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    [title] => Away From the Imperial Cult
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Commentary - Financial Capitalism and the Antidotes Against It
By Luigino Bruni
Published in Avvenire on July 07, 2013

To understand what truly lies behind the growing resistance to the closure of businesses on Sunday, we must have the courage to seriously consider the anthropological and cultural aspects of our capitalism. Philosopher Walter Benjamin wrote in 1921 that “one can behold in capitalism a religion, that is to say, capitalism essentially serves to satisfy the same worries, anguish, and disquiet formerly answered by so-called religion. (...) Capitalism itself developed parasitically on Christianity in the West” (Capitalism as Religion, 1921). And prophetically he added: “A commanding view will, however, later become possible”.
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Indeed, the religious nature of capitalism is much more evident today than it was in the 1920s, especially when one considers how increasingly rare it is to find areas of our lives that are not for sale. It is a pagan religion that calls for an exclusive form of worship and aims to replace Christianity (not any other religion), because it spawned from Jewish-Christian humanism. According to this view, modernity is not characterized by a desecration or disenchantment of the world, but instead by the affirmation of a new religion, i.e., by the transformation of the Christian spirit into the “spirit” of capitalism. The argument is strong and inevitably controversial, but it undoubtedly captures a fundamental dimension of our time, one that was perceived at the dawn of capitalism by the philosophical genius of Antonio Rosmini.
The intertwined relations between Christianity and capitalism run deep since their very origins. Capitalism borrows from the vocabulary of the Bible (faith-trust, credit-belief...), and even the evangelists use the economic language of their time to make comparisons and compose parables. And we cannot understand the Middle Ages, the Reformation or Modernity unless we take into account the numerous intersections between grace and money. Nevertheless, only in recent times has capitalism fully revealed its true nature as a pagan religion. It is not limited to the worship of goddess Fortuna, supreme deity of countless “games” who dominates whole new categories of underprivileged. Nor is it confined to shopping centers designed like temples, or to the culture of multilevel marketing companies that initiate their sessions with the sign of the cross looking for new followers for their must-have products, or even to the creation of a financial system that is based exclusively on faith and lacks any connection with the real economy.
This new religion promises and offers us much more: a pseudo-eternity, a surrogate for eternal life. As an individual product, an automobile ages and deteriorates, but if one has money or credit, a new one can be immediately purchased and death may thus be vanquished. From the apotheosis of cosmetic surgery, it offers the elixir of (illusory) eternal youth. As all pagan religions, it celebrates pleasure and youth, and as a result it deliberately turns its gaze away from death and conceals it (which also includes the glorified idea of self-determination that leads to euthanasia and assisted suicide). Death is concealed because it is too real to be understood by capitalism: who runs across a funeral procession along our streets anymore? Who sees the children gather around the bedside of their deceased grandfather any longer? Idolatry, which is the illness of every religious civilization, has thus transformed the worship of money, together with capitalism, into a de facto religion complete with its own priests, churches, incenses, liturgies and saints, whose worship is performed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, in a perpetual state of adoration that has no regard for the Sabbath, Fridays, or even Sundays. It is therefore a naïve illusion to think the capitalist culture capable of respecting Sunday rest: there is no Sunday in that religion, because every day is a day of worship. There is no possible coexistence between the culture of Sunday and the culture of capitalism.
The various forms of capitalism, however, are not all the same – or at least they were different until recently. Europe, in particular, has produced its own version of capitalism, which represents the culmination of a conception of economics and society that was born at the heart of the Franciscan and Dominican monastic charisms. The Reformation and Counter-Reformation inflicted a deep wound in the market economy that made Florence, Venice and Lisbon into great and beautiful cities.
The long history of Europe, which afforded her a vast amount of experience with different and mixed societies, has been able to bring to life a social kind of capitalism or, as I prefer to say, a civil market economy that has produced economic miracles, the development of a cooperative movement (the greatest non-capitalist market economy experience in history), a great project for a united Europe, and the creation of a communitarian and welfare state and that the civilized world envied. Let us not forget today, in the age of globalization, that our capitalism was different because it was based on the idea of market and communitarian solidarity. If our civil capitalism were still alive, there would be no “legal” betting and gaming companies that “donate” a mere 0.0001% of their enormous profits to foundations that offer treatment for the very addiction to games of chance they themselves have created. By the same token, there would be no foundations or government agencies that would accept such dishonest and deadly contributions. And no European citizen would witness in silence those human sacrifices to these new pagan gods. Nonetheless, these situations do exist and proliferate due to the complicity of our governments and a lack of political vigor, accompanied by a deficiency of deep thinking and the absence of a mature and responsible civil society. In the twentieth century, the Churches, especially the Catholic Church, identified the great collectivist systems as enemies of the faith and played a decisive role in the collapse of their walls. And even before the dust of those crumbling walls settled, the voice of the Pope was faithful to warn of another presumptuous and “unbridled” force that continued to threaten the men and women of our time.
However, there is still no pervasive consciousness of the equally anti-Christian and devastating danger of financial capitalism, which, partly due to our own carelessness, is dominating and paganizing the world. The capitalist man cannot be evangelized, because he already has his own gospel, one that demands much less than the Gospel of Jesus.
The good fight to preserve Sunday as a day free from a one-track market culture makes sense if interpreted as a symbol of the resurgence of a different kind of political and economic thinking, one that calls into question the dogmas and taboos imposed by the cult of the market. The Christian and humanist roots of European civilization cannot be invoked only to recognize where we come from; they should also point towards the path we are to follow. And they are disclaimed and opposed exactly because they are a sign of a contradiction, because they provide the moral resources necessary to plot an alternative course to the one currently imposed. As every other empire in history, the empire built by financial capitalism and its religion is destined to fall, and there are numerous signs that foretell its imminent collapse. We must take to heart the responsibility to act and react immediately to ensure that in two or three decades our grandchildren can grow free from the totems and taboos that have taken up our time and even our souls.
Further commentaries by Luigino Bruni in Avvenire are available through the Avvenire Editorial
Translated by Tomás Olcese
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Commentary - Financial Capitalism and the Antidotes Against It
By Luigino Bruni
Published in Avvenire on July 07, 2013

To understand what truly lies behind the growing resistance to the closure of businesses on Sunday, we must have the courage to seriously consider the anthropological and cultural aspects of our capitalism. Philosopher Walter Benjamin wrote in 1921 that “one can behold in capitalism a religion, that is to say, capitalism essentially serves to satisfy the same worries, anguish, and disquiet formerly answered by so-called religion. (...) Capitalism itself developed parasitically on Christianity in the West” (Capitalism as Religion, 1921). And prophetically he added: “A commanding view will, however, later become possible”.
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Commentary – Interpersonal business relationships
By Luigino Bruni
Published in Avvenire on June 16, 2013
Employed workers suffer from general anxiety due to the high rates of unemployment. In Southern Europe employees are increasingly unsatisfied (Ipsos, TNS-sofres). 68% of French workers state that the quality of their working life decreased between 2008 to 2012; among those who are 35 to 49 years old, 75% express their discontent. Middle-aged workers, usually half way through their career, suffer from chronic dissatisfaction.
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The motivations to work vary through time. During the first years of a new career people are excited and enthusiastic. After twenty years in the same office of an organization, the enthusiasm dies out. Without new and more compelling motivations, workers become weary and cynical. The above mentioned survey indicates that average public sector employees are the least enthusiastic about their work.
Workplaces are filled with discontent middle age workers. Much of the research done in this area reveals a U-shaped graph correlating happiness and age. The point of minimum happiness hits around 45 years of age. From this age, workers' happiness increases if they have good health and social relationships.
Labor regulations have ignored the different stages of human life. The 20 year old Mary was a different worker from the one she is now in her 60's. Businesses don't follow people's natural aging process. Thus, when one has “journeyed half of our life's way” [Dante], one is trapped in both a professional and private mid-life crisis – labor is life.
Enterprises don't invest enough in relationships. In private or state-owned companies, workers are often regarded as selfish and untrustworthy, and bosses believe they have to control and reward employees to make them productive. This environment produces unhappiness – when will countries take quality of working life indicators seriously? Therefore, workers seek happiness outside their workplaces, spending heaps of money on wellness centers and spas. Is this a wise and sustainable solution? Wouldn't it be wiser to develop healthy relationships within workplaces and thereby increase workers' well-being?
It is not by chance that religious orders have built the longest lasting institutions in the Western world – an average Benedictine abbey is 5 centuries old. Their old age and smooth operations flow from good governance. Business decision-makers should implement a few of their regulations; religious orders' rules contain management teachings that are people-centered and universal.
For example, the members of a religious order periodically meet with their superior in private. This practice promotes healthy relationships within the community. Regrettably, employees of numerous enterprises reach retirement having never talked privately to their bosses. In those few enterprises and cooperatives where such private meetings take place, they are few and irregular.
Today, more than ever, private talks between supervisors and workers – and not only the widespread practice of coaching – are vital. Regular private meetings (twice a year for example) would benefit workers and organizations in many ways.
Employees and bosses should be able to privately express their complaints, hardships, misunderstandings and woes. Taking this action can help avoid gossip, rumors and grudge that end up having a destructive impact on corporate life. Since biblical times people have spread rumors, not only gossipmongers and defamers. However, protests, critics and complaints can be constructive if institutions use such information wisely. In the same way, gratitude is essential in every community and most effective when properly expressed.
Saying “thank you!”, “good job!” or even “sorry” to an employee in the corridors or on the phone isn't enough. These words are precious ones that should not be used lightly.. 
Furthermore, one-on-one talks promote brotherhood rather than hierarchy; they increase philia among workers – those who partake in these conversations both listen and speak, give and receive. Executives will raise their game if they accept critiques from their subordinates and commit themselves to changing. Their biggest mistake in personal meetings is avoiding complaints by cutting off the employees (“you miss the point...”, “you don't see the full picture...”, “let me explain...”).
In private conversations one should not have to justify oneself, but listen and welcome criticism and hardships – we are so undeveloped in the art of listening!
A supervisor should listen, register and process critiques and not criticize in return. The employee has the right to complain, and the manager the duty to listen. Companies need to provide proper places and a schedule for private meetings. Workers and managers should also undertake ethical training to better take part in these. It isn't easy to hold one-on-one meetings; businesses should work hard on this and learn from prior mistakes – if they do, the fruits will be abundant.
Employees' first and last private talks with their bosses are very important. Welcome interviews should include a presentation on the enterprise's traditions, history, goals and mission. Newly hired workers will have a chance to share their aspirations, passions and introduce themselves to the working community; everyone should celebrate their arrival.
The farewell meeting is equally important. Many times it concludes the best period of someone's life. It is a life changing event. One may say “thank you” or “sorry” and make this critical encounter spiritually fulfilling and meaningful. Therefore, let us seek inspiration from the religious charisms; their teachings can increase the quality of relationships within our organizations. We are in dire need of better relationships in our businesses!
Further commentaries by Luigino Bruni in Avvenire are available through the Avvenire Editorial
Translated by Cristian Sebok
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Commentary – Interpersonal business relationships
By Luigino Bruni
Published in Avvenire on June 16, 2013
Employed workers suffer from general anxiety due to the high rates of unemployment. In Southern Europe employees are increasingly unsatisfied (Ipsos, TNS-sofres). 68% of French workers state that the quality of their working life decreased between 2008 to 2012; among those who are 35 to 49 years old, 75% express their discontent. Middle-aged workers, usually half way through their career, suffer from chronic dissatisfaction.
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Commentary - Envy nourishes crises
By Luigino Bruni
Published in Avvenire on June 30, 2013
Our society could resolve much of its discontent by better handling its passions and feelings. Envy is one of the most devastating and dangerous of these feelings, particularly during crises. It needs to be controlled. In times gone by, people knew that unrestrained envy could produce disasters. So they developed an appropriate system of ethics to change and contain it, altering it to become good behavior.
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Ancient civilizations wrote the golden rule - “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” - as a guide to preventing envy. The Bible alerts us to the power of envy through Cain's deed. Moved by his envious heart he denied brotherhood and committed the first fratricide. Despite these past teachings, our society underestimates envy and considers it the source of competition. Mainstream thought maintains that humanity's envious nature promotes checks and balances that may foster the Common Good. However, in reality it distorts competitions (with one player annihilating the other).
Modern society ignores that envy is the cause of numerous problems. Claims for meritocracy, namely, the self-praise and the sorrow (or pleasure) for the misfortune of others, are increasing. Envy provokes this increase. Although it causes quarrels and lawsuits, we do not create rules to stop it. Courts and citizens would save a great deal of moral and economic energy if it were brought under control. Furthermore, conspicuous consumption drags us into debt as we toil ever harder to increase our social status. Despite all this, the media praises competition driven by envy, and the market exploits this feeling to increase GDP. However, this economic growth brings about social dissatisfaction. GDP does not indicate nations' quality of life because it includes envy-driven consumption, which ultimately produces unhappiness.
One can easily identify envy. It is the suffering derived from the successes of others and the pleasure from their misfortunes. It incites envious people to act against what is good for and in favor of what hurts those they envy. The German word Schadenfreude expresses this very well; it literally means the joy derived from damage.
When passion moves action, vices may cause crime and damage others. The desire alone for something that is owned by another isn't a sin according to the tenth commandment. The hebrew word hamad doesn't mean covet, but it means plotting to obtain the coveted thing (and commit an evil deed). One should overcome evil thoughts and feelings as soon as they arise, so that one will not do evil deeds, speak false words and make omissions.
Envy incites a mechanism of mutual damage. Envious people take pleasure in praising their successful deeds (and omitting their misfortunes) to those who envy them. This behavior triggers a spiral of hostility in which we are both victims and promoters. Thankfully, communities usually include selfless people. They break these vicious cycles by reducing enmity and spreading happiness. Spirituality and agape, when put into practice, are the source of this selflessness – eros and philia may cause envy while agape alone is inherently not envious. Families are the cradle of the fight against envy. Their members are virtuous mirrors of one another that reveal and eliminate envious feelings. Today we are a society poor in selfless people; humans need someone who will listen and sympathize with their misfortunes and successes.
Aristotle long ago pointed out that envy exists only among peers. Students do not envy their teachers, but their classmates. Emperors and masters weren't envied by their servants; followers hate, admire or wish to be like their superiors. Children envy their siblings, not their parents. One can easily identify envious people: They suffer from the syndrome of “even if...”, where they add a negative comment after every compliment (“he is a nice person, even if...”). Thus, ancient social casts and the structures of corporate hierarchy undermined this perversive feeling. A perfect hierarchical society includes no peers, only superiors and subordinates. Human beings obey and command willingly, but they struggle to build positive relationships with peers. A globalized and equal society is full of peers, increasing opportunities for envy.
Rather than just envy people that are better than us, we should respect them and cooperate. In an unchanging world, where everyone “eats from a single pie”, advantages gained by one are detrimental to his or her peers. This is called a “zero-sum game” (a participant's gains are exactly equal to the losses of the other participant or participants). This situation triggers envious feelings and reactions.
However, zero-sum game relationships rarely exist in reality. Healthy societies encourage cooperation, win-win relationships and mutual growth. If we nurture envy, win-win opportunities slip away. The worldview of envious people highlights competition, rivalry and destruction, which excludes mutually beneficial opportunities and reciprocity. Envy is a perverse shortcut for relational problem solving. Real solutions depend on one's ability to recognize and promote reciprocity. Immature admiration may turn into envy; only the respect and admiration of selfless people is pure and constructive.
In hard times, people tend to envy others, considering them rivals in zero-sum games. Crises nourish envy and vice versa. Today education promoting selflessness is much needed; people need to learn to respect their peers. Schools and families are the first crusaders of this transformation, which should then influence institutions (through fiscal systems, corporate incentives, etc.). Cooperation is the good seed and envy the tares. Our society should cultivate the good wheat and avoid the weeds.
Further commentaries by Luigino Bruni in Avvenire are available through the Avvenire Editorial

Translated by Cristian Sebok
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    [text] => 
Commentary - Envy nourishes crises
By Luigino Bruni
Published in Avvenire on June 30, 2013
Our society could resolve much of its discontent by better handling its passions and feelings. Envy is one of the most devastating and dangerous of these feelings, particularly during crises. It needs to be controlled. In times gone by, people knew that unrestrained envy could produce disasters. So they developed an appropriate system of ethics to change and contain it, altering it to become good behavior.
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    [title] => The Powerful and Limited Body
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Listen to the human body's memories and teachings.
By Luigino Bruni
Published in Avvenire on June 02, 2013
A new understanding of the human body can increase employment and improve the economy. Real bodies, our bodies, are ignored while people adore, praise and worship fake human figures. Young models are consumed as products while old, sick and weary people are rejected by society. Great enterprises and the financial market can collapse due to the exploitation of the human body. 
Any institution that disregards people and their bodies works against human dignity. 
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Farms and factories entailed tough yet human-centered activities; colleagues could interact in person.
Today, workers, customers, suppliers and colleagues often don't know each other personally. Likewise, directors no longer meet with their employees (apart from the occasional video-conference). In these companies, the work force is comprised of numbers, records and costs, but not people.
When workers lose their corporeal individuality, they become no more than mere tools.
An accurate evaluation of a person presumes contact. An evaluator needs to see people's faces, the color in their cheeks and the glitter of their eyes, and to smell their scent. A handshake is also important; a trembling or sweaty hand often influences personal impressions. Headhunters do not treat job applicants like real people; they are just numbers on a computer and potential resources to be used. They exclude candidates before even meeting with them. Human nature relies on human bodies.
No philosophical or theological theory defines Man better than the human body itself. Human beings are as fragile as a grass blade and made “a little lower than the angels” (psalm 8). The Song of Songs praises the human body while the Ecclesiastes disparages it. A true understanding of the body and human relations must take both approaches into account. Horizons seen in a dusk sky are hidden at dawn, like the body just before it ceases to be. Human nature is ambiguous; we are neither bodiless immortal angels nor mere grass on the ground. 
The five senses are as important as the body itself. True fulfilling human encounters activate them all, including taste. Members of a community – family, church, company – should eat together often to avoid crises. Don Abbondino, the director, and Agnese, the worker of a company, rarely sit at the same table. Although an arduous task, companies should guarantee shared business meals.
Every human body has limits, which reveal both individuality and reciprocity. Who has never sent an email or an SMS containing words that one wouldn't use in person? Written phrases like “I love you” or “leave me alone” are quite common. The same expressions said to someone while looking into their eyes and – consider the first phrase – holding their hands are much more compelling. People must accept their corporeal limits and build a new relationship in every stage of their body's life. They will then be able to bring about a new social pact for a healthier society, which will guarantee welfare States that are economically sustainable. Bodies grow old, weary and eventually die; those who do not accept this natural process are chronically ill. A physical sickness should not be rejected; we must welcome it as a part of our lives. By embracing our human vulnerability, wounds (vulnus) and the inevitability of death, we will be able to follow after S. Francis and say, “our Sister Bodily Death”.
It is not only the children who learn about the world through bodily sensations.
Knowledge of things comes from touch. Today, people do not use their bodies and hands to learn and to work, which results in the crisis of labor. An intellectual is only able to create through physical work; toil is inevitable to conceive new concepts.
People can foster a trust-filled civilization if they reconcile themselves to their bodies' natural maturation. Vows, like marriage, represent a commitment to someone's body; they include the blessings and wounds that engagement my cause. Loyalty must be embodied to be true.
People need to cry together and embrace each other to reach reconciliation; telephone and Skype calls or legal forgiveness letters aren't enough. When Jacob and Esau overcame their sever hostility, wounds and misunderstandings, they “wept together”.
Cultures that flourished again after decline had to first reconcile themselves to human limitations and death. Likewise, the Risen One bore the stigmata of His wounds.
We must come to terms with our bodies to learn the old art of true human relations. This art grows more rare, and very few can teach it. There is an increasing ignorance about relationships, particularly among managers and directors. Women, mothers in particular, know both the limits and the extraordinary powers of the the human body. Nurses are also body specialists; they establish a relationship with patients through touch. Once a doctor healed my sickness by coming to see me. He explained to me, “The doctor is the first cure for any sickness.” Nurses and nuns should be members of hospitals' executive offices. The latter are inspired by their mission to recognize the patients' blessings, which exist besides their wounds. Instead, hospital directors usually don't see the patients, let alone touch them. Let us learn from our corporeal nature. Each person's body has many things to teach us.
A few are beautiful, others forgotten, but all our essential for our well-being.
Further commentaries by Luigino Bruni in Avvenire are available through the Avvenire Editorial
Translated by Cristian Sebok
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    [text] => 
Listen to the human body's memories and teachings.
By Luigino Bruni
Published in Avvenire on June 02, 2013
A new understanding of the human body can increase employment and improve the economy. Real bodies, our bodies, are ignored while people adore, praise and worship fake human figures. Young models are consumed as products while old, sick and weary people are rejected by society. Great enterprises and the financial market can collapse due to the exploitation of the human body. 
Any institution that disregards people and their bodies works against human dignity. 
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    [alias] => chiediamo-ai-giovani-2
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Commentary – The Spirit that creates labor.
By Luigino Bruni
Published in Avvenire on May 12, 2013
Our crisis arises from more than just financial causes. Despite the improving condition of the stock market and the financial spreads, the unemployment rate, particularly among the youth, has not decreased. The economies of Italy and southern Europe are sick. They have been struggling against recession for decades, and speculative finance has only accelerated their decline.
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The trauma of these troubled years could have been lessened if financial system had supported innovation rather than speculation and if economists had focused on long term rather than short term shortsighted analyses. However, economic decay and declining productivity were unavoidable; they smoldered under the ashes of society. Our present and future are uncertain; work must be reinvented, and it will be far different than anything we and our parents have ever known.
Job creation is a demanding task that requires action on multiple levels and involves minds and souls. To build a healthy society, we should start with children and reinvent the symbols that prepare them to work in the future. Society has taken away the images and symbols of labor from childhood.
A common language is necessary to reconnect the different generations that no longer understand each other. In our childhoods, we used to play with bulldozers, tractors, dolls and toy workers; these represented our future professions. We were also influenced by the jobs of grownups and stories at school and from the elderly about professions. As we played we were preparing ourselves for our future professions. Today, children play with virtual four-head monsters, spending most of their time alone with their mobiles or in front of the TV; these activities don't involve symbols of labor. Through the organization of games, soccer matches, treasure hunts and races, children used to learn how to cooperate, compete, solve conflicts, and accept defeat and shortcomings. They were developing a basic character that is necessary for a successful professional life.
We are in dire need to create new images of professionals and to foster the aspiration to work for our children. How can young people decide on a profession that they haven't seen nor dreamed of as a child? How can they cooperate in businesses without learning cooperation? We call on artists to use poetry, literature, cartoons, tales, games and architecture to introduce children and young people to labor and community life through stories and images.
It is also vital to create jobs so that the youth of both present and future will not be unemployed.
People can only help the youth effectively if they are aware that the youth alone know what is best for them. Our society is lacking in the civil virtue of this ethical awareness.
Baden Powell, the founder of the Scouts, used to wisely say, “Ask the boy”. Healthy relations between adults and youngsters are based on this simple idea. He had a true, universal and charismatic insight.
This expression is one of the most clear applications of the “subsidiarity principle” in education. It affirms that an adult should not do what a child can do; children should figure out how to solve problems on their own. Likewise, young workers should show us how to resolve youth unemployment. Adults must help, but they can only do so effectively if they listen to the youth and fully believe in their capabilities. Young people are unemployed because we don't ask them the right questions nor give them helpful advice. Thus, they are unable to produce income, develop their career, and utilize their full potential and abilities. We need to be clever to learn how to read their hearts and souls. Many of the professional skills that young people possess are hidden even to themselves. Don Bosco, an expert on youth and labor, once had the following conversation with a young man named Bartolomeo Garelli: “How old are you?”, “I'm 16”. “Do you know how to read and write?”, “No, I don't”. “Do you sing?”, “Nope”. “Do you know how to whistle?”, “Yes!” Bartolomeo could whistle and was able to do many other things as well. According to the Salesians, educators should assist young people in finding their own potential by listening and asking them the right questions. Education is the process of seeing talents beyond appearances and helping them to emerge (revealing and developing those once hidden qualities).
If Baden Powell and Don Bosco (and other charismatic educators) lived today, they would agree with current competent educators that youth unemployment destroys public happiness. Four out of every ten young workers are unemployed, and three of those employed work part-time in unsatisfying jobs. As the bible says, the youth are our families' paradise. However, young people, jobless and without hope, have no other alternative to emigration. Old immigrants have seen their grandchildren hit the road filled with sorrow. Just like those before, these new travelers leave in pursuit of bread and a hopeful future; they shed tears and leave their loved ones behind, weeping. They flee from a cold, arid and filthy land that no longer produces jobs. Economic policy isn't enough to revitalize, cleanse and “warm up” this land. The nation needs a Spirit that gives strength and life while increasing efficiency and productivity. This Spirit will give new enthusiasm to many people, young and old, who have lost hope in life and faith in the future. “Come father of the poor!” Come father of the youth!
Further commentaries by Luigino Bruni in Avvenire are available through the Avvenire Editorial
Translated by Cristian Sebok
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Commentary – The Spirit that creates labor.
By Luigino Bruni
Published in Avvenire on May 12, 2013
Our crisis arises from more than just financial causes. Despite the improving condition of the stock market and the financial spreads, the unemployment rate, particularly among the youth, has not decreased. The economies of Italy and southern Europe are sick. They have been struggling against recession for decades, and speculative finance has only accelerated their decline.
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Commentary – The market and human relationships.
By Luigino Bruni
Published in Avvenire on May 5, 2013
Movie theaters are not only businesses but a unique means to build relationships. However, lately a great number of them have had to close down due to the crisis. Unfortunately, they have been replaced by goods that better respond to the demands of today's consumeristic, lonely individuals. Some believe this change is a result of the law of the market. I agree that the market does sell goods against loneliness, and that the demand for such goods was created by the market itself. However, only a sector of the market.
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One does not need to read economic and sociological studies to recognize the significant difference between going to a movie theater versus a “home-theater experience”; this difference is especially pronounced when the first is experienced with friends and the second while alone in front of a PC. To go to the movies with friends implies an investment of time. One has to dress up, go to the theater, and discuss which film to see with others. Often the final selection differs from one's personal preference (thanks to friends, I have discovered many splendid movies that I would not have otherwise seen). Friends talk to each other before, during and, most importantly, after the film. Thus, the movie, which on its own is a simple consumer good, brings people together and becomes a relational good; such goods are produced or consumed together as a shared experience. The shared emotions elicited during certain scenes can be so enjoyable that one will go again to the movies with other friends (hoping to experience the same mutual feelings again). In fact, two and a half centuries ago, Adam Smith wrote that shared emotions are one of the major sources of people's happiness. When one watches a movie alone at home or on the TV, there are hardly any shared emotions and relational goods involved; seeing Amarcord in a theater is completely different from seeing it on a PC. These two experiences represent two very different categories of goods, which, unfortunately, are considered by the market to be equivalent.
Let's explore this topic further. In the recent past, people had to interact with others if they wanted to “consume” certain goods (like art, culture, celebrations, music, religion, sports, politics, games, schools, therapy, etc.). Thus, people were inextricably linked to relational goods. Music was enjoyed in concert halls or ballrooms, sport in stadiums and movies in crowded movie theaters. Today, the market allows us to separate the relational aspect from many goods, leaving only the individual component. For example, I can listen to my iPod alone on my run in the park. Although I pass many other lonely runners, I don't actually meet anyone. Later, if I feel like doing so, I can hang out with friends. The same is applied to films, politics (rallies were replaced by monologues on TV) and even universities (there are people who enroll in online programs and get their degree without interacting with anyone). Human interaction has been removed from a great many products. The 'me and you' relationship has been replaced by 'me and a product' and 'you and a product'. A possible 'us' is always postponed for the future.
This is the kind of humanism that the capitalist market (not just any market), individuals and the freedom of choice have brought about. These Western and Christian-rooted values set people free from many obligatory relationships; the required “spheres” of life that their loved ones have no part in. However, one should read through research about the well-being of humans before evaluating the market's influence on people and trying to reform it. Over the last few decades, the consumption of relation-free goods has radically increased. Due to market competition and technological progress, consumer goods cost less today than ever before, as far as money and, more importantly, time are concerned.
It is easier and cheaper than ever to watch a movie at home; one doesn't even need to get out of bed! On the other hand, going to the movies or exercising with friends doesn't cost less than a hundred years ago, and investing in friends and family requires pretty much the same sacrifice (time, resources, love, …) as a thousand years ago. Besides, investing in friendship is risky because you may get hurt if your friends do not reciprocate. A very simple economic law teaches us that if we drastically reduce the price of a (consumer) good and keep the other constant (relational good), the latter will become much more “expensive” than the former. In other words, as the market separates products from relationships (in the name of freedom), the cost of relational goods continues to increase. “Days ago,” a friend told me, “I asked my Dad to come see my wife singing in a chorus. I rang the bell and he said he'd changed his mind. I didn't insist. It was raining and I knew that dressing up and leaving was much more “costly” than watching a movie on the living room couch.” He then added, “but he probably regretted his decision the next day.” What can be done about all this? Not much, but we should definitely support social goods by taxing consumer goods (we should particularly promote relational goods since a lack of personal ties makes people unhappy). We can also make use of education to bring about change.
Schools should educate their students about consumption and differences between types of goods; they must teach students how to distinguish consumer goods, which are here today and gone tomorrow, from relational goods, which are real investments for a good life. Furthermore, technology should serve to improve human relationships. For example, social groups and parishes can easily set a private “movie theater” with an inexpensive video projector and revive the magic and the joy of shared experiences. We must promote community building; the loss of community has impoverished us all.
Further commentaries by Luigino Bruni in Avvenire are available through the Avvenire Editorial
Translated by Cristian Sebok
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Commentary – The market and human relationships.
By Luigino Bruni
Published in Avvenire on May 5, 2013
Movie theaters are not only businesses but a unique means to build relationships. However, lately a great number of them have had to close down due to the crisis. Unfortunately, they have been replaced by goods that better respond to the demands of today's consumeristic, lonely individuals. Some believe this change is a result of the law of the market. I agree that the market does sell goods against loneliness, and that the demand for such goods was created by the market itself. However, only a sector of the market.
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Commentary – Genovesi's call to Italy (and South of Europe): Be yourself!
By Luigino Bruni
Published in Avvenire on April 28, 2013
The connected, interdependent networks making up the market economy can bring about both wonderful and terrifying outcomes. In times of prosperity, wealth is distributed among everyone, while during depressions problems are interconnected and amplified; the virtue of interdependence is replaced by a vicious cycle of people inflicting losses on one another. Customers don't pay, banks don't loan, and suppliers don't receive payment and are unable to pay their own debts. This process, like a maelstrom, spirals ever downwards swallowing factories, jobs, houses, lives.
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Throughout Italy, but particularly in the South, and in southern Europe workers and the unemployed have been suffering. The crisis has canceled the economic development of the past two decades. I believe that it is possible that an economic recovery will make the South Europe's new center of gravity. Many talented people and potentialities from the South have been crushed and stifled by events in the recent and far past.
Latin and southern culture is full of blessings, but mainstream capitalists only see its wounds (shortcomings). Though we thought we had ended the unfortunate brain drain to the North, a new massive one has begun. The best of our young people migrate for “bread and dignity”. Southern Europe needs trust, esteem, and self-esteem; it needs “courage”, according to one of the fathers of Italy's Civil Economy, Antonio Genovesi. People today should read his works and more about him.
His book, Lessons of Civil Economy (a new edition will soon be released), is even more relevant today than back when it was written in 1765. Regarding southern Italy he wrote: “Their wines are served as nectar on the best tables, held in highest-esteem by England and even France, where Burgundy is intensely praised... It consists of counties covered with wool, linen, canapé, and various animal species; it is the country of cheese, wheat etc., and great minds... We should therefore have four times more money than the other nations; five times actually, if we include the oil, six for the wine, seven for the silk, and so on.” Therefore, the question is still the same: where is this money? “I'll never believe in the lack of talent – does one really think that colder climates produce sharper brains than warm ones? – nor in the absence of hard work;… I therefore conclude that we are short of courage and are misusing our labor.”
For Genovesi, the absence of “courage” and well-employed "labor" is due to: “The burden of finance encumbers the arts but not land and possessions. This has discouraged and devalued the arts.” These are indeed inspired words. The future of a nation is gloomy if it “discourages” and “devalues” the arts, i.e., if it taxes craftsmen and businesses while promoting speculation. In fact, our neo-feudal social and economic system (together with all other feudal regimes) is sustained by privileges that overvalue income from assets.
We have condemned this and will continue to do so. Genovesi saw quality and potential in the Italian economy and ingenuity in the soul of Italy and its people – besides their other evident attributes. He was aware though that, despite these virtues, there were also shortcomings; they are always present. In fact, after listing the virtues and merits of the kingdom, he pointed out that: “If a foreigner happens to read this article, he or she should keep in mind that I wrote it after chugging a dram of rhubarb on an empty stomach.” His optimistic writings inspired reforms and revolutions in the Kingdom of Naples. None managed to last long, but they were inspiring and followed by others.
The ability to promote pride and hope based on the national attributes of both past and present depends on the civil talent of governors and intellectuals; they can give a “soul” to the country. Through this they offer the people a “not yet fully realized” reality that is better than the one “already here” or which “once was”. When a nation doesn't have this ability, people only denigrate, criticize, curse, and infect each other with pessimism.
If we wish to boost our economy and civil society, we must produce income from art, culture, nature, history, food, wine, tourism, beauty, and the many other unique national and European assets. These are still under-valued and should be promoted, especially in the South. We are called upon to recover our economically productive identity. It is one not based on Germany or the USA, but based on the human and cultural capital we inherited from the past; this heritage is still capable of producing wealth. Our ancestors and nature have granted us extraordinary gifts: “Oh how bewildered are you! You have turned your back to nature that generously offers its true, long-lasting and blessed riches, and have followed bodiless bizarre fantasies. When will you ever wake up from these dreams?”.
Genovesi's words aren't enough, nor are the most inspiring thoughts from other philosophers or poets; much more is necessary to boost the economy. However, during hard times it is useful to seek help among the great visionaries; they can give us insights into how to find solutions from within and from the spirit of the world around us. Businesses, communities and people are bound together in a moral and civil network, which is full of hidden resources, goods and capital. If we are able to recognize this, we could produce jobs and income. Once a farmer told me: “I was hopeless. One morning though I walked out of my house and saw a warehouse. It had always been there, I just hadn't noticed it in the past years”.
Solutions are almost always under our noses, but in hard times we just don't see them. We are called upon to find our true capital and goods. The worst consequence of a crisis is when it blinds our souls and minds.
Further commentaries by Luigino Bruni in Avvenire are available through the Avvenire Editorial
Translated by Cristian Sebok

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Commentary – Genovesi's call to Italy (and South of Europe): Be yourself!
By Luigino Bruni
Published in Avvenire on April 28, 2013
The connected, interdependent networks making up the market economy can bring about both wonderful and terrifying outcomes. In times of prosperity, wealth is distributed among everyone, while during depressions problems are interconnected and amplified; the virtue of interdependence is replaced by a vicious cycle of people inflicting losses on one another. Customers don't pay, banks don't loan, and suppliers don't receive payment and are unable to pay their own debts. This process, like a maelstrom, spirals ever downwards swallowing factories, jobs, houses, lives.
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