Aldrick Allal Core Values Aldrick Allal
Loyalty, an Essential Virtue
I am loyal. That means I give my commitments a central place in my life. When I decide to take part in an endeavor, to follow someone, to create, I put my heart and soul into it. Quite simply, I see it through to the end.
Loyalty is therefore an embodied, lived and foundational virtue.
It immediately gives rise to a sense of duty—or rather, to duty as an imperative. Sometimes those close to me worry about my total commitment, because honoring one’s commitments takes time, requires considerable selflessness and a keen sense of service.
Someone who keeps their word and does not give up always comes as a surprise in our individualistic society.
For example, when François Fillon comes under attack in the middle of the presidential campaign and is then placed under formal investigation, we all knew the campaign was lost. Many of us deserted to avoid being caught up in the rout, or to join Emmanuel Macron’s team.
In my case, the question never even arose. I stayed with him to the end. I organized the nationwide Education Tour and carried on until defeat. Running away or changing sides never even crossed my mind.
Aldrick Allal – May 14, 2019
Audacity, a Vital Force
Comfortably sustained by familiar clichés, every French person remembers: “Idiots will dare anything. That is how you recognize them.”
I share this obvious truth with Michel Audiard, but with a little more “delicacy,” since I am no Lino Ventura. I would say that audacious people are often taken for idiots because they create instability and uncertainty.
Whenever someone does something unexpected, such as speaking to a stranger in the street or speaking up at a conference, we feel uneasy. We are uncomfortable because that person has disturbed the established order and the tranquil course of things.
Audacity is part of a very clear creative process. Breaking with what is expected and writing a different future. Audacity is a feature of the process that keeps me alive; to exist, I must bring about what does not yet belong to reality. Creation is an outrageous act of audacity; human beings dare to rival natural history; they bring the unknown into being.
Audacity is my energy, my vital force; without it, I can build nothing, construct nothing.
Audacious people surprise us; they inspire fear and distrust. What a shame! Without them, life would exhaust itself in lackluster renewal.
I have so many examples to give that choosing one is no easy matter.
When, at 25, with 13,000 francs in my pocket (2,000 euros), I decide to create my first school, finding premises I could not afford, doing the administrative work and the cleaning as well as the teaching, and handing out flyers myself outside high schools, I think that qualifies as audacity.
Aldrick Allal – May 17, 2019
Courage, at the Heart of Action
Courage is a driving force. To show courage is to yield to the irresistible desire to surpass oneself. I am courageous because I sense that this frightening situation, which I imagine will be as demanding as I could wish, will nourish me. I feed on the fear that ought to paralyze me. To be courageous is to accept the unknown and desire risk. There is always a way to avoid confrontation and evade one’s destiny.
Courage is not invented; it is cultivated. Courage is not proclaimed; it is proved.
Courage is often imagined as an innate virtue bestowed on some people, in contrast to others who are weaker and less fortunate.
That is not so; everyone can be courageous. Courage is not the opposite of fear; a courageous person is afraid, and that is precisely what makes them courageous: they master their fear, choosing action and movement over the paralysis of terror.
When Jean Moulin organizes the various French Resistance groups, he knows the risk is great; when he brings the Resistance leaders together, he knows the Gestapo could appear at any moment. He has seen his comrades fall into German hands; he is ignorant neither of the suffering endured under torture nor of the fatal outcome that would inexorably await him.
Jean Moulin acts; he does not pause to question. Jean Moulin will be tortured to death without giving a single name, though he knows them all. Courage to his last breath.
Aldrick Allal – May 24, 2019
Humanism
What a beautiful ambition: to make human beings “better” at being human. Humanism is a temptation.
Astonished by human weakness and dazzled by human greatness, I have a beautiful and noble desire: I want to do still better. I tell myself that a human being is a living energy that must be guided.
Educated, a person thinks better; developed, their body acts better; enlightened, their moral judgment is sounder; loved, their heart expresses itself better.
Humanism is a movement that encourages human cultivation. Humanism means learning and thinking: Sapere aude! Dare to use your own understanding. Live as a reasoning human being while accepting your animal body.
But humanism demands effort. We must work at becoming better human beings. We must read, go to the theater, steep ourselves in rational thought. To that end, it is hard to do without the teachings of those who came before us.
Yet schoolchildren and students, like us at their age, have little appreciation for the teachings of our old Western culture, which lie “outside their world.” The disconnect is stark.
When we are young, we want to try things. To our parents’ despair, action comes with a worrying, if not dangerous, recklessness. Young people struggle to accept lessons from a world they regard as old and dirty.
It is therefore no easy task to turn humanism into a “program.” From Rabelais to Stalin, many educational programs have been proposed and tried. Nothing survives. The world renews itself, disregarding intelligent proposals (Rabelais) just as readily as the straitjacket of stupidity (Stalin).
What can we do if young people “will not listen”? How can we speak of humanism if elders are not respected? How can we champion Western culture, which, despite everything, embodies humanism, when at 20 we lament the disorder of the world and the hatred that stirs humanity?
Sapere aude! Again and always, we need courage and we must act, for there is a path that is demanding and idealistic, yet reasonable.
We who are already the elders, the members of the old society: let us be humanists!
Let us seek harmony, find balance, love culture, shape our bodies, show the way and inspire the world with a beautiful, living humanism. Whatever our age, let us learn and cultivate ourselves!
Our children will follow us through imitation. Young people will be unable to help being inspired by our humanism.
When we are young, we learn by copying our elders. When we are young, we draw nourishment directly from our surroundings. Nothing escapes the under-20s, even when they are denied everything…
The true humanist project is to make every woman and every man a model of virtue. To achieve this, let us demand of others only what we ourselves are capable of doing.
The mission falls to us: we are the role models; let us inspire our children.
Aldrick Allal – May 26, 2019
