Citat från Bengan den 3 juni, 2020, 13:05

Tänkte det kunde vara värt att förmedla vad jag till slut skrev till italienarna angående MEDLÖPARNA.

Mailet gick 200602

From Bengt-Åke to Guido and Margeritha

Thanks for the report. It is very frightening, understandable, accurate and important. The problems are probably more serious by you than here by us. But they are very similar. It is almost impossible to understand how things have turned out as it has been, given all the experts and wise people that exist. Ok - some are stupid, greedy and unintelligent but not all. How could we let it go that far? What could we have done? What is our responsibility in all this?

If I use my experience and knowledge, I have come to look at my responsibilities in this way:

1. I know that human cooperation is based on interactions between individuals. These patterns of interactions are formed by all parties. Even the passive and obedient. Not always just the ones that are the dominant. (They would not be able to dominate if the others were not passive!)
2. In order to change the existing patterns, all participants in a social context need to talk to each other about how these interactions are formed and how they all contribute to the existing patterns. Understanding how these patterns arise is the big question.
3. In the last few years, as an influence on the existing ideas of democracy, we have all refrained from taking responsibility for the fundamental patterns of interaction that have arisen. We have believed that our influence could, for the most part, be achieved through elections or in public discussions in the media where we could participate.
4. These convictions have, in my experience, proved to be very inadequate in both macro and micro scales. Because of this, I have had to reconsider the basic ontological assumptions from which our democracy is formed.
5. This, and several practical experiences of meetings, have convinced me that the difficulties are linked to a language issue. (That's: “Difficulty in seeing and describing social phenomena as a consequence of patterns of interactions between people and the difficulties that exist to jointly discern the logic of social systems”.)
6. Without a relevant language and reasonings in order to describe the logics by which the interactive patterns are formed, there is no way for people to talk about such social events. They cannot then note and understandably and neutrally describe the real advantages and disadvantages of the behaviour each one chooses. Then the pattern cannot be changed in a constructive direction.

This is the mindset I have chosen in order to try to understand our depressing time and what can be done – and if anything can be done – to change its direction. I will keep you and Margeritha informed about progress and failures in our work.

Kisses to both of you from Bengt-Åke.