Roman Krznaric: "It is very difficult to build collective movements without direct, face-to-face contact."

BarcelonaSamuel ha-Naguid was a Jew who, in the 11th century, became a diplomat trusted by a Muslim king in Al-Andalus. "He is an example of how contact on a basis of relative equality and interaction reduce prejudice, and an example of the human capacity to get along," says Australian philosopher Roman Krznaric (Sydney, 1971). "Edo, which is now known as Tokyo, was a Japanese city in the 18th century that didn't throw anything away," he explains. Everything was repaired, reused, or transformed into something else. And they managed to regenerate the forests in a society where wood was like oil is today. "It was the first ecological civilization in history," he adds. If it hadn't been for the Jamaican slave rebellion, the struggles for the abolition of slavery in British territories would have dragged on indefinitely. These are some of the examples Krznaric offers in his essay. History for tomorrow. Looking to the past to walk towards the future (Captain Swing).

His is an original proposal: if we want to survive the turbulence of the present, we must look to the past. "We cannot wait for new technologies to solve all our problems or for artificial intelligence (AI) to take care of inequalities. We have to open our eyes and look at different ways of organizing our economies or our politics in the past," says Krznaric, who believes that institutions must be completely reinvented. "I'm not saying we have to eliminate representative democracy, but there are other paths. For example, in the United Kingdom there is the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Why not turn the latter into a rotating citizens' assembly? That way, at least, you would have other voices. There were similar experiences in the Free State of Rhet, based on neighborhood assemblies that functioned on a large scale for a long period of time," he explains.

The philosopher recalls the anecdote of a farmer who met a prince on an Alpine path. When the prince told him to let him pass, the farmer replied, "I am a free man of the Rhaetians. I am a prince too!" It wasn't perfect, of course, because in the Free State of the Rhaetians, assemblies were exclusively male. The author believes that citizens' assemblies offer hope because their members tend to have a longer-term perspective than political representatives. In Wales, for example, there is the Commissioner for Future Generations, who considers the impact of public policies thirty years ahead. "There are many examples of decentralization. I think transformative ideas will take place in cities and regions, not in states. Cities are very efficient at solving problems, and many new models are being implemented," he adds.

Delegating voting rights to minor children

“We need a longer-term vision, because never in the history of humanity have our actions had potentially such damaging consequences for future generations,” says Krznaric, who applies his ideas to many areas of his life. For example, in 2019, he gave his twin sons, then 11 years old, ballot papers so they could vote. He also wears a unique watch that has ten hours in a day. Each hour is 100 minutes and each minute is 100 seconds.

The philosopher is optimistic because there have been rebellions in the past that have challenged power and overcome many crises. “One of the most dangerous words in politics is inevitableIt tells us we can't change the system and that we just have to live within it. It's the narrative used by those in power. Who wants to relinquish power to a citizens' assembly? The existing system works for those in power, and social struggle will always be necessary because no one gives it away for free. Can AI generate wealth? And who will ensure that those who accumulate this wealth distribute it fairly? “They certainly won’t,” he concludes.

Krznaric is convinced that history is like a seed under the snow waiting to germinate. If someone could sit down at the table right now to discuss the current situation, he would choose the unions that emerged in the 19th century, which stood up against the large employers who controlled factories. At that time, unionism was a high-risk activity: workers could end up imprisoned or even killed. However, today one of the great challenges for unionism is the fragmentation of work: unions have been more effective when workers shared the same space, like a factory or a mine, a very different reality from that of delivery drivers, for example. “It is very difficult to build collective movements without direct, face-to-face contact,” he says.