Ken Wilber’s (too?) brief account of The Everything

Abstract: As Surimposium is a theory of everything presented on this site, I examine Ken Wilber’s earlier theory, which he expanded throughout his life. I separate the excellent start on Arthur Koestler’s holons, likely to win broad support, and the mystical veneer added by Wilber, which ends up erasing the initial coherence. I highlight Wilber’s … Read more

Equality of places vs equality of opportunities

Abstract: The contradiction between equality of places and equality of opportunities has never found a satisfactory political solution. It is managed empirically by the presence of social circles. Places are privileged in privacy and opportunities in global society. The internal difficulties currently encountered by democracies come from the collapse of our social circles and an … Read more

Publication of ‘Societarium’

Societarium is published today, in paper and epub format. This book brings together sociology and politics articles published on this blog, organized around the two main ones: A universal political system and Can we do without hierarchy? The whole is a manifesto argued against a blind participatory democracy and for an inclusive social re-hierarchization, which … Read more

The nonsense of populism

Abstract: Populism, as a reversal of the organizational arrow from the multiple to the global, is political nonsense. It is actually defined as the stiffening of a social circle within others, and can concern any social circle, including the “People of the Haves”, also affected by populism. No commonalty in anarchy Democracy is the government … Read more

What is social pleasure?

Abstract: The re-hierarchization of oneself is not only beneficial for society. It is also a means of renewing the contrast that keeps our personal experiences of pleasure unforgettable. Don’t end up as aged laboratory humans Are we very different from the laboratory rats who tirelessly press their pleasure pedal, forgetting all other considerations? We have … Read more

A consciousness that is too horizontal

Abstract: The hierarchy works poorly because it is represented too horizontally in our minds. Defect inherent in the synthesis carried out in the conscious space. At this level of the neural network, the model flattens a social universe that is actually endowed with vertical complexity. Two mental dimensions In this chapter I use a notion … Read more

When does a power have authority?

Abstract: Power is a mechanism and authority its acceptable, freely consented form. The complexity of modern societies sees power move away from the base, and therefore lose authority. Rather than destroying collective power to the detriment of one’s own, the only way to escape submission is to increase one’s own authority, through personal re-hierarchization. Power … Read more

Do without hierarchy?

Abstract: The etymology of ‘hierarchy’, the sacred order, remains relevant: there are always laws to which one must submit, if only the natural, new sacraments. I show that the collapse of hierarchies is natural, too, but that this disappearance is disastrous. It is not the hierarchical principle that poses the problem but its dysfunctions, its … Read more

The T<>D principle in sociology

This article sheds original light on the violence of 2023 in France, redefining what true participatory democracy can be. Abstract: The individualist principle is easy to locate in my unique body, while my solidarity principle is lost in a maze of social circles with less and less identity. Intimate circles focus and strengthen my empathy. … Read more

In praise of Hard Centrism

“Bringing centrists together is like driving a wheelbarrow full of frogs: they jump all over the place.”François Bayrou Half goat cheese half cabbage Peggy Sastre praises the half-goat half-cabbage in Le Point of March 16, 2023. She praises the courage of not taking sides and “making it known to slow the progression of extremes, of … Read more