You have written the preface that Joly merits, he who exactly summarized the experience of his century.[1] The current period of "plebiscites on Europe"[2] shows that one no longer needs a "single party" when the opposition has become so loyal to unquestionable values. The unbelievable anti-France [sentiment] that threatens to vote "No" is obviously composed of an odd crowd of fearful and cunning manipulators, out-of-date cretins ready to have us risk falling back "into the 19th century and perhaps even the 18th" -- terrifying barbarity -- and thus they are pure nihilists at heart!
The strongest and exactly the most modern argument you advance [in your preface] is this: "The Dialogue in Hell wasn't recently rescued from oblivion to demonstrate the falsity of the Protocols . . . On the contrary, it is the mediatic-police operation of the Protocols that proves the truth of Maurice Joly."
In the same spirit, it is very good to date Masperization[3] as far back as the Second Empire. The anecdotal Maspero might seem to be a dishonest publisher, a jealous Leftist working for his shop. In fact, he was a friend of the FLN and Castro, and the enemy of the insurgents of 1956 in Hungary; quite simply, he worked for the modern State or for "Europe," as one would say today.
I believe that one or the other camp, in this divided society, can steal or divert, according to the relations of force of the moment, but of course Capital and the State do so much more often and in much greater proportions. But one can assuredly see that it is this very camp that ordinarily recuperates, falsifies and Masperizes.
Bravo for the notice that concerns The Times of AIDS: it is of a even more terrible clarity.
In the process of correcting the proofs for two books.[4] I am still engaged in many projects, the rhythm of which appears to be accelerating.
Furthermore, I have had a painful relapse of the gout, the first in many years. My blood pressure is 16.11 and 11.
Best wishes[1] Preface to a new edition of the book by Maurice Joly.
[2] Translator's note: voting on membership in the European Union.
[3] Translator's note: Debord's attempt at rendering the French equivalent of Bowdlerisation.
[4] Translator's note: re-publication of Debord's books, The Society of the Spectacle and Comments on the Society of the Spectacle.
(Published in Guy Debord Correspondance, Vol 7: Janvier 1988-Novembre 1994 by Librairie Artheme Fayard, 2008. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! June 2009. Footnotes by the publisher, except where noted.)