For Olivier Meuwly, 1968 has left a paradoxical legacy

Olivier Meuwly, a historian of political thought, studies the memory of the many revolts that took place around the world in 1968. "The '68 paradox is confronted with itself. At the same time an incubator of liberty, which everyone has definitively, at one time or another, benefited from, 68 was also a wave of destabilisation that struck at the standards that governed the world of yesteryear. From this came a second, antagonistic reaction that disturbs us at the dawn of the 21st Century. On one side, no one wants to go backwards, and everyone, in one way or another praises the gains of 68. On the other, many (often the same people!) are uncomfortable with this liberty, so difficult to manage, with this materialism that is consumerist, libertarian and individualist that they adore... and abhor. Thus, with its unique matrix of meaning, a contradiction surges forth from this paradigmatic event that was '68!"

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