Michel Onfray is an unusual character in every sense of the word. He taught philosophy in a high school for twenty years until 2002 when, revolted by the way all thinking is expected to conform to established ideology in today’s world, he resigned the post and opened his own People’s University in the city of Caen in northern France.
This institution is free for students; but at the same time, in order to remain independent, Onfray refuses to accept financing by the ministry of education or any other government organisation. All the expenses of People’s University are met by the revenues earned through the sale of his own books and essays not only on philosophy but on politics as well, not to speak of his poetry eagerly published by many literary magazines. Today only at age 59, he is the author of more than a hundred such works that were all sold successfully.
Prof. Onfray is currently at the centre of a huge nation-wide wrangle that involves President Emmanuel Macron who had proclaimed at the beginning of his term that he would not just be a simple leader but will be a modern day Jupiter, referring to the Roman mythological god who ruled over the earth, the sky and over all the other gods.
Taking part in a TV discussion last Sunday Prof. Michel Onfray referred to the jupiterianism of Macron and read out his own letter to the President that he had posted two days earlier.