"But as was already said, the decomposition of society may be seen especially in the disappearance of significations, the almost complete evanescence of values. And the latter is, in the end, threatening to the very survival of the system. When, as is the case in all Western societies, it is openly proclaimed that the sole value is money, profit, that the sublime ideal of social life is to enrich yourself, is it conceivable that a society can continue to function and reproduce itself on this basis alone? If that is the case, public servants ought to ask for and accept baksheeshes for doing their work, judges ought to put their decisions up for auction, teachers ought to grant good grades to the children whose parents slip them a check, and the rest accordingly. I wrote almost fifteen years ago about this, that the only thing stopping people today is fear of penal sanctions. But why would those who administrate these sanctions themselves be incorruptible? Who will guard the guardians? The generalized corruption one can observe today in the contemporary politico- economic system is not peripheral or anecdotal; it has become a structural, a systemic trait of the society in which we live." (C. Castoriadis, “The Rising Tide of Insignificance")
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 17:21:36 +0000
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