stdClass Object ( [id] => 19866 [title] => The mother of the prodigal son [alias] => the-mother-of-the-prodigal-son [introtext] =>In Luke's parable of the Prodigal Son, there is no mention of the mother. And so any female perspective is absent from the story. Had there been a mother in it, the story would certainly have been different.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 11/11/2024
The Gospel parables are full of inspiration for economic and civil life, too. Think of the beautiful parable of the Prodigal Son (or of the Merciful Father). Luke presents to us a father and two sons, an elder and a younger one. He is a wealthy man who has a family business, perhaps in agriculture. The younger son does not want to continue his father's project. He leaves, and asks his father for his ‘share of the inheritance’. The father could not give it to him, because Jewish tradition did not allow a son to ask for an inheritance with his father still alive, and because in those ancient cultures the father was the master of everything. Instead he lets him go, with part of the household heritage. He makes the family goods his patrimony, that is, the gift (munus) of the father.
[fulltext] =>This first act is decisive; this freedom given to the son is the father’s first merciful gesture. Because children should not feel sentenced to continue the ‘empire’ of their parents or grandparents. They can, but they don’t have to. And so, the implicit blackmailing, the expectations often become those strong ties that block sons and daughters, and prevent them from taking free flight. The fate of sons must not be determined by that of their fathers. And, if that happens, we are inside a form of incest, where parents eat away at their children's free future. The father of the parable promotes his younger son to adult life and thus to freedom.
The son misuses the inherited goods. This too is part of the risk of fatherhood. There is no fatherhood without the possibility of the sons getting lost in the pursuit of their life and freedom. Because if we do not let them possibly become worse than us, they will never be better than us either, because they would lack that real freedom that is essential to becoming authentic and beautiful people. Possible failure is the other side of freedom. And what happens all too often instead is that family businesses fail because the parents put too heavy a burden on their children's shoulders, and one day the project crushes under that ever-growing weight. Had they sold the business instead, it would have grown in another terrain and borne new fruit. The chastity of the founders is essential for any enterprise to survive.
Finally, in Luke's parable there is no mention of the mother. She is not mentioned, and together with her, any female perspective is absent from the story. Had there been a mother in it, the story would certainly have been different. If so, we would have seen that while the father was talking to his youngest son about the inheritance, the mother was already preparing a bag for him with a tunic, a blanket, sandals and certainly some food in it - mothers never let a young son leave home without some good food. And then she would have done everything she could to find out where he was staying and how he was doing, and having received no news from him she would have expected him to return every day, just like but not like her husband. And on the day of his return she would not have attended the banquet with the fattened calf (because women were not invited), but would have spent all her time preparing her eldest son to embrace and not to judge his brother, and then she would have gone to the temple or to an altar to thank God for that much longed-for return. And after embracing her son, after scolding him for all that silence (mothers know how to scold their sons differently), she would have cried a lot. And then she would have loved him even more, because she knew that that frail child could leave again at any moment for other pigsties, because women know that a feast is not enough to heal deep wounds. And she would continue to pray, to love, to hope for the rest of her life.
Credit Foto: © Giuliano Dinon / Archivio MSA
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Antonio [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Civil Economy [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Messaggero di S. 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And so any female perspective is absent from the story. Had there been a mother in it, the story would certainly have been different.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 11/11/2024
The Gospel parables are full of inspiration for economic and civil life, too. Think of the beautiful parable of the Prodigal Son (or of the Merciful Father). Luke presents to us a father and two sons, an elder and a younger one. He is a wealthy man who has a family business, perhaps in agriculture. The younger son does not want to continue his father's project. He leaves, and asks his father for his ‘share of the inheritance’. The father could not give it to him, because Jewish tradition did not allow a son to ask for an inheritance with his father still alive, and because in those ancient cultures the father was the master of everything. Instead he lets him go, with part of the household heritage. He makes the family goods his patrimony, that is, the gift (munus) of the father.
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stdClass Object ( [id] => 19841 [title] => The joy that cannot be bought [alias] => the-joy-that-cannot-be-bought [introtext] =>There are types of happiness that can be bought – the joy of living cannot, it is pure gratuitousness, and it is the most beautiful one. It comes often, almost every day. We are the ones who have to learn to recognise it and to make room for it
by Luigino Bruni
published in Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 02/10/2024
Happiness is the great promise of the new market economy. Yesterday its promise was prosperity, today it is happiness. It promises it to us in many ways, most recently with artificial intelligence that will finally give us perfect happiness – by doing everything we do not like better than us and by doing the new things we do not yet do. A happiness that has to do with possession, with comfort, with the freedom of choice, with growth, with ‘more’, and that often borders on fun and pleasure. Some of these commercial types of happiness are also good, we like them and maybe they even do us some good.
[fulltext] =>But after these happinesses and pleasures, there is something else, something different and much more important. It is the joy of living. I rediscovered it this summer, when I accompanied my mother and aunt to the seaside for a few days. The slow breakfasts in their company, the short walks, those few moments on the beach, the amazement at a rose blooming out of season, and above all, their words made me rediscover the joy of living. We all know it or at least used to know it, past generations knew it, and it was the true consolation of the poor amidst life's great hardships.
It is not linked with ‘more’ but with ‘less’, more with the little than with the great, it has nothing to do with comfort, even less with wealth. It is that joy that comes to us all of a sudden, without us having sought it or expected it. It just comes, it happens, simply. While you are looking at the sea, a child, or a seagull lining up perfectly with the others on the horizon line past the rocks and my mother says, ‘How can they do it? They don't even know how to measure distances!’
It lights up while during dinner in the small pensioners' hotel in September an accordion player shows up to intone old songs, and everyone starts singing together, clapping their hands, and someone strikes up a dance step. A joy of living that comes from merely being alive, that draws only from being alive, that needs nothing but life. And then one goes to bed happy to be in the world, with the joy of one who knows, hopes, to get up tomorrow just to continue life. That joy that enters the homes of the elderly who are left alone but know how to set the table with the same care as when the lunches were full of people and life; and while they eat, that well-cared-for meal, alone, a different sweetness emerges in their hearts, one that has something of the good nostalgia of yesterday and yet is all present and future.
Providence has placed this resource among those essential to living. It has hidden it, however, among the little, tiny things, almost invisible if we run too fast. And perhaps for this reason the poor and the pure in heart are able to grasp it, perhaps only them. It is part of the landscape of that Kingdom of Heaven where all the poor and the pure in heart dwell, sometimes without knowing it. Sometimes it comes after great sorrows, depression, mourning, and its arrival is the sentinel announcing the approaching dawn. As in the last scene of Fellini's Cabiria, where that final smile is the end of the desperate nights. It is grace, grace only, all gifted. There are types of happiness that can be bought - the joy of living cannot, it is pure gratuitousness, and it is the most beautiful one. Sometimes it comes during a different prayer, and blooms from tears of sorrow that turn into tears of joy. It comes often, almost every day. We are the ones who must learn to recognise it, make room for it, and let it enter the wine cellar of the heart. And there celebrate, clap our hands and, if we can, even strike up a dance step.
Credit Foto: © Giuliano Dinon / Archivio MSA
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Antonio [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Civil Economy [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Messaggero di S. Antonio [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2024-10-07 05:59:32 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( [0] => stdClass Object ( [tag_id] => 23 [id] => 23 [parent_id] => 1 [lft] => 43 [rgt] => 44 [level] => 1 [path] => msa [title] => Le virtù del mercato, MSA [alias] => msa [note] => [description] => [published] => 1 [checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [access] => 1 [params] => {"tag_layout":"","tag_link_class":"label label-info"} [metadesc] => [metakey] => [metadata] => {"author":"","robots":""} [created_user_id] => 609 [created_time] => 2019-01-05 16:12:28 [created_by_alias] => [modified_user_id] => 609 [modified_time] => 2020-08-01 12:25:36 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {} [hits] => 9297 [language] => * [version] => 1 [publish_up] => 2019-01-05 15:12:28 [publish_down] => 2019-01-05 15:12:28 ) ) ) [slug] => 19841:the-joy-that-cannot-be-bought [parent_slug] => 893:it-editoriali-vari [catslug] => 889:en-msa [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>There are types of happiness that can be bought – the joy of living cannot, it is pure gratuitousness, and it is the most beautiful one. It comes often, almost every day. We are the ones who have to learn to recognise it and to make room for it
by Luigino Bruni
published in Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 02/10/2024
Happiness is the great promise of the new market economy. Yesterday its promise was prosperity, today it is happiness. It promises it to us in many ways, most recently with artificial intelligence that will finally give us perfect happiness – by doing everything we do not like better than us and by doing the new things we do not yet do. A happiness that has to do with possession, with comfort, with the freedom of choice, with growth, with ‘more’, and that often borders on fun and pleasure. Some of these commercial types of happiness are also good, we like them and maybe they even do us some good.
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stdClass Object ( [id] => 19814 [title] => We are something more than our happiness [alias] => we-are-something-more-than-our-happiness [introtext] =>Let us think, from time to time, about happiness, but above all let us think about the truth, goodness and righteousness of life, of our own and that of others.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 06/09/2024
Happiness is not enough. It seems a mere phrase that’s totally out of tune in a time like ours, which has made happiness the greatest, sometimes the only ideal in life. Seeking one's own happiness, or one's own fulfilment, has become an ethical imperative, and those who try to question it, as I have been doing for years, appear bizarre or even depressed. ‘Try to be happy at last...’ has thus become one of the most heard phrases, and one that even sounds convincing. But, in fact, things are more complicated. First of all, it is not true that happiness is a new reality. The Greeks (think of Aristotle) had placed it at the centre of their humanism, because for those ancient philosophers there was nothing more worthy and noble than happiness (eudaimonia), defined as the ultimate goal, the perfect good beyond which there was nothing worthwhile.
[fulltext] =>Christianity complicated the discourse a great deal, and the Bible had done so before that. So much so that happiness, in the Greek sense, is not a biblical word: in the Bible we find many synonyms, from gladness to joy to bliss, words that are similar but also very different. In the Old Testament, the ultimate goal of life, what was most noble and worthy, was not to be happy but rather to be righteous and good. What really matters is to lead a righteous life. Noah is called a ‘righteous man’, so are the Patriarchs and, in the New Testament, Joseph, the husband of Mary, is also called a ‘righteous man’. Furthermore, a life that works is (again according to the Bible) a life that generates, that begets children and grandchildren. The promised land to be reached is one where many children and their sons and daughters will dwell. The Roman civilisation did not think much differently. When they chose ‘public happiness’ as the motto of the republic, those ancient ancestors of ours represented it, on coins for example, through children holding fruits and grapes, as if to say that happiness is to bring life and fruit. And the word felicitas itself had the same root (fe) as fe-tus, fe-cundus, fe-mina, because that happiness was deeply linked to generativity.
Until recently, if I had asked my grandfather or father: ‘Are you happy?’, they would not even have understood the question, because for them the happiness of their children and grandchildren was much more important than their own, and the quality of their lives was measured on other indicators than happiness. It should not surprise us, then, that in the happiness of our time, children have gone out of the picture. I was struck by an advertisement of a chain of holiday apartments, centred on the message that it is not good to go on holiday to hotels where there are many children, because having them around reduces our happiness. A rather bizarre concept, which has been formed in just one (foolish) generation.
It is true that the Catholic version of Christianity in the modern age put too much emphasis on a religion of pain, penances and the ‘valley of tears’, resulting in a culture where one had to be ashamed of happiness, not to mention the pleasures of the body and the senses. And so, as a counter-reaction, at some point we discovered happiness, became intoxicated by it, and forgot its deceptions. Among these, the main one is as important as it is simple: happiness comes when you don't think about it too much, because those who make happiness the goal of life find only sadness and frustration. So let us think, now and then, about happiness, but above all let us think about the truth, goodness and righteousness of life, our own and that of others. We are greater than our happiness.
Credit Foto: © Giuliano Dinon / Archivio MSA
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Antonio [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Civil Economy [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Messaggero di S. Antonio [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2024-09-09 06:27:50 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( [0] => stdClass Object ( [tag_id] => 23 [id] => 23 [parent_id] => 1 [lft] => 43 [rgt] => 44 [level] => 1 [path] => msa [title] => Le virtù del mercato, MSA [alias] => msa [note] => [description] => [published] => 1 [checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [access] => 1 [params] => {"tag_layout":"","tag_link_class":"label label-info"} [metadesc] => [metakey] => [metadata] => {"author":"","robots":""} [created_user_id] => 609 [created_time] => 2019-01-05 16:12:28 [created_by_alias] => [modified_user_id] => 609 [modified_time] => 2020-08-01 12:25:36 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {} [hits] => 9297 [language] => * [version] => 1 [publish_up] => 2019-01-05 15:12:28 [publish_down] => 2019-01-05 15:12:28 ) ) ) [slug] => 19814:we-are-something-more-than-our-happiness [parent_slug] => 893:it-editoriali-vari [catslug] => 889:en-msa [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Let us think, from time to time, about happiness, but above all let us think about the truth, goodness and righteousness of life, of our own and that of others.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 06/09/2024
Happiness is not enough. It seems a mere phrase that’s totally out of tune in a time like ours, which has made happiness the greatest, sometimes the only ideal in life. Seeking one's own happiness, or one's own fulfilment, has become an ethical imperative, and those who try to question it, as I have been doing for years, appear bizarre or even depressed. ‘Try to be happy at last...’ has thus become one of the most heard phrases, and one that even sounds convincing. But, in fact, things are more complicated. First of all, it is not true that happiness is a new reality. The Greeks (think of Aristotle) had placed it at the centre of their humanism, because for those ancient philosophers there was nothing more worthy and noble than happiness (eudaimonia), defined as the ultimate goal, the perfect good beyond which there was nothing worthwhile.
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stdClass Object ( [id] => 19805 [title] => There is no price for salvation [alias] => there-is-no-price-for-salvation [introtext] =>If we want to bring the modern spirit closer to Jesus' message of life, we need to purify theological language, starting with the economic and commercial language.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 12/07/2024
The first to use the economic metaphor in the New Testament was St Paul who, in his First Letter to the Corinthians, even uses the word price: «You were bought at a high price» (7:23). Since Paul is a giant of Christian theology, many theologians from then on thought that one could not talk about theology without using the metaphor of the ‘price of salvation’. Saint Paul, however, uses some other metaphors in his letters, too, including the sporting one (cf. 1 Cor 9:24-26). Yet no theologian of the past or present has ever thought that such a metaphor was necessary to explain Christian theology. Instead, a real and actual “economy of salvation” was derived from the economic metaphor, which would justify the existence of a kind of contract with prices to be paid and collected, and which would see Jesus as a “divine merchant”. Forgetting that biblical metaphors are always the daybreak of debate, points of departure. The other half of the argument has to remain unsaid: only partial metaphors leave a gap between the mystery of God and our theological ideas about Him.
[fulltext] =>I am convinced that the use of economic language by theology has hurt both theology and economics. It has not helped us understand what economics is, nor has it helped us understand the heart of the Christian mystery, which is all about gratuitousness - charis. The use of economic language to explain the Christian faith has, in fact, led to the theology of prosperity (and thus to the theological legitimisation of meritocracy that is generating the blaming of the poor). It has also created an exaltation of sacrifice, which has become very deeply rooted in the Catholic culture. As a reaction to Luther, who waged a pitched battle against the idea of the Mass as a sacrifice (‘The Mass is the opposite of a sacrifice’: Luther, Complete Works), sacrifice became, in fact, a pillar of Catholic theology, liturgy and piety. The cross of Christ became a praise and a sacralisation of our crosses: ‘Crosses come from God. Crosses are necessary because God has ordained so. True penitents are always crucified’. (D. Gaspero Olmi, Quaresimale per le monache - ‘Lenten /reflections/ for Nuns’, 1885). Thus, in the age of the Counter-Reformation the offering of our sufferings to God became the most flourishing economy in the Latin countries - while trade and businesses were developing in the North - fuelled by a proliferation of penances, especially in women's monasteries, where sufferings sought as a form of love for Christ became the currency of a new trade between earth and purgatory.
But if we do a serene reading of the Gospel, a question immediately arises: how were we able to believe that the loving God of Jesus was a “consumer of human pain”, that the first fruits he most liked were our sufferings? Not least because the Bible had taught us well that deities who love the blood of their children are called idols. The biblical God, the God of Jesus, is not an idol, because he does not want to increase the pain of his sons and daughters, but to reduce it: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ Hosea and Jesus repeat to us. The biblical God does not love sacrifice, because he loves us and does everything to remove us from our crosses. Sacrifice is an ambivalent word even in human relationships - it is dangerous to read love as a willingness to sacrifice oneself for another - and it is even more dangerous when it is used to understand the relationship between us and God. If we want to bring the modern spirit closer to Jesus' message of life, we need to purify theological language, starting with the economic and commercial language.
Photo credits: © Giuliano Dinon / MSA Archive
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by Luigino Bruni
published in Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 12/07/2024
The first to use the economic metaphor in the New Testament was St Paul who, in his First Letter to the Corinthians, even uses the word price: «You were bought at a high price» (7:23). Since Paul is a giant of Christian theology, many theologians from then on thought that one could not talk about theology without using the metaphor of the ‘price of salvation’. Saint Paul, however, uses some other metaphors in his letters, too, including the sporting one (cf. 1 Cor 9:24-26). Yet no theologian of the past or present has ever thought that such a metaphor was necessary to explain Christian theology. Instead, a real and actual “economy of salvation” was derived from the economic metaphor, which would justify the existence of a kind of contract with prices to be paid and collected, and which would see Jesus as a “divine merchant”. Forgetting that biblical metaphors are always the daybreak of debate, points of departure. The other half of the argument has to remain unsaid: only partial metaphors leave a gap between the mystery of God and our theological ideas about Him.
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stdClass Object ( [id] => 19786 [title] => Freedom of devotion [alias] => freedom-of-devotion [introtext] =>Popular piety was an immense collective exercise in subversion, especially of women. It was, in its own way, a wonderful hymn to life, the popular response to theological misconceptions.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 10/06/2024
“At the head of all is God, the master of heaven. This everyone knows. Then comes the prince of Torlonia, owner of the land. Then the prince’s guards come. Then come the prince’s guard dogs. Then nothing. Then, still nothing. Then, still nothing. Then come the peasants. And we can say that it is finished.” (English translation by E. Mosbacher) This is a famous sentence from the Introduction of Ignazio Silone's Fontamara, one of the most beautiful and important novels of 20th century Italy. The word for ‘peasants’ in the original Italian (cafoni) is a word that Silone used in a different meaning from the common one. It was the name of the peasants of the Fucino Plain (in Abruzzo, Italy - the tr.) and, in general, a name by which the writer referred to the oppressed and forgotten of the land. It was a word of pain, certainly, but never used by Silone in a derogatory sense, so as to arouse shame. And yet pain is still a cause of shame today, especially for the poor. My family has known poverty. My grandparents knew it, and its living echo has reached even to me. It is from this echo that my words on poverty, economics and theology come.
[fulltext] =>The Catholic theology of the past centuries (that of the Counter-Reformation) did not help the poor. The Gospel helped them, sometimes even the Church. But what really helped the poor was popular piety: the statues of Our Lady and of the saints, who for the poor, for women above all, were the only companions in misfortune (martyred saints, the grieving Madonna...) to whom they could turn in the certainty of being truly understood. But theology did not help them; it only made their lives worse. The non-evangelical idea of a God who appreciated human suffering in view of paradise, of a God-the-Father who even wanted the crucifixion of his son to save us (save us from what?). Instead, the poor did everything they could to get their children off the crosses, and thus gave birth in their hearts to another God, the God of piety. Popular piety was an immense collective exercise in subversion, especially of women. It was, in its own way, a wonderful hymn to life, the popular response to theological misconceptions. Popular piety - that of pilgrimages, processions, reinvented Latin prayers... - was the Counter-Reformation of the people; it was the revolutionary and mild response of women to the religion of the theologians and their imagined god.
Poor people could not read prayer books, nor did they have the money to buy them. And so, by a mad scam of Providence, which is always on the side of the poor, common people and women above all, were protected by their illiteracy. Popular piety was a great space of women’s freedom, in a world that remained an experience of servitude for them. In church they pretended to respond to the priests' Latin prayers, but the whispered words that came out of their mouths were different. And, above all, they wept. They prayed with tears and kisses and their hands: wonderful silent prayers, gnarled and worn hands that nevertheless knew how to make wonderful caresses and kiss the statues of the saints, of the Madonna, of the angels and of little children. Caresses and kisses that those women never received from anyone at home, however, in church they gave them endlessly to Christ and the saints; and they truly saved us. Though very unwell, the Catholic faith is still alive thanks to these women who humanised it with their piety, who saved it with their transgression: “In Christian life, piety coincides not so much with asceticism nor with mysticism, not even with devotion or devotions: it coincides with »Charity«, which is the Archive of God's love” (Fr Giuseppe de Luca).
Credits foto: © Giuliano Dinon / Archivio MSA
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Antonio [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Civil Economy [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Messaggero di S. Antonio [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2024-06-17 05:28:49 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( [0] => stdClass Object ( [tag_id] => 23 [id] => 23 [parent_id] => 1 [lft] => 43 [rgt] => 44 [level] => 1 [path] => msa [title] => Le virtù del mercato, MSA [alias] => msa [note] => [description] => [published] => 1 [checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [access] => 1 [params] => {"tag_layout":"","tag_link_class":"label label-info"} [metadesc] => [metakey] => [metadata] => {"author":"","robots":""} [created_user_id] => 609 [created_time] => 2019-01-05 16:12:28 [created_by_alias] => [modified_user_id] => 609 [modified_time] => 2020-08-01 12:25:36 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {} [hits] => 9297 [language] => * [version] => 1 [publish_up] => 2019-01-05 15:12:28 [publish_down] => 2019-01-05 15:12:28 ) ) ) [slug] => 19786:freedom-of-devotion [parent_slug] => 893:it-editoriali-vari [catslug] => 889:en-msa [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Popular piety was an immense collective exercise in subversion, especially of women. It was, in its own way, a wonderful hymn to life, the popular response to theological misconceptions.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 10/06/2024
“At the head of all is God, the master of heaven. This everyone knows. Then comes the prince of Torlonia, owner of the land. Then the prince’s guards come. Then come the prince’s guard dogs. Then nothing. Then, still nothing. Then, still nothing. Then come the peasants. And we can say that it is finished.” (English translation by E. Mosbacher) This is a famous sentence from the Introduction of Ignazio Silone's Fontamara, one of the most beautiful and important novels of 20th century Italy. The word for ‘peasants’ in the original Italian (cafoni) is a word that Silone used in a different meaning from the common one. It was the name of the peasants of the Fucino Plain (in Abruzzo, Italy - the tr.) and, in general, a name by which the writer referred to the oppressed and forgotten of the land. It was a word of pain, certainly, but never used by Silone in a derogatory sense, so as to arouse shame. And yet pain is still a cause of shame today, especially for the poor. My family has known poverty. My grandparents knew it, and its living echo has reached even to me. It is from this echo that my words on poverty, economics and theology come.
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stdClass Object ( [id] => 19773 [title] => If leadership enters the school [alias] => if-leadership-enters-the-school [introtext] =>If schools begin to differentiate students as leaders and followers, they undermine one of the pillars of education: the reduction of natural and social inequalities in the classroom to create the common citizenship essential to any social pact.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 04/05/2024
Leadership has become a sacred word in the new religion of capitalism. It is invoked everywhere. Even church environments are captivated by it, where one encounters courses on the leadership of Jesus, St Benedict and even St Francis. Despite the fact that the founder of Christianity said: ‘Neither be ye called masters [that is, leaders], for one is your master, the Christ’ (Mt 23:10), and then built the whole of Christian humanism around the concept of following, which is the exact opposite of leadership. And yet, although the adjectives have been multiplying (inclusive, kind, communitarian...), the noun, leadership, is never questioned.
[fulltext] =>The reasons for the emergence of this new dogma are many, but at its root there is a new great relational and emotional fragility of workers and managers, in a world that has “unlearned” how to work together. And so, on the one hand, we criticise patriarchy and all the humanism of that hierarchical world, but on the other, we are building a culture of leadership that, in many respects, is more patriarchal than patriarchy itself (it is striking how the feminist movement has not yet realised how much machismo is embedded in the idea of leadership).
Furthermore, there is a worrying recent phenomenon suggesting that the direction this new business humanism is taking has to do with the world of education. I was struck by the stories of two female colleagues about their conversations with their sons' and daughters' teachers. The teachers repeated, in similar words, the same type of concept: ‘your daughter, your son, has all the character traits to become a leader in the class, but we are not sure if they will make it, because there are others with whom they are competing – you have to help them at home to strengthen their leadership skills’.
This kind of argument, I thought, was limited to the university environment, but instead the reported talks refer to secondary school (and so children aged 11-13 - the tr.), where corporate mentality is entering heavily (perhaps it will soon arrive in primary schools as well). The unfortunate change in the name of the Ministry of Education (which has also become “of merit”) had already signalled a change in educational culture in the country, because meritocracy and leadership are two sides of the same coin: a leader is different from the old “manager” or “head of office”, also because they deserve the following of their “employees” (translating to “dipendenti” as in “dependents” in Italian - the tr.), who have become “followers” (watch out for the language of social media on this).
But if schools begin to distinguish and separate students into leaders and followers, they undermine one of the pillars of the education of children and young people at its foundations: the reduction of natural and social inequalities in the classroom to create the common citizenship essential to any social pact. At school, young people should learn to be the companions of all the others, because civil fraternity begins in the classroom. Some mechanisms already exist to differentiate scholastic “merits”; these are called evaluations and grades, and everyone in the classroom knows who are the best students and those who are not so good or who are better at other subjects. If, on the other hand, to these inevitable inequalities of talents and opportunities we start adding the leadership skills that only a few would have, inequalities will grow more and more until they destroy civil coexistence.
The most deleterious aspect of this business ideology-religion is its presenting itself as harmless, and therefore being accepted without any resistance by teachers and families. A renewed focus/attention should be paid by all on what is happening in the world of schools.
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Antonio [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Civil Economy [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Messaggero di S. 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by Luigino Bruni
published in Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 04/05/2024
Leadership has become a sacred word in the new religion of capitalism. It is invoked everywhere. Even church environments are captivated by it, where one encounters courses on the leadership of Jesus, St Benedict and even St Francis. Despite the fact that the founder of Christianity said: ‘Neither be ye called masters [that is, leaders], for one is your master, the Christ’ (Mt 23:10), and then built the whole of Christian humanism around the concept of following, which is the exact opposite of leadership. And yet, although the adjectives have been multiplying (inclusive, kind, communitarian...), the noun, leadership, is never questioned.
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stdClass Object ( [id] => 19750 [title] => Let us go back to measuring capital [alias] => let-us-go-back-to-measuring-capital [introtext] =>For many years we have been consuming our natural, civil and spiritual capital as if they were infinite. What to do now that those capitals are actually running out?
by Luigino Bruni
published in Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 06/04/2024
Ancient economy thought that wealth was linked to the possession of capital. Palaces, mines, and especially gold, were considered the real wealth of families, cities or states. Therefore, economic policy had only one direction: increase the gold in the chests, and do everything to let go as little of it as possible. Then, in the mid-eighteenth century, the French school of ‘Physiocracy’ made a radical change, telling us that the most important wealth was something else: the annual flow of income that capital generates. And the concept of GDP, the gross domestic product, was born, which only became operational with the beginning of the 20th century and the development of national accounting techniques.
[fulltext] =>With the birth of the modern economy we thus began to measure flows, no longer stocks or capital. It was known that flows, that income, originated from capital of various kinds - financial, human, social... - but they remained in the background of economic theory and thus of measurement. And so, since the different types of capital were no longer seen by economic theory and politics they began to gradually deteriorate. We have consumed them, also because at the beginning of capitalist economic development they were very abundant (especially environmental and community capital), and so their stock seemed to be almost infinite. Only at the end of the second millennium did we begin to realise that those capitals were really running out.
The first capital of which we (almost) all see the serious deterioration is environmental capital. The earth, used as a resource to be extracted without reciprocity, is raising its cry, taken up by a young girl (Greta) and an old man (Francis), but much less by the world of economics and politics. When calculating this mutuality of advantages, the market, founded on mutual benefit, has not included the advantage of the earth, animals and other species, too, within the calculations of costs and benefits, and intra-human reciprocity has grown at the expense of non-human life, which was an unethical choice and also short-sighted and stupid from many points of view.
Natural capital, however, is not the only capital that is dying. Another ‘stock’ that capitalism is consuming is the civil and spiritual one, made up of civil virtues and the ability to be in the world. Companies were the first to realise this, based on their vocation to speculate - the word derives from specula, the place where one stands to see further. Young workers arrive in companies less and less equipped with that ethical capital made up of emotional resilience, the ability to manage conflicts and to cooperate, because all these skills had been managed within ethical and narrative codes that were almost exhausted in the 20th century. Hence, on the one hand, the uneasiness of young workers to fit into our productive organisations - of which the serious phenomenon of the ‘Great Resignation’ of millions of workers after the Covid-19 pandemic is a sign - and, on the other hand, the worrying proliferation of a forest of consultants (coaches, counsellors, work psychologists, wellbeing managers, and so on) who are supposed to create in-house those virtues and skills of workers that no longer come from outside (family, churches, community...).
What to do? First, we should talk about it more. Then we should start measuring the different types of capital, not just GDP, which increases also through wars, gambling and people's unwellness. A season of new ‘capital account’ measurers should be launched to monitor the health of what remains of the climate and civil virtues, public ethics, moral and spiritual heritage that generated the economic and civil miracles of the 20th century.
Credits foto: © Giuliano Dinon / Archivio MSA
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Antonio [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Civil Economy [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Messaggero di S. 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What to do now that those capitals are actually running out?
by Luigino Bruni
published in Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 06/04/2024
Ancient economy thought that wealth was linked to the possession of capital. Palaces, mines, and especially gold, were considered the real wealth of families, cities or states. Therefore, economic policy had only one direction: increase the gold in the chests, and do everything to let go as little of it as possible. Then, in the mid-eighteenth century, the French school of ‘Physiocracy’ made a radical change, telling us that the most important wealth was something else: the annual flow of income that capital generates. And the concept of GDP, the gross domestic product, was born, which only became operational with the beginning of the 20th century and the development of national accounting techniques.
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stdClass Object ( [id] => 19697 [title] => Let us listen to the cry of the farmers [alias] => let-us-listen-to-the-cry-of-the-farmers [introtext] =>We, together, must find a new relationship with the land. We have been using it to extract our resources, without realising that it needed reciprocity from us. Let us listen to the cry of the farmers, and let us all change our lifestyles rapidly.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 06/03/2024
Farmers’ protests with their tractors can tell us many things, not all of which are always emphasised in the public debate. We have underestimated the conflictual dimension of the ecological transition. Also, the many damages we have done towards the planet and the earth over the last century do not disappear by themselves. They require a lot of work, commitment, cost and they sometimes generate new conflicts. New ‘class struggles’ are emerging that are different from those of yesterday, no less important and worrying. Land has always been underrated by economics and politics. Ever since modern economics began to think of itself as a science around the 17th and 18th centuries, it has never thought that the plant world or the biological world could offer it tools and categories to think about economic interactions. Then, at the end of the nineteenth century, the earth went completely off the scene, generating an eclipse of the earth in economic science that lasted until a few years ago, when the explosion of the global environmental crisis brought it to a traumatic end. Thus we have created an economic theory and practice that are incapable of seeing the earth and its needs, and we have deteriorated it.
[fulltext] =>Therefore, the general distraction of economics and politics towards the earth has ancient and deep roots. The Catholic Church, on the other hand, showed great concern for the land and farmers in past centuries. Benedict XIII, Vincenzo Maria Orsini (1649-1730), from Gravina di Puglia, was called ‘God's farmer’ because of his tireless work in promoting the so-called ‘monti frumentari’, that were actual grain banks where the “currency” was wheat: loans were taken and later returned in wheat. In 1861, in southern Italy and the Islands alone, there were more than a thousand ‘monti frumentari’ (over three hundred of them in Sardinia), founded first by the Capuchin friars and then by many bishops. It was a true civil and economic heritage that, however, was also dispersed by the wrong choices of the new unitary government. In those difficult centuries of the Counter-Reformation, the Church was able to understand where the real needs of the country people lay, and it did some innovative works.
It is striking that in our age, this recent conflict of the farmers has emerged between the needs of a wounded land and those who live off the fruits of the same land. The land has been deteriorated and impoverished by our predatory relationship with it. This impoverishment has made life harder for peasants and farmers who had only contributed a small part to the damage, which was mainly caused by industry and mass consumption. But today it is precisely the farmers who cultivate this ruined land who are called upon to change their production techniques (at their own expense) so as not to continue impoverishing the already exhausted land. And here is a paradoxical conflict between yesterday's victims and tomorrow's potential perpetrators, the custodians of the earth who feel they are being treated like its murderers. And they won't take it. And we understand them. We, all of us together, must find a new relationship with the earth. We have been using it to extract our resources, without realising that it needed reciprocity from us. We have not been custodians, we have been predators. Let us listen to the cry of the farmers, and let us all change our lifestyles quickly.
Credits foto: © Giuliano Dinon / Archivio MSA
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Antonio [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Civil Economy [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Messaggero di S. 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We have been using it to extract our resources, without realising that it needed reciprocity from us. Let us listen to the cry of the farmers, and let us all change our lifestyles rapidly.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 06/03/2024
Farmers’ protests with their tractors can tell us many things, not all of which are always emphasised in the public debate. We have underestimated the conflictual dimension of the ecological transition. Also, the many damages we have done towards the planet and the earth over the last century do not disappear by themselves. They require a lot of work, commitment, cost and they sometimes generate new conflicts. New ‘class struggles’ are emerging that are different from those of yesterday, no less important and worrying. Land has always been underrated by economics and politics. Ever since modern economics began to think of itself as a science around the 17th and 18th centuries, it has never thought that the plant world or the biological world could offer it tools and categories to think about economic interactions. Then, at the end of the nineteenth century, the earth went completely off the scene, generating an eclipse of the earth in economic science that lasted until a few years ago, when the explosion of the global environmental crisis brought it to a traumatic end. Thus we have created an economic theory and practice that are incapable of seeing the earth and its needs, and we have deteriorated it.
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stdClass Object ( [id] => 19673 [title] => Pocket money, incentives & co. [alias] => pocket-money-incentives-co [introtext] =>If we do not learn the value of gratuitousness at home, and in the early years of life, we will only be driven by money and we will not be good workers as adults. Let us leave incentives and pay to the grown-ups, and protect our little ones from the empire of money.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Il Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 04/02/2024
The pocket money given to young ones is a controversial topic, and in many ways. It is often an expression that lumps together very different phenomena. Strictly speaking, pocket money is a - weekly or monthly - sum of money that parents hand over to a child who does not have an income of his or her own, to be used for his or her ordinary expenses. Generally, pocket money is applied in connection with teenagers or pre-teens, not with children or university students. A second confusion relates to associating pocket money and monetary incentive with the various ‘chores’ of children. Because giving a few euros a week as pocket money is different from creating a kind of family market where the various domestic services are associated with a price: 3 euros to clear the table, 4 euros to wash the dishes, etc... The two instruments - pocket money and incentive - can co-exist in the family, but one can also exist without the other, and vice versa.
[fulltext] =>In this business-dominated and business-obsessed culture of ours, pocket money and/or incentive culture is gaining ever new acceptance, it is the new children's catechism of the new capitalist religion. Psychologists, experts in family dynamics, economists, journalists and all-rounders invent new reasons every day to extend the use of economic logic inside the family home. Because, they say, it increases children's sense of responsibility, they learn how to handle money, they understand its value, and they start to move into the market that awaits them when they are adults in time.
As you may have already guessed, I am very much against monetary incentives with kids (let alone children) and I am also against pocket money. Because both instruments create an economic mentality that is out of time and out of context, and because the family is the place where other non-monetary values must also be learned in order to handle money, the market and work well tomorrow. In children, incentive - i.e. associating a monetary contract with every single service - creates the idea that the motivation or reason for doing a job is money and not the job itself. If I am paid to make the bed, I start to think that making the bed has no reason in itself but that the reason for it is money.
And so I forget that the bed just has to be made and that’s all, because it being put back in order before going to school has a value in itself, which has nothing to do with money. What is different is using rewards - which are not incentives -, much better if non-monetary (but there may be exceptions here). Rewards are not systematic (they are not always there), they come occasionally to reinforce intrinsic motivation, to say ‘bravo’, but they are not the reason for being good or doing well. Moreover, once money is introduced into family relationships, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to take it away to achieve the same results; moreover, the incentive tends to contaminate neighbouring areas (from making the bed we move on to the dishes, the dog and to homework...).
If we do not learn at home, and in the first years of life, the value of gratuitousness, that is, the infinite value of work well done, as adults we will only be driven by money and we will not be good workers. And it results in really such a sad life programme that will lack the most important dimension of living: freedom, including freedom from incentives, to be able to make those choices that are right and good. It is free gratuitousness that also founds the value of money, but only tomorrow. Today, there are many more important things to do and learn at home. Let us leave incentives and wages to the adults, and protect our little ones from the empire of money.
Credits foto: © Giuliano Dinon / Archivio MSA
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Antonio [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Civil Economy [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Messaggero di S. Antonio [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2024-02-05 07:27:42 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( [0] => stdClass Object ( [tag_id] => 23 [id] => 23 [parent_id] => 1 [lft] => 43 [rgt] => 44 [level] => 1 [path] => msa [title] => Le virtù del mercato, MSA [alias] => msa [note] => [description] => [published] => 1 [checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [access] => 1 [params] => {"tag_layout":"","tag_link_class":"label label-info"} [metadesc] => [metakey] => [metadata] => {"author":"","robots":""} [created_user_id] => 609 [created_time] => 2019-01-05 16:12:28 [created_by_alias] => [modified_user_id] => 609 [modified_time] => 2020-08-01 12:25:36 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {} [hits] => 9297 [language] => * [version] => 1 [publish_up] => 2019-01-05 15:12:28 [publish_down] => 2019-01-05 15:12:28 ) ) ) [slug] => 19673:pocket-money-incentives-co [parent_slug] => 893:it-editoriali-vari [catslug] => 889:en-msa [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>If we do not learn the value of gratuitousness at home, and in the early years of life, we will only be driven by money and we will not be good workers as adults. Let us leave incentives and pay to the grown-ups, and protect our little ones from the empire of money.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Il Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 04/02/2024
The pocket money given to young ones is a controversial topic, and in many ways. It is often an expression that lumps together very different phenomena. Strictly speaking, pocket money is a - weekly or monthly - sum of money that parents hand over to a child who does not have an income of his or her own, to be used for his or her ordinary expenses. Generally, pocket money is applied in connection with teenagers or pre-teens, not with children or university students. A second confusion relates to associating pocket money and monetary incentive with the various ‘chores’ of children. Because giving a few euros a week as pocket money is different from creating a kind of family market where the various domestic services are associated with a price: 3 euros to clear the table, 4 euros to wash the dishes, etc... The two instruments - pocket money and incentive - can co-exist in the family, but one can also exist without the other, and vice versa.
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stdClass Object ( [id] => 19663 [title] => Speculation and passive income, a social evil [alias] => speculation-and-passive-income-a-social-evil [introtext] =>Honest and civilised entrepreneurs are suffering today because they are mistaken for speculators, as too many entrepreneurs have, sometimes unwillingly, turned into speculators, devoured by the passive income syndrome. It is time to start seeing it, and calling it out.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Il Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 04/01/2024
The economy has always been the result of a tension, or conflict, between profits (active income - the tr.) and passive income, i.e. between those who have to produce new income in the present time in order to earn, and those who earn today from the wealth accumulated yesterday and by past generations. Entrepreneurs live on profits, speculators on passive income. The radical criticism of usury that we find in the Bible and the Gospel (of Luke) has its root in a deep aversion to passive income. In an essentially static world as the ancient one was, usury is in fact a form of passive income, i.e. an income that arises from the mere fact of holding power over a fundamental medium (money). There is no work behind usury, only power and privilege. The criticism of usury went through the entire Middle Ages and the Counter-Reformation, because it was linked to the Church's criticism of passive income, even though the ecclesiastics themselves were part of the profiting class; one of the many contradictions of history, and also one of the reasons for the Church's ineffective fight against usury, a fight that coexisted with privileges, even political ones, granted to the bankers-usurers of the popes.
[fulltext] =>The tension between passive and active income is a fundamental axis for understanding our society, too. Marxist criticism shifted the social critique to the capitalist-worker conflict, and explained much about industrial society. But with the post-industrial economy, and the diminishing importance of the large factory, we have returned to the old fundamental conflict between passive and active income, i.e. between incomers and entrepreneurs. Today, those who still think that the fundamental conflict of our capitalism is the one between entrepreneurs and workers miss the target, because they forget that the real and great conflict is the one between passive income and all other forms of income (including workers' wages). The growth of passive income is squeezing down both entrepreneurs' profits and workers' wages: “Then comes another sub-distinction of social classes, modelled on the distinction of capital into productive and unproductive: that of the capitalist producers, exclusively devoted to industry, and that of the unproductive, the bankers who do not increase social wealth but speculate on values, forming their income by extracting from the income of others” (A. Loria, The Economic Synthesis, 1910, p. 211 – Italian edition).
But where does the conflict between passive and active income express itself today? In many places. The first one that comes to mind is big speculative finance, the big investment funds that are taking over from entrepreneurs in the ownership and control of their companies, sold, in the difficult years we have lived through, to the irresistible offers of anonymous, faceless and often soulless funds. Taxation reinforces the dictatorship of passive income, because taxes set by politics on passive income are too low compared to those on labour. Today, a new and undervalued form of passive income is consulting. Indeed, consulting by large global corporations is a tax on entrepreneurs, because the strong dependency (or addiction) artfully created in recent years (the autonomy of enterprises has now become almost nil), means that a large part of the profits end up in the various forms of consulting that are presented as essential and necessary. And as with all forms of addiction, they require that the dose be increased by the day. Honest and civilised entrepreneurs are suffering today because they are mistaken for speculators, as too many entrepreneurs have, sometimes unwillingly, turned into speculators, devoured by the passive income syndrome. It is time to start seeing it, and calling it out.
Credits foto: © Giuliano Dinon / Archivio MSA
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Antonio [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Civil Economy [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Messaggero di S. Antonio [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2024-01-08 07:00:24 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( [0] => stdClass Object ( [tag_id] => 23 [id] => 23 [parent_id] => 1 [lft] => 43 [rgt] => 44 [level] => 1 [path] => msa [title] => Le virtù del mercato, MSA [alias] => msa [note] => [description] => [published] => 1 [checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [access] => 1 [params] => {"tag_layout":"","tag_link_class":"label label-info"} [metadesc] => [metakey] => [metadata] => {"author":"","robots":""} [created_user_id] => 609 [created_time] => 2019-01-05 16:12:28 [created_by_alias] => [modified_user_id] => 609 [modified_time] => 2020-08-01 12:25:36 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {} [hits] => 9297 [language] => * [version] => 1 [publish_up] => 2019-01-05 15:12:28 [publish_down] => 2019-01-05 15:12:28 ) ) ) [slug] => 19663:speculation-and-passive-income-a-social-evil [parent_slug] => 893:it-editoriali-vari [catslug] => 889:en-msa [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Honest and civilised entrepreneurs are suffering today because they are mistaken for speculators, as too many entrepreneurs have, sometimes unwillingly, turned into speculators, devoured by the passive income syndrome. It is time to start seeing it, and calling it out.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Il Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 04/01/2024
The economy has always been the result of a tension, or conflict, between profits (active income - the tr.) and passive income, i.e. between those who have to produce new income in the present time in order to earn, and those who earn today from the wealth accumulated yesterday and by past generations. Entrepreneurs live on profits, speculators on passive income. The radical criticism of usury that we find in the Bible and the Gospel (of Luke) has its root in a deep aversion to passive income. In an essentially static world as the ancient one was, usury is in fact a form of passive income, i.e. an income that arises from the mere fact of holding power over a fundamental medium (money). There is no work behind usury, only power and privilege. The criticism of usury went through the entire Middle Ages and the Counter-Reformation, because it was linked to the Church's criticism of passive income, even though the ecclesiastics themselves were part of the profiting class; one of the many contradictions of history, and also one of the reasons for the Church's ineffective fight against usury, a fight that coexisted with privileges, even political ones, granted to the bankers-usurers of the popes.
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stdClass Object ( [id] => 19642 [title] => Limping like Jacob [alias] => limping-like-jacob [introtext] =>To identify witnesses of faith, instead of heroic virtues we should look at ‘heroic beatitudes’ that express very, very different values.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Il Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 03/12/2023
What the specific economic ethic of Christianity consists in has been a long-standing question – in fact, the first ambiguity in this regard is found within the gospels themselves. It has never been easy, in fact, to patch together Luke's ‘woe to the rich’ with the presence of rich people in Jesus’ community (Levi, Joseph of Arimathea...), or to find coherence between the ‘Parable of the Talents’ and that of the ‘worker of the last hour’ in Matthew's Gospel. What is certain, however, is the important difference between the ethics of the Gospel, which is essentially an ethics of agape, and the virtue ethics of Greek and Roman origin. Although in the Middle Ages Christian ethics incorporated virtue ethics (or vice versa), founding the civil and religious structure of Christianity on the cardinal virtues, it is nevertheless true that the humanism underlying the Greek and Roman world is neither the biblical nor the evangelical one, although there are points of contact. The ancient virtue ethic was based on the idea of excellence (areté) in a given sphere of life (politics, sport...), an excellence that can be attained by those who practise the virtues with commitment and that generates happiness (eudaimonia) as its ultimate reward, the ultimate goal of life, as Aristotle taught.
[fulltext] =>The Gospel has another idea of excellence, and its happiness (if we want to call it that), besides being very different from the Greek one, is certainly not the Christian's ultimate goal. Christian excellence is to excel in agape – love, not in virtues. In fact, the contrast between virtues and agape lies precisely in the role of others (human beings and creation) in a function to themselves. The limit of Greek ethics lies in its being centred on the individual who seeks to improve their own character by striving for moral perfection. The Gospel changes perspective and says: “Do not think of yourself, think of others, move yourself out of the centre, and you will find yourself better off without having thought about it”. It does not propose an ethical process of character formation of the individual; it is an ethics of communion, of reciprocity, where the ‘new commandment’ is addressed to Christians in the second person plural: “love one another...”. If we then look at the first apostles, including Paul, we find sinners, traitors, impulsive, fearful, fragile characters, hard-hearted ones, power-seekers – certainly not virtuous people. What made them become teachers and witnesses of the faith was their capacity for agape-love, repentance, always starting over, and believing more in God's love than in their own virtues. Not to mention the Old Testament, where the Church Fathers are murderers (Moses and David), liars (Jacob), and so on.
All this should also lead us to rethink the very Christian and Catholic idea of holiness or beatification, and the related processes. To identify witnesses of faith, instead of heroic virtues we should look at ‘heroic beatitudes’ that express very, very different values. Not to mention miracles as proof of holiness, requirements introduced in the modern age of the Counter-Reformation, and which have little to do with the humanism of the Gospel. I have had the best teachers of the faith in people with many imperfections, flaws, vices, sins, who were nevertheless capable of love, who never stopped walking in the footsteps of a Voice, limping like Jacob. Their imperfection was the spiritual opening through which a breath of the Spirit was able to penetrate to reach me, changing my life, not making it perfect but only more love-filled, putting in me the desire to try to change the economy of others and of the poorest. For the Gospel, our personal happiness is just too little.
Credits foto: © Giuliano Dinon / Archivio MSA
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Antonio [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Civil Economy [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Messaggero di S. Antonio [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2023-12-06 07:36:58 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( [0] => stdClass Object ( [tag_id] => 23 [id] => 23 [parent_id] => 1 [lft] => 43 [rgt] => 44 [level] => 1 [path] => msa [title] => Le virtù del mercato, MSA [alias] => msa [note] => [description] => [published] => 1 [checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [access] => 1 [params] => {"tag_layout":"","tag_link_class":"label label-info"} [metadesc] => [metakey] => [metadata] => {"author":"","robots":""} [created_user_id] => 609 [created_time] => 2019-01-05 16:12:28 [created_by_alias] => [modified_user_id] => 609 [modified_time] => 2020-08-01 12:25:36 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {} [hits] => 9297 [language] => * [version] => 1 [publish_up] => 2019-01-05 15:12:28 [publish_down] => 2019-01-05 15:12:28 ) ) ) [slug] => 19642:limping-like-jacob [parent_slug] => 893:it-editoriali-vari [catslug] => 889:en-msa [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>To identify witnesses of faith, instead of heroic virtues we should look at ‘heroic beatitudes’ that express very, very different values.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Il Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 03/12/2023
What the specific economic ethic of Christianity consists in has been a long-standing question – in fact, the first ambiguity in this regard is found within the gospels themselves. It has never been easy, in fact, to patch together Luke's ‘woe to the rich’ with the presence of rich people in Jesus’ community (Levi, Joseph of Arimathea...), or to find coherence between the ‘Parable of the Talents’ and that of the ‘worker of the last hour’ in Matthew's Gospel. What is certain, however, is the important difference between the ethics of the Gospel, which is essentially an ethics of agape, and the virtue ethics of Greek and Roman origin. Although in the Middle Ages Christian ethics incorporated virtue ethics (or vice versa), founding the civil and religious structure of Christianity on the cardinal virtues, it is nevertheless true that the humanism underlying the Greek and Roman world is neither the biblical nor the evangelical one, although there are points of contact. The ancient virtue ethic was based on the idea of excellence (areté) in a given sphere of life (politics, sport...), an excellence that can be attained by those who practise the virtues with commitment and that generates happiness (eudaimonia) as its ultimate reward, the ultimate goal of life, as Aristotle taught.
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stdClass Object ( [id] => 19624 [title] => The women and men of the threshold [alias] => the-women-and-men-of-the-threshold [introtext] =>Just concluded the other day, this synod was the ‘Synod of Already’, and not the ‘Synod of Not Yet’, a ‘not yet’ that in the life of the spirit is always essential, but especially when one world is ending and we do not yet see another.
by Luigino Bruni
published in Il Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 09/11/2023
The current Synod is one of the most beautiful novelties of Francis' pontificate, the fruit of his ability to grasp the signs of the times. The way it has been prepared and the way it is unfolding is clearly a blessing for the Church (and not only the Catholic Church). There is reason to rejoice, and from many points of view. Not least because of the new presence of lay people and women that makes this church assembly a truly historical event. Let me just make two small comments to this beautiful page that is being written. They concern the nature and skills of the delegates. Indeed, if one scrolls through the list of participants, along with the satisfaction felt over the rich composition and charismatic biodiversity, one is also struck by the absence of certain components. It is always easy to look at a reality and search for what is missing, because there is no human reality in which something is not missing. So this exercise of mine must be taken as such, with all its limitations.
[fulltext] =>The Church, and not only the Catholic Church, is in the midst of a great process of change, one of the greatest and most radical changes in its history, which can be compared to that which followed the collapse of the Roman Empire (5th century), that is, the Church in the time of Augustine and Benedict, when a secular world was collapsing without another one having been born. Today, a world - Christianitas - is going down, and there is no other world for the churches in sight. We are in for a long Holy Saturday. The Second Vatican Council was an extraordinary event, but, as Dossetti said, one problem with that providential assembly was to conceive itself still within the era of Christianitas, that is, not to understand collectively that a long history was coming to an end, even though the churches were still full. Those full churches were a ‘curse of abundance’, because that sense of richness prevented the Council Fathers from grasping the emptiness that was smouldering under the ashes.
With the onset of the 21st century, we can no longer think of the Church, faith and religion as we did in the 20th century. The Church, in some countries, still has a vitality of its own and the churches are not completely empty, but we must be very careful that this ‘half-empty’ (and not totally empty) state does not play the role that the full churches did during the Council years. And to understand the signs of the times in a world with almost emptied temples, it is not enough to have theologians, bishops, nuns, priests, consecrated persons, who are the majority of delegates. We need entrepreneurs, blue collar workers, teachers, social workers, scientists, artists, poets: those who are living this massive dark night of Christian life from a perspective ‘outside’ the institutional Church. These characters are the main sentinels of the dawn that may come. And there is a particular need for real young people, under 30, who are, it seems to me, the other great absentees from the Synod. Because in every great expectation, there hides the expectation of a child, of the new inhabitant of the world that is being born. From Samuel to Jeremiah, the biblical prophets were all young when they began their vocation.
What is taking place is the ‘Synod of Already’, the assembly that photographs the Church today; it is not the ‘Synod of Not Yet’, a not yet that in the life of the spirit is always essential, but especially when one world is ending and we do not yet see another. When there is a need for the eyes of the sentinel, of those who stand on the walls and speak of what is outside to those who are inside, and of what is inside to those outside. The women and men of the threshold. It is on the threshold, on the border places that a resurrection is already taking place.
Credits foto: © Giuliano Dinon / Archivio MSA
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Antonio [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Civil Economy [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Messaggero di S. 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by Luigino Bruni
published in Il Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 09/11/2023
The current Synod is one of the most beautiful novelties of Francis' pontificate, the fruit of his ability to grasp the signs of the times. The way it has been prepared and the way it is unfolding is clearly a blessing for the Church (and not only the Catholic Church). There is reason to rejoice, and from many points of view. Not least because of the new presence of lay people and women that makes this church assembly a truly historical event. Let me just make two small comments to this beautiful page that is being written. They concern the nature and skills of the delegates. Indeed, if one scrolls through the list of participants, along with the satisfaction felt over the rich composition and charismatic biodiversity, one is also struck by the absence of certain components. It is always easy to look at a reality and search for what is missing, because there is no human reality in which something is not missing. So this exercise of mine must be taken as such, with all its limitations.
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stdClass Object ( [id] => 19601 [title] => Post-capitalism and democracy [alias] => post-capitalism-and-democracy [introtext] =>Consumer sovereignty was one of the great innovations introduced by US-based capitalism in the 20th century. Today, however, consumption is changing in nature, because the market has changed
by Luigino Bruni
published in Il Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 01/10/2023
There is one aspect of our capitalist society that is not yet sufficiently discussed by economists and philosophers. I am referring to the absolutization of the consumer category. Consumer sovereignty was one of the great innovations introduced by US-based capitalism in the 20th century. At first, especially after the First World War, the arrival of this new protagonist in civic life was welcomed as a good novelty, and in part it was so. Consumption in the markets, consuming itself, was seen as a form of modern freedom, creating new opportunities and a new type of equality: even if I am a blue-collar worker, even if I am not highly qualified, even if I am not from a renowned family, even if I am not part of the elite, when I go into a shop with money I can buy the same car as the people of rank. At the moment of purchase I feel equal to those in leading roles and the rich, I feel second to none. This first season of mass consumption was an important step in democracy, first in the West and then all over the world (today these phenomena are especially important in Africa and Asia). Money doesn't even smell of social class: I may not be able to speak elegantly and eloquently, I am the descendant of peasants, but when I come to your shop you have to treat me with the same dignity with which you treat gentlemen.
[fulltext] =>Today, consumption is changing in nature, because the market is changing (or has already changed). Globalisation, first, and social media, later (with the for-profit multinationals that run them, let us not forget), have made the paradigm of consumption the new paradigm of democracy. In fact, market consumption has a few clear and simple rules:
1. the consumer is the only one who can decide on his or her preferences and tastes; 2. if I like a good or service, I buy it, if I don't like it, I don't buy it; 3. in the world of things, once we are in (with purchasing power or with debts) we are all equal, there are no hierarchies of any kind; 4. in the market you cannot impose anything on me without my consent. The 'like' on social media has been taken directly from the consumer world, where the only valid things are what the individual likes and dislikes. Therefore, no one can impose on me, whether from outside or from above, choices and goods that I do not like, that I have not freely decided to buy or not to buy. So much so that an axiom of liberal economic theory (the so-called Public Choice) says that the market does not act by majority (like politics) but by unanimity, since it is based on contract, the logic of which requires the consent of all participants in the exchange (Buchanan and Tallock).How far can this reasoning go? If the consumer becomes the new global citizen, the question becomes: will these consumer-citizens be able to accept doing things they do not like? Will they be able to accept, for example, laws they do not like and suffer their consequences even when they do not like them? Will they accept the coercion of authority, or are we forming new citizens who will only want to pay the fines they want, who will only go to jail if they agree? Until today (or yesterday), laws and penalties were decided democratically, i.e. by the majority of citizens and with guarantees for the minorities, but the laws in force do not require the 'like' of every single citizen, let alone of those who have to abide by them. The serious question then becomes: will democracy survive the consumerist post-capitalism of the 21st century?
Photo credits:o: © Giuliano Dinon / MSA Archive
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Antonio [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Civil Economy [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Messaggero di S. Antonio [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2023-10-20 06:06:33 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( [0] => stdClass Object ( [tag_id] => 23 [id] => 23 [parent_id] => 1 [lft] => 43 [rgt] => 44 [level] => 1 [path] => msa [title] => Le virtù del mercato, MSA [alias] => msa [note] => [description] => [published] => 1 [checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [access] => 1 [params] => {"tag_layout":"","tag_link_class":"label label-info"} [metadesc] => [metakey] => [metadata] => {"author":"","robots":""} [created_user_id] => 609 [created_time] => 2019-01-05 16:12:28 [created_by_alias] => [modified_user_id] => 609 [modified_time] => 2020-08-01 12:25:36 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {} [hits] => 9297 [language] => * [version] => 1 [publish_up] => 2019-01-05 15:12:28 [publish_down] => 2019-01-05 15:12:28 ) ) ) [slug] => 19601:post-capitalism-and-democracy [parent_slug] => 893:it-editoriali-vari [catslug] => 889:en-msa [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Consumer sovereignty was one of the great innovations introduced by US-based capitalism in the 20th century. Today, however, consumption is changing in nature, because the market has changed
by Luigino Bruni
published in Il Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 01/10/2023
There is one aspect of our capitalist society that is not yet sufficiently discussed by economists and philosophers. I am referring to the absolutization of the consumer category. Consumer sovereignty was one of the great innovations introduced by US-based capitalism in the 20th century. At first, especially after the First World War, the arrival of this new protagonist in civic life was welcomed as a good novelty, and in part it was so. Consumption in the markets, consuming itself, was seen as a form of modern freedom, creating new opportunities and a new type of equality: even if I am a blue-collar worker, even if I am not highly qualified, even if I am not from a renowned family, even if I am not part of the elite, when I go into a shop with money I can buy the same car as the people of rank. At the moment of purchase I feel equal to those in leading roles and the rich, I feel second to none. This first season of mass consumption was an important step in democracy, first in the West and then all over the world (today these phenomena are especially important in Africa and Asia). Money doesn't even smell of social class: I may not be able to speak elegantly and eloquently, I am the descendant of peasants, but when I come to your shop you have to treat me with the same dignity with which you treat gentlemen.
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by Luigino Bruni
published in Il Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 07/09/2023
One day, while surfing TV channels, in search of something interesting, I came across a programme about large Italian hotels. A group of people went to be hosted in these luxury hotels and then made an assessment of the various services offered in them. What struck me in this programme was the total absence of the dimension of the so-called ‘budget constraint’: the evaluators ordered dinners, various services, without ever worrying about their price, as if they lived in a world in which the cost of a service or a commodity was not an important element in choosing. Ordinary families watch these programmes, and then come across the advertisements for easy loans, starring (unfortunately) a nice face from our TV drama series – in the end, it is not that difficult to put the pieces together. That is, to think that the life displayed in those programmes that consists of holidays in stellar hotels in a world with no family budget constraints becomes possible and easy thanks to easy loans from nice people and friendly financial institutions that are only there to serve our happiness.
[fulltext] =>Too bad that the reality and data about our country look very different. Along with the boom of luxury holidays of the lower and middle classes, the use of usury, gambling, and thus the poverty associated with these irresponsible dreams pushed by the media system are in constant growth, out of control. The first rule of every economy (which means, let us not forget, ‘housekeeping’) is the balance between income and expenditure. Good economy starts with income and adjusts expenditure based on it. The consumerist humanism of our time, which is more and more like a religion, reverses this order. It starts with the desires for goods and activities, hence the expenditure, and then points us to the means of procuring the income, without telling us, irresponsibly, that the income in debt is just more expenditure postponed in time. So we cover expenditure with other expenditure, in naive mechanisms that lead to economic crises (not infrequently) of whole families.
Our entire post-capitalist world is based on a mismanagement of desires. A perpetual and limitless adolescence, built on the pleasure principle (of Sigmund Freud), without ever reaching the reality principle, a reality that would reveal something extremely important, perhaps decisive for the future of our time. We know from psychology (Jacques Lacan) and, above all, from life that the satisfaction of desires is not the decisive operation for the most important and profound types of joy in life. Because our highest desire is desiring a desire that desires us, it is a meeting of reciprocity of desires, which only comes about when our desire invests people, who can in turn desire and desire us.
That is why religious desire is the mother of all desires: desiring a God who desires us. And when we desire someone who desires us, happiness does not consist in fulfilment but in remaining in a perpetual unfulfillment that increases the reciprocity of desires - a person who fulfils this desire would be a commodity, we know that. The people we love change our desires, we change theirs, and life becomes a continuous process of discovery. Our promised land is relational goods, not commodities. Capitalism knows this, it does not know how to sell relational goods and so it does everything to simulate them, selling us goods that resemble relationships. As long as we are aware of this bluff we will still be free: “I implore you God, my dreamer, do not stop dreaming of me” (Jorge Luis Borges).
Credits photo: © Giuliano Dinon / MSA Archive
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Good economy starts with income and adjusts expenditure based on it. It is a pity that this is not the case in our country lately...
by Luigino Bruni
published in Il Messaggero di Sant'Antonio on 07/09/2023
One day, while surfing TV channels, in search of something interesting, I came across a programme about large Italian hotels. A group of people went to be hosted in these luxury hotels and then made an assessment of the various services offered in them. What struck me in this programme was the total absence of the dimension of the so-called ‘budget constraint’: the evaluators ordered dinners, various services, without ever worrying about their price, as if they lived in a world in which the cost of a service or a commodity was not an important element in choosing. Ordinary families watch these programmes, and then come across the advertisements for easy loans, starring (unfortunately) a nice face from our TV drama series – in the end, it is not that difficult to put the pieces together. That is, to think that the life displayed in those programmes that consists of holidays in stellar hotels in a world with no family budget constraints becomes possible and easy thanks to easy loans from nice people and friendly financial institutions that are only there to serve our happiness.
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