134 years after the encyclical "rerum novarum“, with which Pope Leo XIII put it down foundations of social doctrine of the church, the problems that arose in that distant 1891 have been enormously magnified. They have been magnified by the growing dominance of the technique that Heidegger defined as thepursuit of the maximum end with the minimum use of means. The process has developed at a speed much higher than that of the capacity that the institutions can have to govern it by remedying the imbalances that inevitably arise. Consequently, in our time a fifth of the wealthiest world population consumes 80% of the available resources; the concentration of wealth is such that those who occupy the top positions in the world ranking have greater assets than those of many states into which our planet is divided. And if we may say so, example of our home: the purchasing power of wages and salaries do not reach those of ten years ago, While dividends received by shareholders of the thirty companies that make up the main index of the Italian stock exchange have done nothing but increase and this year will increase further by a good 12 percent compared to 2024.
The Triumph of Capitalism and the Impotence of Politics
These very brief data are enough to conclude that it's not possible to go on like this without shocking effects such as trade wars, outright wars, growing threats to democracy, popular revolts, the rise of authoritarian regimes, and who knows what else. policy, both of individual States and of international organizations, appears impotent, subject as it is to a consensus that is increasingly directly dependent on media propaganda and, therefore, on immediate interest rather than that for actions of a broader scope and longer horizon. It has been observed that the class struggle is overcome not only and not so much because classes no longer exist, but because it ended with the victory of capital and the defeat of workers. The final blow was determined by the globalization which, if it has allowed companies in the most advanced countries to produce at Far Eastern costs to sell at Western prices, has unleashed a competition on prices – and therefore on costs, and therefore on the remuneration of work – which recalls the words of Pope Pius XI: "the freedom of the market has been replaced by economic hegemony; the lust for profit has been replaced by the unbridled greed for domination; and the entire economy has thus become horribly harsh, inexorable, cruel." Capitalism, of course, is not only this, but there is no doubt that it is also this.
From the Industrial Revolution to the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Always due to the fact that technical and technological progress proceeds at a speed that exceeds the capacity to control it, now a new and more radical revolution is looming: that ofartificial intelligence. Its connotation that deserves to be underlined here is that it no longer replaces manual activities, but some of the noblest functions of the human mind, reaching the point of touching creativity and abstraction. And then the question is: if the possibility of replacing manual labor with machines has certainly produced a reduction in fatigue, but also a competition between machine and worker, debasing the ethical as well as economic value of work, what can we expect from the spread of machines capable of replacing even increasingly intellectual and sophisticated functions? And if, to date, the replacement of manual labor with machines has reduced the demand for human labor more than reducing the workload on individual workers (except for some timid initiatives to reduce hours at the same salary, as recently in Spain), what could happen with the replacement of intellectual labor with increasingly sophisticated activities? It is no longer a question of rebalancing of distribution between capital and labor of the profits resulting from the automation of manual labor; it is also a question of the dignity of work, of its ethical value and, therefore, of the dignity of the worker as such, as a human being, replaceable by a machine not to alleviate his fatigue, but to prefer, precisely, a machine also for the activity of his mind.
A new Lion for a new world
Here: having said that the inability of economic systems and political action to address these intricate, but fundamental, issues, it seems that the new Pope Leo XIV, perhaps with his own encyclical. It is no longer a question of updating and integrating the “Rerum novarum” as many successors of Pius XIII have already done – from Pius XI to Paul VI, from Pope Roncalli to Pope Wojtyla – but of subvert the approach used up to now to seek solutions within the currently given and consolidated systems. The fate of the "Rerum novarum", which in its time presented very advanced if not downright revolutionary concepts, is there to warn us that a strong, violent shock is needed to shake consciences and call to action in depth those who have responsibilities of management and government. Obviously from the chair of Saint Peter one should not expect operational indications, but his teaching can still have a weight on the culture of the time and this Pope is credited with the qualities to be able to exercise it fruitfully. “Vaste programme” De Gaulle would say, but hope, independently of faith, is the key to Christian culture.
