The French thinker criticizes contemporary acceleration and the obsession with the body, and offers a remedy for distancing oneself from the world and calming the spirit away from technology: walking. It's almost an act of rebellion.

David Le Breton (Le Mans, 71) began his work in anthropology by studying how society influences the human body (in The Sociology of the Body , published in Spain by Siruela, like his other translated books). He then went on to work on adolescent risk behaviors (drug abuse, extreme sports, participation in violence) because he had experienced them himself. It all stemmed from an inner need: the need to understand. "I have never written to make a career, but rather to understand intimate, close issues that have affected me personally," he says. The nature of pain or the desire to disappear from oneself (in Disappear from Oneself ) have been other themes of his, a pain and a desire that he also experienced firsthand. All of this led him to what is perhaps his signature theme: walking, which he considers a way of distancing himself from the world and seeking tranquility. He explores this in Walking Life and In Praise of Walking . In his latest book, untranslated in Spain, he wonders if we've reached the end of the conversation: in Madrid, Strasbourg, and Rio, he sees nothing but people glued to their smartphones , walking like zombies. "I don't want to be moralistic or judgmental, but rather to understand what's happening around us: that is the fundamental task of anthropology," he says.

Le Breton visited Spain in February to participate in the Valladolid Cultural Forum and greeted us, somewhat shyly and smiling, at a hotel near Madrid's Gran Vía.

Question: What happened to you in your youth that made you want to disappear from yourself?

Answer: It's hard to say, because I come from a normal, structured family, with parents who loved me. But, I don't know why, from a young age I felt bad in my own skin. Margaret Mead , the American anthropologist, said that when a young person feels bad about themselves, they study psychology; when they feel bad about society, they study sociology; and when they feel bad about both, they choose anthropology. These have been my fields of study.

Q. And are you feeling better now?

A: Yes… I eventually found a zest for life, but I don't recognize myself in today's world, which I find violent, overly technological, and where we live together, yet alone. The brutality of politics and geopolitics affects me, which is why I seek refuge in writing. It's my lifeline.

P. The panorama makes you want to disappear.

A. We must resist, find reasons to love life. Walking, for example, is not only a personal refuge, but a collective one. In Europe, there are 450,000 pilgrims who walk the Camino de Santiago . It's a way of showing resistance. These walkers are like an international assembly, pioneers of a future world where what will matter will be solidarity, friendship, and mutual recognition, beyond religion or political disagreements. And above physical disabilities.

Q. In addition to the idea of disappearing, there are those who want to be present everywhere. And it has a lot to do with social media.

A. Actually, when you're looking at the screen, you're nowhere; you dissolve. I like to contrast conversation with communication: the former is face-to-face, it involves being attentive and looking into each other's eyes. There's room for silence, slowness, and complicity. The latter is more dispersed and utilitarian. The screen represents a kind of bubble: there's no shared sensoriality.

Q: If I try to tune out the noise of the world, I find that the noise is inside: my brain is racing and has trouble focusing.

A. Indeed. That's why I recommend walking as a form of abstraction . There's the wind through the trees, the birds singing, and that leads to a moment of inner peace. We can think about the environment, about ourselves, about our ancestors.

Q. Why are we so accelerated?

A. We're connected to all kinds of devices, we get notifications all the time. It seems to me that the world is moving slower because I have fewer devices. My pace of life is different. But I see it in others, who live in a constant state of agitation.

Q. How do you do this?

A: I find it easy when you come from a world that wasn't digital. My life was based on reading, on researching in libraries. But today, you can't live with your back to digital technology. I try to be the one who controls time, and not let time control me.

Q. It is said that we live in a more emotional than rational world, and that this is bad.

A. Humanity is emotional, and our relationship with the world will always be through emotions. But these emotions used to be more controlled, in political debate or in personal relationships. Today, emotion has indeed overtaken reason. And that can have tragic consequences. For example, wokism : the world is very complex, with many nuances, but emotion prevails when it comes to addressing it.

Q. And the rise of authoritarian positions.

A: Yes, we live in a universe dominated by anger and resentment. Trump always seems angry. On the far right, there's always an excuse against minorities, whether Mexican or Arab; there's always racism and anti-Semitism. That also has to do with this emotional moment.

Q. What does technology do to our bodies?

A. We've entered the era of humanity sitting still. There are public health problems like sedentary lifestyles and obesity. A study says that in the 1920s, in the United Kingdom, a child ran around their house 10 kilometers a day. Now it's 300 meters. And the passivity of the body also implies the passivity of the mind, which has political consequences…

Q. Not to mention the self-perception problems that young people suffer from.

R. Never before in history have people suffered more from anxiety, depression, and suicide. Social media doesn't increase the joy of life, it actually diminishes it.

Q. The left pursues increases in freedom, but the right waves the term.

A. Freedom is an anthropological desire; it's neither left-wing nor right-wing. The worrying thing about the increase in free time is that it can end up being capitalized on by Silicon Valley moguls if we spend it online. The important thing is how we use our free time. There are very advanced countries, like Australia, that are setting a 16-year-old age limit for social media access. These are difficult measures to implement, but important.

Q. Don't we know how to use our free time?

A. We've known how to use it for a long time, but not anymore. Every five minutes, people reach for their phones to check for updates. The algorithm shapes our lives. And that's the fear of freedom of thought. That's why I call for rebellion, for rebelliousness, for not giving in to the technological oligarchies. What will happen? I, like Gramsci , believe in "the pessimism of intelligence and the optimism of the will."