Economy for a new World Order - Giuseppe Robiati
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Page 38 of  101

Work itself and not the product of that work must be appreciated. Furthermore any worker, who uses either his mind or his hands must feel part of the community where consultation among peers makes him a protagonist on the scene of production and not, as happens today, a passive spectator in a system dominated by relationships based authority, that impede him from demonstrating his potentials and creativity and closes him in a shell in which he has to be subjected to a degraded environment 8 hours a day like a robot. In the present-day concept, the concept of work has been reduced to that of a mere profitable occupation which serves to acquire means for the consumption of available goods. The system is circular: acquisition and consumption enable the maintenance and expansion of production of goods, and consequently, the subsidizing of paid employment. Each of these activities, if considered singularly, is essential for the well-being of society. But the inadequacy of the global concept can be seen in the apathy that social commentators notice in every country among the masses of those who have a job and in the demoralization of the growing ranks of those who don't have one. No wonder if there is an increasing recognition that the world is urgently in need of a new work ethic. Even here, only intuitions generated by the creative interaction between the two systems of knowledge: scientific and religious, can produce a so fundamental reorientation of habits and attitudes. Contrary to animals that draw their nourishment from what the environment easily supplies them, human beings are forced to express their immense latent capacities in a productive job designed to satisfy their needs and those of others. By acting in this way, they become participants, though on a modest level, to the progress of civilization and achieve goals that unite them to others. To the extent that work is performed on a conscious level in the spirit of service to humankind, it becomes a form of worship. Each individual has the capacity to consider himself in this light and the strategy for development has to appeal to this inalienable capacity, regardless of the nature of the pursued plans and the promised rewards. Any narrower perspective will never evoke in the people of the world, from the worker to the manager, the enormous effort and the immense dedication that future economic enterprises will require. It is fair to consider that in a well-balanced, low entropy society self managed enterprises, cooperative companies and decentralized organizations are preferred, where everybody can be considered as a partner of the company with all the beneficial consequences that can derive from this [30]. In such a culture the concept of private property remains for the consumption goods and for those necessities of life for the individual, not for the large non renewable and renewable resources. The accepted custom of modern economy based on the exploitation of national resources is replaced by the concept of public international custody [31]. The fallaciousness of theories based on the belief that the capacity of nature to satisfy any human need is unlimited is today coldly demonstrated. "A culture which attaches absolute value to expansion, to acquisition, and to the satisfaction of people's wants is being compelled to recognise that such goals are not, by themselves, realistic guides to policy. Inadequate, too, are approaches to economic issues whose decision-making tools cannot deal with the fact that most of the major challenges are global rather than particular in scope." [32]. Individual rights are protected, but are no longer regarded as the main reference point on which to judge society. Instead the concept of responsibility and public duties again gains consideration as the prevailing social motivation. In this new model, the concept of man and woman separate from the mechanisms of the ecosystem is replaced by a holistic comprehension of the interconnections of all phenomena. This new kind of culture highlights the fact that man and woman are part of nature and are not separate from it; therefore nature will no longer be a tool of manipulation, but a source of life to preserve unchanged and pure in all its manifestations. (38:3)

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