Of French, Russian and Georgian origin, Alexandre Dianine-Havard has lived in Moscow for fifteen years.
A graduate in law, he first worked as a lawyer in France and then in Finland, before devoting himself to the development and teaching of the system of Virtuous Leadership : an approach to leadership based on the science of virtue(aretology) developed by the ancient Greeks, and intended to bring out a new generation of leaders able to “bring out the beauty of life and the family, promote a fair economy and put the human being at the center”.
“I gave up my job as a lawyer to devote myself to things that I think are more important. What helped me a lot was that I had a philosophical training parallel to my training as a lawyer. I was able to get into anthropology, into leadership, deep, concrete things that can help young people find meaning in their work, in their life, in their existence. »
“Leadership is a moral activity, it is an activity that involves a vision of greatness and a desire to serve the other. Leadership absolutely does not depend on our position in society. Everyone is called to leadership. Leadership is about growing by making others grow. »
For Alexandre Dianine-Havard, two virtues are at the heart of virtuous leadership: magnanimity – the virtue of those who strive for great things – and humility – the virtue of those who know themselves and serve others.
Two virtues which represent “an ideal of life” and which allow human beings to strive for excellence.
“Magnanimity is the dream of grandeur and the effort to transform this dream into a mission, into concrete reality. The magnanimous is a person who is both a philosopher and a man of action. It is not easy to articulate these two things at the same time, because we all have, by biological temperament, a tendency either to contemplation or to action. The magnanimous is a person who has both. He is both contemplative and actor. He is not only there to think, he thinks deeply, he likes to contemplate, but he constantly transforms his dream into a mission, immediately. »
“Humility is the virtue of those who live in the truth about themselves. There are two aspects to humility. The truth about myself, I have talents and strengths, but I also have weaknesses, and I must see both to live in the truth about myself. But humility is also the virtue of service, the virtue of service to others. »
During our interview, Alexandre Dianine-Havard evoked the great challenges with which our civilization is, according to him, confronted, depicting in particular a society populated by pusillanimous and irresolute beings, in search of comfort and artificial pleasures, slaves of their desires and of their passions, where virtue, transcendence and altruism have given way to relativism, consumerism and individualism.
“I think the main problem is an anthropological problem, we don’t know what man is anymore. The principles of human nature no longer exist. It is subjectivism, total individualism at all levels. »
“There is no more ratio, no more logos, no more dialogue, no more objective truth. He stays the senses, sentimentality, emotionality. And people who want power, the thirst for power. »
“People no longer have any point of reference, it’s the most absolute confusion. In liberal ideology, words are used that mean exactly the opposite, and many people do not realize this. We live the Orwellian system. At Orwell, people no longer even realize that they are in totalitarianism. This is the strength of modern totalitarianism,” adds Alexandre Dianine-Havard.
While some intellectuals are worried about the rise of the current of transhumanist thought in society, a fear that has been reinforced by the health crisis where science and medicine have played a central role in the organization of our societies, Alexandre Dianine-Havard believes that the transhumanist ideology and the desire for immortality that it carries is a reflection of the excessive pride and greed of some of our contemporaries, the desire to create an augmented man, freed from its biological limits, going against the principles of human nature.
“The problem with transhumanism is that it carries within it the principle of its own negation. He says human life is the end goal. »
“Life is not an end in itself. There are things worth dying for. There are ideas, realities that are worth dying for. There are things which are above life: it is Truth, it is Good, it is Love, it is Beauty. My life must be subordinated to these things. There are things that are bigger than me. My life has meaning only insofar as it is at the service of those things which are above me”, observes Alexandre Dianine-Havard.
Inspired by the life and writings of the famous Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the founder of the Virtuous Leadership system returned to the speech delivered by the Russian writer at Harvard University in 1978, in which the author of The Gulag Archipelago castigates the decline of courage among Western intellectuals and the rejection of all spirituality in favor of a purely legalistic conception of life.
“Western civilization places too much faith in the law. We think that with the law we can solve all the problems, because we solve the problem of the institutions. But the law does not solve the human problem. If, in the institutions, we have individuals who are not human beings in the proper sense of the term, because they do not respect the principles of human nature, we end up with a hidden totalitarianism much more dangerous than a totalitarianism unmasked”, emphasizes Alexandre Dianine-Havard.
According to him, many of the difficulties we face are only a reflection of the chaos that now reigns in the hearts of human beings.
“All the social disasters that occur today are only the reflection of people’s inner disasters. Individuals experience real inner disasters, because society no longer gives them what they really need to breathe. Outer disasters are only the manifestation of inner chaos human being. This whole legal facade that we call democracy will soon crumble completely, and we will see the reality with our own eyes. This reality is the chaos that reigns in people’s hearts because they have ceased to be men. We cease to be men because we no longer believe in humanity, we no longer believe in the principles of human nature and we live in a kind of legal democracy which seems to protect us from all that. But a day will come when all this facade will crumble, and we will be in front of ourselves. And there will be horror. »
“A lot of people think they’re superb, they’re remarkable, they’re democrats, they’re in love with humanity, they’re great humanists. And the day they face themselves, they realize it’s a masquerade. It has nothing to do with the truth about themselves. They will crumble and it will take a very special grace for these people to be able to ask for forgiveness. […] They are going to have terrible times, because this is the moment of truth, ”continues the author of the book. Created for greatness.
For Alexandre Dianine-Havard, the troubled times we live in today are nevertheless an opportunity to reconnect with our deep nature and to elevate our conception of life.
“We had Covid, now we have war, maybe an economic crisis. Anything can happen at any time and much faster than you think. The most terrible things can happen to us, but we must take this reality as an extraordinary opportunity for greatness, an opportunity to develop virtues and make an effort for personal transformation. Now is the time to act. »
Find the full analysis of Alexandre Dianine-Havard in the video.
“This whole facade that we call democracy will soon crumble” – Alexandre Dianine-Havard