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What can I know (if trust in knowledge has been lost)? 159
inequalities and dissatisfaction. Such gaping holes have appeared
between the successful and unsuccessful participants in the global
economic competition (between the centre and the periphery, monetary
and real economy, the price of cutting-edge technology and that of raw
materials, etc.) as have not been previously seen in the history of
humanity. The leaders of a few hundred corporate empires and financial
networks possess the lion’s share of the wealth of humanity. They
control public discourse, direct our desires and decide about our
wellbeing. The power needed for true rule has however slipped from
their hands as well. They are not masters but merely beneficiaries of
the processes directed mostly by impersonal automatisms and computer
programs and held together by the force of helplessness. All this means
that on the other side not only those became much poorer who, as the
victims of this competition, lost their living, property and security, but
also those in whose lives the ever more ruthless economic competition,
the growing concentration of capital and the total dependence on
technological systems “only” meant that they had to forgo individual
enterprise, meaningful work done with professional pride and self¬
respect, a long-term life strategy, workplace security or the
’competitiveness” of their native tongue and cultural heritage. In other
words, almost all of us.
Another, sadly well-known, effect of economic growth is the slow
collapse of the ecosystems. As a direct consequence of this, the most
basic services of nature are harder to obtain and of deteriorating quality.
This would make us pitiable in the eyes of the generations before us. For
them access to clean drinking water purified of toxins, nano-particles
and toxic residues, good air, a clean calm environment, birdsong and
beautiful landscapes was yet to become an insoluble problem. ‘Their lives
depended much less on technological services and products without
which we can barely move. They spent more time in each others
company, with activity requiring cooperation of body and soul, which
fits human nature much more than computer games and internet
connection. ‘They probably could not even have been able to imagine a
vulnerability like ours and this extent of the deterioration of the quality
of the natural environment. And they would listen in disbelief to the
explanation that we make all these sacrifices in the interest of our
wellbeing. For what could be well with such being?
And in the meantime, we have lost a whole host of our relatives: the
earth, the air, the waters and the majority of the creatures that inhabit
the earth, great and small. We are still at the beginning of the mass