Anomie Goes to Wall Street (and Beyond)
Reacting to impending economic doom, France's President, Nicolas Sarkozy--formerly an unabashed free trader--has begun to sound a lot like his erstwhile compatriot, Monsieur Durkheim.
First, at the UN on Tuesday, he told the world:
[English translations in comments section]
"On ne peut pas attendre pour préparer le monde de l’après-pétrole, pour lutter contre le réchauffement climatique, pour sauver les océans, pour en finir avec les dumpings monétaires, sociaux, écologiques. On ne peut pas attendre pour moraliser le capitalisme financier."
Then Thursday, in a major domestic economic address à la Bush, he affirmed:
"ce système a creusé les inégalités, il a démoralisé les classes moyennes"
and
"Le capitalisme c’est la propriété privée, la responsabilité individuelle, l’engagement personnel, c’est une éthique, une morale, des institutions."
and
"Si l’on veut reconstruire un système financier viable, la moralisation du capitalisme financier demeure la priorité."
and
"Voilà quelques principes simples qui relèvent du bon sens et de la morale élémentaire sur lesquels je ne céderai pas."
Clearly, Sarkozy views--or at least describes--the contemporary crisis in Durkheimian terms of a moral deficit; that the system has failed because no morality was governing it.
He went into a refrain stark in its declarative finality:
"L’autorégulation pour régler tous les problèmes, c’est fini. Le laissez-faire, c’est fini. Le marché qui a toujours raison, c’est fini."
But even though with these statements he seemed to condemn unequivocally the basic logic of the free market, Sarkozy still managed to let capitalism off the hook.
"La crise financière n’est pas la crise du capitalisme. C’est la crise d’un système qui s’estéloigné des valeurs les plus fondamentales du capitalisme, qui a trahi l’esprit du capitalisme."
In the end, Sarkozy blames the present state of ruinous affairs not on capitalism itself, but on the lack of morality imbued in the system. He says that this unregulated, amoral financial anarchy betrayed "the spirit of capitalism".
Which, fittingly, brings us to Max Weber.
Don't ever say classical sociology didn't tell you so.
5 comments:
Always at arms length to inspire. By the way Classical Sociology, A la Marx via Fromm, have inspired me to get rid of the TV. So, now I gots mo time to read your blog.
Yipee!
I thought there were enough cognates to make most of the quotes intelligible. The point is that Sarkownia faults the absence of a limiting morality (Durkheim's main thesis) for the financial mess.
TRANSLATIONS:
"We cannot wait to prepare the post-petrol world, to fight against global warming, to save the ocians, to finish with monetary, social, and ecological dumpings. WE CANNOT WAIT TO MORALIZE FINANCIAL CAPITALISM"
"This system deepens inequalities; it DEMORALIZES THE MIDDLE CLASS."
"Capitalism is private property, individual responsibility, personal engagement, its an ethic, A MORAL, sound institutions."
"If we are going to reconstruct a viable financial system, the MORALIZATION OF FINANCIAL CAPITAL should be the priority."
"I will not cede these basic principles of good sense and ELEMENTARY MORALS."
"Self-regulation to solve all problems is finished. Laissez-faire is finished. The all-knowing market is finished."
"The financial crisis is not a crisis of capitalism. It is a crisis of a system that betrayed the spirit of capitalism"
What was Sarkozy doing in Cuba?
Sarkozy was not in Cuba physically as much as he was visiting it rhetorically--if only for a moment.
Thats a stretch.
Sarkownia - cool name.
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