Senett on Complacent Solidarity
Richard Sennett links complacent solidarity to the 2008 financial crisis. The video (below) is about 90 minutes long. If you don’t want to get through the whole thing, here is the gist:
Complacent solidarity is that of ritualized (bureaucratic) social interactions that are just enough to make deals, with the underlying beliefs that we will always be rich and we’ll have jobs for life (see: Venice, 17th century). Complacent solidarity characterized the elites who ruled the financial world in the past 15 years. It was also what neoliberalism was supposed to cure us of. For the elites, there should be less solidarity. Instead of security, anxiety should be the dominant emotion. This is what has been taught in business schools (and promulgated, I might add, by Alan Greenspan: more insecurity for workers).
And yet, the elites themselves were suffering from complacent solidarity themselves: the market will always go up! Rescue will always happen! The bonds of solidarity are intense because it is a small group (2,000, says Sennett). We will always be rich! We will always control the system! Wealth and power have led to complacent solidarity.
Weet u het nog, voor welk een duivels dilemma we geplaatst werden bij het referendum over de Europese Grondwet? Als we niet voor stemden, zo waarschuwde het kabinet bij monde van Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, dan zou het licht uitgaan in Europa. Zouden we wel voor stemmen, dan zou Nederland volgens de SP verzwolgen worden door de Noordzee. En dus stemden we tegen, want wat heb je aan licht als je verzuipt? Dat brengt alleen maar kortsluiting.
