Tzvetan Todorov warns European democracies to be on their guard

For the Franco-Bulgarian philosopher Tzvetan Todorov, European countries may risk, like the United States before the military intervention in Iraq, "putting aside the truth" if they let themselves be governed by fear. "It may be that they are equipped with a few extra guard-rails, balancing out their deficiencies: their plurality and thus their obligation to listen to their neighbours; even their knowledge that their recent past is not entirely glorious. But we cannot depend on this too much: it would be enough for some adversary to utter threats, for some spectacular news story to stir up general emotion, for the French, the Spanish, or the Italians to decide in turn that danger is imminent, that every means possible is justified in fighting it and that the time has passed for patiently seeking the truth. Thus we are already hearing about Islam, its army of terrorists or its future atomic bomb."

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