The fable of emancipation

1. Social democracy must be resurrected. It is a slogan of the moment, in full struggle with a rising neo-fascism, which emanates from the melancholy of the distant times of Europe's rebirth after the Second World War, the so-called "Trente Glorieuses" (1945-1973), which encompass the apotheosis of the sixties, when everything seemed possible. But how should we read it? In the positive version, recognition of citizens' rights, more social spending, dignification of work, and housing for all as shared goals. However, the repetition, as if it were a litany, becomes suspicious at a time when a large part of the citizenry feels stuck or out of play under the weight of constant acceleration, which with its destructive effects actually hinders any sketch of hope. A time when oppression is transferred to machines at the expense of labor, considerably increasing the concentration of power in the hands that manage them. In fact, it is the nostalgia for a time that was actually shorter and more precarious than we have believed, around the United States, Great Britain, France, and liberated Germany, which dressed up the ephemeral myth of a more or less controlled capitalism, with somewhat idealized levels of equity. Frustration and melancholy are now chained together as, with the transition from industrial to digital and financial capitalism, everything seems upside down in the hands of economic and media powers with enormous polluting capacity.

conversation today with director Esther Vera2. At the beginning of this century, seven out of ten European citizens lived in countries governed by the centre-left. Now they are – or we are, if you like – one in ten. And there are not many signs of change: the dynamic of displacement towards a right-wing captured by the far-right still shows no signs of weakening. Not going any further, in Spain, which is part of the social democratic exception, a PP-Vox alliance is increasingly taking shape, reinforced by a judicial agenda that adds increasing doses of fuel. Throughout Europe, there are few signs of a change of cycle. Thomas Piketty reiterated it in his conversation with the director Esther Vera: “You cannot have a real democracy without a much more substantial part [of wealth] for the bottom 90% [of the population]”. And he accompanied it with an important warning: “What has really changed is the distribution of power, not just the distribution of money”, as the exhibitionism of Elon Musk and company reminds us. And here a certain melancholy of social democracy comes into question: the powerful that Piketty points to could give up money, but they will hardly reduce the concentration of power that guarantees them domination and their whims. And which, obviously, does not absolve them of the risk of irresponsibility; on the contrary, it favours losing sight of the world: believing that everything is really permitted. Marc Augé says it with clarity: a society fractured between integrated and precarious, or between “the powerful, consumers and the excluded”, can hardly lead in any other direction than authoritarianism or identity radicalization.

Nostalgia for social democracy, yes. But let's not fall into melancholy: without a change in power relations – increasingly concentrated in nodal points – it is unlikely that a regime that truly seeks balance and prevents a few – those who control the two great powers (the financial and the digital) – from setting the pace for everyone else can take hold. What is certainly needed is to give meaning to progress. The commitment to scientific and technological innovation forces us to keep the idea of emancipation, which is what truly makes us human, more alive than ever. Melancholy and fear are fertile ground for the authoritarianism towards which they want to lead us.