{"id":60933,"date":"2022-01-02T16:47:37","date_gmt":"2022-01-02T21:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=60933"},"modified":"2022-01-02T16:47:37","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T21:47:37","slug":"what-if-we-and-our-societies-enter-our-second-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/what-if-we-and-our-societies-enter-our-second-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"What if we and our societies enter our \u201csecond lives\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nConfucius said that we have two lives and that the second begins when we understand that we have only one.\u00a0What if this was true not only of each and every one of us but also of our institutions, of our democracy, of our very species?<\/span><\/p>\n

What if we weren’t invulnerable?\u00a0This is one of the great lessons of Covid-19.\u00a0Accepting our vulnerability is the first step towards realizing, collectively, that educating in compassion and transmitting our experiences of solidarity are essential.\u00a0It is also an opportune moment, for public decision, to consider the subject of care and attention to others, of “care”, as a priority.<\/span><\/p>\n

The gaps between winners and losers\u00a0<\/span>keep widening<\/span><\/a>\u00a0, and the pandemic has exacerbated the phenomenon.\u00a0Is faith in meritocracy responsible for this?\u00a0This ideal, associated with the regular functioning of democratic institutions, with the belief in the autonomy and freedom of action and decision of citizens, is in fact highly unequal, leading Western societies to what the American philosopher Michael Sandel called a real\u00a0<\/span>“tyranny of merit”<\/span><\/a>\u00a0.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the end, everyone loses if this illusion continues, even the winners, because, caught in perpetual competition, they have broken with the idea of \u200b\u200btaking care of themselves, including themselves.\u00a0The feeling of a legitimate superiority nourishes the conviction of merit.\u00a0In the United States, in France and elsewhere, the elites are very largely the result of\u00a0<\/span>social reproduction<\/span><\/a>\u00a0where the weight of inheritance, in financial terms or in terms of career, is considerable.<\/span><\/p>\n

In many ways, meritocracy has replaced aristocracy and this logic ends up fueling discontent, discouragement, even resentment and frustration, which lead to anger, violence and populism.<\/span><\/p>\n

For an ethics of humility<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In order to refocus on the common good, it is essential to move from competition to cooperation, to reduce\u00a0<\/span>inequalities<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and to break with a logic of exploitation of others and of the planet.\u00a0The ethics of humility\u00a0<\/span>that Sandel calls for<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is more favorable to the common good.\u00a0The current context invites us to do so more than ever.\u00a0We sensed our collective vulnerability.\u00a0Long marginal, work and discourse on the\u00a0<\/span>fragility of the terrestrial ecosystem<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and the biosphere had, even before the pandemic, gained broad layers of public opinion.\u00a0The Covid-19 has amplified the phenomenon: this is where we are changing, if not of people, at least of times.<\/span><\/p>\n

We have become aware of this, at all scales: individual or even intimate with the effects of restrictions on our social and emotional lives, and even collective and global through the multiple effects of the health crisis on the organization of our ecosystems, our savings, of the spaces we inhabit.\u00a0We have overexploited the planet, depleted biodiversity and the backlash is proportional to the sense of omnipotence that has moved us for decades.
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