Abstract
Under the subsequent reign of the doctrines of (economic) liberalism and (economic) neoliberalism, average man (at least in capitalist countries) has gradually been turned into a “one-dimension” creature that mainly still functions in the socio-economic dimension, where he only fulfils the following societal functions:
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- 1.
The phrase was introduced by Herbert Marcuse. (See Marcuse (1991)).
- 2.
Compare Sivaraksa (1992), p. 38.
- 3.
Similary, under neoliberal doctrine, civil servants and other people employed by the government only serve one purpose, namely making sure that the entrepreneurial sector is ensured of a political and socio-economic climate that guarantees profits as much as possible. This may, for instance, be illustrated by referring to the evolution of the educational sector, especially the university sector, during the past decades.
- 4.
Compare Harari (2014), p. 98, explaining the iron law that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn an endless chain of ever more obligations.
- 5.
Compare Sivaraksa (1992), p. 38.
- 6.
In this—and this is a form of rebuttal often heard out of the mouths of neoliberals when confronted with the devastating societal effects of implementing their teachings—, even poor people living in Western countries are expected to consider themselves as lucky, as poverty in some other regions of the world often implies being condemned to live a life of true constant misery.
- 7.
See Byttebier (2018).
- 8.
Compare Coelho and Horta (2018):
Ancestral economies were based on solidarity and cooperation among people, on a harmony between them and nature and on an orientation towards the mere satisfaction of their needs. Capitalism is characterized by competition among peers, by the predation of the Earth and by an orientation of its agents aiming at unlimited material accumulation. Both modes are hegemonic, each in its own time, but that is about as much as these modes have in common.
- 9.
Compare again Coelho and Horta (2018):
Can, like its ancestral homologous form, the present ‘state of the art’ in economic organization – capitalism – last for hundreds of thousands of years? It does not seem possible, given the condition in which it left the planet and humans, after only 200 years. Earth’s soils, rivers, oceans, and atmosphere are now filled with the poisons left over from our economic activity; the climate is changing, the elements unsettled and life as we know it may be doomed, if we do not make deep and rapid changes. As for us humans, materialistic as we have become, we too often forget who we really are and can do: our nature as creators; our ability to generate art, mathematics or philosophy; our potential for freedom, for choosing paths, for changing ourselves and the world as we decide, and the lack of any natural bound between us and what we can achieve or be. By forgetting so much, we reduce ourselves to economic roles, going now so far as to even discuss whether artificial intelligence and robots will make us pointless and expendable one day. The culprit is our current economic culture and system.
- 10.
- 11.
This viewpoint can, moreover, hardly be considered that “new”, as the message that one should treat one’s fellow human beings in a loving manner, instead of as a means of getting richer oneself, has already been brought numerous times before in history, not in the least in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
- 12.
This has, for instance, been argued by Ayn Rand.
- 13.
See also Graeber (2018).
In his book “Bullshit Jobs”, American anthropologist David Graeber posits that the productivity benefits of automation have not led to a 15-h workweek, as had at the time been predicted by economist John Maynard Keynes, but instead to an ever increasing amount of “bullshit jobs”: “a massive variety of paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence even though, as part of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that this is not the case.” (See Graeber (2018), p. xiv a.f., see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs (last consulted on March 5 2019)).
As one of the main causes of the emergence of “bullshit jobs”, Graeber identifies “consumerism” (one of the theories of the neoliberal doctrine):
The standard line today is that [Keynes] didn’t figure in the massive increase in consumerism. Given the choice between less hours and more toys and pleasures, we’ve collectively chosen the latter.
(Graeber (2018), p. xv.)
One could even add to this correct insight that, through this, humanity collectively sustains a socio-economic order that is, as argued elsewhere in this book, detrimental for the wellbeing of both humanity and the Earth it inhabits.
Graeber even has contended that probably more than half of all societal work is pointless, both large parts of some jobs and, as he describes, five types of entirely pointless jobs (see Graeber, p. 27 a.f.; see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs):
-
1.
“flunkies”, who serve to make their superiors feel important, like receptionists, administrative assistants, door attendants…;
-
2.
“goons”, who act aggressively on behalf of their employers not creating any added value to society themselves, like national armed forces, lobbyists, corporate lawyers, telemarketers, public relations specialists…;
-
3.
“duct tapers”, people who ameliorate preventable problems and/or who are there to solve problems that not ought to exist (or that they first create themselves), like programmers repairing shoddy code, airline desk staff who calm passengers whose bags don’t arrive…;
-
4.
“box tickers”, who use paperwork or gestures as a proxy for action; who exist only or primarily to allow an organization to be able to claim it is doing something that, in fact, it is not doing, like performance managers, in-house magazine journalists, leisure coordinators… .;
-
5.
“taskmasters”, who manage—or create extra work for—those who don’t need it, like middle management, leadership professionals…
One could in this regard also mention the “jobsworth”, a notion that is popular in the UK for referring to a person who upholds the petty rules at the expense of common sense.
As a potential solution, Graeber suggests universal basic income. The author credits a natural human work cycle of cramming and slacking as the most productive way to work, as farmers, fishers, warriors, and novelists vary in the rigor of work based on need for productivity, not the standard working hours, which can appear arbitrary when compared to cycles of productivity. Graeber contends that the collective time not spent pursuing pointless work could instead be spent pursuing creative activities (Graeber (2018), p. 269 a.f.; see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs), or, as suggested in the present book, on devoting time for organizing caring societies (instead of punitive neoliberal states). (See furthermore in Sect. 6.2.2.6 of this book).
-
1.
- 14.
And, hence, also of deciding, on the one hand, to what extent the working classes have to work continuously in order to make sure that the money creating machine of the private banks and the capitalist credit-driven economy that has emerged from it, will continue to go on and, on the other hand, how the wealth generated by the economic system—in essence coming down to the wealth created by the combined efforts of nature and man—is to be distributed among the people.
- 15.
One of the most impressive historical examples has probably been the “House of Fugger. (For further information, see https://www.fugger.de/home.html; last consulted on March 5 2019).
- 16.
One could even hold that, at the end, such a society is the one that Jesus Christ envisioned when proclaiming His “seven (corporal) acts of mercy”, referred to as:
a model for how we should treat all others, as if they were Christ in disguise. They “are charitable actions by which we help our neighbors in their bodily needs”. They respond to the basic needs of humanity as we journey together through this life.
(See http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/jubilee-of-mercy/the-corporal-works-of-mercy.cfm; last consulted on March 5 2019.)
These acts of mercy are mentioned as follows in the Gospel of Saint Matthew:
for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’
(See Matthew: 25, 35-36.)
The seventh work of mercy that is apparently not mentioned in Matthew: 25, 35-36 itself, is: “burying the death”.
- 17.
Compare Das (2012), p. xxxii.
- 18.
See especially “Laborem Exercens” itself, which starts as follows:
Through work man must earn his daily bread and contribute to the continual advance of science and technology and, above all, to elevating unceasingly the cultural and moral level of the society within which he lives in community with those who belong to the same family. And work means any activity by man, whether manual or intellectual, whatever its nature or circumstances; it means any human activity that can and must be recognized as work, in the midst of all the many activities of which man is capable and to which he is predisposed by his very nature, by virtue of humanity itself. Man is made to be in the visible universe an image and likeness of God himself, and he is placed in it in order to subdue the earth. From the beginning therefore he is called to work. Work is one of the characteristics that distinguish man from the rest of creatures, whose activity for sustaining their lives cannot be called work. Only man is capable of work, and only man works, at the same time by work occupying his existence on earth. Thus work bears a particular mark of man and of humanity, the mark of a person operating within a community of persons. And this mark decides its interior characteristics; in a sense it constitutes its very nature.
(John Paul II (1981).)
See for instance Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace 2005, n° 101:
Ninety years after Rerum Novarum, Pope John Paul II devoted the Encyclical Laborem Exercens to work, the fundamental good of the human person, the primary element of economic activity and the key to the entire social question. Laborem Exercens outlines a spirituality and ethic of work in the context of a profound theological and philosophical reflection. Work must not be understood only in the objective and material sense, but one must keep in mind its subjective dimension, insofar as it is always an expression of the person. Besides being a decisive paradigm for social life, work has all the dignity of being a context in which the person’s natural and supernatural vocation must find fulfilment.
- 19.
Coen (2015), p. 11.
- 20.
See as regards the late Margaret Thatcher, her deliberate policy of, amongst others, high university entrance fees to push students towards student loans, under the argument that this would result in more rational study choices (see Thatcher (1993), pp. 597–598).
In reality, these higher entrance fees erode the democratization of university education as student loans are above all a mechanism by means of which the rich (namely the financial institutions providing the loans and their capital providers ultimately receiving the profits from this) are getting more rich to the detriment of the poor (being the students in need).
For further reasons why student loans are problematic, see Chomsky, having summarized his viewpoint as follows:
It means that students, if they don’t come from very wealthy families, they’re going to leave college with big debts. And if you have a big debt, you’re trapped.
(See Chomsky (2017), p. 67.)
- 21.
A recent study issued in the Melbourne Institute Worker Paper Series (see Kajitani et al. (2016)) demonstrates that people who are older than 40 perform best at work when they work only 3 days per week. It appears from this research that “older people” (above 40) perform significantly better when they only work 25 h per week. From this study, it furthermore appears that working 40 h a week is linked to a smaller cognitive deficit, but working 55 h or more appears to be worse than being retired or unemployed. (See Anonymous (2016a, b)).
From this research, one may hence conclude that working full time until the age of 67 is not as beneficial as the Australian government (next to many other neoliberal governments all over the globe) make(s) people believe. (See Anonymous (2016a, b)).
As the authors of said study have phrased it themselves:
Our empirical evidence shows that there is non-linearity in the effects of working hours on cognitive functioning. When working hours are less than around 25 hours a week, working hours have a positive impact on cognitive functioning. However, when working hours are more than 25 hours per week, working hours have negative impacts on cognition. These results suggest that people in old age could maintain their cognitive ability by working in a part-time job that requires them to work around 20–30 hours per week.
(see Kajitani et al. (2016), p. 4.)
The reason for this is stress and fatigue:
Work can be a double edged sword, in that it can stimulate brain activity, but at the same time, long working hours and certain types of tasks can cause fatigue and stress which potentially damage cognitive functions.
(see Kajitani et al. (2016), p. 3, referring to several other similar research.)
- 22.
See again Kajitani et al. (2016), p. 13, who in their abovementioned research came to the following conclusion:
This indicates that the differences in working hours is an important factor for maintaining cognitive functioning in middle and older adults. In other words, in the middle and older age, working part-time could effective in maintaining cognitive ability.
- 23.
- 24.
- 25.
Coelho and Horta (2018).
- 26.
Coelho and Horta (2018).
- 27.
- 28.
Coelho and Horta (2018).
- 29.
Coelho and Horta (2018).
- 30.
Sivaraksa (1992), p. 37.
- 31.
- 32.
Byttebier (2017), pp. 104–105.
- 33.
The term (socially) engaged Buddhism has been reported to be coined by the Vietnamese Thiền (Zen) monk and teacher Thich Nhat Hanh (b. 1926), who founded peace-oriented educational and religious institutions during the Vietnam War, led antiwar protests, rebuilt villages, resettled refugees, lobbied internationally for peace talks, and published articles and books on the crisis facing his country and the Buddhist tradition. After the Vietnam war, Thich Nhat Hanh, exiled from his country, spread the practice and teachings of engaged Buddhism in more than 85 books of commentary, poetry, and meditation, through mindfulness retreats at Plum Village in southern France, and in public gatherings throughout the world. (See Queen (2005)).
- 34.
Sivaraksa (1992), p. 50.
- 35.
- 36.
Sivaraksa (1992).
- 37.
According to Wikipedia, Mirra Alfassa (21 February 1878–17 November 1973), known to her followers as “the Mother”, was a spiritual guru, an occultist and a collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, who considered her to be of equal yogic stature to him and called her by the name “The Mother”. She founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and, in 1968, established Auroville an experimental township with no barrier and as a universal town; she was an influence and inspiration to many writers and gurus on the subject of Integral Yoga. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirra_Alfassa; last consulted on March 5 2019).
- 38.
The four basic values of the Auroville Charter are:
-
1.
Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. But, to live in Auroville, one must be a willing servitor of the divine consciousness.
-
2.
Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.
-
3.
Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.
-
4.
Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual human unity.
-
1.
- 39.
https://www.auroville.org/ (last consulted on March 5 2019). See also Pal (2018).
The Auroville Charter hereby forms an omnipresent referent that guides the people who choose to live and work for Auroville.
- 40.
https://www.auroville.org/contents/1162 (last consulted on March 5 2019).
- 41.
https://www.auroville.org/contents/1162 (last consulted on March 5 2019).
According to this website:
In Auroville, all is, according to Mother, collective property to be used for the welfare of all. Money and assets in the township are under the trusteeship of individuals, project holders, and managers of services or commercial units. They are to be utilised for the activities and development of the township as well as for the promotion of the ideals of Auroville. No one has any ownership rights over houses and other buildings, services, projects or commercial activities in Auroville. Selling or renting these assets for personal profit is unacceptable. All activities are part of the overall Auroville framework and all financial transactions regarding them take place through the official channels of Auroville.
- 42.
Pal (2018).
- 43.
This in contrast with similar experiments undertaken in Western countries, such as, for instance, the experiment undertaken by the followers of “Osho” (formerly: “Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh”) to establish a commune in Ontario that, even so on a socio-economic level, would be based upon the principles of love and mutual care. How this experiment fared within the context of a hostile, American environment, amongst others by the inhabitants of the neighboring town Antelope, can be seen in the award winning documentary “Wild wild country” (see https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7768848/; last consulted on March 5 2019). (See also Byttebier (2018), p. 243).
- 44.
https://www.auroville.org/contents/540 (last consulted on March 5 2019).
These assets, which till then were managed by the Administrator under the Auroville Emergency Provisions Act, were temporarily transferred to the Government of India, with the aim of ultimately vesting them in a body corporate established for the purpose, the Auroville Foundation. The Auroville Foundation came into existence in January 1991. The assets were vested in the Foundation on April 1st, 1992.
- 45.
More precisely in 1966, 1968, 1970 and 1983.
- 46.
http://oneworld.net/updates/news/unesco-and-auroville-mark-50-years-collaboration (last consulted on March 5 2019).
- 47.
This Resolution 58 bears the name “Cooperation of UNESCO with the international township of Auroville, India” (See 39 C/Resolution 58).
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Byttebier, K. (2019). A New Focus on Man. In: The Tools of Law that Shape Capitalism. Economic and Financial Law & Policy – Shifting Insights & Values, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24182-7_7
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