Kairos n°3

Living in a society in which the logic of profit takes more and more place, it necessarily creates, for those who try to do otherwise, some difficulties that can pass for contradictions. Kairos, which advocates sharing and solidarity, is nonetheless dependent on financial income from subscriptions and newspaper sales. This is certainly not the ultimate goal of the journal, but it is an obvious one for Kairos, which hopes to improve its diffusion to the widest possible public, a diffusion that will generate, we hope, new solidarities, new struggles and will support some of those that exist. However, this desire is subject to the possibilities of printing and therefore to the purchase of the newspaper.

If we look at the way Kairos is produced, however, we do not see this financial dependence as a real contradiction. All the columnists, graphic designers, illustrators, proofreaders, treasurer — our irreplaceable Sandy -, all those who give indispensable help… contribute to this adventure because they want to participate in a collective experience that brings hope. They don’t make any money from it. The readers, you, subscribe or buy the newspaper probably (it is our hope) because it represents a valued spark in an ideologically compartmentalized media universe. Booksellers, too, are essential. Passing by one of them, who was among the first to support us, in order to check his stock of Kairos, he answered: « There is only one left, the one that was in the window, completely discolored by the sun »… whereupon his wife resumed: « No! We sold it »… These little experiences are sure to get you going.

If we were to pay all the contributors to the newspaper, it would become unaffordable for most. This gives an idea of the advertising dependence of newspapers sold daily and produced by salaried contributors and of the editorial submission that it implies (they also receive state aid). This also and above all makes it possible to understand the activities considered as « work » which, in this society, remunerates the person, and the others which must, to exist, rely only on solidarity and the collective spirit.

This is only an apparent paradox. This society gives so much priority to private interest that proposing something else can only be done by recreating what it has destroyed, whether it be in the field of agriculture, housing, work or the press…

« They » won’t do it, so let’s do it ourselves!

By subscribing, by buying Kairos, you participate in an indispensable way to the continuity of this adventure.

Thanks to all of you!