“During the first edition in 2021, organized in three months, I opened the La Fleur au Rifle Congress Center. I was far from having anticipated the needs in terms of reception staff, security and logistics : I had never worked in events and I had no idea what to expect!”, remembers Willy Lafran, still amused by his inexperience at the time. This was his first experience in events. Fortunately, visitors seeing him running everywhere had offered their help and a team of volunteers was formed in real time to remedy the difficulties.
The first Critical Thinking Meetings (REC), a festival bringing together a community of a few hundred enthusiasts, fervent defenders of critical thinking, rationality and the fight against sectarian excesses, were saved, and even crowned with success. Since then, RECs have grown in size. Until becoming a must in this environment which brings together scientists, researchers, doctors, popularizers and passionate citizens.
Fighting obscurantism, extremism and populism
A few days before the 2024 edition (of which L’Express is a partner), which will take place on April 27 and 28 near Toulouse, Willy Lafran is still running. The Toulouse entrepreneur, father of two children and co-founder of a video game company, takes care of a large part of the organization himself: seeking funding, programming round tables and shows – some 150 speakers each year -, video recordings which will be broadcast on YouTube, catering, etc. Despite seemingly inexhaustible energy, he still learned his lesson and was able to surround himself with valuable support.
Firstly political, with the Sicoval urban community and the department of Haute-Garonne, the Ministry of Culture and the Occitanie region. “Elected officials must be active in the development of critical thinking: if we succeed in meeting this challenge in our territories, we will succeed more widely in the emancipation of our fellow citizens,” assures Jacques Oberti, president of Sicoval, who says “ fully aware of the major challenge represented by the incessant fight against obscurantism, extremism and populism”. Then scientists, with many names from the community of defenders of rationality and scientific integrity (Elisabeth Bik, Hervé Maisonneuve, Dominique Costagliola, Ghislaine Filliatreau, etc.), who agreed to come to the event, without forgetting all the volunteers who are driven, like him, by the desire to maintain a completely free, general public and family event.
“How are you sure this one is talking nonsense and the other isn’t, so you’re not a doctor?”
It’s one of his sons, then aged 10 – creator of the Zetup YouTube channel, dedicated to critical thinking – which partly inspired the idea. “One day, when I was giving my opinion on the skills of a visiting medical expert on TV, he asked me: ‘How are you sure that this one is talking nonsense and the other is not, so you “I’m not a doctor?’
The idea of RECs also dates back to his studies and courses in psychology. At the time, he read “all of Freud” thinking of arming himself intellectually. Surprise, his professor is a fierce critic of the discipline. Willy Lafran then seeks arguments from psychoanalysts on the Internet, then returns his professor’s counter-arguments to them… Until he creates serious enmities. “I will always remember this email from a furious psychoanalyst accusing me of anti-Semitism because I had criticized Bruno Bettelheim [NDLR : un psychanalyste de confession juive]who wrote to me after I had defended myself: “Intolerant against the filthy beast, even if it was in the unconscious of the one it animates”.
Since then, the one who describes himself as “a former I don’t care who believed without checking that we catch a cold, that mosquitoes are attracted by light or that alcohol warms you up”, maintains a passion for facts and scientific and medical information. “It is essential that everyone is aware that it is very easy to believe in false things and very difficult to break from them, he maintains. With the REC, I invite the public to come and question their own certainties around various subjects (science, citizenship, health, history, sociology, philosophy, art or paranormal) and I try to show that the excesses can be serious consequences: from progressive distancing from the medical circuit to refusal of care, from vague theories to deadly ideologies.
A festival open to all
Vaccines, naturopathy, homeopathy, pesticides, nuclear power: the subjects are fascinating and controversial. But there is no question of making the REC a sectarian festival. “I appreciate his position which consists of saying that all those who respect the framework of an argued debate can come and express themselves. Besides, I do not agree with certain round tables, and that is so much the better” , testifies Jean-Paul Krivine, editor-in-chief of the magazine Science and pseudoscience, a historic partner. “He asked me for advice during the first RECs and I appreciated that he was attentive, that he agreed to take on less obvious challenges, such as the creation of a ‘feminism and rationalism’ round table. or another on transidentity”, underlines Richard Monvoisin, doctor in science teaching at Grenoble Alpes University.
Although they have been rare, some controversies have nevertheless affected the event, including one last year. In question, improvised sketches of two speakers with criticized profiles. “This festival is a great initiative – in fact the academic world has had the same idea many times, without ever realizing it, mainly due to inertia – the quality is very good most of the time, but if it wants to continue to grow , we will have to be very vigilant about the content”, analyzes Richard Monvoisin. Aware of these difficulties, Willy Lafran has planned to set up a REC scientific council, which is in any case essential if he wants to carry out a future partnership with research institutes or faculties (such as Inserm, CNRS or the University of Toulouse).
In the meantime, he wants to duplicate the festival thanks to “Itinerant RECs” in other regions, or even other countries in Europe. It also develops “REC Pro”, formats intended for politicians and community agents. “Raising awareness and informing elected officials is a priority, they are the ones who vote on educational policies and finance associations,” he insists. A daunting task, as the failures of the Covid-19 crisis have illustrated.
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