Thanks a lot for your always interesting comments. But once again, I have to disagree with you (and you and I would surely agree that this disagreement is a good thing).

You mentioned "free political elections" ... I believe today elections are just one of the substitutes to the old religious ceremonies and we are just offered the choice between the same and the same (French people say "bonnet blanc et blanc bonnet")... Do you really think Mme Marois and Mr Couillard think differently, or Mr Hollande and Mr Sarkozy, or Mr Mulcair and Mr Trudeau? (And though Mr Bush was a stupid, grotesque and quite hateful person, has Mr Obama, beyond the symbols, at the end of the day, acted very differently?) I do not think so, by any mean! They believe (if they have any belief other than their own career promotion) in the same neoliberal ideology which failed everywhere in the world, they propose the same policies (with maybe a few cosmetic differences here and there, but nothing really consequent).

You said "there is no racism"... seriously? I am speechless! It could be worse, of course, but our societies are plagued by racism.

You wrote "no exaggerated nationalism"... really? I'm afraid you live in Bambi's world :-) (Which at least proves you are a good person.)

Finally, you indicated that "fresh ideas are needed to promote competition and progress".
I do not see any fresh idea in western politics since the aftermath of WW2; always the same old story, the same lies, the same people who suffer and the same who take advantage, and the same bad recipes.

I don't really see what god has to do with the issue at stake; religion should be a strictly private question and I personally think that mankind would take a decisive step towards happiness and justice if all these outdated old superstitions were consigned to the history books once and for all.

Michel

Thanks for your comments.

I strongly value discussions and debate about ideas, but I have to say that in this case I do not see where you are coming from.

Do you really think that Mr Jobs did a lot for Humanity (for example by taking advantage of Chinese workers exploited for work in inhumane conditions)? Do we really need all these devices?

Economy is NOT free, commerce is NOT free... they are mostly ruled by the biggest world corporations, and governments - not to mention people who are as free as goldfishes in a jar - have increasingly less room to make decisions of their own.

Meritocracy is a gigantic joke; ceteris paribus sic stantibus, to be successful (though I am not sure I know what it means), it is better to be a man than a woman, a good looking person than an ugly one, an heterosexual than a gay, a white than a black, a son of a dad who himself achieved financial success than a son of a poor, etc.

Michel

Thank you Tudor.

If I may say so, I think you were not born in a communist country, you were born in one of the most terrible dictatorship in the history of modern world, which PRETENDED to be communist.

This lie does not invalidate the idea itself.

"The best country in the World has a government which does not lie to the citizens"
Do you mean, just an example, Canada or France where politicians are corrupt (not all of them of course) and lie on a daily basis?

In most western countries (not to mention poor countries) - at least those that I know and where I have been living - people are increasingly unable to afford healthcare and welfare beneficiaries are often rejected to the margins of the society.

"Education is almost free"???? Today the educative system in most countries is merely duplicating or replicating what is already in place in terms of social structures and economic inequality. Are the poor so stupid?

Very few "make it back" and generally those who are trapped by poverty are in a downward spiral that, more often than not, leads to exclusion, illness and (social) death.

Michel

Merci de ces commentaires.

L’idée même de progrès est sujette à caution.

Qui a dit qu’il y a une flèche de l’histoire (une eschatologie)?

Tous ces philosophes ou penseurs que vous citez sont des religieux à un degré ou à un autre avec comme hypothèse sous-jacente l’existence d’un sens (une transcendance), même Marx évidemment qui croit à l’Histoire.

Personnellement, je serais plutôt enclin à considérer qu’il n’y a PAR DÉFINITION rien en dehors de notre réalité physico-chimique; tout le reste est illusion d’enfants apeurés.

Quant au commerce per se je ne vois pas très bien en quoi il favorise l’émergence de nouvelles techniques... je dirais au contraire! (Plus la recherche est privatisée, soumise aux lois du marché, plus elle est improductive — la recherche fondamentale, comme la création artistique non-mainstream sont exsangues dans la plupart des pays du monde; les iPod ne sont d’aucune utilité pour nourrir ceux qui ont faim et éviter que des millions de gens soient rejetés sur le bas-côté par ce système qui broie les individus les plus faibles).

Michel

Merci Marjorie.

Michel

Ah, je comprends, les femmes qui préfèrent faire les magasins pour s’acheter des fringues (je vous cite) sont des femmes symboliques !

J’ai craint un instant que vous ne fussiez simplement un protonéandertalien cryptoreligieux machosexiste, je suis rassuré, tout ça est symbolique, mais attention à ne pas trop jouer avec les symboles, on finit par y croire soi-même et par les « réeliser » et se brûler les doigts ou... exploiter/opprimer/nier les autres.

Entièrement d'accord,

Michel

Bien entendu, reste à déterminer quelle loi, mais ça c’est une autre histoire.

Mais par quelle bizarrerie la loi serait-elle automatiquement incarnée par une moitié de l’humanité sous prétexte qu’elle arbore fièrement un phallus et des c.......

Et sous quel prétexte saugrenu et abject devrait-elle à ce titre exploiter l’autre moitié?

De plus, nos sociétés occidentales souffriraient plutôt d'un excès de loi (mais ça aussi c'est un autre débat) que d'un déficit législatif, non ?

Michel

Bonjour André,

Apparemment la Civilisation n'a pas atteint les contrées éloignées où vous résidez.

Heureusement, dans nos contrées - où tout est loin d'être parfait - l'autorité paternelle n'existe plus et on ne lapide plus les femmes adultères et, horresco referens, le mariage homosexuel existe, etc.

Michel

C'est du trolling, ou vous pensez vraiment ça? Auquel cas, je vous plains un peu et je plains beaucoup votre femme :-))