Great progress has recently been made in a part of the world to reduce gender wage inequalities and finally to seriously combat violence against women; thanks, for the most part, to the struggle of women themselves, increasingly free, powerful, united and combative. Yet, in another part of the world, women continue to be subjugated and sold, either openly, or discreetly, or implicitly; and even in some parts of the West, especially in the United States, their rights decline.
Immense progress has also been made in the protection of children, with the denunciations of pedophilia, in the Church and elsewhere; and with the revelation of countless cases of incest, in every milieu and society. These struggles are far from won, because of the obstacles that still put all the powers, religious and secular.
This should remind us that what we see today as scandalous was not so a few decades ago.
And tomorrow? What seems normal today, or tolerable, or benign and which will one day be considered unbearable? Can we not anticipate, and act before being ashamed of what we would have let do?
It is not very difficult: one can guess that what is somewhat contested today will be more and more contested, and that this will lead to questioning, even more deeply than today, five powers: the masculine, the West, money, the human race and even any idea of order. And we will see that we can expect the best and the worst:
The questioning of male domination will continue with the denunciation of scandals still hidden or barely denounced, such as marital rape; then, to make intolerable other signs of this domination: the unequal access of girls and boys to education and employment; gender inequality in the responsibility of controlling sexuality; to the point of imagining women’s desire to get rid of the «burden» of motherhood.
The questioning of the domination of the West could lead to denounce the way in which are taught, promoted and praised, History, human rights, democratic principles, political liberalism, all values then called «colonial». Some will want to conclude that the limits imposed by these values on religious practice, the wearing of the veil, the application of sharia, polygamy are scandalous. This could even lead some to consider modernity, reason and science as blasphemies, and in particular to denounce research in artificial intelligence, biogenetics and astrophysics. In particular, we will ask ourselves how we were able to leave so many freedoms to the development of AI.
The questioning of the domination of money, (too often confused with that of the West or with that of masculinity), will push to denounce the commodification of human activities, the scandalous inequalities and the immense fortunes that they make possible, the resulting reduction in free time, and any replacement of a free exchange by a merchant exchange.
The questioning of the domination of the human species over nature will make intolerable any torture or pain imposed by the human species on the rest of the living, and to consider as a scandal the consumption of meat , the reduction of diversity and the artificialization of life.
Questioning the obligation to obey any rule, imposed by anyone, could lead to denouncing most religious or sectarian practices and prescriptions, like all limitations imposed, for example, on gender change; and, ultimately, to resent someone’s designation by gender, or sexual orientation, or skin color, or any other general characteristic; to promote the right of everyone to be only what they choose to be, both religiously and physically, at every moment of her life.
If all this is combined, and if we come to consider that any imposed rule is necessarily the hidden trace of a masculine, patriarchal, western or capitalist domination; some of these evolutions will lead to regressive rules, or the negation of the necessity of any social norm. In both cases, it will play into the hands of tyrants and bring new alienations.
If, on the other hand, the only scandals fought are those in which the powerful abuse the weak, everyone will gain more freedom, more dignity, more respect. All this provides an agenda for centuries to come.
j@attali.com
Image: image bank Pexels.