Bernard Charbonneau
Bernard Charbonneau (November 28, 1910 – April 28, 1996) was a French writer who authored about twenty books and numerous articles, published in La Gueule Ouverte, Foi et Vie, La République des Pyrénées. An apolitical and independent thinker, he is considered to be a major inspiration for the various French ecological movements. His name is regularly mentioned by French academics. as well French green party leaders. The underlying idea inspiring his books and articles is that "the link that attaches individual persons to society is so strong that, even in the so called 'individualistic society', people struggle to exercise the critical thinking needed to resist mass trends, and end up readily consenting to the annihilation of what they cherish most: their freedom". In the 1930s, he associates economic development to a form of dictatorship and becomes recognized as a pioneer in political ecology. Skeptical about all forms of partisanship, including in the area of ecology, he lays out the foundation of a new type of society based on personal experience, in rupture with 20th century most accepted ideologies. He shares many of the personalist views of his six decade old friend Jacques Ellul regarding technological progress, which they mostly see as a source of conformism and a threat to freedom. Charbonneau was born in Bordeaux in 1910 to a bourgeois family from Lot et Garonne. His father was Protestant and his mother Catholic. The life in a large city quickly made Young Charbonneau feel oppressed. From his own admission, he was an average student. He obtained a baccalaureat in French literature and attended the University of Bordeaux to study history and geography. At the age of 24, he started his teaching career and received agrégation the following year. At the end of World War II, he preferred to leave town and settle in the countryside, skipping the opportunity to further his academic achievements in a large city. He accepted a teaching position in a small normal school in Lescar, near Pau, in the Pre-Pyrenees (currently Lycee Jacques Monod).
