The Hour of Sartre Strikes Again

by Nikolai Ott

In these turbulent times, I’m often reminded of an anecdote popular in liberal circles. In liberated postwar Paris, French intellectuals would gather on the Rive Gauche—the south side of the Seine near the Grands Boulevards—to debate France’s future over apricot cocktails. Many—likely the majority—were on the Left: Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre, and others. Raymond Aron was an exception, and his participation was mostly by chance, stemming from his long-standing friendship with Sartre from their university days. A liberal alongside the era’s showpiece Marxist—this was not bound to go smoothly. They clashed more and more frequently. During one argument—Sartre, presumably after several cocktails, suddenly shouted at Aron: “Mon petit camarade, pourquoi as-tu peur de déconner?”

Roughly translated, that means: “My little comrade, why are you so afraid of talking nonsense?” Liberals loved telling this anecdote because it fulfilled a clear purpose:

Read the rest, and this is from the Spring 2025 issue (3.1)…