Article by François Taddei, first published in The Conversation.
Confucius said that we have two lives, and that the second begins when we realize that we only have one. What if this were true not only of each and every one of us, but also of our institutions, our democracy, our very species?
What if we weren't invulnerable? This is one of the great lessons of Covid-19. Accepting our vulnerability is the first step towards the collective realization that educating people in compassion and passing on our experiences of solidarity are essential. It's also an opportune moment for public decision-makers to consider the subject of care and attention to others as a priority.
The gap between winners and losers continue to grow, and the pandemic has exacerbated the phenomenon. Is faith in meritocracy to blame? This ideal, associated with the regular functioning of democratic institutions and the belief in the autonomy and freedom of action and decision-making of citizens, is in reality highly unequal, leading Western societies to what the American philosopher Michael Sandel has called a veritable "social inequality". «tyranny of merit».
Rich, graduate, losers of the system, we deserve our fate... Such is the "tyranny of merit" denounced by Michael J. Sandel. For the philosopher, "it's the age of meritocracy that has made higher education the arbiter of opportunity."https://t.co/0cIniYUfYY pic.twitter.com/5l2umVcAz5
- France Culture (@franceculture) May 6, 2021
In the end, everyone loses out if this illusion persists, even the winners, because, caught up in perpetual competition, they have broken with the idea of taking care of themselves. The feeling of legitimate superiority feeds the conviction of merit. In the U.S., France and elsewhere, the elites are very largely the product of a social reproduction where the weight of heritage, in financial terms or in terms of career paths, is considerable.
In many respects, meritocracy has replaced aristocracy, and this logic ends up feeding discontent, discouragement, even resentment and frustration, leading to anger, violence and populism.
For an ethic of humility
In order to refocus on the common good, it is essential to move from competition to cooperation, to reduce inequalities and to break with a logic of exploitation of others and of the planet. The ethics of humility that Sandel is calling for is more conducive to the common good. The current context invites us to do so more than ever. We sensed our collective vulnerability. For a long time on the fringes of society, work and discourse on fragile terrestrial ecosystem and the biosphere had, even before the pandemic, won over broad swathes of public opinion. Covid-19 has amplified the phenomenon: this is how we are changing, if not the world, at least the times.
We have become aware of this on every scale: individually, even intimately, with the effects of restrictions on our social and emotional lives, and even collectively and globally through the multiple effects of the health crisis on the organization of our ecosystems, our economies and the spaces we inhabit. We have overexploited the planet, depleted biodiversity, and the backlash is proportional to the feeling of omnipotence that has driven us for decades.
A major political and geopolitical divide has now been revealed. The choice we must make together is a simple one. Already, many of the «deserving» are panicking: the fear of a loss of landmarks poorly conceals the fear of seeing privileges disappear and the crumbling of sociability, thought and power circles. And yet, what is revolutionary is to put care into each of our activities, and to recognize its irreplaceable character. It means being more compassionate as an individual, in other words, understanding the emotions of others, but also, and above all, breaking with the structural logics of domination.
As the philosopher Sandra Laugier, who co-edited a book entitled Le Souci des autres, ethics and politics of care :
«The fact that individuals look after others, care about them, and thus ensure the ordinary functioning of the world - all of this goes without saying in normal times, we just don't see it. There's something extremely new about paying attention to people we used to take for granted as being there to serve, and whose function today appears to be central to the functioning of our societies».»
It's a political project in which everyone stands to gain, in the long term, because we're all affected. We are all born vulnerable, and we remain so.
The fight against the pandemic makes our awareness of our interdependence all the more urgent and sensitive. When we fail to implement an equitable (geo)policy for the distribution of vaccines and treatments, we collectively pay the price. Pockets of the virus will remain and, sooner or later, boomerang back at us.
We are also dependent on other species (biodiversity) and the physico-chemical factors of our environment (ozone, climate, urban pollution, etc.). We're all on board the same ship, and on the scale of the universe, it's a very frail vessel.
We therefore need to draw up new narratives, new rules and new laws, designed to protect the mechanisms by which we take care of each other and the planet, as individuals and as societies. Inevitably, this leads us to rethink and refound the Enlightenment project: is it aimed at satisfying the interests of the few, or those of the many? If we look at the effects as much as, or even more than, the intentions, it's clear that we've missed the mark.
New, more inclusive Lights
Major global crises are increasing the need for international, intercultural and intergenerational dialogue. There is still a long way to go from awareness to action. And yet, there are many examples around the world of how we can put these maxims into practice, and draw inspiration from them. L’«Ubuntu», for example, is a South African concept that refers to the idea of gratitude, care and interdependence. In essence, it says: «I am what I am thanks to you» or «I am because of what (because) we are». Another way of putting it might be: «it takes a village to raise a child». Transmission is therefore a major lever in this new way of apprehending reality.
But these subjects are absent from the curricula of our meritocracy, where young people compete with each other for yesterday's knowledge. And yet, we can train them to cooperate with each other to meet today's challenges and invent tomorrow's world. We could, for our part, invite them to discuss our vulnerabilities or our different points of view on the same reality (for example, by asking them to draw an object and then recognize that the drawing of others, however different, represents the same thing).
What if we invited young people (and the not-so-young) to play games and take part in activities (in the family, at school, in our associations, universities and organizations) where you only win if everyone wins? What if we organized a Commitment Olympiad to recognize their ability to contribute to the common good?
As the European Year of Youth gets underway, we would like to invite you to complete the Erasmus program which encourages encounters between young people of different nationalities. What if we were to encourage encounters with «strangers», everything that tends to make them familiar to us, to promote tolerance and living together? What if we became aware that we belong to interlocking communities, and even to a very large family that includes all living beings, and that we must learn to care for every member of these communities?
Showing compassion is not only good for those who benefit from it, but also for those who contribute to alleviating the suffering of others. This individual approach goes hand in hand with a political, collective challenge: helping to define real projects for society.
The countries that have best withstood the first waves of the Covid crisis are led by women who, through their experience, have been able to say «we are in care», when many people thought they were at war. Politicians who, like Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand, caring for the most vulnerable helps to soothe the ills of our societies are also widely re-elected. What if we were to draw inspiration from them in this election year?
François Taddéi's next book, «What if we? How can we meet the challenges of the XXIᵉ century together?» to be published by Calmann-Lévy in January 2022.
François Taddei, Inserm Researcher, Director, Learning Planet Institute.
This article is republished from The Conversation under Creative Commons license. Read the’original article.
