Tahar Ben Jelloun was awarded Le Prix Goncourt in 1987. He is also the author of six books and 10 novels, including L'Enfant de Sable, Le Nuit Sacree and L'Homme Rompu. The author is also a member of the Haut Conseil de la Francophonie. When critical thinking is abandoned, leaving the field open to all sorts of extravagance, when doubt absents itself, man relinquishes his status as an individual and melts into the crowd to become but a negligible element, stifled and unrecognized.
Dialogue becomes impossible.
Ideological extremism of a religious or political nature, or both together, includes the refusal of any kind of dialogue. Society is viewed as a monolithic bloc with all its exits sealed in advance, for it senses danger, a threat emanating from outside communicated by those elements of society that have strayed away. It is laughter that creates the necessary cracks in all construction. Not only is it peculiar to man, but it is the special attribute of the man who is free. The use of humor signifies a questioning of the self, the appearance of a less tense face of despair.