L’instant n’est pas le hochet du bonheur. C’est beaucoup plus qu’un fruit à cueillir : une porte ouverte sur un absolument autre, sur un entièrement nouveau que pourtant je reconnais. Un basculement imprévu dans un mystère qui m’est à la fois étranger et familier. À l’évidence, l’instant me désigne quelque chose, m’invite à aller plus oultre. En repliant ses ailes sur le sentiment qu’il me révèle, je le trahis. Non qu’il se cache au-delà de ce sentiment : il s’y tient tout entier, au contraire, mais comme invitation, comme proposition. Ce qu’il désigne, je l’ignore ; mais je sais qu’il désigne. Rien en lui à décrypter, à utiliser. La puissance dont il est porteur est une invitation à contempler, à espérer ; la jeter dans le cabas de l’expérience, la peser sur la balance des plaisirs, c’est la faire s’évanouir. L’instant s’offre en appelant. Il se rapporte à un commencement absolu, proclame un commencement absolu. Vivre un instant comme s’il était le dernier, c’est le prendre à contresens ; ce contresens, plus lugubre que la mort, est la seule mort que nous puissions réellement rencontrer. Chaque instant est nécessairement le premier, même et surtout le dernier.

(in Le Marché, XXXV)

Jean Sur poste régulièrement ses carnets sur son site Résurgences. J’aime suivre ses réflexions aïgues et souvent amères sur notre société. Je m’y perds bien souvent, un peu déconcerté par le langage et surtout les idées —mais, et c’est remarquable, jamais sans le sourire. Les grands penseurs perchés au nez relevé m’ennuient. Jean Sur a la grandeur du philosophe sans piédéstral.

• that you can fight terror with war
• that wars are winnable
• that we lock animals for their lifetime in cages just for the pleasure of gazing at them
• that talking about one’s mistakes is the surest way to end one’s public career
• that one piece of paper given at birth determines most of our freedoms in life,

and it would not be a bitter smile, but a sincere, joyful burst of laughter, because these ideas would sound so extraordinarily absurd that it would be the only sincere answer.

And this world, we work hard not to create it, since our children know none of our curious axioms, and we train them and ourselves daily to erase this laughter.

• Kevin Kelly rightly insists on the intrinsic copying nature of the Internet, and explains how economic value can be derived from copyable things. It’s a clear, well thought-out article.
• The Steal This Film II movie was very enjoyable. The makers have quit the pirate-talk and made a fine, intelligent documentary which will reach out to more than just p2p enthusiasts. Highlight quote from the movie: “Music did not start with recordings, it will not end with filesharing”.
• Finally, and by far the most significant discovery: Eben Moglen on Anarchism Triumphant: Free Software and the Death of Copyright. I found the text extraordinarily powerful. Moglen writes with a strength, confidence and eloquence that were breath-taking and delighted both the free software advocate, and the curious occasional reader in me.

Rather than predict things for 2008, I had rather quietly look back what I can still distinguish with my lantern. So here are things learned in 2007.

One

That when we don’t succeed in something, it’s because we don’t want to. Our national train company in France doesn’t really want to run our trains on time –because if it did, it would. I don’t succeed in letting go of some responsibilities, tasks and constraints, because I don’t really want to. When I cannot find the time and peace to sit down and read a book… when I don’t feel truly happy… when I don’t complete things… it’s all because of not, simply, but truly, wanting to.
Wanting things is difficult. But that’s all it really takes.

Two

That there is nothing that we are here to do. None of us has any duty of doing anything in particular. We don’t have to act, or speak, or share, or shine.
The world will never judge. It is simply here solely for us to shine.

And also

That old rusty bicycles are beautiful – what sitting in a cockpit during a whole flight feels like – how not to repair a computer screen – how a gas heating system and its plumbing work – that some burglars really are stupid – that kiting barefoot is enormous fun – and that there is no thing as pleasurable as re-discovering things.