WEBVTT 00:02.466 --> 00:04.566 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% JUDY WOODRUFF: Protesters took to the streets of Paris and other French cities this weekend, 00:04.566 --> 00:09.500 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% asking why billionaires and the government have rushed to the aid of the Notre Dame Cathedral 00:11.500 --> 00:14.733 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% after its terrible fire, while millions of ordinary French citizens are being squeezed 00:15.333 --> 00:17.433 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% economically. 00:17.433 --> 00:21.733 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Income inequality is just one issue that may gain momentum in the aftermath of the fire. 00:23.800 --> 00:28.100 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% Stephane Gerson is the English-language editor of "France in the World: A New Global History." 00:30.066 --> 00:34.333 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% In his Humble Opinion, the fire that ravaged Notre Dame should force us all to take a look 00:35.233 --> 00:37.400 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% at our other human-made crises. 00:37.400 --> 00:40.533 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% STEPHANE GERSON, Institute of French Studies, NYU: This past Monday, my son sent me a text 00:40.533 --> 00:43.100 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% that read simply: "Notre Dame." 00:43.100 --> 00:44.333 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% I didn't know what he meant. 00:44.333 --> 00:46.300 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% So he wrote again: "It's on fire. 00:46.300 --> 00:48.400 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% Terrible." 00:48.400 --> 00:52.266 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% I turned on the TV and saw the cathedral burn, the spire collapse, the roof crash down. 00:53.700 --> 00:57.333 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% I watched Parisians and others cry along the Seine. 00:57.333 --> 01:02.300 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% For a while, I thought of moments in French history that involved the cathedral, 1287, 01:04.600 --> 01:07.400 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% the masons of Notre Dame traveling across Europe to show their excellence in stonecutting, 01:07.400 --> 01:12.400 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% or August 1944, Charles de Gaulle coming under sniper fire inside Notre Dame. 01:13.833 --> 01:16.266 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% This is what historians do in moments like these. 01:16.266 --> 01:17.966 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% We go to the past. 01:17.966 --> 01:22.000 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% But that night, I also thought about our present and our future. 01:22.000 --> 01:26.266 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% We are horrified because Notre Dame is the most poignant reminder in this brittle age 01:26.266 --> 01:31.000 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% of ours, this age of accelerating climate change and mass displacement, that nothing 01:31.000 --> 01:32.666 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% is eternal. 01:32.666 --> 01:35.300 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Hasn't Notre Dame always been with us? 01:35.300 --> 01:40.300 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Hasn't it always stood strong, stone rising into the skies, tower standing guard, its 01:40.300 --> 01:43.733 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% spire inviting us to aim for something higher? 01:43.733 --> 01:47.433 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% Monuments such as these enter our collective heritage. 01:47.433 --> 01:51.166 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% The mythic cathedral is eternal and indestructible. 01:51.166 --> 01:53.466 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% We are eternal and indestructible. 01:53.466 --> 01:58.300 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% But, no, look, Notre Dame is burning. 01:58.300 --> 02:00.333 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% The spire is collapsing. 02:00.333 --> 02:04.966 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% The roof is crashing down, unless it is our roof, our collective roof that is crashing 02:06.100 --> 02:08.133 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% down. 02:08.133 --> 02:12.100 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% A century ago exactly, in 1919, the writer Paul Valery provided reflected on the massive 02:13.500 --> 02:15.500 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% destruction science had wrought during World War I. 02:15.500 --> 02:19.700 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% "We civilizations," he wrote "now know that we are mortal. 02:19.700 --> 02:24.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Valery was telling us that our civilization can precipitate its own undoing. 02:25.566 --> 02:28.033 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% His warning is not mere history. 02:28.033 --> 02:30.100 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% We watched a cathedral burn. 02:30.100 --> 02:34.066 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And though we know that cathedrals can rebuilt, we feel something deeper. 02:34.066 --> 02:39.066 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Could it be the premonition that some disasters, some fires are so incandescent that nothing 02:40.233 --> 02:43.600 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% remains afterwards, not even civilization? 02:43.600 --> 02:47.766 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% There is a theory that disasters can shake the status quo. 02:47.766 --> 02:52.733 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% By suspending the usual order, by displaying its failures, they can open up new solidarities 02:55.300 --> 02:58.333 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% and maybe, in this case, collective responses to environmental destruction and forced migration. 03:00.433 --> 03:05.400 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% The emotions we experienced before a shared ordeal, shock and sorrow, empathy, immersion 03:07.333 --> 03:11.433 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% in the moment, can bring us together around a vision of the common good. 03:13.466 --> 03:16.766 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% I had been skeptical about this theory in the past, but the emotion we felt watching 03:16.766 --> 03:21.766 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% the cathedral burn, the emotion we felt imagining a world burning, might this emotion then allow 03:24.100 --> 03:27.566 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% us to avert further destruction, to work together towards a different future, not only for the 03:28.800 --> 03:31.100 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% cathedral, but also for human civilization? 03:31.100 --> 03:34.866 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% "Notre Dame, it's on fire. 03:34.866 --> 03:36.900 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% Terrible." 03:36.900 --> 03:41.633 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% As I reread my son's texts, I have to hope that this time will be different. 03:41.633 --> 03:45.366 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% JUDY WOODRUFF: French historian Stephane Gerson.