Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Thank You, Hans Saner!

Swiss Philosopher Hans Saner (1934), in an interview with the Basel newspaper "Basler Zeitung" (bazkulturmagazin, 28 october 2008) on the financial crisis,has made a fine statement on the misconception of democracy that has prevailed during the second half of the twentieth century and continues to prevail in the 21th century.
When the citizens of the German Democratic Republic took to the streets before the fall of the Berlin wall, they used to cry: "Wir sind das Volk!" (We are the People).

We all, Hans Saner says, use to cry: "We are the People!", but we should cry: "We are the Economy!, we are Politics, we are the Culture!" instead.
In fact, pseudo-religious neo-liberal prophets have tried to outdo the marxist hope for the inevitable death of the State by nurturing the hope that global wealth and well-being could be achieved by the forces of the market alone. In contrast to this concept, classical liberalism has always asked for a minimal coherence between regulatory interventions and the market forces.
In this context, it is refreshing to hear a philosopher say that democracy must not stop short of the concept of "The People" (or "The Nation"), but has to include, Economy, Politics, and, last but not least, Culture.

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