The Primogeniture of Cain or the Syndrome of Success

The current form of late-capitalism or wild capitalism, which authorizes the swift enrichment of the North and the impoverishment of the South, now risks becoming the Achilles' heel of all the countries which have flung themselves into the globalization of free exchange. For the whole of the industrialized West, in fact, there is no longer a need of any previously conceived form of intervention regarding the market price; all that is necessary now is "de-regularization" and blatant laissez-faire. The result of this way of thinking is a form of capitalism which has no rules and which only privileges competition: it promotes the law of the "strongest", the law of the "first", the "primogeniture of Cain". It therefore appears that the development of the post-industrial era is increasingly based on a totally laissez-faire system and on the free international circulation of money. This is a system which has made money itself into its most profitable product; money has become the most mobile of all commodities, the most detached from the problems of labor costs and employment, and also the most easily re-convertible.

This type of development is generally called progress and modernity, and, as they pay the necessary tribute for their inexorable advance towards an improbable future, various areas of Southern Italy and of the world in general are being sacrificed.

But, after the money market was flooded with dirty money, coming both from politico-economic corruption and from world-wide organized crime, money also became the most polluted and the least transparent form of goods. Figures for "dirty" money from international crime (Ansa Dossier for the United Nations Conference on Organized Crime, 1994) indicate that the overall business volume of organized crime throughout the world has been estimated at three million billion dollars, against the declared income of the 500 most important companies of the world, which is a great deal smaller and is equal to five thousand million dollars; while the combined total declared income of General Motors, Ford, and Exxon (1992) was only three hundred and thirty billion dollars. The business volume of Italian crime alone has been calculated as being in the region of sixty-five billion dollars, against the declared income of the IRI (The Italian Institution for Industrial Reconstruction) which came to fifty billion dollars.

At this point one can easily understand how it is not only those who fight for human rights, who fight against old and new poverties, against the discrepancies between North and South and against unemployment, that are currently denouncing a pattern of development which is strongly based on economics, and founded on wild and oligopolist capitalism, but also those within the capitalist world itself: the problem of the ethics of the economy is being posed again. While the call for sustainable development continues to come ever more frequently from the ecologist world, others instead are proposing a decisively non-violent development.

True development is that which is centered on the human person and not on the economy, on the primacy of the political plan understood as the common good and not on the primacy of the economy or, as is now happening, on the primacy of finance itself.

Today, a development based on the measure of mankind is one which is human and non-violent; it is capable of setting up a way of thinking and a practice which is non-damaging, human and cosmic.

But this non-damaging is first and foremost a cultural entity and a question of the transmission of education.

That is why the eighties and nineties gave birth to educational currents directed towards education for peace, for non-violence, for development, for world unity, for environment, for legality, for inter-cultural thought, for "the other", for the non-violent solution of conflicts, for social understanding...

In fact, today this idea of being non-damaging means overcoming the complex of Cain's "primogeniture", a complex which is claiming a dangerous "being first" for itself. Primogeniture expresses itself in a accumulation of pride with regard to oneself, of superiority with regard to one's neighbor, of the subjugating of nature, and of dominion with regard to peoples: these are accumulations which crucify nature and humanity and do not give peace.

Towards a Sustainable and Human Future

We must therefore ask ourselves some serious questions in order to try and discover if the current model of development produces true progress, or if it only produces abundance for the few and deprivation for the many.

First of all we must ask ourselves if, in a world so strongly marked by problems of unemployment, it would be possible to organize work in a way which is different from the way it is organized by the market; if, in a world so strongly marked by the problem of illegality, it would be possible to bring the economy to the point of having ethical values; if, in a world so strongly marked by environmental and social problems, by the unilateral direction of the economy and the politics of growth, by acceleration and globalization, with their price in terms of environmental degradation and social disintegration, things can be changed.

And we will then discover that it is possible to have a development which produces true human progress, a development that pleases God because it gives life to all men with no exclusion. But this can be accomplished only if we seriously question our way of understanding the organization of the economy, if we rethink our concept of the future based on sustaining the ecological reconversion of all human activities, on maintaining justice in social relationships and among nations, and on creating new lifestyles. A truly human and solid development is possible if we cross the threshold of the III millennium with an economy based on justice, with a social economy, a reciprocal economy, one which represents that third way so greatly desired by ever increasing segments of the Church, that point between an uncontrolled free-market, which often leads to wild capitalism, and the programs of State and State organizations, which often lead to bribery and to lack of interest and lassitude on the part of the workers.

The guiding ideas which have inspired this third way, not only in Italy and in Europe (Wuppertal Institute, Sustainable Future, EMI, 1997) but in many parts of the world, are:

1. A fair deal with regard to space and time, including proposals for communal spaces and for time banks

2. A green program for the market

3. Moving from a linear system of production to one that is cyclical

4. Living well instead of having a lot

5. Well thought-out infrastructures

6. Regeneration of the countryside and of agriculture

7. The city as an environment of life

8. International justice

9. The global village

Social justice, sustainable economy and social equilibrium, both within nations themselves and on the planetary level, are the context in which, in a certain way, the Non-Profit sector is guiding the transition to the III millennium.

Under these conditions Christian life, both religious and lay, becomes a general leavening; it becomes the salt and the light of the earth when it transforms itself into concrete political plans which activate new economic practices; when, that is, these practices make humanity advance into a kind of local and global Easter; when people go from a situation of death to one of life; when culture, education and science lead to a co-responsible and reciprocal form of agriculture, health, industry, commerce, transport and finances. These new practices become a concrete alternative lifestyle, one in which city-life can become tolerable.

Labor

Can labor be organized in a different way from that which the market imposes? Can the economy itself be brought to ethical values? Can we change the unilateral orientation of the economy and of the politics of growth, acceleration and globalization, with its price of environmental degradation, social disintegration and conflict between peoples?

Yes, if we seriously question our way of conceiving the organization of the economy. Yes, if we re-base our future on a sustainable use of the earth, one that is founded on the ecological reconversion of all human activities, on justice in the relationships between North and South, and on new lifestyles. Yes, if we cross the threshold of the III millennium with an economy of justice.

The Third Sector, the sector of Non-Profit enterprises, those, that is, which are not part of the public sector but neither do they respond to the rules of the market economy, has already, in recent years, given clear indications that it regards a people's economy as an economy of reciprocity and an economy of justice. Non-Profit enterprises in Italy generate assets for a total value of 25 thousand billion; they do not distribute this money among their partners or shareholders but reinvest it in their own organizations. These organizations, which number over 52 thousand, have 428 thousand paid workers, 273 thousand voluntary workers and 16 thousand conscientious objectors.

This is a people's economy, one which is also common in other nations: it is rapidly expanding in Germany where employment in the Non-Profit sector represents 3.7%, in France - 4.2%, in England - 4%, in Japan - 2.5%, and in the USA - 6.8%. In Italy it still seems that with a percentage of only 1.8% engaged in the Non-Profit sector the proportions fall behind in comparison with the other countries. Nevertheless, between 1980 and 1990 there was a strong increase of 33% in the sector of social services for both the individual and the community; this is an increase which is vastly greater than that in USA +26%, Japan +25%, France +19.4%, Germany +17.7%, and England +18.8%, countries which, all the same, had initiated this type of economy decades ago. To recapitulate - Social justice, economic sustainability and equality between North and South, both within nations themselves and on a planetary level: these are the contexts in which, in a certain way, the transition to the III millennium is led by the Non-Profit sector. And it is certain that the leading ideas which inspire the Third Sector are: a fair deal with regard to space and time (including proposals for communal spaces and time banks), a green program for the market, the passage from a linear production system to one which is cyclical, living well instead of having a lot, well thought-out infrastructures, regeneration of the countryside and of agriculture, the city as an environment of life, international justice and the global village (Wuppertal Institute, Sustainable Future, EMI, 1997).

Educating for the Civilization of Tenderness

The current rational-mercantile development, meaning one that is formulated on a point of view solely based on economics and on a culture and an education which support it, is strongly marked by an approach which is merely rational-illuminist and is sustained by a strongly cultist and legalistic religion and by ethics not founded on solidarity and reciprocal co-responsibility but on challenge, success and being first. This development gives its support to an extremely overemphasized individualism, one which even characterizes the way people work: rarely creative and even more rarely community oriented except in its worst manifestation: that of the assembly line.

Humanity can shake off the complexes of self-pride, of superiority over one's neighbor, of the subjugation of nature and dominion over peoples, by recovering the great values of all the traditional religions and through a prepared and studied reinterpretation of the concepts of time, silence,

self-control and work (G. Martirani, La civiltà della tenerezza (The Civilization of Tenderness), ED. Paoline, 1998, 2a).

The re-elaboration of the concepts of time, silence, self- control and work must lead to a culture and an education which creates life and not death because, as the Didache reminds us, "there are two ways, one leads to life and the other to death".

In fact, it is only through a cultural reinterpretation and an educational transmission which conveys a different concept of time that we can recover and transmit the rights to the future. A development in justice and peace, and a civilized economy, are first and foremost characterized by a different conception of space and of time; one which can allow the past and the future, and therefore the times of accumulation (past) and the times of duration (future), to enter into current programming, because "the earth has been loaned to us by our children". This will allow us to make the transition from the values of exchange - under which precedence must go to capital or to inherited money, both of which have only been accumulated and kept for the past few hundred years - to the values of utilization as expressed by K. Madden (O. Giarini, 1981, in G. Martirani, Progetto terra (Project Earth), 1989), in which a natural, biological and cultural inheritance takes precedence, for these things have been accumulated and have lasted over many millions and hundreds of thousands of tens of thousands of years.

Thus, only through the reinterpretation of culture and the educational transmission of the concept of silence and of listening to "the other" can one again find the right to one's own personal identity and the right of the other to be different; can one at last find an understanding of the richness of "the other". We must start from those "others" who are considered par excellence: women and Mother Earth. In this way we can lose the complex of superiority and dominion and can open ourselves to the celebration of a planetary Pentecost, one which is finally based on "unity in diversity".

Achieving this goal means keeping quiet about our own culture and studying until we finally come to know about the culture of others. Most of all, it means not looking with arrogant contempt at oral cultures and knowing how to learn, from the cultures of others and the ways in which they express them, how the Creator speaks to them and reveals Himself through them. It means listening to the culture of women and its own particular ways of expressing itself. It also means listening to the culture of Nature, entering into a dialogue with nature, in order to learn how to manage our earthly house. In this way we can pass from an economy which we use to impose our principles and our "nomoi", to our earthly house, to oicos, to eco-logics which allow human beings and the earth to recover their dialogue, their oicos-logos. In this way we will be able to return to our mysterious fellowship with Mother Earth, one which only St. Francis was able to sense when he stopped looking at her as a disposable commodity and started looking at her as a brother, a sister.

We need a cultural reinterpretation and an educational transmission of the concept of self-control or evangelical poverty, one which makes us all, in truth and in equality, children of God: no longer some of us masters and others slaves, no longer the strongest being hunters, abductors and predators and the weakest being those preyed upon. We must practice our self-control starting from the measured and no longer careless use of our five senses. We must be aware that they are also the means with which we can either liberate or enslave the resources of the earth; we can either transform them into disposable commodities or treat them as what they are: products of the work of God or, as St. Francis would have said, as brothers and sisters. We must maintain a form of self-control which makes us ask ourselves whether or not we really need to "see everything, hear everything, smell everything, taste everything, touch everything" in some kind of uncontrolled kermis of a body which is uncoordinated by the intellect and guided by blind impulse and external compulsion rather than by intimate conviction. We must sustain a form of self-control which makes us question the value of selling one's own mind for money, of immolating one's own work to the money god. We must recover the sense of self-control which above all orients us towards non-collaboration with money and with success.

What is urgently needed is a cultural reinterpretation and an educative transmission of the concept of work, for through work, which is the only instrument we have to complete creation and which therefore makes us co-creators, can we serve life and not death. In this way we can lose that schizophrenia which often characterizes human enterprises: one's working and scientific activities makes one a servant of mammon whereas only in one's free time, in the parishes and associations, etc., does one serve God.

It is therefore urgent that we give the young a feeling of hope and a prospect for the future, a more beautiful and a more just civilization, an earth flowing with milk and honey for every man and every woman in the world, a true civilization of tenderness which can replace the violent one which is currently tearing the world apart. It is urgently necessary that we once again give a civilization of tenderness to the children of the North and of the South of the world and of Italy, one which is founded on valid values for all the races, religions, cultures, nations: universality, which means considering others as one considers ones self; eternity, or considering consequences with the long view and benefits with the short view; unity, which means sharing authentic values with others; honesty, which is the realization of those values in thought and in expression; freedom, as participation in the decisions made and the objectives planned for one's own life and for that of one's neighbor; non-violence, or maximization of values in actions as well as in behavior, in social structures as well as in the natural environment, and in the possibilities for the future (from "Messaggero Cappuccini", Imola (BO), 1998, 3, pp 68-70).

^{1 .} Teacher of Political Geography and Economics at the Federico II University of Naples, formerly chairperson of the MIR (International Movement for Reconciliation).