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BHL used to have a lot of hair flowing out of his unbuttoned shirt. Mmm, looks like the hero is aging.
Anyway, and that’s the serious remark, before being a “philosopher”, he is the very wealthy heir of his father’s fortune. Various recent evaluations range from 120M and 150M Euros and his main occupation is to manage various family holdings such as BPL Finances. So far, so fine. What is unusual is that he has dedicated a part of this fortune to build his public persona and groom his ego. And that and that alone explains why BHL has become a “prominent” voice among French “intellectuals” since the late seventies. BHL has sold himself as a major intellectual without having ever produced any substantial work in the area of philosophy.
He is largely considered as a mere fraud in France, and always was considered as such by people like Pierre Vidal-Naquet or Gilles Deleuze. With quite a bit of cruelty, Pierre Bourdieu used to call him a “fast-thinker”, a McDonald of philosophy. His opinions and works are negligible and don’t deserve Salon’s attention.
There is a lot to say and write about anti-Americanism in France but, don’t worry, not a word worth reading has been or will be written by BHL. Sorry to see Salon loosing its time with this buffoon.
