Infra.
Well. This “speculations” are a slap in the face to any so called nation or a tribe. You can make your own, for that matter. It is a moderate slap. The essay could have been even worse in characterizing the jerks. It is, from Witchdoctor definitions and “speculations”, acting more as the understatement of the historic development of so called “civilization”. When you look what is happening today, it is bland soup.
Lets take some steps back and again write the famous concoction of the Witchdoctor definition: Family = Property (plus Capital), Power, Division of labor, Kinship network and social network, Influence, = Wealth
Before we start to cut the salami, lets see how the situation, where a nation, in this case Slovenians, survived in a sort of self defense the whole invading hordes of Overlords in History. From German feudal lords, to Austro Hungaric Empire to Yugoslav kingdom, To Socialism and lately to a not so “sovereign” membership in the EU. They have been mostly ruled and drilled by some supra power, Overlords. The same situation which is today, capital code, debt driven economy , financialization, EU ordoliberal doctrine, therewith, And the coming AI- Artificial Intelligence supra power.
They kept a low profile on the outside and at the back the process was something between gossiping moaning and groaning with occasional outburst of protests, riots and very rare for all nations – witnessing this oppression- to revolt.
With the acquired stem family system characteristics and especially the Kinship network and with the whole multi generational family ties, which were a sort of defense against the hostile environment. So a self defense against the coming and going overlords resulted in the alternative network of survival of the stem family. They adapted by making their own net and Kinship was the magic tool.
This kinship and extended informal ties are even today the real net. It is a social stabilizer when family members give money to kids for studying, buying flats and helping in any way possible. The elders are also protected with this network of help.
The kinship, which is very extended and one thinks that in few steps the Slovenians all all related to each other. Kinship works as the real economic and social network. The jobs and business opportunities are linked to it. The Connections and Acquaintances are the way to progress in life and the kinship plays an important part. Yes it is a Sicilian millefoglie.
So, a good extended Stem family with big kinship, and big influence accumulates wealth better and gives better protection to its members..
The result is not that the very best and competent occupy the peak positions in business , administration and all State paraphernalia of bodies.. On the contrary, this collectivist Sicilian millefoglie makes that the mediocre persons take important post in a society. The others, competent and innovative, slowly give up or emigrate.
So, this is how a stem family, authoritarian and collectivist with a good kinship network and connections shapes the Country. The cul de sac!
Kinship makes life easy. All types of services are readily available or the person is treated much better and with respect.
The Paternalistic structure or even worse the patriarchal structure is always transposed and translates in the construction of society.
From the first beginnings, where Elders or Wise guided the Zadruga which was a common property undivided entity, to a paternalistic and Authoritarian German feudal lords, to the Austrian Hungarian kingdom empire, to the Yugoslav King, to the leading communist party, all of them had the same structure and effect on the population; One Truth, One Expert, One Wisdom. And it all morphed in one There Is No Alternative, the famous TINA economy of the current order. With, as Emmanuel Todd points, the ZOMBIE CATHOLICISM.
Since the old divides between the believers and non believers aka communists faded, the Zombie Catholicism is the strong ethical tie remaining with all moral debauchery and hypocrisy behind the veil. So, believers or non believers, they are mostly ALL BIGOTS.
“AI: A bigot is a person who holds stubborn, unreasonable prejudices and is intolerant toward those with different opinions, beliefs, or identities. Bigotry is the resulting behavior, state of mind, or system of unfair beliefs—often seen in the form of racism, sexism, xenophobia, or homophobia. “
The CUL DE SAC
This essay is written on a whim and is as good as it gets while typing.
For more deep and structured analysis there are tons of huge degree educated people in this Slovenian system who should have made better texts or even some outstanding ones decades ago. So much for the Slovenian education, innovative approach and understanding the context!!!
The cul des sac is the blockage of progress the stem family produces in the current stage of global capitalism.
As it took decades in Slovenia to build anew the new middle class after decapitating the old by a communist revolution, which was a huge waste of time as historical necessity shows us, since given the stem family system the revolution was doomed to fail in a way as it was planned and executed, then, lets see what happens in this new model.
The mediocre selection of the professional cadres is the first. Not enough for a breakthrough.
This mediocrity is on the other hand THE BEST fertile environment for implementing the AI. AI, as Witchdoctor claims for years, is made for this mediocre middle of the Gauss bell curve majority. The result is their disappearance as a class or social strata , easily replaced by the AI.
The TINA Austerity and the current OECD requests, which the current socioeconomic oligarchy is, as you know, they are copy cats, obediently- as they should in the Authoritarian hierarchical model- implementing, will erode the famous Witchdoctor formula of the stem family; Property (plus Capital), Power, Division of labor, Kinship network and social network, Influence, = Wealth
Property will become a luxury and the disintegration of the stem family into Anglosaxon nuclear and then into undifferentiated individuals will do the rest and the social fabric, good and bad, will go in smoke- CUL DE SAC
The current model of economy based on the intensive low skilled labor for the Keynesian low grade cementification and manufacture as the savior of the Slovenian growth for not breaching the fiscal compact and making quick buck being logistically near the German buyer which saves him to import this from China, is at the end. This is another cul de sac. The immigration feeding this low skilled market is definitely high and since their wages are on minimal wage mostly, they give nothing back into a budget in form of substantial taxes to cover the rising State expenses, who is mostly squandering money without a long term industrial plan behind.
Wages, which as Heiner Flassbeck pointed out for eastern countries in the EU, are definitely too high and still rising in regard to the productivity, another cul de sac.
The almost complete selloff of the former public companies to the foreigners which makes that the real know how and profit flows outside the country and only the employed workforce there is filling the budget and this is also a big loss of capital formation, innovation, etc, since this owners have no primary legal seat in Slovenia.
BUT there is MORE
The public debate, if one compares it to Italy or France, is a huge desert. Nobody knows even hot to make an argument, counterargument, and debate. There are no debates seen anywhere about anything important, except the for offending without explaining. Yes, it all boils down to the stem family authoritarian collectivist obedience, or as Germans , to the anticipatory obedience. They do not debate anything , the do not know even how it is done. .
Rhetoric skill gone with the Roman empire. One word? One truth?One wisdom? Who is this deus et machina Witchdoctor would like to see?
One always wonders, since there is no democratic exchange of ideas, no debate or clash between different models of society and no industrial plans , where from this sudden conclusions and decisions of what they will do come from. Who shapes the system? Foreign think thanks? Some secret circles? Germans? Technocrats from the European commission phoning and sending mails nobody knows about? Some local Oligarchs instructing the Government? Somebody asking AI what can be done? The covert public administration professionals preparing laws and plans without anybody knowing and copying them from unknown sources ? OECD? IMF? Economist journal translated? Coca Cola? Mac Donalds? Mickey Mouse? Melania Trump? Your neighbor?
A local dentist? A shamanic seance? Or all of them together?
FATTURARE L’ ODIO
Billing, Invoicing the Hatred
Fatturare l’odio is a fantastic concept invented by the italian journalist Luca Bottura. A journalist and a snappy high freguence satirical remarks artist which hardly anyone in Slovenia will never reach in his all coming history due to their unability to speak the context .
This billing the hatred or invoicing the hatred and then monetising and cashing in with a rise to power came also in Slobenia. No wonder, the land of the bigots was ready to embrace it.
AS Witchdoctor is supporter of debt free money, this new economy of invoicing the hatred is useless for him but there is a new world of opportunities opening.