Magdalena Brzezinska

Johannes Niemeier

Yannik Louven

Nicolas Keller

Regina Palkovits

Agnieszka M Ruppert
email: agnieszka.ruppert@p.lodz.pl

TiO 2 supported Ru catalysts for the hydrogenation of succinic acid: influence of the support

Introduction

Succinic acid (SA) is one of the most important platform building blocks which can be applied in future biorefinery schemes. It has numerous applications and can notably be used as a "green" and non-toxic source of C4 chemicals such as γbutyrolactone (GBL), 1,4-butanediol (BDO) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) (Scheme 1). GBL is a high value chemical with an annual production reaching 250 000 t, that is widely used as a solvent as well as a starting material for the synthesis of Nmethylpyrrolidone and of other pyrrolidones. BDO is used in the production of various polymers and of elastic fibres, such as polyterephthalates and polyurethanes, while THF is mainly used as a green solvent and substrate in the production of polytetramethylene ether glycol and of other polymer-based materials (e.g. Spandex). 1 Whereas succinic acid has traditionally been produced from petroleum-based feedstock, nowadays it can however be efficiently obtained via a more environmentally friendly pathway, namely through processes based on the fermentation of biomass-derived sugars. 2 In those processes, succinic acid is obtained dissolved in aqueous phase. To avoid the energy-intense separation from water and facilitate integration along the chemical value chain, the search for heterogeneous catalysts which are stable in water is highly desired.

In the last decade, different catalysts, mostly based on metals like Pd, Ru, Pt, Re or Cu, were investigated in this process, 3,4 and several studies concentrated on Pd-based catalysts. Zhang et al. identified the Pd dispersion as a key factor responsible for high selectivity towards GBL (98%) obtained on Pd/AlOOH catalysts. They combined theoretical investigation and experimental data concluding that single Pd atoms are responsible for the high catalytic performance. 5 Uniform, highly dispersed Pd nanoclusters supported on amino-functionalized silica spheres were also considered as active species responsible for the high GBL yield in the work of You et al. The role of the support was mainly related to the improved dispersion which enhanced the activity. 6 Similarly, Song's group highlighted dispersion as a key-factor allowing to reach a high selectivity in the case of mesoporous composite Pd-based catalysts. 7 Despite the significant focus on other metals, ruthenium was recognized in several works as the most active metal in this reaction. Its high activity was, however, often associated with a poor selectivity towards GBL. By comparing the activity of different metals (Pd, Pt, Rh, Ru) supported on carbon, Luque et al. have found that, although the Ru/C catalyst led to the highest conversion, THF was the main product instead of the highly valuable GBL. 3 The selectivity towards GBL obtained with Ru catalysts can be significantly improved when doping by Re. The synergetic effect obtained through the Re-Ru association allowed to increase the selectivity to GBL, and the catalyst strongly outperformed the analogous Pd-Re bimetallic system that This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx

Please do not adjust margins Please do not adjust margins requires a much longer reaction time for achieving comparable selectivity. 8 A similar effect can also be obtained through the addition of Co to the Ru catalyst, and the existence of new Co-Ru interactions allowed to significantly decrease the time necessary to achieve full succinic acid conversion from 7 h to 2 h for a reaction conducted in a dioxane-rich water solvent (15:1) at 250°C under 103.5 bar of H2. 9 Despite a significant literature input devoted to the influence of metal dopants, there is only limited information concerning the influence of the support nature and properties on the catalytic activity in the hydrogenation of SA.

A direct effect of the support was reported by Chung et al. for mesoporous structured materials. In comparison to the MCM support, the incorporation of smaller Pd clusters within the SBA channels was proposed to directly result from the intrinsic structure of the SBA material, and to be responsible for the activity boost and the formation of cyclic products like GBL and THF. 10 The Corma's group investigated the influence of both the support nature and the metal nanoparticle size on the catalytic activity in biomass-derived dicarboxylic acid hydrogenation. The authors reported that Ru/TiO2 showed better catalytic performance than Ru/C or Ru/CeO2 catalysts. Furthermore, the metal loading was optimized for the applied reaction conditions, a catalyst with a lower Ru content (0.64%) being more active in the carboxylic acid hydrogenation than those with higher metal contents (up to 5%). 11 Later on, the group of Pinel demonstrated that both the titania support nature and the preparation method impacted on the activity of Pd/TiO2 catalysts. The authors showed that the deposition-precipitation method provided the most active catalysts independently of the titania support used. The highest conversion was observed for anatase-supported samples and was ascribed mainly to the good dispersion of the metal, whereas far lower conversions were obtained using a mixed phase anatase/rutile TiO2-P25 support. In contrast, no difference was observed in terms of selectivity pattern. Succinic acid was transformed firstly to GBL, which was further hydrogenated to BDO and THF, but only after reaching almost full conversion of SA. 12 In another study, the same group evaluated two different titania materials as supports for Pd-Re catalysts, and suggested the enhanced dispersion of the metals as the key-factor responsible for the improved activity obtained for the anatase supported Pd-Re catalysts. 8,13,14 We recently showed however that not only the metal dispersion was responsible for reaching high levels of conversion on TiO2 supported Ru catalysts. In the case of the hydrogenation of levulinic acid to γ-valerolactone in water as a solvent, the co-existence of both anatase and rutile polymorphs within the support was crucial. In addition, the interaction of the Ru nanoparticles to the anatase and rutile phases was reported to be of different character, and was proposed to significantly impact the catalytic performance. 15 In the current work, we studied the influence of the titania support nature on both the activity of Ru/TiO2 catalysts and the selectivity pattern in the hydrogenation of succinic acid. We especially focused on the metal-support interaction, the crystallographic structure of the TiO2 support and the mean Ru particle size, as well as on the influence of the catalyst preparation method on the its performance.

Experimental TiO2 supports

Different TiO2 materials were used as supports. Rutileanatase mixed-phase Aeroxide® TiO2 P25 and P90 were delivered by Evonik-Degussa, and are further denoted as P25 and P90, respectively. Pure anatase-phase Hombikat UV100 was delivered by Sachtleben Chemie GmbH, and used as-is or after a calcination in static air at 500°C for 3 h (labeled as UV100 and UV100C, respectively).

Pure anatase-phase TiO2, labeled as Anatase-P, was prepared via a sol-gel method in basic conditions with a final calcination at 500°C in static air, using a titanium tetraisopropoxide ethanolic solution as precursor and ammonia as a pH-adjusting agent, as detailed in 16 .

Pure rutile-phase TiO2, further denoted as Rutile, was synthesized as described in the literature 17 , through the controlled aging at room temperature of an anatase hydrosol derived from the hydrolysis of titanium isopropoxide in a hydrochloric acid aqueous solution in the presence of polyethyleneglycol porogen. After drying, the sample was submitted to a final calcination in flowing air (20 ml/min) at 500°C for 2 h (heating rate of 2°C/min).

Catalyst preparation

Ru/TiO2 catalysts with 1 wt.% metal loading were prepared via different impregnation methods. P25-, P90-, UV100-, UV100C-and rutile-supported catalysts were prepared by wet impregnation of the supports with Ru(acac)3 (Sigma-Aldrich, 97%) methanolic solutions. After aging and evaporation of the solvent excess, the solid was dried at 120°C for 2 h, calcined in static air at 200°C for 2 h and finally submitted to a reductive treatment at the same temperature in hydrogen flow (60 ml/min) for 1 h.

Ru/TiO2 catalyst was also prepared using the UV100 support through the chemical reduction of ruthenium(III) nitrosyl nitrate (Adrich, 99.99%) using NaBH4 (Sigma-Aldrich, 99%) as a reductive agent. The aqueous suspension of the titania support was stirred for 1 h in presence of Ru(NO)(NO3)3, before a threefold molar excess of NaBH4 was added. After stirring for 15 min, the catalyst was further washed with deionized water and dried at 120°C for 2h. This sample was further labeled as UV100-CR.

Furthermore, in the case of the Anatase-P support, a Ru/TiO2 catalyst was prepared via a solar light-photoassisted synthesis method using Ru(acac)3 as precursor as described in the literature 18,19 . It involved the controlled irradiation with simulated solar light for 3 h of a water-methanol TiO2 suspension in the presence of the Ru precursor, by taking advantage of the solar light-induced properties developed by the TiO2 surface for reducing the Ru precursor adsorbed at the support surface into metallic Ru. After filtration and washing Please do not adjust margins Please do not adjust margins with deionized water, the catalyst was dried at 100°C before being used as-is without any final reductive treatment.

Material characterization

XRD measurements were carried out on a D8 Advance Bruker diffractometer in a θ/θ mode and using the Kα1 radiation of Cu at 1.5406Å. The mean TiO2 crystallite size, i.e. the average size of the coherently diffracting domains, was determined from the Scherrer equation with the usual assumption of spherical crystallites. The TiO2 materials are characterized by their percentage of rutile phase obtained on pure rutile and on P25 containing 20% of rutile phase, the phase composition corresponding to the composition within the crystallized TiO2 phases (without considering the content of amorphous TiO2).

Surface area and porosimetry measurements were carried out on ASAP2010 Micromeritics using N2 as adsorbant at -196°C, with a prior outgassing at 200°C for 3 h in order to desorb the impurities or moisture. BET specific surface area was calculated from the nitrogen adsorption isotherm and the micropore surface area was derived using the t-plot method.

TEM measurements were conducted to measure particle size. TEM JEOL 2010 and JEOL 2100 microscopes operating at 200 kV equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray detector were used. The average Ru nanoparticle size was defined as usually :

𝑑 = ∑ 𝑛 % 𝑑 % & ' %() ∑ 𝑛 % 𝑑 % * ' %()
ni and di being the number and the diameter of the Ru particles in each particle fraction, respectively, and N the total number of particles measured (over 300 whatever the sample).

TPR measurements were carried out on an AMI1 system from Altamira Instruments, equipped with a thermal conductivity detector, and were performed for investigating the catalyst reducibility. Before the measurement, the calcined catalysts were pre-treated with an O2/Ar (2:98 v/v) flow for 30 min at 200°C with heating rate of 10°C/min, and further submitted to a H2/Ar (5:95 v/v) flow at a weight hourly space velocity of 0.161 h -1 .

CO adsorption/desorption measurements were carried out with a Nicolet 6700 FTIR spectrometer equipped with MCT detector made by Thermo Scientific, using a transmission cell. All spectra were recorded in a wavenumber range of 2300-1700 cm -1 , with a scan number of 64 and a spectral resolution set at 4 cm -1 . Before the measurement, the samples were first reduced following the same procedure used to prepare the catalysts. After reduction, the samples were cooled down to 40°C in Ar, before the CO sorption was performed for 20 min and the spectra were collected every 5 min. The CO desorption occurred through a purge with pure Ar for 20 min, and the spectra were collected every 2 min. Gas flow was set at 20 ml/min.

Catalytic activity tests

In a typical succinic acid hydrogenation experiment, 1 g of succinic acid, 0.3 g of a catalyst and 10 ml of water were combined in a 50 ml stainless steel autoclave, equipped with a teflon insert. The reactor was pressurized with hydrogen to 50 bar and the reaction was performed at 180°C for 18 h at a stirring speed of 1000 rpm. The reaction conditions were selected for achieving conversion levels allowing valid comparison of the catalyst performances, in agreement with the previous literature reports. 11,14,20 The reactor was further cooled down with ice-water and the remaining pressure was released. The obtained reaction mixture was then centrifuged to separate the catalyst from the solution. The solution was subsequently sampled using ethanol as a solvent and n-hexanol as an internal standard, and the products were further analysed on an HP-5890 GC instrument equipped with flame ionization detector and a WAX column.

Considering GBL, THF and BDO as the only detected products from the SA conversion in those conditions, in agreement with the well-established literature reports 20,21

Results and discussion

Characterization of the titania support materials

The main physico-chemical properties of the titania supports used are listed in Table 1 and their XRD patterns are shown in Figure S1. The materials differ in terms of phase composition, from pure anatase to pure rutile phase, as well as with regard to the specific surface area. It has to be mentioned that the phase composition corresponds to the composition within the crystalline TiO2 phases, so that eg. a support for which rutile is the only crystallized phase is referred to a pure rutile support. The composition depends on the synthesis process and with the thermal stability of titania as the rutile This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx

Please do not adjust margins Please do not adjust margins phase is the most stable form. The presence of an amorphous phase does not appear to be a key parameter in obtaining high surface area samples. The specific surface area is globally related to the TiO2 crystallite size for samples possessing anatase as the unique or main crystallized phase, with a surface area increasing from 26 to 330 m 2 /g when the anatase mean crystallite size decreases from 22 to 9 nm. All the supports were free of micropores, except the TiO2 UV100 material, for which the micropores contributed to a large extent to its high specific surface area of 330 m 2 /g. Those micropores are considered to result from the dense agglomeration of small-size nanocrystallites. Calcining the high surface area TiO2 anatase material reduced the microporous content of the support and allowed preparing a pure anatase support with a relatively high surface area compared to the analogous anatase support prepared via the sol-gel synthesis, i.e. 80 vs. 27 m 2 /g. Due to the use of a porogen during the sol-gel synthesis, the pure rutile TiO2 support maintained a moderate surface area of 26 m 2 /g and resisted the structure collapse during the high temperature calcination at 500°C. 17

Characterization of the catalysts

TEM studies were performed in order to characterize the Ru particle size of the catalysts (Figure 1). There were used for deriving the Ru particle size distributions and the corresponding mean Ru particle sizes. Figure 2 depicts the influence of the rutile phase content within the TiO2 support on the mean Ru particle size. In the case of the standard wet impregnation method, the presence of the TiO2 rutile phase within the support was a key factor for obtaining small Ru particles with narrow size distribution, and the mean nanoparticle size decreased with the increase in the rutile content, the mean size profile reaching a plateau at ca. 2.1 nm for Ru catalysts containing rutile-rich TiO2 supports. Indeed, similar small average particle sizes of 2.2 nm and 2.1 nm were obtained on pure rutile and on P25 containing 20% of rutile phase, while a slightly weaker dispersion -with an average Ru particle size of 2.9 nm -was obtained on the P90 support that contains a lower content of rutile phase at 10%. In addition, our previous works showed that the Ru nanoparticles were mainly located on the rutile crystallites when both polymorph phases coexisted within the support. The presence of the rutile phase stimulates the formation of small metal particles on its surface during the preparation step as a consequence of the crystallographic phase similarity of titania and RuO2. 15 This was further confirmed by Hernandez-Meija et al. who obtained large Ru agglomerates on anatase TiO2. 23 In contrast, on the pure anatase high surface area UV100 support, the formation of rather large and nonhomogeneous Ru particles and aggregates did not allow any average particle size to be calculated, while a large average particle size of 10 nm was obtained in the case of the catalyst supported on medium surface area anatase TiO2 (UV100C).

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Please do not adjust margins The impossibility to obtain a high and homogeneous dispersion of Ru particles on the high specific surface area pure anatase TiO2 (UV100) highlighted the importance of using alternative preparation methods in order to obtain small size Ru particles on pure anatase supports. First, the use of NaBH4 as a room temperature chemical reductant allowed to prepare Ru nanoparticles with a mean particle size of 4 nm. Further, the implementation of a one-step solar light photon-assisted synthesis method allowed to prepare highly dispersed Ru nanoparticles in the case of the Ru/Anatase-P material. The redox photoactivity developed by the anatase TiO2 support under solar light gave way to a mean Ru particle size of 1.8 nm. The photo-assisted synthesis facilitated the reduction of the adsorbed metallic Ru precursor to metallic nanoparticles with a controlled growth at the support surface, overcoming the need of any further reductive treatment at elevated temperatures. 19 FTIR spectra of adsorbed CO recorded for the Ru catalysts show the presence of several bands at 1950, 1990-2000, 2060-2070, 2130 and 2170 cm -1 . In the case of supported Ru catalysts, there is an ongoing discussion on the interpretation of the FTIR spectra and on band assignment. [24][25][26][27][28][29][30] However, those bands could be attributed to bridge-bonded CO at 1950 cm -1 , linearly bonded CO on steps at 1990-2000 cm -1 , linearly bonded CO on faces at 2060-2070 cm -1 , 30 multicarbonyl species on partially oxidized Ru crystallites at 2130 cm -1 , 31 and CO adsorbed on the titania surface at 2170 cm -1 (illustration of the differently bonded CO is provided in Fig. S2). 24 The band corresponding to bridge-bonded CO was only observed for the high surface area anatase sample, probably due to the existence of very large Ru crystallites accessible for CO, and coexisted with the low-intensity band assigned to the linearly adsorbed CO. The lowest band intensities were observed in the case of the Ru/UV100 catalyst, what may suggest a location of a part of the Ru nanoparticles in the support micropores, with a resulting lower accessibility for CO molecules. Indeed, the removal of the microporosity by calcination of the support further led to the disappearance of the band assigned to bridge-bonded CO, while the total intensity of the bands corresponding to linearly bonded CO increased. The increase in the rutile phase content in the samples is connected with the increase of the band intensity and with the decrease of the ruthenium particle size. Please do not adjust margins Please do not adjust margins for a higher rutile content. The lowest value of 100°C is observed for the catalyst supported on high surface area anatase (UV100), while this temperature further increases to 150°C, 165-185°C and finally 200°C for medium surface area anatase (UV100C), mixed-phase supports containing rutile, and the pure rutile support, respectively. It may suggest that the rutile phase interacts more strongly with the ruthenium particles, so that a higher temperature is needed for complete reduction. This indicates that the crystalline phase of the TiO2 support strongly and directly impacts the full reduction of the supported Ru species, and consequently the strength of the interaction with the support.

The group of Crossley showed that the presence of rutile in the support stabilizes the Ru particles and consequently prevents the sintering phenomena. 32 The group of Weckhuysen have further reported the absence of any sintering when Ru was supported on a mixed phase as well as on pure rutile supports, while Ru sintering was observed on pure anatase phase. 33 Further, Sassoye et al. indicated that the migration of RuO2 can be observed from the anatase to the rutile phase when the TiO2 support contains both polymorphs. 34 This confirmed the existence of weaker interactions of the supported Ru species with the anatase phase than with the rutile phase.

Taking into account that the rutile content in the support may also influence on the Ru crystallite size, in Figure 4b we show the relationship between the mean Ru particle size and the maximum temperature of complete reduction that characterizes the strength of the Ru-TiO2 interactions. Generally, stronger interactions are related to the presence of smaller particles. However, the Ru particle size is not a predominant factor affecting the temperature of complete reduction of the supported phase, except for the UV100C-based catalyst. Indeed, the complete reduction temperature varies from 160°C up to 200°C in the case of the P90, P25 and rutile supports, although they exhibit a rather similar Ru nanoparticle mean size.

Catalytic activity

Table 2 and Figure 5 show the performances of the Ru/TiO2 catalysts in the succinic acid hydrogenation reaction. Catalysts supported on different titanias varying in terms of preparation method, crystalline phase content and specific surface areas were examined. High succinic acid conversion was achieved using pure rutile as support for Ru catalyst, with an activity of 8.1 mol/molRu•h, and selectivities to GBL and BDO of 40% and 58%, respectively. The presence of anatase within the mixed-phase supports was detrimental for the catalytic activity, which dropped down to 6.4-6.7 mol/molRu•h on both Ru/P25 and Ru/P90 catalysts, and also lower conversions of 40-43% were achieved. However, mainly GBL was observed on Ru/P25, with a selectivity of 93%, while the reaction was less selective on Ru/P90, with a broad b) influence of the mean Ru particle size on the maximum temperature of complete reduction, for catalysts prepared by wet impregnation. The graphs do not consider samples prepared by direct chemical reduction or via the photon-assisted synthesis method, for which no reduction peak is observed (a), and also specifically for (b) the Ru/UV100 catalyst prepared by wet impregnation, since no mean particle size could be measured.

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Please do not adjust margins product distribution of 51% for GBL, 38% for BDO and a relatively large THF contribution of 11%.

In the case of the Ru catalysts prepared on pure anatase by wet impregnation, far lower activities and SA conversions were obtained, whether the micropore content of the support has been suppressed by calcination or not. The reaction pathway proceeds towards THF through the transformation of the GBL intermediate, and a THF selectivity of 46% at a SA conversion of 20% (activity of 3.2 mol/molRu•h) was observed with UV100C. Using high surface area UV100 with a high microporous content as a support, a further drop in activity to 0.5 mol/molRu•h was observed, with a full THF selectivity.

Discussion

We investigated the activity of TiO2 supported Ru catalysts in the hydrogenation of succinic acid, and several key factors with a significant influence on the process have been identified.

Metal-support interaction

Firstly, the activity was strongly influenced by the strength and kind of interaction between the TiO2 support and the Ru nanoparticles in the catalysts prepared via classical wet impregnation. TPR characterization shown in Fig. S3 illustrates that the stronger the interaction between the Ru nanoparticles and the TiO2 support is, the higher is the maximum temperature of complete reduction of the supported Ru phase. It can consequently be concluded from Fig. 6 that the stronger are the interactions between metallic Ru and the support when a thermal treatment under H2 was applied (classical wet impregnation method), the higher is the catalytic activity.

TiO2 crystalline structure

The TiO2 crystalline structure has been previously pointed out as a key factor influencing the interaction with the support when a thermal treatment under H2 was applied (Fig. 4). Consequently, the relationship depicting the influence of the rutile phase content of the support on the activity of the catalysts was illustrated in Fig. 7a. This revealed that the presence of the rutile phase was strongly beneficial to the activity for the catalysts prepared via impregnation. Indeed, the catalysts prepared on pure anatase (UV100 and UV100C) showed the lowest activity, that strongly increased with increasing the rutile content, even in small amounts (10-20%). Increasing further the rutile content leads only to a moderate activity gain, with ca. 6.5 mol/molRu•h for both P25-and P90supported Ru catalysts, and 8.1 mol/molRu•h for the pure rutilebased catalyst. The slightly lower activity of the P25 catalyst may be connected with the formation of electron-deficient Ru species which can be formed on the anatase/rutile junction. Please do not adjust margins

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This phenomena may weaken the adsorption strength of the substrate and change the adsorption of molecules at the surface, resulting in a lower activity of the catalyst. 35 The beneficial input of the rutile polymorph on the activity of Ru catalysts was highlighted by Hernandez-Meija et al. for the xylose hydrogenation, with 98% yield to xylitol vs. 10% on pure anatase. 23 Kim et al. reported that the presence of rutile increased the catalyst activity in CO2 methanation, thanks to a higher Ru dispersion originating from the RuO2 migration towards the rutile phase and the subsequent stabilization of Ru particles by epitaxy. 34 The group of Weckhuysen also evidenced that the Ru catalyst stability depended on the crystallographic nature of the titania support, strong sintering being observed on pure anatase, while irreversible reduction of the anatase support caused by strong levulinic acid adsorption induced the SMSI effect. 33

Ru nanoparticle size

Not only the rutile phase content is an important factor determining the catalytic activity, but also the Ru particle size. In Figure 7b, we illustrate that indeed, the highest activity (9.1 mol/molRu•h) was obtained for the catalyst with the smallest mean Ru particle size (1.8 nm), i.e. the Ru/Ana-P. The activity globally decreased with increasing the mean Ru crystallite size. The lowest activity of 3.2 mol/molRu•h was achieved for the catalyst with the largest mean particle size of 10 nm, i.e. Ru/UV100C. This is in agreement with the group of Besson who correlated the catalyst activity in the succinic acid hydrogenation with the particle size of Pd dispersed on TiO2. 12 Also the group of Corma identified that the particle size plays an important role in the hydrogenation of functionalized carboxylic acids with Ru/TiO2 catalysts, for which no other factors were taken into consideration. 11 In contrast, for catalysts supported on different oxides, other factors are dominant and such a relationship can be observed. In addition, Liu et al. reported that the crystallographic structure of the TiO2 phase induces a chemical shift in the binding energy of metallic Pt species interacting with the TiO2 surface, consequently with a clear influence on the catalyst activity in the selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol. 36 A closer look reveals that both P25-and P90-supported Ru catalysts have almost similar activities, while they differ in terms of mean Ru particle size (2.1 nm vs. 2.9 nm), indicating that the particle size is not the only factor affecting the activity. Also, a negligible activity was observed for the catalyst prepared via the room temperature chemical reduction with NaBH4, despite an intermediate mean Ru particle size of 3.9 nm, suggesting that the absence of any reductive thermal treatment was detrimental to the activity, probably due to the impossibility to create proper interaction with the support. Interestingly, although here the catalyst was not submitted to any reductive thermal treatment and the support did not contain any rutile phase, the highest activity was observed for the Ru catalyst prepared via room-temperature solar light photon-assisted synthesis (Ana-P). This can be explained by the room temperature charge-driven mechanism of the photon-assisted method that does not require the presence of any rutile phase for stabilizing size-controlled Ru nanoparticles at the TiO2 surface. 16,19 Further, we also suggest that the photogenerated electron and hole charges are subsequently transferred to the Ru-TiO2 interface during the Ru nanocluster growth and the formation of the metallic particles, favoring the establishment of the necessary interaction between the Ru species and the TiO2 support.

We cannot rule out that the differences observed in Ru nanoparticle sizes might affect the electronic character of the catalysts, especially for the very small sizes. This might be considered as an additional factor contributing to the effect of the Ru nanoparticle size on the behavior of the catalysts.

Product yields in SA hydrogenation

In order to understand the relationship between the yield to the main products and the catalyst properties, Figure 8 relates the catalytic activity with the yield to GBL and BDO. The GBL yield generally increases with the activity increase, and its value Please do not adjust margins Please do not adjust margins of 37% was obtained for the Ru/P25 catalyst, while almost the same yield of 34% was achieved using the most active catalyst, prepared via the photoassisted method on the sol-gel anatase. A similar trend was noted by Ly et al. on the Re-Pd/TiO2 catalyst, for which an increase in the GBL concentration was observed increasing the SA conversion until full conversion was obtained; afterwards, GBL was further converted mainly into BDO with a negligible amount of side products. 37 Di et al. also indicated a clear relationship between SA and GBL concentrations, SA being firstly converted into GBL, and further into overhydrogenated products after full SA conversion. 38 The authors showed that the Ru addition is beneficial for the Re/C catalyst activity, and that the Re-Ru interaction is pushing the reaction towards the BDO formation.

In the case of the BDO yield, a volcano-shaped pattern can be seen as a function of the catalyst activity. No BDO was observed for the catalysts supported on anatase reduced in H2 flow or with NaBH4, while a maximum yield of 30% was achieved for the catalyst supported on pure rutile. Interestingly, the catalyst supported on anatase prepared via the photoassisted method showed a certain yield to BDO (17%). As far as the THF yield was concerned, no dependence on the catalyst activity was observed. In contrast, a clear relationship could be drawn between the mean Ru nanoparticle size and the THF yield in the case of the catalysts prepared via the standard wet impregnation method (Figure 9), while no clear trend was observed for both GBL and BDO yield (not reported). Interestingly, the THF yield significantly dropped with the decrease in the mean Ru crystallite size, from 9% on the Ru/UV100C catalyst with a large average Ru particle size of 10 nm, down to ca. 1% for the catalysts with the average Ru particle size of about 2 nm, i,e those with TiO2 P25 and pure rutile TiO2 supports. While this trend was well visible for the samples that were submitted to the final thermal treatment in order to obtain metallic Ru nanoparticles, the two other samples (for which no thermal treatment was applied) did not follow this trend. Indeed, a THF yield of 8% (i.e. close to that obtained using UV100C with large Ru crystallites) was achieved on the Ru/Anatase-P catalyst prepared via the photon-assisted synthesis crystallites, which had a small mean Ru particle size of 1.8 nm. In contrast, the catalyst prepared by chemical reduction with NaBH4 displayed inversely a very low THF yield, while it exhibited a moderate (intermediate) mean Ru particle size of 3.9 nm.

To summarize, we showed that the behavior of Ru/TiO2 catalysts depends on both the Ru particle size and the metalsupport interaction. Those features are induced by the presence of different crystallographic phases in the support and by the preparation method. The rutile phase in the support favors the presence of small metallic Ru particles. This induces different interactions between the supported metal and the respective TiO2 phases, the Ru-TiO2 interaction being reported to be stronger for rutile than for anatase. 37 Stronger metal-support interaction can be also induced by using a thermal reduction method, in comparison to the low-temperature direct chemical reduction, while the solar photon-assisted method is a way to stabilize small-size Ru nanoparticles in the absence of any rutile phase within the support.

Conclusions

By studying the influence of the titania support phase composition on both the activity of Ru/TiO2 catalysts and their selectivity pattern in the hydrogenation of succinic acid, we showed that the metal-support interaction and the supported Ru nanoparticle size are the key factors driving the catalyst performances. Both features were induced by the presence of the rutile polymorph as well as by the preparation method used for supporting the Ru nanoparticles. Using thermal reduction in hydrogen requires the presence of the rutile phase within the support for synthesizing small-size Ru nanoparticles, the rutile phase inducing stronger metal-support interaction in comparison to the anatase counterpart, while the thermal reduction is necessary for obtaining proper ruthenium-support interactions. The low-temperature solar photon-assisted synthesis method proved to be a way to completely get rid of the presence of the rutile phase in the support, while allowing the stabilization of small size 1.8 nm Ru nanoparticles, and consequently facilitating very high succinic acid conversion.

Figure 1 .

 1 Figure 1. TEM images of Ru/TiO2 catalysts prepared via wet impregnation, with the corresponding Ru particle size distribution and the mean Ru particle size, for a) rutile, b) UV100 (via chemical reduction), c) P90, d) UV100, e) P25 and f) TiO2 anatase (photoassisted method). No size distribution could be obtained for Ru/UV100 sample using wet impregnation.

Figure 2 .

 2 Figure 2. Influence of the rutile phase content within the TiO2 support on the mean Ru nanoparticle size. The graph does not take into account the Ru/UV100 catalyst, since no valuable mean Ru particle size could be measured for this support using wet impregnation.

Figure 3 .

 3 Figure 3. FTIR absorbance spectra of adsorbed CO obtained for the Ru catalysts on the rutile (red); TiO2 P25 (black); TiO2 UV100C (green) and TiO2 UV100 (blue).

Figure

  Figure4ashows the influence of the rutile phase content in the TiO2 support on the maximum temperature of complete reduction of the supported phase. It can be observed that the maximum temperature of complete reduction first strongly increases with the increase in the rutile phase content until it reaches a 20% content, and further increases only moderately

Figure 5 .

 5 Figure 5. Catalytic efficiency of the Ru catalysts in terms of activity and selectivity to GBL, THF and BDO. Reaction time of 18 h at 180°C under 50 bar H2.

Figure 4 a

 4 Figure 4 a) Influence of the rutile phase content in the TiO2 support andb) influence of the mean Ru particle size on the maximum temperature of complete reduction, for catalysts prepared by wet impregnation. The graphs do not consider samples prepared by direct chemical reduction or via the photon-assisted synthesis method, for which no reduction peak is observed (a), and also specifically for (b) the Ru/UV100 catalyst prepared by wet impregnation, since no mean particle size could be measured.

Figure 6 .

 6 Figure 6. Influence of the maximum temperature of complete reduction of the supported Ru phase on the activity of the catalyst prepared via the wet impregnation method. No reduction peaks are indeed observed for samples prepared by direct chemical reduction or through the solar photon-assisted synthesis method.

Figure 7 .

 7 Figure 7. a) influence of the rutile phase content within the TiO2 support and b) influence of the Ru particle size on the catalyst activity in SA hydrogenation. The graph does not take into account the Ru/UV100 catalyst, since no valuable mean Ru particle size could be measured for this support using the wet impregnation method

Figure 9 .

 9 Figure 9. Influence of the mean Ru nanoparticle size on the THF yield. The graph does not include the Ru/UV100 catalyst, since no valuable mean Ru particle size could be measured for this support using wet impregnation.

Figure 8 .

 8 Figure 8. Influence of the activity of the catalyst on a) the GBL yield and b) the BDO yield in the SA hydrogenation.

  , the conversion, selectivity and yield patterns used for characterizing the catalyst behavior were calculated as follows:

	𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 =	∑𝑛 2345 𝑛 67 8	• 100%
	𝑆𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 =	𝑛 2345 ∑𝑛 2345	• 100%
	𝑌𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑 =	𝑛 2345 𝑛 67 8	• 100%
	nSAi being the number of moles of initial SA molecules, and nprod
	being the number of moles of a given product within the
	reaction mixture.
	Additionally, the activity was defined here as the number of
	succinic acid molecules converted per number of Ru atoms per
	hour, as follows:
	𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 =	∑𝑛 2345 𝑛 EF • 𝑡

t being time and nRu being the number of Ru atoms.

Table 1

 1 Main physico-chemical properties of the titania support the phase composition corresponds to the composition within the crystallized TiO2 phases (without considering the content of amorphous TiO2) b A and R represent the anatase and rutile content in the TiO2 phase composition, respectively c determined by using the method developed in ref22 d determined by applying the Scherrer equation to the (101) and (110) peaks of anatase and rutile, at 25.7° and 27.5°, respectively.

	TiO2 supports

a

Table 2

 2 Catalytic efficiency of the Ru catalysts with 1 wt.% metal loading in terms of activity, SA conversion as well as selectivity to GBL, THF and BDO. Reaction time of 18 h at 180°C under 50 bar H2. result obtained after reaction at 180°C and under 80 bar H2 This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx

	Ru catalyst	Activity [mol/molRu•h]	SA conversion [%]	GBL selectivity [%]	THF selectivity [%]	BDO selectivity [%]
	Rutile	8.1	51	40	2	58
	P25	6.4	40	93	2	5
	P25 *	6.7	43	67	6	27
	P90	6.7	43	51	11	38
	UV100C	3.2	20	54	46	0
	UV100	0.5	3	0	100	0
	UV100-CR	1.0	7	100	0	0
	Anatase-P	9.1	58	58	13	29

*

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx J. Name., 2013, 00, 1-3 | 5

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx J. Name., 2013, 00, 1-3 | 7

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx J. Name., 2013, 00, 1-3 | 9

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts to declare.


Prince in the early 80s: considerations on the structural functions of performative gestures.

Transcribing Prince's music can be a very frustrating exercise, as the notes that are put on a score (often quite ordinary) do no justice to the expressive richness we perceive when we listen to his songs. In my intervention, I will propose an analysis of the performative gestures in Prince's music, focusing on a few excerpts from his production of the years 1980-1984 (in terms of albums, from Dirty Mind to Purple Rain). The hypothesis to be tested is that in Prince's music a certain gestural approach to the performance (both instrumental and vocal) has an authentic structural function for the music: in other words, this gestural approach is not simply related to the field of musical interpretation, but has a constitutive function at the formal level of composition. On the theoretical level, this research involves the tools provided by the theory of audio-tactile music developed by Italian musicologist Vincenzo Caporaletti, while on the methodological side it relies on the resources of performance analysis (taking into account especially the musical text, but also some key choreographic and theatrical aspects which are strictly connected to Prince's musical universe).

First of all, I must appeal to your benevolence, as I'm about to begin my speech with an autobiographical reference. I have discovered Prince's music in recent years: becoming a Prince fan and feeling the desire to deepen my knowledge of his repertoire is in some ways antithetical to the musical tastes I have been cultivating since I was a teenager. In fact, my all-time "musical heroes" are musicians like Frank Zappa, the English bands of the so-called "Canterbury scene" and the sort of experimental, avant-garde rock which can be found in a band like Henry Cow. If we were to identify a common thread among these artists, we would probably talk about the search for a very personal musical language that involves the revolution of the traditional formal models of popular music, with more or less explicit references to the aesthetics of modernism: it is music in which the element of interest is often the structural complexity, the unexpected and the unpredictable, factors that in turn can make us think of a sort of musical storytelling. Now, anyone having a superficial knowledge of Prince knows that his music rarely focuses on these aesthetic elements, and it is precisely for this reason that the immediate fascination I felt as soon as I started listening to Prince surprised me: what was so interesting, so particular about a music so different from the music I was used to listening to? Feeling the need to explain this new musical passion, I would have said that I was fascinated by Prince's gestural approach, to tell the truth without being able to clearly articulate what I meant.

My contribution seeks to clarify this issue. Its main goal is to demonstrate that some of Prince's musical gestures have a formal constitutive value: in other words, I would like to to extend the field of action of Prince's gestures beyond the domain of performance and into the creative process of composition itself. I will discuss some aspects of Prince's musical gestures through some examples from his repertoire. As this is the first research I am devoting to Prince, I have chosen to focus my examples on a small number of albums, namely Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999and Purple Rain. Released between 1980and 1984, these albums correspond to a significant arc in Prince's career: it is with Dirty Mind, his third album, that he affirms his stylistic identity (the so-called 'Minneapolis Sound') Jacopo Costa in a truly autonomous way; on the other hand, Purple Rain is the culmination of the path that led Prince from sectoral success in the R'n'B charts to worldwide stardom.

As this is a study of gestures, it is important for me to clarify that I distinguish between two types of "musical gestures". The first type of gesture is an element of the musical text in which the listener can recognize the physical action that is at its origin, or at least its intentional or affective characteristics. As French psychologist and musicologist Michel Imberty affirms, The human brain has sensory-motor and representational patterns, as well as [patterns of] both physical and emotional tension and relaxation, which allow for the identification or recognition, out of language and out of abstract categorization, of fundamental experiences of the body and its relationship with the physical and human environment. For example, singing involves the muscles of the laryngeal-pharyngeal zone, and listening to singing means finding in oneself, at least allusively, a kinesthetic representation of these movements and gestures that control the very act of singing […] . And the same is probably true of rhythmic and instrumental gestures. 1In other words, this conception implies that the musical gesture has a referential connotation, especially at an affective level.

Exploring this theoretical line, musicologist Leticia Cuen emphasizes the importance of "dynamic vectors" in music, especially with regard to "affections of vitality": Dynamic vectors are musical events that convey time-related meanings of orientation, progression, decrease or growth, repetition or return. They constitute [...] the expressive components of the sound gesture, or musical gesture, and they evoke the affections of vitality. 2

Starting from this observation, and with particular attention to Prince's music, I would like to propose a second definition of the musical gesture, that of an element of the musical text in which a dynamic vector is expressed.

In Prince's repertoire we can observe musical gestures of the first type, for example, in Do It All Night, on Dirty Mind. The main groove of this piece is rich in elements reminding of a sort of "elastic" gesture: the bass, the piano, and the guitar are organized on this basic rhythm:

The contrast between the staccato and the sustained note is accentuated by the fact that the first is on the downbeat while the second anticipates the third beat of the bar with a typical funk pushed feel: this contrast suggests a relationship of tension and release, as if the second note (or chord) is the consequence of the first one. Always within this groove, but at a more microscopic level, we can observe similar gestures in the bass and in some interventions of the synthesizer. The bass regularly emerges in the arrangement with short appoggiaturas, where the first note is plucked on the string, while the second one is a consequence of the bassist playing a glissando on the neck of the instrument. Again, therefore, we have a sense of tension (the plucked note "spices up" the rhythmic flow) that immediately is resolved on the lower and less "punchy" glissando note.

As for the synthesizer, several times we hear this chord, in which a quick action of the filter knob transforms the sharp tone of the attack into a softer sound by cutting off the higher frequencies: in this case it is more appropriate to talk about metamorphosis than resolution, but this does not detract from the fact that the direction of this tone metamorphosis is clearly perceived.

Obviously, the gestures featured in Do It All Night are also examples of dynamic vectors, although "on a small scale", as they are very short; however, it is possible to consider more extensive elements as musical gestures of the second type, since they can express dynamic vectors too. Let's consider D.M.S.R., on 1999: it is a long song, a sort of funk jam session, full of spontaneous (or presented as such) interactions between the bandleader, the musicians and the audience (although these are fictitious roles, since Prince recorded almost all the different parts of the song).

In order for this spontaneous atmosphere to be fully expressed, the song is organized on repetitive accompanying patterns in which a harmonic path is rarely perceived. However, if we carefully observe the arrangement of the ad libitum sections, we realize that they are organized according to the principle of progressive accumulation of instrumental or vocal parts: therefore, despite the almost total absence of a harmonic direction, the density of the arrangement creates a dynamic vector. The structure of D.M.S.R. is articulated on the succession of such broad structural gestures, which we could describe as "waves" in the instrumental density.

In Prince: The Making of a Pop Music Phenomenon, authors Stan Hawkins and Sarah Niblock point out that, in the context of a music where dynamics are often flattened by the massive use of compression, Prince compensates with "dynamics built by layering and not by volume" 3 . We can add that layering can also be conceived as a structural gesture: where there is a lack of harmonic direction, the sense of movement is conveyed by the variations in the instrumental arrangement.

In the four albums taken into account, several tracks are organized on the basis of structural gestures of this type. In some cases we can distinguish the sections of the tracks mostly thanks to differences in the arrangement: it is the case, for example, of Head, on Dirty Mind, where the difference between the verse and the chorus, as far as the instrumental accompaniment is concerned, is essentially determined by the addition of a synthesizer riff in the chorus. In other songs the process of accumulating instrumental and/or vocal parts is used to recreate the spontaneity of a jam session, for example in the long ad libitum of Uptown and Partyup, again on Dirty Mind, or to create a structure of "subsequent waves" such as that observed in D.M.S.R., for example in International Lover, on 1999. Summing up or subtracting the instrumental parts, Prince creates a proper dramaturgy within the arrangement, with a coherence that can virtually do without the teleology belonging to the classical conception of harmony.

Speaking of the difference between the connotations of harmony in "extensional" and "intentional" aesthetics, Phipp Tagg observes that It's also a question of different types of harmonic function, of chords and of chord changes, not just as harmonic 'traveling' -'somewhere worth going'-but also as harmonic being -'somewhere worth staying'.

Clearly, the experience of 'being in one place' does not necessarily mean that nothing happens there or that the experience is dull.4

In Prince's music often what could be -incorrectly -considered as harmonic poorness corresponds to this idea of 'being in a place worth staying'. To better understand the characteristics of this 'place' and of what happens in it, it is useful to discuss first of all the notion of "musical space". Hawkins and Niblock have already addressed the concept of sonic space in Prince's music, observing among other things that "Perceptions of sound in recorded form are directly related to experiences of depth, position and motion"5 . As far as I'm concerned, I intend to focus on the musical structures that refer metaphorically to a space in which it is possible to move freely.

In particular, some of Prince's songs have whole sections in which the harmonic movement is little or completely absent, the rhythmic articulation is extremely repetitive and there is no melody (at most the riff of the song is repeated). Let's consider two excerpts from the album Controversy, the first taken from the title track; and now the finale of Sexuality. Let's focus on the instrumental accompaniment: at the gestural level, the most evident aspect in these sections is -paradoxicallythe absence of movement, the stillness. A very clear perspective is established between the element in the foreground (Prince's voice) and the accompaniment: said in theatrical terms, the accompaniment constitutes metaphorically the stage on which an actor (the voice) performs. Of course, the stage is not neutral, there is a scenography (the arrangement), but its static nature contrasts with the mobility and expressiveness of the actor.

The theatrical metaphor can be useful to understand how Prince organizes and distinguishes the different musical gestures: depending on the level of dynamism, some gestures are better suited to constitute an imaginary "stage", while others are more likely to be the "actors". However, Prince uses composition, arrangement and production techniques that can also bring to mind the universe of cinema, and specifically the editing of shots. Let's consider the following eight bars of Partyup.

The elements in the foreground are, in turn: Prince's solo vocals, the vocal ensemble, an organ chord, the solo vocals, another organ chord, a bass and guitar lick, the solo vocals, and again the bass and guitar lick. It is like watching a very fast sequence of film shots, whose effectiveness consists -especially as far as the instrumental parts are concerned -in the gestural simplicity that they express, which makes them iconic.

Whether it's with quick shots or through the contrast between static and dynamic elements, Prince is a master when it comes to enhancing the musical subject in the foreground. In other words, the gestural approach of a musician, his or her relationship with his or her own instrument or voice, helps to shape the text, that is, the "notes" that are played or sung. According to this perspective, the example of the guitar licks in Darling Nikki becomes particularly interesting precisely because the notes, if considered from a structural point of view, are not very relevant: through licks of this type, Prince stages his own audio-tactile approach, his own gestures on the guitar. The gesture itself becomes the protagonist: formal features such as melodic or rhythmic articulation are left in the background, at most they are consequences of specific gestures.

To conclude, during my first exploration of Prince's repertoire I came to a distinction between two types of gestures: on the one hand, musical elements that allude to a physical gesture in a referential way, and on the other hand, musical elements characterized by dynamic vectors and that evoke a metaphorical gesture. Prince's ability to combine musical gestures of different types denotes the mastery of a dramatist or a filmmaker, and we can certainly say that the architecture of many of his pieces is based on a balance of gestures rather than on harmonic patterns or more "traditional" structures. Many subjects are still to be investigated: the relationship between extensional and intentional aesthetics in the field of musical gestures, the link between musical gestures and choreographic gestures (I suspect that Prince considered music and dance as two interdependent entities), the need to contextualize Prince's gestural approach in the tradition of popular music and Afro-American music in particular. But for a first study, I was quite happy to propose just some points for discussion, in the hope of fostering a wider debate.

3

  HAWKINS Stan et Sarah NIBLOCK, Prince: The Making of a Pop Music Phenomenon, Furnham : Ashgate, 2011. P. .

  Most of the time this subject is the voice of Prince himself. As Hawkins and Niblock state:his voice escorts us into a virtual domain where his presence is felt through technological realization. Precisely it is this conjunction of technology and musical expression that induces the feeling of another's presence through the voice. Moreover, it is the fetishization of the recorded voice that is made so explicit in Prince's songs, which works to foreground the gendered structure of his subjectivity.6 We have already had the opportunity to perceive Prince's presence through his voice, for example in the finale of Sexuality, and his repertoire is extremely rich in such examples. Recording technology actually allows us to enjoy a singer's vocal texture, and Prince loves to let us hear the color of his voice, often eliminating any melodic coordinates that might distract us. However, Prince's wisdom also consists in focusing the listener not only on the tone but on the "pure gesture" of a vocal or instrumental inflection. Let's consider Darling Nikki, on Purple Rain: in the first two verses the voice is almost exclusively accompanied by the drums, with an implied harmonic structure; let's listen to the second verse. The guitar interventions do not have a structural role and do not even constitute proper melodic responses to the vocal line; however, some of them are put in the foreground thanks to targeted "shots" in the arrangement and mixing. What are the main aspects of these interventions? Certainly the sound color and the dynamic vectors they express, but I think it is appropriate to recall at this point also the notion of audio-tactile principle, which in a sense accounts for the attention given to both tone and gestural dynamism. According to the theory elaborated by Italian musicologist Vincenzo Caporaletti, the audio-tactile principle is [...] a mediation constituted by the sensory-motor system of the performer which gives rise to a physicalgestural modulation of sonic-musical energies, working in a determinant way for the structuring of the musical text. in an aesthetic sense, it establishes the behavioral emergence of the body, which is non-textual, in the traditional domain of the Form 7 .

6 HAWKINS and NIBLOCK, p. 76. 7 CAPORALETTI Vincenzo, I processi improvvisativi nella musica. Un approccio globale. Quaderni di Musica/Realtà, 54, Libreria Musicale Italiana, Lucca, 2005. P. 74-75.

IMBERTY Michel, « Introduction : du geste temporel au sens » , dans Michel Imberty et Maya Gratier (dir.), Temps, geste et musicalité, Paris : L'Harmattan,

2007, p. 7-32. P. 10-11. 2 CUEN Leticia, « Le geste sonore et le geste cinétique : Une évocation des sensations et des émotions humaines », dans Michel Imberty et Maya Gratier (dir.), Temps, geste et musicalité, Paris : L'Harmattan, 2007, p. 151-168. P.

TAGG Philipp, Everyday Tonality II. Towards a Tonal Theory of What Most People Hear, New York & Huddersfield: The Mass Media Music Scholars' Press, 2014. P. 357

HAWKINS and NIBLOCK, p. 124.


Norbert-Bertrand Barbe

Vendée-Nicaragua-Venezuela: the interstices of genocide

published or not. The documents may come

Évidemment, la question de la liberté d'expression d'un simple artiste comique, en France, depuis 15 ans, repose, contrairement aux hauts cris portés unanimement par l'establishment et l'intelligentsia français après le massacre de Charlie Hebdo14 , l'universalité du problème des droits à la libre expression (non seulement dans le Tiers Monde: Hugo Chávez 15 , Rafael Correa 16 , Daniel Ortega 17 , Evo Morales 18 , Cristina Kirchner 19 , les Frères Castro 20 ; mais aussi dans le Premier: cas de Nicolas Sarkozy en France 21 et de Hervé Eon 22 ; du journaliste Gary Webb, de Julian Assange 23 ou encore d'Edward Snowden 24 aux États-Unis 25 ).

L'ensemble de ces constatations: la représentation nationale par l'affirmation différentielle; de là l'obligation de limiter le cadre identitaire; et le caractère coercitif de cette limitation; nous amène à considérer que, dès l'abord, la construction du discours, donc de la position, nationaliste implique une forte composante ethnique (Serbes-Croates; Tutsis-Hutus) ou, pour le moins, discriminatoire.

1.b. La discrimination comme phénomène obligatoirement global

Or l'on s'imagine bien que toute discrimination n'est opératoire que dans le champ de l'injustice de facto.

On ne peut limiter le cadre de la négation qu'à un nombre limité. L'exemple des indéfinitions de l'identité française contemporaine, qui semble se chercher, ou celui de l'origine de la carte d'identité, sont en cela révélateurs.

Dès lors que l'on commence à se questionner sur les formes de légalité de l'individu dans la société, donc sur son droit à y exister, ce qui peut concerner aussi bien la différence ethnique (qui va de l'opposition la plus totale: le blanc et le noir, à la différence plus subtile: la question du métissage et des mariages mixtes) que sociale (l'équivalence imposée par le discours officiel entre le chômeur et le fainéant), la porte s'ouvre à la proposition systématique d'une dichotomie entre les intérêts individuels (les Français qui s'enrôlent nous dit-on dans les groupes extrémistes d'Isis 26 ) et ceux de l'État.

L'individu devra dès lors accepter toute imposition sociale verticale ou collective au risque d'être rejeté, exclus, attaqué, dénigré, voire enfermé, torturé, détruit psychologiquement, socialement, physiquement.

Cas concrets de la réflexion 2.a. Vénézuéla

Le cas vénézuélien actuel est en cela des plus significatifs et cruciaux pour comprendre les mécanismes qui régissent la pensée sous-jacente au système, en ce qu'il a de totalitaire, non en particulier, mais par nature.

Suite à la perte des récentes élections parlementaires par le chavisme, en fin 2015, celui-ci a mis en place une série de "nouvelles" ressources idéologiques au service de sa propagande sur la chaîne officialiste VTV.

Entre autres, malgré le résultat, reconnu par le gouvernement même, continue l'idée, dans les publicités de la chaîne, que le chavisme est le mouvement du peuple vénézuélien. Dit autrement, malgré la logique mathématique qui implique que l'écrasante majorité de l'opposition au parlement (119 contre 54 officialistes 27 ), et ceci malgré ou avec les mesures chavistes de diminution du poids des votes dans les départements traditionnellement oppositeurs (qui provoquait la décompensation au profit du gouvernement dans les dernières années), il semble que le gouvernement n'est pas conscience qu'une partie de son électorat a dû voter contre le mouvement pour qu'il soit en perte de position.

Cette prémisse est cependant importante pour comprendre le plan général de pensée, et de propagande, du chavisme en 2016.

Nous en prendrons un exemple concret: le programme, créé spécialement après les élections perdues, intitulé: "La Tesis" ("La Thèse"), et diffusé en première partie de soirée le dimanche ("horario estelar" pour ainsi dire). Le programme, débuté le 21/02/ 2016 et d'une durée prévue de treize épisodes [START_REF]L'utilisation de symbolisme religieux est courant dans les mouvements autoproclamés révolutionnaires latinoaméricains[END_REF] , est présenté par Grisel Romero, membre actif du parti, puisque désignée présidente de l'Observatoire National de Sciences et Technologie en 2009 29 . Il se définit, en termes de romero, dès le premier épisode, comme un programme qui "permet d'incorporer l'analyse et l'argumentation nécessaires" à la réalité du pays "pour pouvoir l'investiguer et la transformer" 30 .

Le principe du programme est la préparation de travaux monographiques de Licence par quatre participants, auditeurs plus qu'actifs, chacun élisant son thème jamais véritablement débattu. La présentatrice est, comme un professeur, celle qui donne un cours magistral, autour d'une thèse unique, la sienne ou celle du gouvernement, dans laquelle chaque épisode du programme marque un pas de plus dans le renforcement de l'idéologie gouvernementale de la chaîne. Les premiers épisodes traitèrent de la notion d'État 31 puis de l'union, chaviste, d'un ordre "civico-militaire" 32 , laquelle est tenté d'être justifié. On passera sur le fait que les bases de la notion d'État évoquées au premier chapitre sont partielles (quatre auteurs: Machiavel, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, entre lesquels manqueraient, en premier, les Grecs, et, en second lieu, Montesquieu, pour le moins), et apparemment n'ont pas été lues par Romero ni par le professeur invité, différent chaque fois et dont la participation se réduit à une capsule de moins de cinq minutes.

Plus intéressant pour nous sera le second chapitre de ce programme, dédié à l'"union civico-militaire", lequel programme commence par l'opposition entre l'article 132 de la Constitution de 1961, où l'armée est décrite comme une force "apolitique et non délibérante", et la Constitution de 1999, dans son article 326, qui ne parle pas de l'armée, mais pose la relation, équivoque, comme on va le voir, de la "corresponsabilité entre l'État et la société civile". On note cependant qu'ici l'utilisation du concept hégélien de "société civile", à notre sens généralement tautologique (toute société étant composée de citoyens), prend ici une implicite nuance de correspondance entre le cadre civil (non plus entendu comme civique, au sens large, mais au sens strict par opposition au militaire) et l'armée. Ceci nous induit à un autre phénomène de compréhension, beaucoup plus ample: que tout État se défend, dans quelque cas que ce soit, par la voie d'une armée, soit-elle celle-ci soumise à un ordre civil supérieur (l'État), ou bien soit-elle comprise comme intégrante per se de l'organisation de l'État, devenant alors supérieure à la société qu'elle se donne le devoir de diriger. Si la morale et la théorie politique pourraient nous donner des raisons de remettre en cause cette idée, l'histoire nous la confirme. Dit autrement, si l'intention éthique peut la débattre, la réalité des faits tout au long du parcours de l'humanité ne fait que la renforcer. Tout comme, si l'Histoire (History) n'a pas la vocation de s'écrire comme un récit (story), elle l'a cependant fait jusqu'ici, les États devraient peut-être pouvoir se soutenir sans l'usage coercitive de forces pour les maintenir et perpétuer, mais il ne l'ont jusqu'ici jamais fait.

Comme nous l'évoquions au début de la présente conférence, Romero cite ensuite l'article 327 de la Constitution de 1999, sur la protection des frontières. On voit donc comme glisse le thème de la question interne (civil-militaire) à la question ontique, par essence tribale (Nous-Autres). En ce sens, les prémisses du programme sont intéressantes: il conserve tout au long un post-it de Hugo Chávez avec le slogan: "Gringo Go Home", et les avant-scènes préalables au programme, titulées comme MisiónVerdad.com, mettent en scène d'abord la suspension par le gouvernement de Carlos Andrés Pérez en mars 1992 des garanties constitutionnelles et de la libre expression de la pensée et de manifestations, décrets lus à l'époque par Andrés Blanco, alors Ministre de l'OCI, et l'actuel Président du Parlement Henry Ramos Allup, puis une série de dénonciations contre l'industrie Polar, récemment vendue à un consortium allemand, et une critique de la critique contre l'information mondiale qui considère Vénézuéla comme un pays insolvable, alors que les États-Unis, que les spots prennent comme contrepartie (logique par rapport au slogan précité), sont redevables de plusieurs milliards à la Chine, leurs entreprises perdent annuellement de grosses quantités, et leur dette excède les 200%, alors que, conclut le cycle de spots, ils n'arrêteront jamais, par contre, de favoriser leur principale entreprise financière, celle de "La guerre". On voit bien que ce principe de délation par comparaison, peut-être valide partiellement comme contre-discours, et même s'il ne dit en soi rien de faux, s'oriente, plus qu'à la dénonciation, récurrente sur VTV, en soi, à la mise en scène du propos postérieur du programme: à savoir l'union civico-militaire, présente du temps de la Quatrième République, comme aux États-Unis (le complexe industriel-militaire déjà dénoncé par Eisenhower).

En second lieu, ces divers spots orientent la lecture vers ce que le chavisme appelle le caractère "apatride" des entreprises et des gouvernements antérieurs vénézuéliens, comme aussi de l'opposition (exemple de la vente par Polar, entreprise de vente de produits alimentaires, qui ne les produits pas, et, selon nous disent les spots, envoie l'argent donné à elle par le gouvernement chaviste vers les comptes des banques allemandes), dont le versant impérialiste est l'achat des consciences et la propagande états-unienne et pro-nord-américaine dans le monde. C'est donc encore un contexte de nationalisme auquel nous avons à faire, mais subtilement transposé de la question intérieur-extérieur (des frontières donc) à celle d'un débat intérieur (qui travaille pour qui?), créant ainsi le soupçon de trahison envers les opposants, mais en même temps avalant, implicitement, l'action "civico-militaire" par une apparente opposition (1961-1999) entre deux modèles, alors que ce que le sous-texte propose s'apparente beaucoup plus à un soulignement de la permanence de ladite union (1992actualité).

Ainsi l'article 328 de la Constitution de 1999, cité finalement, et qui définit, similairement à celle de 1961, l'armée comme étant "sans militance politique", sera analysé de manière relativement surréaliste par la présentatrice suite à l'inquiétude de l'une des étudiantes. En effet, n'ayant pas voulu ou su, par elle-même, dilucider cette, pourtant centrale, similitude dans le premier bloc du programme, Romero demande, au début du second, l'opinion des autres participants, arrivant à la conclusion que la différence serait de l'ordre suivant: la Constitution de 1961 "ne croyait pas à la politique" alors que dans celle de 1999 "les militaires ont le droit au suffrage" (évidemment, cette différence est totalement inventée).

Romero, pourtant, si, insiste sur la fin de l'article, qui exprime que l'armée "assure l'intégrité de l'espace géographique", mais ne compare pas avec la fin de l'article 132 de 1961, qui exprimait un élément beaucoup plus central: "Les Forces Armées Nationales seront au service de la République, et en aucun cas d'une personne ou partialité politique." Or le second bloc du programme reprend, après la coupure publicitaire, sur une "Représentante de la Femme Vénézuélienne au Congrès de la Patrie", ce qui nous rappelle le nom même du "Grand Pôle Patriotique" des députés chavistes à l'Assemblée. Là encore, donc, se modifie subtilement le concept d'autochtonie, pour ainsi dire, encore une fois en termes de Détienne, de l'opposition entre l'esprit national (le "volkgeist" du XIXème siècle, créé par Herder en 1774 dans Une autre philosophie de l'histoire [START_REF] Mährlein | Volksgeist und Recht[END_REF] ) et l'étranger, à celle entre l'autochtone d'âme et l'"apatride", opposition que l'on retrouve dans la littérature vendéenne entre Les Arrivants, 1909, et Les Démarqués, 1910, de Jean Yole.

A présent, un autre élément fondamental ici est la révision de l'armée vénézuélienne actuelle. Dans les programmes et les événements militaires, notamment de graduation, les principales figures de commandement n'oublient jamais de s'autoproclamer, si ce n'est chaviste, directement, bien qu'ils le fassent parfois, notamment depuis le décès de Chávez, tout au moins "bolivariens". Or le concept de bolivarianisme n'est pas indifférent. Pour preuve, le fait que la première action de Ramos Allup comme Président de l'Assemblée fut de faire quitter les portraits de Bolívar et de Chávez et l'actuel Président Nicolás Maduro de l'hémicycle. Créant un scandale national, Maduro s'empressa alors d'aller demander l'appui de l'armée, qui répondit, au travers de son Ministre, le Major Général Vladimir Padrino López 34 , par un communiqué en "Compensation" aux trois figures, la moitié de l'intervention revenant à la figure de Bolívar, l'autre au "Commandant Suprême de la Révolution Bolivarienne Hugo Chávez", insistant sur son action de "sauvetage d'un peuple opprimé par une oligarchie qui promouvait et favorisait le système d'explotation capitaliste". On voit dès lors que l'armée bolivarienne n'est pas différente dans sa fonction de celle de 1961 ou de 1992, sauf par rapport à son autoproclamation comme bolivarienne, c'est-à-dire, plus clairement, comme chaviste, puisque c'est Chávez qui se fit le chantre de Bolívar, et pour cette raison les trois figures trilogiques (Marx-Lénine-Staline/Bolívar-Chávez-Maduro) furent quittées par Ramos Allup [START_REF]En una entrevista ofrecida a un canal regional, el diputado de derecha justificó su decisión de sacar los cuadros del hemiciclo por que -a su juicio-"en ningún Congreso del mundo había fotos ni de presidentes ni de pseudo líderes políticos[END_REF] . De fait, l'allocution de Padrino López termine ainsi: "Pour l'antérieurement mentionné, la Force Militaire Bolivarienne, dont les intégrants sommes d'irréductible vocation bolivarienne, et consécutivement chaviste, répudie catégoriquement tout acte dans lequel est manqué au respect, villipendé et tache la mémoire d'aussi éminentes autorités, défenseurs de la justice et de l'égalité, car se faisant il est aussi fait offense à la dignité et les plus pures traditions vénézuéliennes et de toute l'Amérique". Voir, à ce propos encore, le comique lapsus linguae, certainement révélateur de quelque personnelle incertitude idéologique, du Commandant Général de la Armée Bolivarienne Entrant dans sa prise de fonction, qui, voulant se déclarer antiimpérialiste et chaviste, se proclame: "anti-impérialiste et anti-chaviste" 36 .

De là, le troisième bloc du programme présente, au travers de la participation enregistrée de Henry Navas, Professeur de l'École Militaire, le concept "civico-militaire" comme, première définition (si l'on peut dire, puisqu'il ne spécifie pas non plus le second terme d'équivalence) qui s'en donne dans le programme, passée plus de la moitié de celui-ci, "défense intégrale". Ce nouveau terme fait que Romero demande la différence entre État et Nation, donnant lieu à un autre échange surréaliste, où, par exemple, apparaît la division entre la Nation au-dessus de l'État, à son tour au-dessus du gouvernement. Les termes individuels n'étant pas définis (alors que l'État n'est autre que le gouvernement), mais se mettant un place les éléments, subjectifs, malinterprétés, et diffus, de connexions entre les différents concepts. Toutefois, l'intention de la question de Romero porte sur la possibilité de présenter une supposée différence entre les termes des deux Constitutions, thème qu'elle tente sans jamais y arriver de développer depuis le début, différence entre un pluriel (les Forces Armées, 1961) et un singulier (la Force, 1999).

Évidemment elle passe outre la question de la partialisation politique, puisqu'elle théorise depuis celleci, mais s'intéresse, au contraire, à la soi-disant différence entre une force armée au service de l'État (1961) par rapport à une force armée au service de la défense, elle insiste alors sur le concept d'"intégral", de la Nation. On ne comprend pas bien, parce qu'elle ne l'explique pas ce qu'implique pour elle la différence grammaticale entre pluriel et singulier ici. Mais il est évident au moins qu'on peut, en départidisant le concept, exprimer plus clairement l'opposition qu'elle fait: les Forces armées en 1961 n'étaient pas prévues pour la défense intérieure (l'État a pour cela en principe la police), alors qu'à partir de 1999 elles étaient, par un président d'origine militaire, et disciple avoué de gouvernements eux-mêmes l'étant (le Cuba castriste et le Nicaragua sandiniste), censées être utilisées dans le cadre d'un gouvernement, si peu civil qu'il n'a jamais compris la différence.

La planche que Romero présente alors éclaire tout, bien qu'en expliquant rien. Il s'agit d'un triangle rouge sur fond de carré jaune, au milieu d'une planche en blanc. Or du carré se trouvent en haut les concepts Force Armée Bolivarienne et de Corresponsabilité, et en bas de Menace extétieure et de Territoire. Le carré jaune, intégrant le triangle, est marqué comme Constitution de la RBV (République Bolivarienne de Vénézuéla), et chaque côté du triangle présente les concepts d'Objectif sur la base et de Stratégie et de Peuple respectivement à gauche et à droite. Une flèche lie les deux concepts du bas (Menace et Territoire), deux autres lient respectivement ceux de Force au carré jaune comme ensemble, et à Peuple par le biais de Corresponsabilité.

Les trois figures sont la Force Armée, le Peuple et la Menace, la Constitution comme objet (mais de toute évidence ici considéré comme équivalent d'une figure [la République], sans que soit conçu correctement la différence entre l'objet et son application à un ensemble humain), répond aux deux concepts prospectifs d'Objectif et de Stratégie. On est donc bien dans un discours militaire, pour ne pas dire militariste, militarisé ou militarisant, de stratégie et d'objectif. De là la position de la Force Armée en haut à gauche, comme point de départ (par le sens même habituel de la lecture), non comme appui ni comme élément. Le peuple est intégré à un groupe, défini non comme originel (de l'existence du peuple se déduit tout le reste), mais au contraire comme soumis à une sorte de genèse depuis la Force Armée (c'est-à-dire de la figure emblématique du militaire Chávez, qui se reconnaissait lui-même comme parangon de Bolívar), productrice de la Constitution. La subordination du peuple à l'Armée se comprend alors, et ne peut que se comprendre que par la permanence, assumée, d'une Menace, laquelle nous met perpétuellement en état de siège, menace qualifiée d'extérieure.

"La défense intégrale de la Nation est liée à ce que nous avons dit au début. Si on peut le voir sur la planche, on a au centre un triangle, et ce triangle est en relation avec ce que nous avons vu dans la session antérieure.

Dans la session antérieure, nous avons analysé que pour l'exercice du pouvoir, on avait un objectif et une stratégie et les gens. Mais cette configuration ne se donne pas de manière abstraite. Ce que l'on voit ici, cet exercice du pouvoir se donne dans un territoire. Dans le cas présent, on parle de notre pays, on parle du Vénézuéla. Et, additionnellement, le régit la Constitution Bolivarienne, dans notre cas de la Rébulique Bolivarienne du Vénézuéla, mais ce cadre constitutionnel est ce qui nous donne, ce qui donne les assises, les bases pour pouvoir exercer le pouvoir, l'exercice du pouvoir au travers du gouvernement, qui se trouve dans l'appareil de l'État. Donc, quand on se met dans le territoire, et l'on a la possibilité de se voir menacés dans le territoire, on se dit: j'ai des menaces internationales, c'est pour cela qu'en outre notre pensée militaire, dans l'actualité, est la défense intégrale de la Nation contre les menaces de l'impérialisme. Ceci est donc identifié comme une menace internationale. Et nous avons la Force Armée Bolivarienne pour la défense de cela, de la Constitution, la défense de l'exercice du pouvoir, de l'État, mais en outre en corresponsabilité avec le peuple. Et c'est à ce moment qu'apparaît le concept que nous voulons apporter pour qu'il nous reste comme référence dans la session d'aujourd'hui, qui est l'union civico-militaire. Elle surgit de cet aspect de corresponsabilité, ces éléments de corresponsabilité." (Romero) Les modèles, qui sont deux, d'où vient cet ensemble, Romero les dit avant la dernière coupure publicitaire: la guerre prolongée d'Ho-Chi-Min et Cuba.

En résumé, nous voyons que le programme de VTV nous informe de ce que l'on pourrait appeler la misère du pouvoir, qui définit toujours le discours oppositeur comme critique et de proposition, et celui du pouvoir comme d'imposition et d'explication (ou justification), obligeant chacun des deux à n'être que ce qu'il peut être, et à exister dans cette unique et étroite marge.

2.b. Nicaragua

Les ressemblances entre le modèle nicaraguayen et le vénézuélien sont nombreuses, non seulement pour l'intention chaviste du gouvernement ortéguiste, liée à l'appui économique qui a permis l'enrichissement de la famille présidentielle en un temps record, mais pour l'histoire même, et l'influence castriste dans ces modèles, à son tour américanisation du modèle stalinien.

On n'est donc pas surpris qu'au modèle civico-militaire chaviste actuel corresponde, au Nicaragua, une série de lois que le gouvernement essaie de faire passer, ou bien a réussi à faire approuver par une assemblée, celle-ci à la botte, puisqu'élue illégitiment grâce non aux votes populaire mais à la fraude des élections municipales de 2008, antichambre de la fraude présidentielle de 2011. Paquet de lois connu sous le titre de Loi de Souveraineté Nationale, repris du modèle (qui dans ce cas arrange) états-unien du Patriot Act, dont nous avons obtenu en France suite aux attentats parisiens, par un vote en catimini de l'Assemblée37 .

L'ironie du cas est que ce paquet ortéguiste rappelle "les ténébreux organes de sécurité et répression comme le Bureau de Sécurité Nationale durant la dictature de la famille Somoza et la Direction Générale de la Sécurité d'État durant la décade des années quatre-vingt, sous le primier régime sandiniste." 38 Dès lors, on se rappelle des quatre fois où Romero, n'expliquant rien (théoriquement), mais, de nouveau, disant tout (de son idéologie), parle de "l'exercice du pouvoir" comme centre de son attention, et l'identité terminologique entre le Nicaragua (Sécurité d'État dans les années 1980, Souveraineté Nationale aujourd'hui) et le Vénézuéla (Union civico-militaire, Défense Intégrale de la Nation). Les termes varient quelque peu (Nation au Vénézuéla, État au Nicaragua), mais l'on a vu que cela n'a pas beaucoup d'importance vu la confusion générale autour de cette équivalence État-Nation sur laquelle se sont, habilement, construites39 nos mal dites démocraties.

L'union que se propose Ortega, dans l'année électorale que sera 2016, et plus encore vu l'absence récente des ressources vénézuéliennes, due à la situation économique difficile qu'affronte le pays uniquement basé sur la richesse pétrolière, tend à deux choses, comme déjà y tendaient l'instauration systématique de la perpétuation des hauts commandements policiers40 et militaires 41 , l'obéissance totale 42 et achetée par des bénéfices financiers et politiques 43 de l'armée et de la police 44 . Permettant ainsi à Ortega la réélection permanente 45 .

À présent, cette identité entre les systèmes, ainsi par exemple la Loi de Souveraineté Nationale laisserait "les Droits citoyens à la volonté du système" 46 comme en 1992 au Vénézuéla, nous amène à réfléchir sur les raisons de cette similitude.

Pour cela, il faut s'interroger, non plus sur les modalités, mais sur les fins du système. Il est évident que le gouvernement nicaraguayen ne croit pas au jeu démocratique, puisqu'il le bafoue. Mais il est aussi évident que les pays du monde, ceux qui le dirigent en particulier, n'y croient pas plus (on pensera à la discutable élection de Bush Jr. face à Al Gore, contre le vote public général 47 ), puisqu'ils reconnaissent tous les gouvernement ortéguiste, bien que tout le monde 48 sache qu'il provient d'une honteuse fraude électorale.

Tout d'abord, on s'intéressera au principe de perpétuel état d'urgence, qui justifie tout pour les États. On l'a dit du Patriot Act, et de ses imitations. Mais on peut, tout aussi précisément, comparer le discours chaviste d'imminence de l'invasion yankie, paranoïa gouvernementale de fait partiellement justifiée par la longue histoire d'interventionisme états-unien en Amérique Latine 49 , au mensonge de George Bush Jr. sur les armes de destruction massives en Irak 50 , suivi d'un simple, et pourtant non moins étonnant, "Oops! ...I Did It Again", à son tour comparable à l'incertitude autour de la réalité sur le 11 Septembre 51 ou sur le Golfe du Tonkin 52 , deux épisodes de mensonge politique pour justifier des guerres selon l'acteur, catcheur et ancien Gouverneur du On a vu comment le discours politique patriotique, qui part de l'opposition entre la menace internationale (comme dans le chavisme), et dont les héros, réels ou fictifs, sont en correspondance avec ce thème (Guillaume Tell, Robin des Bois, Till l'Espiègle, Sandino, Bolívar), débouche, par conséquent, naturellement en quelque sorte, sur l'opposition entre le bon citoyen et le traître, c'est-à-dire que, depuis la politique se définit le degré de responsabilité citoyenne envers l'État. Le dit grossièrement Romero, mais l'exprime plus élégamment John Fitzgerald Kennedy dans son Discours inaugural (20 janvier 1961) [Ortéga, Chávez, Maduro, etc.] et comme symbole [Marianne, les héros patriotiques tels que Sandino, Jeanne d'Arc, etc.]), la transformation subie aux XIXème-XXème siècles est donc la suivante: Si Dieu = personne Et que n'importe qui peut régner, donc: Personnification = État Ainsi d'ailleurs, l'image de Hobbes du Léviathan comme association groupale de l'ensemble des corps composant la société s'inspire de celle, religieuse et bibliquem de l'Église comme un corps unitaire (Romains, 12, 4-5: "Car, comme nous avons plusieurs membres dans un seul corps, et que tous les membres n'ont pas la même fonction, ainsi, nous qui sommes plusieurs, nous formons un seul corps en Christ, et nous sommes tous membres les uns des autres.").

Ainsi, lorsque, depuis notre position, nous critiquons les génocides, donc les dictatures, il faut pouvoir le faire en comprenant deux choses fondamentales: tout d'abord, comme nous l'exprimions à Vouvant, ils proviennent de la nature humaine: la question devient alors pourquoi et comment la dictature opère, pour que puissent exister des génocides. La réponse, même si l'on n'aime pas l'entendre, est aussi simple et bête que la question. L'humanité est méchante, ou tout au moins attirée par les drames spectaculaires (autrefois aux jeux du cirque, aujourd'hui devant un accident de la route). Le dictateur seul n'est rien d'autre qu'un imbécile, qu'un fou de plus, dans son monde imaginaire, dans son asile. Mais le problème, comme disait Gandhi, ce sont les millions qui le suivent, et le font ce qu'il devient: un géant néfaste.

3.c. Sur nos sociétés comme système, moyen et fonction de la conscience humaine comme cause D'autre part, il faut considérer que l'on peut difficilement être pertinent, c'est-à-dire, avant tout, efficace, dans notre critique si l'on oublie, volontairement ou pas (comme Romero dans son programme), de prendre un miroir, pour réellement argumenter, et non seulement dire que l'on va ou veut le faire.

Or nos sociétés, précisément, pour l'antérieur premier point de ces rapides conclusions (la méchanceté humaine), se fondent sur un modèle tristement trop clair. On nous dit assez que 1% de la population mondiale possède 50% des richesses 98 . Or, en soi, ce simple fait nous informe d'un élément fondamental, comme lorsque des banquiers importants (Sir Josiah Stamp, Directeur de la Banque d'Angleterre de 1928 à 1941 99 , ou François de Siebenthal, ancien Secrétaire Général du Crédit Suisse 100 ) nous parlent du système d'"esclavagisme" (le mot est explicitement d'eux) contemporain dans lequel nous vivons tous, pour cela même: que nos sociétés mêmes, qui valident des dictatures (on l'a vu de l'Afrique et de l'Amérique Latine), donc des processus de permanence au pouvoir qui impliquent toujours la réduction des libertés (les Guerres Civiles romaines 101 , à partir de Jules César 102 et jusqu'à Auguste 103 , en étant un clair exemple), et l'augmentation du pouvoir individuel (Mitterand faisant détruire aux frais du contribuable les preuves de l'existence de sa fille naturelle 104 , à présent étoile télévisuelle 105 ), ne le font pas par hasard, faute d'attention ou foi dans ce que José Martí appelait "l'amélioration de la race humaine", mais simplement parce qu'elles ne font, en cela, que valider, consciemment, leur nature.

Rappelons que récemment un membre de la Banque Rotschild a été intégré en 2014 comme Ministre de l'Économie en France 106 , et qu'à l'instar de Somoza, Ortega dirige le Nicaragua en permanente accord avec la chambre de commerce nationale, COSEP, qui réunit les plus gros entrepreneurs du pays 107 , et dont certains membres occupent, similairement à ce qui se passe actuellement en France, des postes au gouvernement 108 .

On connaît, plus généralement, les réunions au moins annuelles des pouvoirs exécutifs des principaux pays du monde avec le fameux, bien qu'excessivement discret, Club Bilderberg 109 .

Dit plus clairement, les preuves, notamment comparatives, ici apportées, et rationalisées, nous démontrent on ne peut plus clairement que tout pouvoir est, obligatoirement, totalitaire; que tout totalitarisme

  , lorsqu'il pose la fameuse opposition entre, précisément, la bonne et la mauvaise éthique citoyenne: "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" 69 .De fait, nous devons ici faire noter un point fondamental pour la compréhension de la perversion du modèle général totalitaire auquel nous nous affrontons dans la définition de nos États contemporains universaux (du Premier comme du Tiers-Monde).Ce que nous avons définit comme nos petits monarques à temps partiel 70 , dieux en miniature, montrent, par ricochet, assez bien la transformation par inversion et reproduction du modèle idéologique religieux sur le nationaliste, par une adéquation du type suivant:

	Le Roi ne fait rien	=>	Dieu
		=>	Nation (État) =>	Symbole personnifié (France = Marianne)
		=>	État = Roi
		=>	Fait payer le peuple qui lui obéit et est propriétaire terrien permanent de
	l'ensemble du		territoire

Par suite de cette adéquation modélisatrice (de la figure du Roi sur la personne de l'État, comme Nation

http://poesie.webnet.fr/lesgrandsclassiques/poemes/francois_villon/ballade_contre_les_ennemis_de_la_france.html

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde#Phrases_and_Philosophies_for_the_Use_of_the_Young_.281894.29

Marcel Détienne, Comment être autochtone. Du pur Athénien au Français raciné, Paris, Seuil, 2003; Norbert-Bertrand Barbe, Éléments de la construction politique de la contemporanéité XIXème-XXème siècles -Critique et mensonges: de l'École Publique au Socialisme du XXIème siècle, 2010; Barbe, Apparition de nouvelles structures narratives: les genres littéraires du XIXème siècle, 2010.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fronti%C3%A8re_entre_le_Bangladesh_et_l%27Inde

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barri%C3%A8re_de_s%C3%A9paration_isra%C3%A9lienne

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barri%C3%A8re_%C3%89tats-Unis-Mexique

http://visionscarto.net/evros-mur-inutile; http://www.courrierinternational.com/article/2011/01/12/le-mur-contre-les-clandestins-est-indispensable

"La Révolution marque de nombreux changements dans l'histoire de la France, elle va aussi faire avancer l'idée d'une identification plus systématique des individus vivants sur son territoire. L'Etat-Nation marque sa rupture d'avec l'Eglise sur qui les précédents systèmes monarchiques avaient reposé le «recensement» des Français par la tenue des registres paroissiaux. A partir du 20 septembre 1792, les officiers municipaux des mairies de chaque commune doivent tenir un «registre civil républicain» qui se décline en 4 registres: naissances, publications de mariages, mariages (et divorces) et enfin le registre des décès. La même années les grandes villes, Paris en tête, lancent l'usage des «cartes civiques». Des cartes spécifiques pour les forains et des «certificats d'hospitalité» pour les étrangers viennent compléter l'identification de la population. En 1807, Fouché, Ministre de la Police Générale, lance l'usage du «passeport intérieur» de rigueur pour la circulation des Français hors de leur canton. Cette même année, il propose aussi le modèle unique de passeport dit «infalsifiable». Délivré par des officiers publics(maires, commissaires de police, etc), les passeports sont détachés dans des cahiers dont les souches sont gardées par l'administration. Cette conservation facilite les vérifications en cas de contrôle et garantie leur authentification." (https://scribium.com/belya-dogan/a/origines-de-la-carte-nationale-didentite-1/)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeEyDPk3jPk; http://www.francetvinfo.fr/societe/justice/dieudonne/liberte-d-expression-pourquoi-dieudonne-et-charlie-hebdoce-n-est-pas-pareil_796670.html;

https://mrmondialisation.org/patriot-act-made-in-france-des-mesures-liberticides-votees-en-catimini/

Barbe, Éléments de la construction politique de la contemporanéité XIXème-XXème siècles.

http://laluchasigue.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1366:el-19&catid=81:nicaragua&Itemid=198; http://confidencial.com.ni/granera-cumple-10-anos-en-el-cargo/; http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2015/07/12/nacionales/1865665-piden-renuncia-de-aminta-granera

tv5monde.com/cms/chaine-francophone/lf/Tous-les-dossiers-et-les-publications-LF/Semaine-de-la-langue-francaise-2016/p-31405-

http://www.rtbf.be/video/detail_libre-echange?id=2092021 et http://www.