N°9 bis

Personal transformation, collective transformation: the two sides of a civic

revolution

Ideas for debate

from a document written by Didier MINOT

January, 2007

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For Johanna, so that she can transform her refusal of the world into positive energy

Today, considering the severe survival situation of humanity and of the societies in which we live, a personal and collective transformation is necessary if we want to limit the catastrophes ahead of us. This transformation cannot limit itself to the fight for fairer or more efficient structures, but must take into account the determining influence of individual behaviour on the whole society.

This little booklet invites us to lucidly consider in what way we contribute to the deficiencies and scandals in our society and in the world, and to act to change our behaviour, thus changing the world.

This study is aimed at all those who despair about society or those who are acting to transform it, but who contribute to the problems that they denounce. The enemy is also within us.

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First part: the necessity of a civic, personal and collective revolution

1. Survival of humanity and our societies at stake

A worsening situationWorldwide, we are facing many difficulties: information revolution, liberal globalisation, threat on ecology and on human species, widening gap between the rich and the poor, inequalities in rights and liberties, war logic…. Commercialisation reduces and standardises human life. Today, everybody is aware of the climatic changes and their consequences. Number of us thinks that we are going to hit the wall, that there is an emergency. The religious fundamentalism and the wars are fed by the increasing gap between rich and poor, by the domination strategy of the rich countries and the “market fundamentalism”.

In France, we suffer from crises and changes that follow each other at an accelerating rate, with a questioning of the foundation of the State’s role (collective security, wealth distribution, public liberties). Unemployment, exclusion, insecurity, discriminations, loss of direction or solitude is affecting a majority of people. The current evolution is leading us to challenge the fundamental liberties and democracy. This truly liberal revolution is building a new society and new social relations. These changes have been prepared for 20 years by a long series of failures and neglect, which led to a globally unfavourable power struggle. Lacking political prospects, more and more citizens are withdrawing to individualism, are being thrown out of the city, and are rejecting the unworthy institutions.

Europe once represented a significant hope to build peace and go towards a society with its own values. In the last 15 years it has turned into a free trade zone, conveying a tough liberalism, as much in international negotiations as within the member states. Today, there is no European project. Most of the policies that are rejected by the French population (pensions, public service, education reform, State decline) have their origin in the European rules which have been decided undemocratically, under the pressure of the lobbies.

The public representations, the dominating media, the publicity, the schooling system and the politics cultivate sensational instead of information, emotional instead of analysis, fear instead of hope and responsibility, individual interest instead of cooperation. The system is consciously conditioning our representations, our imagination and our conscience. The media cultivate fear, individualism, personal interest and infantilises the society. The information revolution allows this conditioning more deeply then in the past. This counter-education requests and often obtains the consent or resignation of those that endure it.

We have no choice anymoreThe world, Europe and the French society are in a critical situation. The survival of humanity and of our societies is at stake. In this situation, we have no choice anymore. It is suicidal to go on as before.

Shortcomings of the classical fight against the capitalist systemThere are many types of resistance against the system, but they are not efficient. Why? For Alain Accardo, the weakness of the fights is due to an incomplete analysis of the “capitalist system”. We usually give an essentially economic content to this concept: we think of economic systems of production, accumulation and distribution. This is a partial and restraining definition, which ignores the role of capital other than economic. It leads us to focus our attention on what it names, and not on what it leaves out. This way, the action is

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focused on counter-balancing the power of those who hold the capital, and oppose the economic and juridical systems. It is channelled through the trade-unions and political organisations that are in direct contact with the State, and co-manage the public matters. This fight is a trap because “we get involved in the political game which imposes its rules and ways and paralyses our action”. It is not enough to take the power and change the government to change society… when the power changes hands, it doesn’t necessarily change its essence. Thus, through the trick of the elections, and through fear of bringing the right back in power, the militants regularly support left-wing organisations that have a right-wing action. This way it legitimises them and pardons their fraud.

Amendments are insufficientThe resistance to capitalism using democratic rules has borne its fruits. Without the fights of the past 15 years, the situation would be much worse. However, it has taught the capitalist leaders to give-in on the secondary things, to pick from the demands what suited them, without having to change the essential. Criticism and opposition helps the system to adapt. The habit of resisting and negotiating with the leaders sometimes leads the opposing organisations (political or trade-unions) to co-manage the system, and only condemn the excesses.

Amending the system is not sufficient to avoid ecologic, social or political catastrophes, because the capitalist system imposes its logic, takes over new ideas, voids them of content and doesn’t allow changes. The example of sustainable development speaks for itself.

2. Be aware of our compliance to the system

Review of some sociology principles (Accardo)A social system, whatever it is, always has a double form: objective, in the rules, institutions, and operations, and subjective, in the mind of the people, in their preferences, representations, motivations… For a system to work there must be a minimum fit between the needs of the people and the operations of the institutions, between the internal and external structures formed through history. Otherwise the society enters a crisis.

All social organisations – even the most oppressive and tyrannical – have a “spirit” necessary for the good functioning of the established order, which in a way produces the subjective consensus and therefore the legitimacy that it needs. It is not enough to question the objective structure of the established order, but we must also analyse the “spirit” that the system has created. We must become aware of our personal contribution – even and especially if it is not intentional – to the running of the system.

The middle class particularly has been developed by the current economic and political system, and has thus become the most important sociological1 component. However, this class is in an intermediary situation in the system. It is in its interest to compromise with the system which sustains it, and outside of which it can hardly imagine its future. This class usually declares itself “leftwing” and “against the system”, but in fact it is unconsciously complying with the system.

1 With the liberal globalisation, those who produce at low cost our consumer goods are more and more located in countries of low salaries. The old labour class is employed in service, manual or cleaning jobs that are more and more precarious or they are even excluded from the productive and social life.

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How do we comply with the system?We share a certain number of implicit characteristics that form part of the social sub-conscience of the middle classes:

− An acute need for personal distinction and social recognition,− The aversion of the common (fear of being drowned in the masses)− The cult of novelty (taste for what is chic and posh)− Ego oversize− A liking for consensus and compromise (avoiding conflicts and being gentle worded)− Quest of the highest pleasure at lowest cost and in the shortest time frame− The system, that transforms everything in merchandise, makes us consumers. It is

necessary to earn more to enjoy more.

So if we are one with the social world, it is within us, it has become our substance, changing the world also means changing ourselves. But this transformation is made difficult by a blinded conscience of this reality. Indeed, we are only rarely conscious of our compliance to the system.

We agree to be cheatedWe are being lied to all the time. The system can only work if it creates illusions, doing what it does while pretending to do it differently or not to do it. When the bosses of the MEDEF attack the pension system, they pretend to save it. When the leaders of the CFDT agree on the propositions of the managers, they pretend to defend the employees; when the financial markets are colonising the planet, they pretend to support freedom. When the Americans intervene in Iraq, they pretend to establish democracy.

They do one thing and pretend to do the opposite. This is the case about the legitimisation and auto celebration of the neo-liberalism concerning equality and liberty of the contractors on the market, about the transparency and loyalty of competition, about the self-regulation of the market, the fair compensation of talent and work, the massive job creation, full employment, well-being for all, the indivisible link between capitalism and democracy, the harmful state intervention….

But we agree to be cheated. The surprising fact is that it works, and that the lie goes on, for generations, despite crises, depressions and recurrent krachs, despite the terrible material, ecological and human consequences of capitalism. If the message is lying to us, it is because something in us, an expectation, an interest, is allowing us to be lied to, to collaborate with the illusion. The system can only play with us if we agree to enter the game. This way, we sort of comply with the system, by which we obey with it objectively, while at the same time subjectively supplying honourable reasons for doing so, in a dim consciousness, in a mix of lucidity and blindness, will and automatism, calculation and unconsciousness.

3. A necessary civic revolution: change of values

If we become conscious of the seriousness of the present evolutions, it is not possible to stay in this ambiguity anymore. A shift of paradigm must apply to society as a whole, not only to youngsters, through the civil service1, but also to politicians, by making political life more moral, or to business leaders.

1 One can’t expect the civil service to ensure alone a citizen education going against the mainstream messages of competition, fight, survival of the fittest, individualism that receive the youngsters.

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This is why RECIT is sending out a call for a civic revolution, which concerns society, leaders and citizens. The signatories invite everyone, the whole country and the European Union to open their eyes on the severity of the situation, and defend new action principles: guarantee an equal dignity for all, disarm fear and promote living together, change consumer habits to ensure a future for the planet and human species, challenge the market fundamentalism to re-establish the people’s power and fair exchanges, renew the concept of citizenship, to allow everybody to be an actor of his own life and citizen of a solidarity world. They call everyone to become actor of his own life and construct a solidarity world, change behaviour, act collectively.

Many actions are already being undertaken. At RECIT we have regrouped hundreds of experiences that contribute to creating a humane society. Through their diversity, they show that it is possible to act efficiently, from individual to worldwide levels, to:

• Establish fair exchanges and wealth sharing at different levels (worldwide, European, national and local), and reaffirm the human rights over the commercial right

• Develop sustainable life styles and organisations, compatible with the needs of future generations, the survival of the planet and the human species

• Provide a real freedom in the personal and collective life of everyone, an emancipation from the conditioning imposed by society, particularly by the dominant media and advertising, a guarantee of public freedom against widespread surveillance

• Respect human rights and human dignity, guarantee public freedom and non-religious education, fight all discriminations

• Go beyond equal opportunity to a real equality of access to education, services, health, culture

• Promote cooperation and not competition and individualism, because equality and liberty find their meaning only in a fraternity context

• Conceive solidarity not as assistance but as a reciprocity and co-responsibility of each to all

• Allow everyone to develop his potential, in particular the capacity of gift, sharing, non-violence, in view of personal development and collective promotion, following a path of citizenship throughout life

• Find a new equilibrium between identity and openness, original culture and cross breeding, look for convergences and recognise differences, in a non-religiousness that doesn’t stifle the reasons to act.

This civic quest is not optional, it concerns all the citizens. It’s the whole society that needs to engage on a civic path, or it will disappear.

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Second part: what collective transformation?

To answer the numerous issues stated above, many actions are necessary at local, national, European and international levels. Supposing that a new dynamic is created, it is only very progressively, throughout generations, that a culture of liberty can reach all the citizens. But it is necessary to create the impulse today for political changes that will allow this evolution.

The objective of this document is not to give a complete action plan, nor to define a strategy for social change. We will underline here six major political changes that appear to us to be the keys for a social transformation.

1. Radically transform consumer and development ways

We now know that the development path of the rich countries cannot be applied to the rest of the planet and that anyway the climatic changes will cause major catastrophes in the coming 50 years. We know that uncontrolled development creates fatal risks for peace, public health and for culture diversity and social network.

Radical changes in behaviour and politics are necessary right away if we want to continue the human adventure, limit the extent of the disaster for future generations, protect the planet’s capital and the human common goods such as water, air, land and town construction.

How to change? “First, don’t harm” says Yoranoo. Then take a critical stand on our habits, our consumption and our conditioning. But this is not sufficient if the collective decisions continue to ignore all these issues.

Ambitious state politics must be put in place to educate the citizens to other ways of living and consuming, give priority to these changes in public decisions, negotiate regulations at European level that take into account the ecological needs, even above the short term interest of corporations.

2. Regulate globalisation, develop fair exchanges

At international and national levels

According to Joseph Stiglitz, a respected authority, “liberal globalisation is not working well. Its rules are serving the powerful, it gives priority to materialistic values over environment and people’s lives, it deprives poor countries of their sovereignty, it creates many losers, it imposes an Americanisation of the world and the way it is managed is incompatible with democratic principles.” He believes it is possible to regulate globalisation for everybody’s benefit, while giving back to the State a role in regulating economy, and by developing a powerful and accepted multilateralism. He demonstrates, based on the Asian model, that State intervention increases economic efficiency. He suggests cancelling the rights to intellectual property, which create monopolies in favour of the multinationals, while economic efficiency demands free access to knowledge.

Such propositions might appear unrealistic, but they should be better accepted if another government is established in Washington, and if the European countries become aware of the dead-end which blind submission to competition is leading them to.

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At local levelAgainst the domination of the liberal model, it is necessary to develop an economic citizenship. The approach and practices developed by the solidarity-based economy show a way to act in this field, even though behind the term solidarity-based economy there are many different action lines. They support the concept that there is an ethical dimension to economic exchanges, that there is a responsibility towards all actors of the production, transformation and commercial chain. The success of the fair trade movement is such that the consumer goods distribution industry had to adopt it and make a marketing advantage out of it, with the risk of cheating the intention of fairness of the consumers. Only collective action can fight this repossession.

3. Re-conquer the rights, fight against discriminations

Endangered public freedomOur crucial demand is that the Human Rights be an equal reality for all. However, several laws restricting public freedom have been voted in the past 2 years (Perben law, reform of the residence rights of foreigners, law on numeric economy). Illegal arrests, based on the appearance of the people, have multiplied. It is important to understand the meaning and underline its totalitarian character, in order to get the future political leaders to commit to change these laws.

At international level, the war on terrorism has been used as a pretext to endanger public freedom, under the pressure of the American government: generalised filing of the population, arbitrary detentions and executions etc. These methods are endorsed in France by the current internal affairs minister, but supported by a large part of the media and administration. A “genetic” social risk theory is developing. Risky individuals and populations are being pinpointed. Every sign of curiosity or aggression is been interpreted as a proof of danger. Behind these positions, one can see the fear of the other, the cult of the similar. Professionals of brain-washing have been using simplistic arguments for a long time. Applied to the hatred of minorities, these communication methods are very dangerous. They carry racial hatred and violence towards the other as soon as he is different. The government, by using this impulse together with the power of its position has a serious responsibility.

Fight against discriminationsDiscriminations concern everybody, not only those who suffer from them. This approach is valid for all discriminations. Racism doesn’t touch only Africans and Arabs, but the whole society. Unemployed, excluded, women are suffering from discriminations that need to be faced and refused in the name of equal rights and respect of the dignity of all.

Our passivity is a condition to the return to barbarianism. It is essential not to accept these situations in everyday life1 as well as in collective action. These actions are not without consequence, because they put pressure on the political power and draw the attention of the public opinion. The dominant forces make us believe that is useless to protest and fight. In this grave situation, the cry “Enough, basta” is very actual.

Exclusion and exploitationIn the old days, exploitation was at the core of analyses: in a given set-up (factory or office), it was quite obvious who was the exploiter, the boss, and who was the exploited, the worker.

1 If your butcher is saying something racist, it as essential to correct him as if he was in a decision-making position. If you see an injustice at the post office, intervene.

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Part of the wealth produced by the work of the latter was taken by the former, excessively. The worker dispossessed of the fruit of his work was alienated (taken out of himself) by a work that was foreign to him. Today we think in terms of exclusion. Is excluded he who is not useful to society, and is rejected in a thousand ways: unemployment, expulsion from lodging, exclusion from expression and social link. Unemployment, family division create a closing off and lead to isolation and rejection.

With these changes, the analysis is deeper compared to a very black and white discourse. But we pretend that exploitation has disappeared, and we don’t designate the culprits. The precariousness of employment, the multiplication of small jobs, globalisation of the economy put at risk the results of the social struggle that limited exploitation and led to social progress for all. We must consider again the analysis and combine the two approaches, because we are facing today both exclusion and exploitation.

4. Living together

How can we re-establish and develop the quality of the social link founded on free and responsible individuals? We must above all redefine de democratic contract along two lines:

- at territorial level, with local dynamics which develop participation and partnership, in a sharing and reciprocity mode

- by recognising the contribution made by each person, each citizen to the community.The debate about civil service which is going on today puts the focus on the need to rethink the social contract. But this will only be possible if the whole nation finds coherence between the exposed values and the actual realisations, and a connection between individual and collective action.But the first step in rebuilding the social link is to rebuild the self-esteem, de family relationships and the neighbourhood relationships.

Within the familyThe separations that affect individuals, families and children are numerous and diversified. Never before has the life of children or of adults been affected by separation as it is today. The rightwing presents the idealised family as a haven of stability, but it is also the recipient of the consequences of all the mutations suffered by the population:

- moving: in the towns, individuals suffer from a new form of nomadic life; moving houses, family decomposition and re-composition all cause many moving

- distance in spread out families; family and personal real estate and financial problems often creates distance between parents, family and original environment. Many individuals and parents find themselves completely isolated in their present environment

- instability of employment: this is a common place, but it is almost impossible to talk about carrier, or continuous professional path for the vast majority of people. During the active period in the life of individuals, there are many discontinuities, with periods of unemployment, searching for jobs, trainings, and what luck gets

- institutional instability of the educators in the children’s lives.

In the districts and regions: the social de-link in constant progressDebates have shown to what extent the problem of social de-link is critical in France and still progressing; a municipal representative of the Paris region was commenting about the individualistic attitude of the middle class, escaping towards privileged urban areas, and changing their kids’ schools.

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Even in the most under-privileged environments, one can observe a closing-up on oneself, a refusal of the other, and a need for cheap security. The occupants of the panel blocks of flats are themselves requesting more locks and closing systems, fragmentation of collective spaces into small closed spaces, video surveillance which are obstacles to every-day life and reinforces social solitude.

Rewrite the social pact, starting from the local, while giving a meaning to words and valuesHow to convince the local population that living collectively doesn’t necessarily rime with the feeling of being “had”; and make it clear that that this feeling of competition of everyone against all, especially in the under-privileged backgrounds, is part of the problem, and strengthens loneliness and the inefficiency of individual response. The values stated in response to this question are not surprising. They could be stated this way: welcoming heterogeneity, age, origin and culture mix.

Experiences show that it is possible to individually and collectively recover social or educational spaces, or common life spaces. This primary objective has been pursued more and more widely. But it is endangered by two heavy counter forces in the social and educational sectors in France:

- toughening of the authoritarian relationship of the institutions towards weakened citizens: poor families, children, teenagers, elder people…

- commercialisation and individualisation of the support system which ends up in the closing or dismantling of collective institutions, and replacement by service providers with a commercial logic, which holds the users in an individual and lonely relationship.

What to do?Against such aggressions to the elementary experience of living together, we must affirm three guidelines of action:

- defend the rights of the people and the existence of social and educational public equipment,

- democratise these spaces and institutions to want to defend them and make them live,- put the citizens in action so that they mobilise, put pressure and find solutions by

themselves.In particular, it should be proposed to the citizens to establish together a list of the problems that they suffer from, to expose what is being experienced by a vast number of people, to mobilise to find political solutions, and also to find themselves solutions at their level.

5. Rehabilitate politics as a participation of all to the city’s organisation

Discredit of politicsThe weakening of the democratic institutions is due to several factors, which reinforce each other: increase of poverty and unemployment, role of the media, in particular of television (that emphasizes the spectacular and manipulates information), liberal globalisation (which has shifted the power to international corporations and financial institutions and has emptied the regulatory role of the State), Europe’s evolution (which distances even more the decision of the citizen and gives power to economical forces), political scandals and wrong-doings.

This discredit of the political field is dangerous because it leads to the questioning of democracy itself. We might have to re-conquer those rights that we were unable to defend.

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Equality of all citizens, but different rolesRe-establish politics supposes to re-establish the right for each citizen to discuss everything and the questions that concern him. This principle of the French revolution of 1789 is being endangered today by a restrictive interpretation of the delegation principle (“trust me and I will take care of all”), and by the real power take over done by the financial and economic powers in their interest. The field of democracy is more and more restricted, and the essentials questions are being dealt with by the executive power, experts and lobbies in Brussels, and in France by the executive power (main state bodies), in narrow cooperation with the business leaders.

It is important to reaffirm that fundamentally the right to co-build society belongs to each citizen. It is necessary that the citizens take responsibilities for all and be given decision making power. The rebuilding of political action rests on 4 legs:

- representation with political leaders who agree to take responsibilities in these issues- representation of intermediary bodies, associations, movements, local institutions that

contribute to local life,- participation of active citizen who would like to take part in the organisation of society- recognition of the know-how of the population and citizens who are the first to be

concerned by their own future.Democracy can only be stable if these four legs are equally developed.

Necessity of a social project In this situation of emergency, we need to react in emergency. But we know well that the solution cannot be found in emergency. We need to make a deep transformation of politics, and of relation to politics, while we are learning to walk.

So that the citizens feel implicated, they must feel useful on a common credible project, related to their difficulties and aspirations: what organisation, what actions allow us today to live together in equality, liberty and fraternity, without excluding anybody, while preparing a future for the planet and the coming generations? This project of a solidarity based society can only be built progressively, through a public debate with the participation of all citizens. It must be based on cooperation, not competition, on solidarity, not personal interest, and on sharing, not accumulating. If such a debate is initiated, it will make credible the civic revolution that RECIT is calling for today.

From “power over” to “power to”For a long time, we have lived with a simple equation: we must build a political party to conquer the State, and change society. History has shown us that this equation is not certain. The conditions for taking the power, moreover to maintain it bury the project and lead to keep the power for the sake of power.

All those who lead direct actions to raise awareness, help consume differently, put people in contact with others, all the actors of a liberating education, are all political actors. They cannot stand outside the political field and observe it as if they were from another planet. It is contradictory to fight for the right to participate in decisions and then leave the responsibility to political leaders to make political decisions, while condemning them for their sluggishness or for straying.But by participating in the political game they can contribute to its renewal, on condition that they have sufficiently reflected beforehand. Indeed, the renewal of politics goes hand in hand with new forms of exercising power. We must go from “power over” to “power to”, from the

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word “power” to the verb “what can I do”, for the common good, the re-establishment of rights, social link, and struggle against discriminations… On this basis, every one of us can take initiatives. We can act locally, with alliances between the community, associations, local economic actors.

Articulate local citizenship and global citizenshipHow to act at the same time as a citizen of a local area, and as a citizen of the world? How to ensure that every detail contributes to a general action? We must fight against selfishness, against the NIMBY phenomenon (Not In My BackYard). We cannot look at a problem only from a local standpoint: a local phenomenon (for example the fight against the building of a garbage factory in a territory) has causes and consequences that go beyond that territory. Solutions must be sought on a wider scale.

It is difficult to articulate the two levels: local and global. Contradictions are inevitable. It is by debating that tensions can be expressed, and equilibrium found between the different scales of citizenship. And arbitration is necessary to defend the common good over more specific interests.

Organise the participation of the citizens, of all citizensThose who have the most capacities must not stay silent; they must share their intelligence with the others. It is interesting to rub against experts: it enables to better understand the different phenomena, to come up with more questions and to make ours knowledge, public things, the world. Tools are needed to train social leaders.

But at the same time, how can we ensure that everybody will speak up, even those for who it is difficult to speak in public, or those who think that people like them have nothing to say? The education of the people in the Brazilian meaning aims at liberating the dominated of the feeling of inferiority and to enable every one to express their point of view. The difficult speech is not always the weak one. It is important to give the taste for debating together by encouraging people to express themselves in the most secure entity (family) and in small groups. Some will agree to talk in groups of 3,5 or 8 while they will refuse to open up in a larger assembly.

6. Build an information system at the service of the freedom of the citizens

In our information centred society, the role of the media is essential. It is them that give us a vision of the world around us. Their educational role is considerable. The communication policies influence our inner landscape, and shape our representations of the world without us even knowing it. Publicity, TV fictions, news strengthen impulses like violence, envy, personal interest, and puts in the forefront violent or monstrous events or on the contrary futile ones. Certain events are covered by numerous articles and pictures (Dutroux story) while others are not mentioned (no pictures about Rwanda). Thus, a soft barbaric society1 is settling in, which rapes our consciousness and alienates us more deeply then if we were subjected to physical violence. How can we go beyond this situation?

Education to reading and critical observationA first level of education to citizenship is to encourage learning, reading and have a critical observation. It is not about cutting all links to the “media culture” but to become “free despite the bars”. Many people’s education movements have already worked a lot to create tools to

1 As in the title of Miguel Benasayag’s book

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educate the eye of the TV-spectator. They should be widely spread. Writing a newspaper is also a means for citizenship education, like in Larrazet, a village in the Tarn and Garonne region, where the inhabitants produce a 3-monthly newspaper of 40 pages, the “Trait d’union”, which is an incredible experience of community dialogue and self-pedagogy.

Put pressure on the dominant mediaWe won’t be able to all read tomorrow the newspaper of our dreams. We must also denounce the operation of the media, make it clear to the vast number of readers and spectators how much their mental representations are being manipulated and conditioned. The readers’ mail is a free space which counterbalances the editorial team. In the same way, readers’ societies are spaces where it is possible to get the attention of the journal’s leaders, to question the orientation, to make propositions.

Create new associative and militant mediaIt is much easier today to write newspapers with the current communication means, as soon as there is a militant capacity to treat the information. It is necessary to make alliances with professionals, militants, associations, to be able to produce new papers or review existing ones. It is possible to produce at low price good quality supports for citizen education, which put information at the fore front, and strive to help to understand, spread out experiences, organise debates.

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Third part: what personal transformation?

The first question to ask before any mobilisation is the following: “what in me has already been bought, taken over by the system, and made me an accomplice without me knowing it?” This alienation is not fatal.

The first civic revolution is a personal one. All it needs is to be coherent with what we become aware of, to really do something to change the situation. Experience shows that this helps to find hope in a better world. The world can change if each one of us does his bit.

1. Conquest of autonomy and citizen mobilisation

Learning to have a critical conscienceLearning to have a critical conscience is a constant struggle against our tendencies to generalise too quickly, to privilege the striking, the sensational, to reason in an analogical way. The media continually push us to have this superficial vision. The critical conscience is also against passions (wealth, acquired positions to defend, taste for power and honours, impulse of pleasure). One can never completely grasp reality, but one can approach it with a critical eye.

This quest supposes a lucid and optimistic vision. Lucidity and hope are both necessary. Without lucidity, hope is only illusion. Without hope, lucidity quickly becomes a form of desperation1. The heart and the reason are complementary. They oppose irrational and fear.

In particular, knowledge is often assimilated to progress. But “progress” is not neutral. It is not equal to science. Research subjects are not neutral, especially if they are funded by private funds. The control of technologies, the orientation of research towards goals useful for the common good is today a strong necessity. Passion or knowledge can be murderous, as Einstein said it well.

Look at things in their totalityA citizen view cannot limit itself to a specialist approach. As citizens we must not stop ourselves from looking at the totality of things. The dominant system prevents us from having a global knowledge, in the name of complexity of things it maintains the non-leaders in a partial vision, when complexity requires a global vision. For this, we must stay curious, look for the causes of problems, dare to think. Citizen education aims at revealing little by little, through learning from real situations, the founding principles of all human action.

But confrontation to experience is also necessary. When disincarnated, the global often leads to a mechanical view of the world, generating fatalism. It is necessary to take into account exemplary humane actions to counteract the pessimism of global analyses that lead to fatalism. This is why RECIT collects citizen experiences to show a more realistic view of the world.

1 Ref two key books „The hope principle” by Ernst Bloch and „The responsibility principle” by Hans Jonas. This is the conclusion of the beautiful book „Inhabit time” by Jean Chesneaux, Bayard Editions, Paris 1996

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Question the way of living that the system has made possible and desirable for us and the majority of peopleBecause it needs it for its development, the system has made us to think that the first freedom is to do what we want. Because it has an insatiable need to accumulate profit, it forces us to think of life in terms of consumption, and to earn more to consume more… Because it is a domination structure, it needs people eager for personal power, ready to engage in all sorts of competitions…

What needs to be reviewed is our whole way of living, our ethics, our existential relation to the world around us, to others, to ourselves: relation to money and property, to work and leisure, to time and age, to the body and health, to sex and reproduction, to education, culture, art, science, morale and religion.

Choose our conditioningTo grasp reality, we are always influenced by what we read, what we hear, with whom we debate. We are conditioned by the media, by a continuous and overly abundant flow of information, by an instantaneous pace of life. But we can choose our conditioning. We can choose our sources of information, our readings. The choice of leisure, the relations we develop, the groups we decide to belong to are all determinant elements that condition our vision of reality.

We can also develop a critical distance that allows us to “live despite the bars”, as does the association Push back the walls in its work with the media with the prisoners of the centre of Loos.

It is essential to give ourselves time for debating the significance of events, articulation of ideas: our analysis must periodically be renewed, open up to new ideas. It is a condition for deepening our convictions and developing them through exchange. The obstacles: repeat truths that we heard, function in small entities, use analyses which use to be true but are now outdated.

A personal education throughout lifeWe are talking about a path to citizenship throughout life. Participation to a civic revolution necessarily involves personal education with several dimensions:

- understand the big issues of the world, from global to local- search for a coherence between action and the meaning given by each of us to our life,

within the diversity of options and personal stories- develop methods and behaviours (critical sense, autonomy, lucidity, listening, sharing,

respect of others) coherent with the common principles of action, as the means influences the end

- prepare oneself to invent an uncertain future, by acquiring methods, tools and practical know-how (stay informed, facilitate and create projects, communicate…)

- tighten the link between our personal reasons to act and the common principles, between the meaning we give to our life and the meaning of collective action.

2. A solidarity-based way of living and consuming

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Find an art of living which is not founded on individualism, consumption and competitionIt is possible to change our art of living by giving importance to those material and symbolic treasures capable of mobilisation and resistance: uninterested knowledge, culture, justice, public service…

These forces are present in many of us; but they are isolated, fragmented and do not constitute a united anti-capitalist front (some of these forces are not even aware of the war that is being launched against them by the capitalist system).

This is why we can ascertain that the struggle against capitalism has necessarily an ethical dimension. It will need not only a reform of the externals structures, but also a reform of lifestyle, which we cannot avoid if we really want to change things. Without this reform, it is reasonable to say that the system would continue to impose its logic even in the case that its opponents would be able to take over the power.

Become aware of the political impact of our daily actsWe tend to look at the rehabilitation of politics from the angle of structures, institutions, politicians. But the first step is probably to become aware that our everyday acts have a political dimension. We have the means to make choices, to become aware of a certain number of problems at local, national, international levels. We have the means to act and take sides.

In 2004 a survey of consumers showed that for the first time the sales of consumer good are declining. The revenues of the supermarkets have reduced in volume. “We see new themes appear like the refusal of useless packaging, doubts on the benefit of the new, questions on the ethical values of the companies”. The “alter” consumers represent 25% of consumers, against only 11% of “hyper” consumers who like publicity. This shows that our individual behaviour has a global impact.

Go towards a voluntary frugality, eliminate false needsWhat is true for consumption is also true for our driving habits, our neighbourhood relations, our choice of holidays. We can act effectively through our everyday life and word of mouth.

More and more militants who seek to be coherent with their views try to leave an ecological footprint which is nil or very small. How can we promote a voluntary frugality in our lifestyles and responsibility towards our acts, in order to reach sustainable and accessible to all consumption for the next generations?

In order to answer this question, work groups have been established on eco habitat, cooking and nutrition, relation to health, in order to share experiences, develop a thinking line, make accessible to existing tools and methods. We know that it is sufficient that a part of the consumers in the North change their consumer ways in order to destabilise the system and force the distribution companies and governments to make choices.

The change in behaviour concerns not only the leaders, but also the social actors and artistsBut we must also work with those who are dominant in society, because they have a big influence on the common representations. It is necessary that all political and economic decision makers, social actors, artists and all those who contribute one way or another to social life become conscious of their responsibilities. Everybody must do what they can to

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change representations, institutions, functioning of society and economy, so that cooperation prevails over competition, solidarity over irresponsibility, respect of diversity over conformism, and stop the lies, appearances, elitism and seeking power for power that are destroying democracy.But the decision makers will not decide on these changes without the pressure of the citizens and public opinion, i.e. all of us. The present situation couldn’t be possible without our agreement. This is why citizens must stay on the look-out and organise themselves by creating groups of citizens in each city or neighbourhood, civic comities that can be a counter-power and be partners of those communities that want to go forward.

3. Live fraternity

Welcoming the other and fraternityWe live in a society that seeks to produce identical people and reduce them to being consumers. This breeds intolerance and hatred of the other, who becomes a danger as soon as he is different. But man is not an object. We believe on the contrary that the diversity of cultures, of visions of the world and interpretations is an exceptional wealth for man. The other is not my enemy even if he thinks differently from me, if his traditions and customs are different. On the contrary, thanks to the interaction, he reveals me my own resources. This allows us to deepen our common humanity together.

In face of intolerance, tolerance is not enough. We must affirm, in an open world, the need for exchanging points of view, be it political or philosophical, religious or spiritual. In that lies the real non-religiousness.

In these exchanges, human warmth is necessary. We are not only beings with a reason, but with a heart too. This is why it is essential to pay attention to the daily fraternity and human warmth relations. Fraternity lived daily shows that our differences are not aimed at competition and exploitation, but at complementarities, cooperation and common good. They are source of mutual growth and creation. There is no creation without the encounter of differences. Our personal progress comes through our battle to accept the anonymous, the other, the one we don’t know yet. “We are rich of our deficiencies”1.

We also have to fight against the permanent tendency to reduce humans to numbers, statistics. Sensitivity to living experiences, having a direct contact with the field are necessary to balance out the violence of the tendency to consider humans as things.

Gift, pardon and search for peaceBeyond rules for living together, beyond exchange, all faiths and philosophical systems show that giving and receiving is necessary for a fully human life. Contract is not sufficient. African civilisations show us the importance of gift and counter-gift2.

Kindness is not opposed to a constructed thought, but often goes beyond it. Taking the other into account can lead to act from the heart which consists in giving without counting, giving preference to the other’s interest over one’s own. In particular, sharing with those who are in pain, injustice or exclusion is one of the first sources of commitment to a more human world.

1 Claie Heber Suffrin2 see Serge Latouche “L’autre Afrique, entre don et marché » Albin Michel. 1998

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Pardon is essential to erase wars, evil, insults. We have to find the gestures and symbols that allow reconciliations, by combining the necessary duty of remembering and the not least as necessary duty of forgetting and regenerating.

The importance of listening and caringTo be able to live together, it is necessary to accept one another with our weaknesses, and consider us all as incomplete against an ideal of perfection. Every human being has within him the human condition, including what is the most negative. Nobody is perfect but we can help each other to reach a higher level of freedom. Let’s emphasize the importance of caring for one another (fight against the words that hurt and kill), listening, being available within the group.

Rediscover the linkIn the long term, against an incorrect vision of autonomy of the individuals, man needs to recognise that he is part of a long line (he has ancestors and descendants), and that one day he will accept to leave this life to make room for the future generations, for tomorrow’s humanity, for the developing human species. One of the dimensions of our action, which differentiates us from liberalism, is to pay attention to future generations.

Everyone also needs networks (neighbourhoods, relations) and multiple dependencies to live completely his life in the individual and collective dimensions. Those who fight for a human world can hardly do it alone. They need groups where they can experience together the search for common good, places which can be considered as brotherly, representing the more human society which they aspire to.

PartyThe party belongs to the free man (as opposed to the “little sad men”). With the party, artistic expression is essential to live together. Emotion gives life, said the preparatory document for the world social forum in Porto Alegre, which suggested celebrating the planet’s life by combining different languages (speech, music, singing, dance, theatre…). The young’s first citizenship is often cultural.

4. Time management and presence in the present

Continuity and rhythms of timeThe network society pushes everybody to be mobile. The hero of the cyber-city is the one who is able to abandon his friends to create a start-up, to be employable for the right project. This never-ending escape forwards is an escape of reality, an escape of time. As we have seen, the network society develops an instantaneous time, atomised, at the nanosecond scale which creates anguish: how to find my place if time deprives me of perspectives, if only the present counts?

We can fight this anguish by on the contrary giving value to continuity, to respect of the given word, the possibility to commit in time, in light of a project of collective transformation which is also long term.

It is essential to break the vicious circle, to loose time to rest, to play, to see things differently, to let go of all the worries, stress, preoccupations…For this, we can, as we learn in the management courses, “say no once more per day”, know how to refuse, not answer everything. We can choose the essential because the urgent can often wait.

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This is necessary to stay open to the beauty of things, open to hidden gestures, apparently inefficient. Stepping back enables use to become more aware of these realities.

Stepping back and distance, conditions to wake up to realityTimes to step back are very useful to keep a distance from the present whirlpool. Times of silence allow us to be present in reality. They can start, as the Tibetan monk says, like this: “breathe 21 times and only pay attention to the movement of the air in your nostrils, back straight to let the perturbations and discordant voices come down”. And we realise that trees move, that the wind makes the colours of autumn vibrate, and other things that our agitation was masking.

Meditate, think, step back is to turn towards what we are looking at, make out what is big and small, better see the essential. Collective events and people need distance to find a meaning, i.e. an objectivity which doesn’t forget the essential. The awakening to reality opens us to a different way of acting and to control our impulsions.

This distance can take different forms, according to every one’s sense language. We are not comparing the different wisdom ways of meditation showed by different schools, but underling the link between observing from a distance, making an effort to see, and the capacity of each one to transform society.

Groups of exchangeWorking on ourselves is difficult to do alone. This is why we suggest creating small groups of exchange which allow everybody to compare their lifestyle with common principles in order to liberate themselves from conditioning, consumerism and fear, and become “free despite the bars”.

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