Of Society, Money, Power, People and Individuals
Social sciences shots
Desirability is key. It is the result of a system of personal and communitarian values defining what is suitable, respectable and alluring. And, it is the source of individual and social happiness or misery.
When the reality of facts becomes irrelevant, the freedom of expression becomes a nightmare.
Quo vadis? We should collaborate on the basis of common goals, not of common enemies.
To make one person very rich, you have to make many people poor.
In order to exist, rich people need lots of poor people, by the very definition of concentration of wealth in a world of limited resources.
Likewise, to make one person powerful, you have to make many people powerless.
Assuming that antagonism has been at the basis of evolution and social progress, I'd prefer antagonism to become non-conflicting, at least in human societies.
Fascism is not an opinion, it is a crime. In fact, its political goal is the domination of one group identified as superior over others through oppression. To achieve this goal, fascism legitimises violence and the repression of all dissent as a political tool, both in domestic and foreign policy, and glorifies force and war.
And so do all the political movements that have derived from it, such as Nazism, the Taliban-style fundamentalisms, Zionism, Hindu nationalism, and the MAGA movement.
Freedom without responsibility becomes exploitation.
Equality without freedom becomes oppression.
Prosperity without ecology becomes collapse.
Money and power are not bad in themselves. What is really bad is the abuse of power and the excessive accumulation of money.
Debt-money is a claim on the future without the future's consent.
Fiat currencies created as interest-bearing debt compel perpetual growth to service that debt.
Corporations should be regarded as independent kingdoms with a medieval hierarchy. National States should put more effort in protecting their people sovereignty and wellbeing.
We need techno-situationism against techno-feudalism.
Religion can be considered the opium of the people, nevertheless it is clear that drugs had and keep having their fruitfulness in the history of human development. It is also clear that drugs come with collateral effects.
How would I explain religion to my children? This is my attempt.
Faith - both related and unrelated to religion, intended as general belief in a set of knowledge and understanding - arise from the impossibility of verifying every statement and fact and of knowing how to answer to every question.
Work becomes alienating when it is too much or when you cannot significantly engage in what you are doing. Adequate rest and vacations are a must. In Italy, in the 19th Century people used to work 16 hours per day. Around the beginning of the 20th Century the hours per day were reduced to 12 and then 10. The national contracts reduced the number of hours per week to 40 at the end of the Sixties. A new reduction of the working hours is well due in the new Century's Twenties. We've got improved machines and lots of artificial tools, higher productivity and too much unemployment: we do not need to work so many hours. Also, a lot of what we produce goes directly to the dump, and this should be unacceptable.
A redistributive tax system underpins a just, peaceful, healthy and educated society. The tax rates in brackets should only be applied to capital falling on the next rung to avoid disincentives to earn a little more because you would pay more taxes. The rich should pay higher rates, even higher than 50% for the highest brackets; however, they would still pay lower rates for the lower brackets.
Reducing the number of tax brackets penalizes the poorest and rewards the richest. It is unbelievable that so-called representatives of the middle class and of the poor people are calling for a flat rate of the income tax.
People are afraid of the poors stealing their money and jobs. But in fact it is the richest ones who take the most from everyone.
A society is truly wealthy when every person can flourish without diminishing the freedom of others or the future of the Earth.
Knowledge grows faster than resources.
Technology expands faster than institutions.
Power globalizes faster than responsibility.
Today the greatest challenge is no longer producing enough, it is learning how to govern abundance without destroying trust, freedom, or the living world.
The economic question should not be "how much can be produced" but "how much is enough."
Wealth should be defined as the set of assets that enhance society's future capacity to prosper. These include natural capital, knowledge, health, infrastructure, and trust in institutions.
The biosphere is not external to the economy; it is the economy's only real capital.
And, nature is not an externality, it is civilization's life-support system.
Ethinc cleansing under our eyes. Torture, famine, violence, diseases, total dehumanisation of the opponent. When will the Israelis realise that they have become that very same horror that they have suffered?
Genocide is not an opinion to be debated, it is a crime defined by law.
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