In la Tribune 24/09/2019
The barbaric company is known. It is illustrated by the cycle of cruel and dehumanized human relations within companies, as they decrease, restructure, deindustrialize, shut-down, etc.
Its tools are used from the outset, abuse during recruitment (no answer, internship, fixed-term contract), then personal life must be put in brackets for the benefit of a professional life, then appears the infernal cycle of cowardice, disloyalty, harassment, betrayal, absurd push aside, dismissal. « In an attempt to justify acts hitherto considered blameworthy, the ordinary meaning of the words was changed. Common sense was no more than a pretext for softness… The violence pushed to the frenzy was considered as the sharing of a truly manly soul…. The violent always made himself believed; the one who resisted these violences always made himself suspected… The man is more satisfied to be called skillful by behaving like a rascal than clumsy by being honest. We blush with clumsiness we pride ourselves on wickedness[1]« . The story ends with the lie that justifies the departure of such or such person, he has become pariah and his ex-colleagues or associates will simply suffer the suspicion of collaboration: » simplicity, which generally inspires generous feelings, became a subject of derision and disappeared, to leave all the room for general hostility and distrust. Nothing was capable of bringing peace, because no word was sure, no oath respected”. Victims of these operationss have sometimes lost their footing, they have disappeared, their families have exploded.
Is the company less barbaric since the possibilities of conventional break-up? Do generations X, Y and Z refuse to sacrifice their personal lives for a company that will one day betray them? Have barbaric companies become civilized communities? If you have made this last achievement, or other remarks, post them here.
In the same way, barbaric economy is the government that made the mistake of leading their community, their country, their nation with insolence or indifference; they received revolts in reaction: « there were committed crimes that people do once had hitherto been governed with insolence instead of moderation and who found the opportunity to take revenge; all the crimes that a long misery inspires to people who want to rattle it out ; all those suggested by the desire to unjustly seize the neighbour’s property; those to whom citizens who attack other citizens, without even having greed as their motive, are finally committed…” It is the opposition of the yellow vests ; it is Hong Kong because , beyond the recent obvious political aspect, for a long time now more equity has been demanded from the Tycoons (what a paradox with regard to neighbouring communism); it is the protesting vote by the eldest in favour of Brexit, whose second woe will continue if the United Kingdom splits; in view of the latest figures on temporary hiring in the United States, it may be social difficulties in the United States if the three wars continue during a second Trump mandate: economic wars (US/China, US/EU), trade wars (US/North Korea, US/Iran) and schizophrenic financial war as soon as the president threatens the benefits of the dollar by admonishing the independence of his own central bank. In 1923, Keynes described the gold standard as a barbaric relic, outdated of a new and civilized economy, nearly 100 years later would gold and crypto currencies become the civilized talisman of a new post-barbarbaric economy?
These faults remove leaders, they leave. But the country remains, its occupants too ; humiliated by these economic errors committed in their name and in the name of the nation, they will suffer for a long time.
Without any apparent connection, the climate has also become barbaric; climate change will bring cruelty and pain. On a global scale, rarely in the history of mankind have so many conflicts and hopes been shared over energy. Compared to other countries wandering in carbon dead ends of lignite, coal or gas dependencies, French nuclear power was ahead of its time, a bridge between carbon energies and the future: solar energy, the circular economy of uranium and especially electric transport since we know that the fake-news of « rare or unobtainable metals » was indeed a hoax.
Our time is coagulating these three miseries, will they really generate revolutions? Probably not. A successful revolution is a disruption that results in a greater number of citizens participating in society’s thinking and state decisions than in the past, with the aim of achieving a new political model that renews the equity of wealth distribution through progress. From our democracies, what better model would such revolutions lead us to?
Let’s avoid these impasses and return to the sin. Since for some people corporate-economic-climate barbaric is an obvious declination, let’s accept this hypothesis ; could we start from the beginning and try to heal up corporates, then the governance of the economy? Here the benevolence of « happy managers » or narcissistic communication oaths are useless. The barbarian becomes again civilized, powerful, bold and great as soon as his leaders regain honour, courage, honesty, integrity, respect for others, compassion, truth ; and it must be known, but with the humility demanded by the past overconfidence. As a result, when our children’s future will decide on the fairness of solutions, rather than having them decided by children, barbaric climate change will become more civilized again.
[1] The three quote in this post were written long ago in the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides. They describe one of the genesis of that 27-year war, and only illustrate the eternal renewal.