French society, and the Western world in general, look to be in a period of quite a great decadence. What is happening in many schools, and the level of education which is alarming in many place in France for instance, make us raise many questions. On the other side Asian countries invested a lot in education, especially in China. A broader way it looks necessary to consider the role of work in our societies. This question is today detrimental to build a society which can ensure a better future.
The question of labour is in my opinion detrimental. It can be said than no economical success, or no efficient social system can be ensure without a great deal of work behind. This controversy was set on the leftist thinkers. Marx opposed his son-in-law concerning the right to laziness. To this extend reimplanting work as a central value looks to be utterly necessary. Asian countries, on the contrary, look to be focusing a lot more on work, invest a great deal in education and have a lot more the process on long run thinking. To this extend it can be said that these countries can go back to ancient values.
Work, in the origin, stems from the word tripalium, which mean instrument of torture in latin. Moreover the philosopher Aristotle distinguished between the work as an accomplishment and as a constraint. As he lived in a society where slavery was extremely common and on the basis on the economy, he put a lot of emphasis on this distinction. More recently the philosopher Hannah Arendt put the emphasis on this notion and this distinction. But the notion of otium, which means in latin leisure used to cultivate or elevate oneself, is a notion which is more and more lost.
The period we live in leisure is put a lot on the emphasis. Work is not appreciated as before, and it is the reason why it is a necessary process to build a society that favors this kind of work. It looks important to restore the values of work, a protestant way in my opinion. In Protestantism work is a kind of priest, and it has to be at the core of daily life. However working values should not be dissociated from knowledge. As Judaïsm put studying as a main divine value, Protestantism also put education at the core of its system. To this extend, despite many somber sides as being antisemitic, Luther was a great educator, as he was for instance the first one in history to educate massively women. Those approaches have to be restored, not to be a boring approach, but for dignity and long term success of society. This engagement is necessary to be done.
The observer 