Value is too serious a matter to be entrusted to markets, just as war is too serious a matter to be entrusted to the generals. However, in neither case does it seem wise to entrust them to politicians. Their lack of bravery, long-term vision, and decency has become emblematic of a trade that is intended to provide public service to society, not private favors to corporate interests.
While being bullied into increasing military spending at the same time as cutting social welfare, sustainability, and climate change mitigation, our political representatives seem to have forgotten that human existence, as Nietzsche understood it, is a permanent challenge to define what is or is not given value.
This doesn’t mean that we should do the same.
Charging our votes with a value of social welfare embedded within the planetary boundaries is a powerful weapon. It is a power of change and social resilience within every one of us, but it must be used wisely and responsibly.
And, it is good to be reminded that power is everywhere, not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere, as Foucault once said.
Boris Matijas 