WHAT REVOLUTION DO WE NEED?

MICHEL WEBER, « DE QUELLE RéVOLUTION AVONS-NOUS BESOIN? », éDITIONS SANG DE LA TERRE, PARIS, 2013, 281 PAGES 

Director of the Centre for Practical Philosophy in Brussels, Michel Weber (born 1963) is a specialist of the British logician Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947). Sound The new essay balances between ideological analysis and concrete proposals for the « revolution we need » before reaching an explosive and insurrectionary situation. For « all higher ideals are revolutionary » (p. 201). The author also draws on Marx, repositioning some of his concepts, such as class struggle (pp. 104–119). Exploitation continues to characterize capitalism, as well as speculation and militarization. The third pillar is constituted by the political philosophy of the Greeks, whose relevance in the 21st century he shows. Thus, individuation and socialization always go hand in hand; to consider one without the other would be a mistake. Every human community needs a grand narrative to give meaning and cohesion to its adventure (here we are far from the postmodern reflections of a Miguel Benasayag). Today, the narrative is dystopian, conformism and atomism characterize the being-in-the-world of individuals. At a time when there is talk of a multipolar world, the author asserts that it is still the United States that poses the greatest threat to peace, through the system of its « military Keynesianism ». History plays an important role in the discussion, especially when Weber traces postmodernity back to enclosures in the 15th century, and continues with a perspective that is as summarized as it is exciting (pp. 73–82).

The central idea of the book is that the confrontation of the different « crises » (economic, ecological, social, moral, psychic, etc.) requires the exercise of politics, which is to be (almost) entirely rethought, for example by the deprofessionalization of political personnel, the end of particracy and the return of the modes of functioning of the community, rather than those of society. The organization of the economy, which is not a science, is also a political matter. Inspired by the degrowth movement, the author proposes to move towards voluntary simplicity, at the individual level; at the macro level, towards the relocation of activities, towards the possibility for states to mint money again and towards education rather than teaching. Beware, the essay is dense and deserves to be read.

Bernard Legros