti

E.M. Cioran (1911-1995), History and Utopia, tr. Richard Howard (1987; rpt. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2015), pp. 45-46:

"And the people?" it will be asked. The thinker or the historian who employs the word without irony disqualifies himself. It is all too clear what "the people" are destined for: to suffer events and rulers' whims, lending themselves to the schemes that weaken and overwhelm them. Every political experiment, however "advanced," is performed at the people's expense, is carried out against the people: the people bear the stigmata of slavery by divine or diabolic decree. No use wasting your pity: the people's cause admits of no recourse. Nations and empires are formed by the people's indulgence of iniquities of which they are the object. No head of state, no conqueror fails to scorn the people; but the people accept this scorn and live on it. Were they to cease being weak or victimized, were they to disappoint their destiny, society would collapse and with it history itself.

Et le peuple? dira-t-on. Le penseur ou l'historien qui emploie ce mot sans ironie se disqualifie. Le "peuple", on sait trop bien à quoi il est destiné: subir les événements, et les fantaisies des gouvernements, en se prêtant à des desseins qui l'infirment et l'accablent. Toute expérience politique, si "avancée" fût-elle, se déroule à ses dépens, se dirige contre lui: il porte les stigmates de l'esclavage par arrêt divin ou diabolique. Inutile de s'apitoyer sur lui: sa cause est sans ressource. Nations et empires se forment par sa complaisance aux iniquités dont il est l'objet. Point de chef d'Etat, ni de conquérant qui ne le méprise; mais il accepte ce mépris, et en vit. Cesserait-il d'être veule ou victime, faillirait-il à ses destinées, que la société s'évanouirait, et, avec elle, l'histoire tout court.