Summary
Thomas Piketty: Capital and Ideology
All human societies have a need to justify established inequality. They must find excuses for the existence of this inequality, otherwise there is a danger of the collapse of the entire political and social system. When we take a closer look at the ideologies of the past, we notice that in this respect they are close to the ideologies of today. It is precisely by pointing out the multitude of possible paths and intersections that we can reconsider the foundations of existing institutions and consider the conditions for their transformation. Comparing data unprecedented in scope and detail, this book traces the past and contemplates the future of inegalitarian regimes from an economic, social, intellectual, and political perspective, including a variety of social arrangements: from the ancient three-class and slave-owning to the modern post-colonial and hyper-capitalist through proprietary, colonial, communist, and social democratic. In contrast to the extremely inegalitarian discourse imposed after the 1980s and 1990s, this book shows that economic development and human progress are made possible thanks to the struggle for equality and education, and not thanks to the glorification of ownership. Drawing on the lessons of global history, it is possible to abandon the fatalism that today undermines identity divisions and design a participatory socialism for the 21st century. This participatory socialism would imply a new horizon of equality with universal goals, a new ideology of equality, social ownership, education and sharing of knowledge and power. The book Capital and Ideology is a continuation of Tom Piketty's book Capital in the XXI. century (2013), which was translated into 40 languages and sold more than two and a half million copies.
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