A clearly provocative title was chosen by Alessandro Aleotti for his essay The illusion of change. The Italy of today, the Italy of tomorrow, published by Bocconi Publisher. Wanted precisely to draw attention to a topic that is only apparently much discussed in the political and cultural debate. To emphasize how the term change is today "used with extreme superficiality", forgetting that, "in public discourse, change belongs to the complexity of social processes and not to the simplicity of varying tastes, fashions or personal opinions".
The main challenge facing the «change generated by economic and social transformations» is the one which, individually and collectively, «must see us engaged in the effort to escape the rhetorical hegemonies» which, «in the name of a dogmatic apology of change, standardize thoughts and behaviours».
If it is certainly true that change represents «the identifying feature of contemporaneity», what remains illusory for Aleotti is the idea that its forms encompass us and, in this way, «relieve us of the burden and responsibility of observing them and understand them". The goal to which the provocative title of the book refers is to «reinforce a personal point of view in the reader» who does not delegate the choices that are up to «his cognitive and spiritual capacity». Simply chasing "the speed of change", without dwelling on critical analysis and reflections, leads to "exhausting physical energies and dulling mental ones". Instead, it requires the use, both on an individual and collective level, «of a behavioral paradigm different from that of the prevailing narratives».
A book, The illusion of change by Alessandro Aleotti, provocative in the title but certainly very much thoughtful and methodical in its content.
The one we live in is the definite era of globalization, one revolution which Aleotti defines as «mobility». A process that if it has generated "indisputable elements of individual and collective emancipation", has simultaneously led to "a progressive dissolution of the intermediate structures", starting with the nation-states, which traditionally "guaranteed identity frameworks and forms of protection to individuals". A direct consequence are the tensions to which the human condition is continually subjected. Two possible alternatives for the author:
- Acceptance of forms of adaptation which, rhetorically protected by the miracles of change, risk leading to individual disorientation and collective alienation.
- Taking responsability of a "human project" that does not delegate any solution to change, but is able to face it and make it functional to the existential condition, or is capable of dominating it.
Aleotti leans decisively towards the second alternative.
Change is, at the same time, «the structure of the present, but also the instrument through which the present expresses itself». The idea of being able to pursue change «by adapting human effort to its speed soon becomes unrealistic». What is needed, therefore, isan instrumental approach who sees change as an obstacle to overcome and not as an end to strive for».
It is evident how the preponderant part of what we consider «change» in contemporary society «derives from Technique, i.e. from the technological and economic implementation of innovations cognitive" that come from sciences considered exact as mathematics, physics and cybernetics. The goods produced by the Technique become an «end of a self» and «each system tries to grab the greatest possible share of them», not only to satisfy its own needs, but «above all to establish hegemony over the subjects with which it competes».
The tendency of the Technique, therefore, puts on the agenda "the real risk that man is overwhelmed and engulfed by it". If this does not happen it is because, in the final analysis, "it remains an element produced by human effort and, as such, attributes to man every responsibility in terms of domination and submission". So if it is true that the Technique ("that is, the main form from which the change originates") loses its "instrumental nature to become a purpose", it is equally true that man ("both individually and as part of a human project») always remains «able to decide not to make it his own existential goal».
Analyzing the metamorphoses of the Technique «from means to goal» on the «most evident front of the contemporary economy», i.e. «financialisation», one can clearly see how «the abnormal growth of financial assets derives from paradigms of the Technique which give life to products – such as derivatives – generated by complex formulas algorithmic". No form of scarcity is eradicated by the gigantic growth of financial wealth, «confirming the no longer instrumental nature of the financial capital generated by the Technique».
Subjected to the "whip" of financial markets fully integrated into the society of technology, "historic industrial capitalism manages to maintain its rate of profit only at the cost of strong reductions in manpower and unscrupulous strategies disruptive", as the war economy, planned obsolescence, the overconsumption generated by the brand economy and so on.
The evolution of Western capitalism, "given that the production of traditional goods has moved to the Indo-Chinese axis", will take shape through the production of as yet unknown goods and services, «of which Silicon Valley represents the embryonic model».
This new "innovation capitalism" will no longer set itself the goal of working and social integration of all individuals, but only that of "growth driven by continuous accelerations of the society of technology». In this evolutionary scenario, what will be found "under" and "above" the social body represented by those who work within the capitalist economy "will no longer be a pathology, but a physiological part of the system".
The impossibility of choosing "the easy way out of the marketization of basic needs" will force capitalism to seek more and more "forward" spaces to make "economy" become and, at the same time, "will force it to withdraw from other fundamental common goods social" such as health, housing and the first access to credit.
Through such a dynamic, for Aleotti, the necessary conditions will be generated to ensure that a significant segment of the population definitively exits the "worker scenario". Economies will be "free to compete" without worrying about employment levels and primary needs will be "guaranteed by technical structures that cannot be assimilated to the state or the capitalist system".
Financial markets will assume a function of «global casino», whose legitimacy will no longer derive from the ordinary management of public debts and private savings, but from "the global will to power that will move the monetary masses towards the creation of new habitable surfaces of capitalism", be they space adventures, terrestrial drilling, recovery of desert lands or seabeds.
Today, therefore, concludes Alessandro Aleotti, "media pressure and technological power" confront us with "almost irresistible suggestions". However, every suggestion "always corresponds to a sacrifice". Therefore, remaining true to oneself, "through a disenchanted act", remains the most fruitful and advisable of experiences, also because "there is no counterpart that surpasses life itself and the satisfaction of understanding".
