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Renaud Camus on the Destruction of Western Education

by Dr Nicholas Tate
15 May 2025 5:00 PM

For anyone still thinking this Government does not have a problem with free speech, the Home Office’s absurd decision to ban the French writer Renaud Camus from entering our shores ought to be an eye-opener. As Steven Tucker’s two recent articles in the Daily Sceptic have shown, Camus’s talk of a “Great Replacement” is both wider and more subtle than the many critics who have not read the book think it is.

There is much more to Camus, however, than the partly misunderstood The Great Replacement (2011).  Two of his other works – The Great Deculturalisation  (2008) and De-civilisation (2011) – offer a devastating critique of early 21st century French culture and education. I first came across Camus eight years ago when putting together a book arguing for a traditional ‘liberal’ education based on the transmission of Matthew Arnold’s “the best that has been known and thought”. Camus came across as a writer in the same camp as other educational conservatives such as T.S. Eliot, Michael Oakeshott, Hannah Arendt and Mario Vargas Llosa whose ideas I was studying. What they had in common was a vision of education as the passing on of a cultural inheritance from one generation to the next and a rejection of the idea that it might be used as a vehicle for promoting contemporary causes.

At a time when Bridget Phillipson, the Secretary of State for Education, is threatening a new “modern, inclusive and innovative” school curriculum – we all know what those words are likely to mean – and one of our leading exam boards has urged putting diversity and climate change at the heart of this curriculum, it would be good to try and see through Camus’s acerbic lens what our current elites’ ideas about education can tell us about the underlying forces at work in our society.

Camus’s key thesis is that, since the late 18th century, the custodians of high culture and civilisation have been what he calls la classe cultivée – by which he means  the highly educated and ‘cultured’ parts of the bourgeoisie – and that the education system, even when eventually opened up to other social classes, took this class as its model, aiming to pass on ‘the best’ to ‘the rest’. This, however, was only sustainable when the dominance of ‘the best’ was unchallenged. With the creeping egalitarianism of what he calls ‘hyperdemocratic’ societies ‘the rest’ begin to set the tone for the whole of society. Camus is not opposed to democracy, but to the extension of the democratic and egalitarian spirit to all other aspects of life in ways that are culturally and educationally disastrous.

School in this increasingly egalitarian world ceases to be ‘a place apart’ in which one is inducted into worlds very different from home and in which one may need to unlearn some of the things learned at home. In an egalitarian society the barriers around the school are broken down and the world of the outside majority ends up setting the tone. When schools put ‘the disadvantaged’ at the centre of their concerns (as egalitarianism demands) the transmission of high culture inevitably takes second place.

Egalitarianism also requires, says Camus, that ‘those who have’ must have what they have taken from them in the interests of the majority. He does not expand on the point, but would recognise the Labour government’s decisions to cancel funding for Latin classes, remove freedoms from academy trusts and make parents of children in private schools pay twice as textbook examples of what he has in mind.

Camus’s thesis that the collapse of a country’s traditional class system inevitably leads to deep educational and cultural decline is over-simplified big picture stuff – shared by others such as T.S. Eliot,  Mario Vargas Llosa and the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben – but nonetheless a useful heuristic device which, like other grand theses (such as the Marxian dialectic on which it draws) illuminates connections that might otherwise pass unnoticed while failing to fit every situation to which one applies it. 

In Camus’s hands it explains a great deal.

First, it helps to explain the nature of the new technocratic class that has superseded the old classe cultivée. It is a class full of what he calls the ‘tragic human type’ that is immensely proud of the number of diplomas it has accumulated since it left school but which lacks any deep culture. Instead of leaders steeped in France’s cultural traditions – de Gaulle and Mitterand setting good examples by their enthusiasm for writers like Chateaubriand and Voltaire respectively – one has politicians like Sarkozy and Macron. For Camus the nadir of the new elite was reached when Sarkozy in 2007 made his first visit as President of France to the USA and, under the cupola of the Capitol in Washington, invoked Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe “to underline the affinity of his generation… with the United States”. Never has cultural proletarisation “been so strikingly manifested”, observed Camus, “as on this occasion from the mouth of a head of state of an old nation of great and high culture”. As for Macron, Camus sees him as the epitome of the derided ‘Davocracy’, the globalist movement committed to wiping out national distinctiveness.   

Second, Camus shows how the collapse of the old culture leads to a general dumbing-down of the whole of society. The old culture, whatever its faults, meant manners, restraint, self-control, respect for the achievements of the past and an acceptance of authority. Its collapse has created problems for adult-child relationships in families and in schools. It has led to infantilism and a loss of seriousness. Why else, he asks, has Versailles been reduced to a place full of “Bugs Bunnies, petites souris (little mice) and Manga robotic heroes”?

The changes, he points out, are most noticeable in the use of the word ‘culture’, which has now been reduced to its basic meaning of that which is common to a whole society. The idea of a type of culture which is an aspiration has disappeared. This is illustrated in the role of ministers of culture now seen as a portfolio dealing with sport, digital technology and mass entertainment, not with ‘high culture’. When de Gaulle appointed France’s first Minister of Culture in 1959, he gave the post to André Malraux, famous novelist, art historian and public intellectual. In 2014 under François Hollande the post went to Fleur Pellerin, graduate of the prestigious Sciences Po and ENA, one of Camus’s diplômés sans culture (culture-free graduates), who admitted on appointment she had not read a single book during the preceding two years. 

Camus often refers to this cultural desert in which he thinks we now live as the dictatorship of the petite bourgeoisie. This is where my hackles start to rise. Having had a happy lower middle class childhood there is nothing I hate more than the haut bourgeois disdain for ‘the little people’ prevalent among sections of the technocratic and progressive elite by whom we are currently ruled, as it was among some members of the old elite. Camus, however, deploys stereotypes of the petit bourgeois not to sneer at lower social classes but to draw attention to characteristics he sees as prevalent throughout societies that have culturally pushed aside their traditional elites. The new elites, he argues, are as pervaded by petit bourgeois attitudes as the rest of society, maybe even more so.

Among petit bourgeois characteristics, in addition to egalitarianism and infantilism, he also includes a lack of courage, a demand never to be offended, a preoccupation with what people say rather than what they do, a sense of victimhood, a euphemisation of discourse, a pervasive sentimentalism, a refusal to listen to anyone who counters one’s basic beliefs, and a deep distrust of freedom of expression. It is ironic that some of these unattractive characteristics are the very ones likely to have led our Home Office to cancel him.

What then ought we to do to escape from this dictatorship of the lower middle class? Camus does not give us a plan. He is not that kind of writer. All we get in De-civilisation is a reference to the small political party he has set up which advocates the creation of a corps of specially trained educators who will go out and teach France’s cultural heritage to those capable of receiving it but unlikely to acquire it at home. This sounds remarkably like a proposal to set up grammar schools. We had these once in England but most were closed down by the UniParty long ago.

In an interview last autumn, Camus said:

I have almost never been read – at least by those who attack me – and I have been dragged through the mud, defamed, ‘wokipediafied’, blamed for all the sins of the world, dropped by all my publishers, refused appearances everywhere in the media, summoned before all the courts, heavily fined, and even sentenced to prison (a sentence subsequently suspended).

Let’s hope that with the support of the Free Speech Union the ban on his entry into this country is lifted. Perhaps some bold person might invite Renaud Camus to an event over here at which we could ask him to help us respond to the Government’s draft curriculum proposals that ought to be coming our way soon.

Dr Nicholas Tate is the author of The Conservative Case for Education. He was a member of France’s Haut Conseil de l’évaluation de l’école 2001-2007, an advisory body to the French minister of national education.

Tags: ChildrenCultureCulture WarEducationFranceRenaud CamusSchoolsThe Great Replacement

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11 Comments
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Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
1 year ago

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.

187
0
Free Lemming
Free Lemming
1 year ago

Perhaps if these moronic complainants had bombs dropping on their heads, or were trying to work out where their next meal was going to come from, they’d not be so concerned with being offended by someone’s words. Part of the reason we are where we are is that nobody has to endure hardship anymore, so they invent it. Put these tw*ts on the frontline somewhere and see if they’re still so preoccupied with being ‘misgendered’ as bullets whistle round their head.

166
-1
misslawbore
misslawbore
1 year ago
Reply to  Free Lemming

They are not hurt by the words. They are weaponising them with their own hate

20
-1
stewart
stewart
1 year ago

It isn’t a crime to hate something. Or it shouldn’t be anyway. Hatered is what you feel about something. If we start outlawing what we feel we are in real trouble.

But once again the population has been bamboozled and everyone speaks about “hate” as if it was the worst thing in the world and needs to be stopped.

It’s really very difficult sometimes to live in a world of lemmings.

171
0
godknowsimgood
godknowsimgood
1 year ago
Reply to  stewart

Police Scotland agree that it’s not a crime, but nevertheless have recorded it as a ‘hate incident (non-crime)’

37
0
Miss Dolly
Miss Dolly
1 year ago
Reply to  godknowsimgood

Why are the police recording things that aren’t crimes?

63
0
Jonathan M
Jonathan M
1 year ago
Reply to  Miss Dolly

Because they’re utterly useless at dealing with real crimes.

70
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago
Reply to  Miss Dolly

They have nothing better to do.

30
0
rms
rms
1 year ago
Reply to  Miss Dolly

I don’t think this a decision by Police Scotland. They are following instructions by the Government who wants to use this list in future to identify political enemies.

32
0
stewart
stewart
1 year ago
Reply to  godknowsimgood

In that specific case. But there will be others where someone’s says or writes something which is considered a hate crime.

The term is what is especially dangerous. They’ve used a word that is about what you feel and stretched it to define certain types of actions derived from certain types thoughts. So they’ve blurred the between thought and action. Which opens the door to criminalising thought without any associated action. It’s just a question of time.

For anyone who doesn’t get it, you just replace ‘hate” with ‘thought’, as in ‘hate crime’ or “thought crime’ because hating something is just a certain type of thought.

51
0
AethelredTheReadier
AethelredTheReadier
1 year ago
Reply to  stewart

Exactomundo, Stewart. Nail on head. You can’t legislate against being human and humans have feelings and not all of them are loving ones.

43
0
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
1 year ago
Reply to  stewart

Marmite could well trigger a lot of hate crime.

27
-1
misslawbore
misslawbore
1 year ago
Reply to  stewart

There is no criminal offence of hatred in English law currently. However if a person is guilty of a criminal offence and the prosecution can prove there is an aspect of hatred on various grounds, the sentence can be enhanced.

2
0
Jon Garvey
Jon Garvey
1 year ago

My latest hit (with apologies to Free)

There she stood, in the street
Singing gospel music so sweet
I said, “Hey, what is this?
A free concert that I don’t want to miss!”
Just then arrived a gang of cops
Telling her that she had to stop.
There’s been complaints, dragged her away,
And banged her up in jail till the next day.

Far Right now, everybody’s Far Right now.
Far Right now, everybody’s Far Right Now.

I hurried home to my place
Told my wife it was a disgrace.
She said “Egad! Dad, that’s pretty bad –
She’d be better off proclaiming jihad.”
Just then the Law broke down the door,
And pinned the wife and me down on the floor.
“You’ll get a fine! Or maybe time!
You know Islamophobia’s a crime!”

Far Right now, everybody’s Far Right now.
(We’re all fascists together…)
Far Right now, Toby, Toby, Toby we’re Far Right!

84
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  Jon Garvey

Yep very funny. ——And Ironically by a group called FREE.

29
0
Jon Garvey
Jon Garvey
1 year ago
Reply to  varmint

“All White Now”?

35
0
10navigator
10navigator
1 year ago
Reply to  Jon Garvey

I well remember ‘boogieing’ to the original in 1970, Andy Fraser, co-founder of Free as a 15yr old in ’68 co-wrote ‘Alright Now’. An instant classic. Those were the days of sanity.

30
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  10navigator

I don’t think people “boogied” in those days? ——-Wasn’t it not till disco that we “boogied”? I remember having purple bell bottoms and platforms, a Lilac shirt and flowery clip on tie,,,,,,my god I must have looked horrendous, but probably we all did back then.

18
0
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
1 year ago

Is it a hate crime to baselessly accuse someone of a hate crime?
Couldn’t this non-law be used against these people who use this to try to win an argument that they can’t otherwise succeed with.

Last edited 1 year ago by For a fist full of roubles
99
0
prod_squadron
prod_squadron
1 year ago
Reply to  For a fist full of roubles

This springs to mind:

Wasting police time is a criminal offence as outlined under section 5(2) of the Criminal Law Act 1967. Knowingly making false reports to the police is an offence, including verbal or written statements that:

  • Someone has committed an offence
  • That people or property are at real risk
  • That the reporter has information that is relevant to a police enquiry.
35
0
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
1 year ago
Reply to  prod_squadron

True, however there is a pleasing irony in using their “law” against them.

21
0
D J
D J
1 year ago
Reply to  For a fist full of roubles

I’ve already done that at work. A Muslim patient in an abaya made a complaint against me. She had wanted a Muslim doctor and became quite angry when she found it was me she was due to see.
In my response I used the phrase ‘perceived recism’, which I felt had been directed at me.
It went quiet after that.

21
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago

As the song said “There may be trouble ahead”. —-When you give more and more power to government this is where you end up. I have for years listened to an endless stream of politicians decare how “Progressive” they are. And who could possibly have a problem with that, after all isn’t “progressive” a really good thing? Who could object to “progress? ————–Except when it comes to politics “progressive” means progressing bit by bit to more power in the hands of government, and we all should know by now that the bigger the government the less the freedom. I urge all Scots (and I am one) to seriously have a think to themselves that the proper role of government is not to be some kind of morality police that decides what opinions we are all allowed to have. Or as C.S Lewis put it———“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

58
-1
D J
D J
1 year ago
Reply to  varmint

‘Cancer is progressive,’ is my usual response to that.

12
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago

I think we can foresee a predictable trend come April Fools ( how apt ) that there’ll be a significant hike in complaints from Transtifa and the Islamists ( sounds like a pub quiz team ), due to these two camps enjoying perma-victim status in society nowadays.
Shall we wait and see how long the queues get outside Ann Summers, Home Bargains, or wherever else has been registered as your ‘One stop grassing shop’ in Scotland, as snitches line up to whinge about being victims of ‘microaggressions’ or bent out of shape because a bloke in a dress was called “mister”.🤦‍♀️🙈

50
-1
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Well we can be absolutely sure that plod will no longer have the resources people to deal with real crimes so that’s alright then.

16
0
Hester
Hester
1 year ago

Note the MSM headlines today re “trolling” and the Royals, also blaming China and Russia, its always useful to bring “the enemy” in too. We must see this for what it is, Our Rulers want to bring in Censorship and woke blasphemy laws in the same vein as Canada, thus shutting down voices of dissent and of course the alternative media. The MSM are fully on board as theybelieve their power will be returned as the only voices of truth along with the edicts of our leaders.
Do not be fooled, recall the focus of the Billionaire boys club at DAVOS this year, and the biggest threat to humanity, not war, but disin/mal information as blabbed by Vond der Layen, Schwab etc. This is their play using the Royals, in a “look at these people they are kicking a Kitten, we must stop them” play. Do not be fooled resist and see it for what it is, the elites through the puppet politicians and secretarial MSM shutting up the proles.

62
0
Jonathan M
Jonathan M
1 year ago

The concept of “hate crimes” is nonsensical. The concept of a “non-crime hate incident” is off-the-scale bonkers.

62
0
psychedelia smith
psychedelia smith
1 year ago

We’re not just living in Clownworld, it’s the Stephen King version but with Brownshirts and Maoists.

26
-1
godknowsimgood
godknowsimgood
1 year ago

Who determines if something is a ‘hate incident (non-crime)’ or not?

Last edited 1 year ago by godknowsimgood
23
0
Miss Dolly
Miss Dolly
1 year ago
Reply to  godknowsimgood

The complainant.

33
0
Freddy Boy
Freddy Boy
1 year ago

Humza is carrying out the same destructive policy’s as his ROP mucker Khant in Old London Town !

7
-1
Freddy Boy
Freddy Boy
1 year ago

Also is Murdo related to Michael Portillo 😉

1
-1

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