retail sanity within wholesale madness

English to French Other Other politicals sciences

Context: Undeground and terrorism in the late 1960s in the USA and Germany

The New Leftist Paul Breines lamented "Normal and intense factional debate has...been replaced by a blaring carnival of fetishized and mind clogging rhetoric...It is as if there were a self-propelling mechanism which brings everyone into the general reduction of the entire terrain of debate and consciousness to the level of retail sanity within wholesale madness".

My take is that these people brought the level of conversation to the level of "trivial, mundane topics" (retail sanity) while the world was at prey with unrest (wholesale madness).

It looks as if this phrase is a fixed one in English, but I can't find the equivalent in French.

Thank you very much for your help

vgt

Proposed translations (French)

4 +2	des îlot de raison au milieu d'un océan de folie.	Daryo
3	une goutte de bon sens dans une mer de folie	Anca Florescu-Mitchell

Discussion

Odile Raymond Jun 19, 2014: Je dirais : un peu de raison au milieu de la folie collective.
Daryo Jun 17, 2014: Normal and intense factional debate has...been replaced by a blaring carnival of fetishized and mind clogging rhetoric... that doesn't sound to me like a "normal" debate - more like imposing self-propagating madness (madness being basically detachment from reality) that leaves only few isolated patches for facts based debate to survive. I don't see any "moral" aspect in this text.
Lorraine Dubuc Jun 17, 2014: Ce n'est que pour illustrer la divergence de préoccupation selon la situation de chacun. Ni l'un ni l'autre ne peut être proche de la réalité qu'il n'expérimente pas. Mais ce n'est qu'une idée.
Isabelle Cluzel Jun 17, 2014: euh... pas vraiment à mon avis, car votre expression renvoie, elle, à une question de morale...
Lorraine Dubuc Jun 17, 2014: C'est comme discuter champagne et caviar en milieu de famine. :-)
Isabelle Cluzel Jun 17, 2014: lol, non, mais c'est la première expression qui m'est venue à l'esprit (vous, c'est l'eau, moi c'est la flore :))
Daryo Jun 17, 2014: une variante intéressante, ça vient du polonais?
Isabelle Cluzel Jun 17, 2014: métaphore un arbre sain dans une forêt malade :)