During the Middle Ages, humanity lived
obsessed with the magical-religious thought that, in some interpretations,
denied freedom and responsibility of the people subdued to the dictatorship
of castes and of feudal privileges. Renaissance and the Illustration rescued
human beings in the name of Reason; but their dreams produced monsters
that were crystallized in inhumane life concepts, which were totalitarian.
Sole thought expresses the Calvinist logic that confuses progress with
development.
While progress holds the human as the protagonist, development is mechanic
and its objectives are benefits. “The more, the better.” Progress remains
always at the level of the person who walks, takes steps, pro-gressus.
“The better, the more.” Without conscience of liberty and of social dimension,
there is no progress.
Economic growth, material development, richness, industrialization and
technological innovations make sense if they remain outside the community.
It’s not understandable how profit can lead any activity if it’s not the
benefit of society; not only of a few privileged.
Calvinist fundamentalism that gave origin to capitalism made human beings
productive objects whose activity was the obtaining of benefits. The monstrosity
“we live to work” was assumed. Since our eternal salvation depended upon
Providence, it was necessary that it found us working, saving money, producing
without leaving gaps for rest, leisure or art, for which they set a price.
In the “Ordonnances sur le régime du peuple de Génève”,
Calvin states that the signals of predestination are: industriousness,
work and worldly ascetics, which will be the means for salvation. It was
a crime to laugh. Rousseau’s father was condemned for teaching dance.
They condemned leisure and idolized business
Economic profit, condemned by St. Thomas of Aquinas and Aristotle, became
the key of a structured life destined to reach its perfection. Religiously,
the need for capital and banks, the goodness of loans and credit are sanctioned,
like any benefit that exceeded any strict need. The slogan “to pray is
to work” ruled.
Believing that we are free, we live chained by the mythic thought of productivity,
of the triumph and victory over others. Competitiveness has displaced
competition.
The most atrocious individualism has uprooted us from our identity as
people. They make us forget that we live to be happy, which is the only
sense of existence. To be ourselves in relation to others seems obscene
because the norms of the market establish that thinking, daring, disagreeing,
leaving the consumerist prison, is a sin. The ends justify the means and
war is the logical instrument of this idolatry.
It’s precise to switch chips; to organize resistance and to rebel ourselves;
to denounce social injustice and to throw from power those who unlawfully
retain it. A model based on arms, the exploitation of resources and dehumanisation
is not viable. A global society, in which we define ourselves as responsible
neighbours, is only possible through solidarity.