You may remember Stéphane Hessel, the 94-year old French resistance hero, from his various notable efforts in the name of humanity. His latest contributions are mainly delivered in writing, in the form of books or pamphlets, such as Indignez-Vous. Hessel’s call for indignation and taking action was heard beyond the French boarders and inspired the name of the Spanish indignados movement, that rapidly spread throughout Europe and to the United States.

Now that the feeling of indignation has ignited all around the globe (from North Africa to Spain, and from Greece to India), content must be given to those movements. In a more opinionated piece entitled Le Chemin de l’Espérance (the Road to Hope), Hessel, along with Edgar Morin, tries to present his constructive ideas to the global problems humanity is facing…

What are the solutions?

1) Globalize and de-globalize

One of the solutions presented is to globalize and to de-globalize at the same time. We must maintain the globalization of what gives us humans the feeling of community in destiny, of facing life-threatening concerns together — in other words, we must globalize consciousness. But we must de-globalize the economy at the same time, to make room for a social economy and an economy of solidarity, to safeguard local autonomy.

To transform, we must substitute the unilateral imperative of growth with a complex imperative, identifying what should grow and what should not. Sectors that could grow include green energy, public transport, social work, education, culture and arts, and sustainable infrastructure aimed at the humanization of large urban centers.

In parallel, we must decrease industrialized agriculture, fossil fuel and the use of nuclear energy, reduce our dependence on intermediary parasites (such as large distribution companies), war industries, advertising and consumer intoxication, superfluous consumption and wasteful lifestyles. Instead of arguing for growth or against, it seems more coherent to make a list of what should grow and what should not.

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