tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/jean-jacques-rousseau-65700/articlesJean Jacques Rousseau – The Conversation2019-03-28T10:40:32Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1142602019-03-28T10:40:32Z2019-03-28T10:40:32ZDo you have a moral duty to pay taxes?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266190/original/file-20190327-139364-1h2iy6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What can philosophers tell you about paying taxes?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/1040-tax-form-sticky-note-april-381691285"> RomanR/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s tax season. Americans <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/taxes/2018/04/25/how-much-does-the-average-american-pay-in-taxes/34138615/">will pay an average of US$10,489 in personal taxes</a> – about 14 percent of the average household’s total income.</p>
<p>Most will do so because <a href="https://www.treasury.gov/IRSOB/reports/Documents/IRSOB%20Taxpayer%20Attitude%20Survey%202014.pdf">they think it is their civic duty</a>. Many believe they are morally obliged to obey the law and pay their share. But as tax day approaches, many Americans will <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/12/30/why-americans-hate-paying-taxes/">bemoan their tax bill</a> and complain that it is unfair. </p>
<p>So, how are we to know if paying taxes is the right thing to do? Perhaps philosophy has some clues?</p>
<h2>Reasons to obey the law</h2>
<p>Many philosophers agree that we should obey the law. In his book, “The Crito,” Plato, for example, describes Socrates’ <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/crito.html">choice</a> after the Athenian jury sentenced him to death for impiety. Crito, a wealthy friend of Socrates, arranges for him to escape from the prison a night before his execution. Socrates refuses saying he ought to obey the law. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266191/original/file-20190327-139364-1qqyiir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266191/original/file-20190327-139364-1qqyiir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266191/original/file-20190327-139364-1qqyiir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266191/original/file-20190327-139364-1qqyiir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266191/original/file-20190327-139364-1qqyiir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266191/original/file-20190327-139364-1qqyiir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266191/original/file-20190327-139364-1qqyiir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Socrates chose to die rather than disobey the Athenian jury.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/classical-statue-socrates-front-column-664286929">vangelis aragiannis/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>In <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/crito.html">explaining his decision</a>, Socrates hinted at roughly three reasons why it would be wrong for him to break the law: First, he had chosen to stay in the city for many years despite being at liberty to leave if he did not like the laws. Second, he might hurt other people – by damaging the state if he disobeyed. Finally, he had benefited from the laws in the past. </p>
<p>More recent scholars <a href="https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/locke1689a.pdf">endorse many of these claims</a>. Eighteenth-century philosophers like <a href="https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/locke1689a.pdf">John Locke</a> and <a href="https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/rousseau1762.pdf">Jean-Jacques Rousseau</a> argued that citizens agreed to the law of the state by continuing to live in the place. Locke, for example, <a href="https://earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/locke1689a_2.pdf">held</a> that “if a man owns or enjoys some part of the land under a given government, while that enjoyment lasts he gives his tacit consent to the laws of that government and is obliged to obey them.” </p>
<p>Twentieth-century British philosopher <a href="http://users.ox.ac.uk/%7Eworc0337/authors/r.m.hare.html">R.M. Hare</a> suggests that <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/essays-on-political-morality-9780198249948?cc=us&lang=en&">citizens should obey the law</a> to promote good social outcomes. </p>
<p>Another British philosopher of the same era, <a href="http://www2.law.ox.ac.uk/jurisprudence/hart.htm">H.L.A. Hart</a> argued that citizens should comply out of fairness to others who obey. He held that it is <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/HARATA-4">unfair</a>, and therefore wrong to benefit from their actions, without doing the same for them in turn. </p>
<h2>Is there a moral duty to pay taxes?</h2>
<p>Yet it is hard to see why these arguments would give the average citizen a moral responsibility to pay their taxes.</p>
<p>Most of us never consented to the law. We were simply born here. Leaving would be costly, and even the chance to emigrate is dependent on another country’s willingness to accept us. </p>
<p>Given the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270166698_Toward_a_Political_Economy_of_Government_Waste_First_Step_Definitions">amount of government waste</a> and its <a href="https://budget.house.gov/publications/fact-sheet/frequently-asked-questions-about-federal-budget#estimated%20federal%20revenues,%20spending,%20and%20deficits%20for%202018">total budget</a> individual citizens could think that their tax bill is unlikely to make a difference to the services the government can provide. Even if they agree with how the government spends money, they might therefore conclude they have no reason to contribute. After all, one person’s ten thousand dollars is not going to determine whether the military can secure national borders. </p>
<p>The most commonly defended argument from scholars for why one should pay taxes is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2004.00476.x">duty of fair play</a>. Fair play is the notion of reciprocity, the idea that you should not take advantage of others. </p>
<p>As philosophers like <a href="https://politics.virginia.edu/george-klosko/">George Klosko</a> argue, people benefit from their fellow citizens <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0199256209.001.0001/acprof-9780199256204">paying their taxes</a>. </p>
<p>They enjoy the roads that everyone helps pay for, the fire departments they fund. They ought to pay back fellow citizens who benefited them, just like you ought to do something for a friend who gives you a ride to the airport.</p>
<h2>The case against paying taxes</h2>
<p>As a philosopher who studies civic ethics, I have argued in a <a href="https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/beyond-profit-and-politics-reciprocity-and-the-role-of-for-profi/15389232">recent paper</a> that this kind of responsibility still does not explain why one should pay taxes. </p>
<p>The idea that we have to pay your taxes because other people have benefited by paying theirs rests, from my perspective, on a wrongly narrow view of what it means to satisfy one’s duties of reciprocity. All that reciprocity requires is that one should compensate people for the work they have done that benefits us. </p>
<p>Just like we can repay a friend who gives us a ride to the airport by doing something else that benefits them – say, making them dinner or helping them move – so too can we repay our fellow citizens by doing something other than paying our taxes.</p>
<p>Lots of actions benefit your fellow citizens that you might pay for – taking a pay cut to do legally discretionary work to help the environment, volunteering to do policy research, choosing a career in public service over a more financially rewarding line of work, and more. </p>
<p>If you do enough such acts, it could be argued, you would have no duty of reciprocity to pay your taxes. You would already have done enough to compensate your fellow citizens. </p>
<h2>Why pay taxes</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266192/original/file-20190327-139352-fgn6zr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266192/original/file-20190327-139352-fgn6zr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266192/original/file-20190327-139352-fgn6zr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266192/original/file-20190327-139352-fgn6zr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266192/original/file-20190327-139352-fgn6zr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266192/original/file-20190327-139352-fgn6zr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266192/original/file-20190327-139352-fgn6zr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Here’s why you should pay your taxes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-man-doing-paperwork-together-paying-792809188">adriaticfoto/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Given this, the best argument for paying our taxes, as I argue in my paper, is “intellectual humility.” And here is what it means.</p>
<p>Satisfying these duties of reciprocity requires successfully compensating our fellow citizens for all the burdens they took on our behalf. As one can imagine, it is a hard calculation to make. </p>
<p>It is difficult to know if we have done enough. If we choose not to pay taxes because we think we have already repaid our fellow citizens in other ways, we run a strong risk of getting it wrong. </p>
<p>Paying the tax bill is one way of avoiding that risk and making sure we treat our fellow citizens fairly. </p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This piece is part of our series on ethical questions arising from everyday life. We would welcome your suggestions. Please email us at <a href="mailto:ethical.questions@theconversation.com">ethical.questions@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114260/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brookes Brown does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many Americans are fretting over paying their taxes. A philosopher says the moral question isn’t as much about a duty toward the government, but being fair to fellow tax-paying citizens.Brookes Brown, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Director of the Law, Liberty, & Justice Program, Clemson UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1106862019-02-13T15:32:05Z2019-02-13T15:32:05ZIs love losing its soul in the digital age?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258581/original/file-20190212-174861-tz6o6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A young couple posing for an Instagram photo.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-photo-video-call-speak-talk-1279976611?src=ahBaNpYfV9RmhweEMoJpLg-1-17">Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Instagram users have taken to issuing “weekiversary posts,” where they diligently mark the duration of their romances. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/24/opinion/sunday/relationships-love-instagram.html">An article</a> in The New York Times explained how weekiversary posts have the unintended – or very much intended – consequence of shaming people who are not in love. </p>
<p>The article also noted that this phenomenon <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/24/opinion/sunday/relationships-love-instagram.html">makes some doubt</a> the intensity of their own relationship. They wonder why their partners are not similarly starry-eyed and gushing online. Some even admitted that this phenomenon prompted them to stay in relationships longer than they should have: they go on celebrating their weekiversaries, just to keep up appearances.</p>
<p>In truth, this could apply to any of the social media platforms, where people increasingly feel the need to act their lives in real time in a public format, documenting every event and incident, no matter how remarkable or mundane. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300208931/do-guns-make-us-free">philosopher</a> researching the topic of privacy, I found myself thinking about the brave new culture of digital sharing.</p>
<p>What does it say about love, that many are compelled to live their romances aloud, in detailed fashion? </p>
<h2>Why display your love?</h2>
<p>On one hand, there is nothing new here. Most of us seek the approval of others – even before our own, sometimes. Others’ approval, or their envy, makes our joy sweeter.</p>
<p>Philosopher <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rousseau/">Jean Jacques Rousseau</a> recognized something like this when he distinguished between “amour de soi” and “amour propre” – <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=n0tdG2qZFJUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=rousseau+second+discourse&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZ2J-3sazgAhUPTt8KHQRbDNAQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=rousseau%20second%20discourse&f=false">two different forms of self love</a>. The former is love that is instinctual and not self-reflective. Rousseau sees it in presocial man, who is unconcerned with what other people think of him. Largely, he loves himself unconditionally, without judgment.</p>
<p>Society, which complicates our lives irredeemably, introduces amour propre. This is self-love mediated through the eyes and opinions of others. Amour propre, in Rousseau’s view, is deeply flawed. It is hollow, flimsy, if not downright fraudulent. The opinions and judgment of others change rapidly and do not make for a firm foundation for honest, enduring, confident self-love and any emotions related to or rooted in it.</p>
<p>This suggests an unflattering view of weekiversary posts. Are they just one’s way of satiating the need for amour propre – meeting the approval, and stoking the envy of online witnesses? Are they for one’s lover at all? Or, are they for public affirmation?</p>
<h2>Curating our life stories</h2>
<p>Is there a more positive way to make sense of weekiversary posts?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258565/original/file-20190212-174873-9win0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258565/original/file-20190212-174873-9win0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258565/original/file-20190212-174873-9win0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258565/original/file-20190212-174873-9win0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258565/original/file-20190212-174873-9win0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258565/original/file-20190212-174873-9win0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258565/original/file-20190212-174873-9win0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Social media is a way to give a narrative structure to our lives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnysilvercloud/17151867417/in/photolist-s8DNC2-sBDC4d-aEeCqz-diNSS9-BCT5hu-apwELC-wNGPX-pE65mJ-6jNaFP-ecLpCP-6mQwVZ-dLnekA-6S1zLa-5VVb1v-vxoK7J-cxQSVU-DMvnG-dGc6iJ-aEeCuP-aXnDmk-C24FK2-dwsQnM-79MVvu-qyp9x3-qMF7Tg-7XPZN5-TWYcrK-93zzg9-9YHsyp-21QG5Zs-nXwmof-8nyw9g-yibvq-243SwrK-8rvrWq-iGt3K5-gNxNgJ-iKd84N-5NKein-bDQy3i-GicT4E-UWdwQp-gvZxb-9QLU4e-bER864-oEc3LU-bCUWtR-hP6epv-agtCmD-aSWPcP">Johnny Silvercloud/Flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Philosopher <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/paul-ricoeur-9458208">Paul Ricoeur</a> argued that humans have an inherent need to view their lives <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=5h9lJLdjoBwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=ricoeur+time+and+narrative+volume&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwif8fGbsqzgAhUlh-AKHbpZDS8Q6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=ricoeur%20time%20and%20narrative%20volume&f=false">in a narrative fashion</a>. This is a prime way in which a person makes sense of his or her world. </p>
<p>Specifically, one aims to project a narrative structure onto life, and give it a beginning, a climax and, hopefully, a fitting conclusion. The individual also wishes to situate his life story within a greater narrative, be it social, historical or cosmic.</p>
<p>Social media, I believe, gives us newfound powers to curate the story of our lives, and if need be, change characters, dominant plot lines or background themes, how and when we like. In documenting everyday events and occurrences, we could even elevate them and lend them a degree of significance. </p>
<p>So, it might seem perfectly natural that people would like to narrate their budding romances. </p>
<p>I am now long and happily married, but I remember how first love is both exhilarating and confusing. It’s a mess of emotions to work out and understand.
Among the many mixed messages issued by family, society and the media, it is often difficult to know how best to navigate romance and determine if you are doing things right – or if you have found “the one.” </p>
<p>In fact, I sought to get a handle on it all by writing down my many thoughts. This helped give me clarity. It objectified my thoughts – I literally projected them on paper before me, and could better understand which were more resonant, powerful and pressing.</p>
<h2>Love and insecurity</h2>
<p>Social media, on the other hand, is not designed for introspection or soul-searching: Posts must be relatively short, eye-catching and declarative. Twitter emissions only tolerate 280 characters. </p>
<p>Ambiguity has no place there. Social media isn’t the place to hash through a host of conflicting emotions. You are either in love, or you are not – and if you are in love, why declare it if it isn’t blissful? </p>
<p>As Facebook discovered, negative posts tend to lose followers – and many people <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/technology/facebook-tinkers-with-users-emotions-in-news-feed-experiment-stirring-outcry.html">want to keep up their viewership</a>. The legal scholar <a href="https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/bernard-harcourt">Bernard Harcourt</a> argues that social media sharing <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ymouCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=bernard+harcourt&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiHl7q4sqzgAhWHm-AKHdmzADIQ6AEINDAC#v=onepage&q=bernard%20harcourt&f=false">evokes the great American tradition of entrepreneurship</a>. From this perspective, in issuing weekiversary posts, individuals are creating an identity and a story – they are generating a brand that they can market widely.</p>
<p>It’s hard to see how this phenomenon contributes to or makes for lasting and fulfilling relationships. If, for example, as Ricoeur says, social media effusions are an attempt to elevate the mundane, the simple, the everyday, and lend it special meaning, it begs the question: Why might one feel the need to do this repeatedly, persistently?</p>
<p>I would argue that it betrays an air of insecurity. After all, at some point, all the affirmation one needs should come from your lover.</p>
<h2>True love</h2>
<p>There is an understandable need for young lovers to pronounce their joy in public. But love, when it matures, does not live publicly.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258558/original/file-20190212-174864-1k3ephm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258558/original/file-20190212-174864-1k3ephm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258558/original/file-20190212-174864-1k3ephm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258558/original/file-20190212-174864-1k3ephm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258558/original/file-20190212-174864-1k3ephm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258558/original/file-20190212-174864-1k3ephm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258558/original/file-20190212-174864-1k3ephm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Love is a largely private emotion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanbachelor/43039500754/in/photolist-W3cRBv-2dgQjoT-28sTg3s-rtWYj6-QQAq3r-2e4V8PB-2a3tSAG-TVUuq3-2aLP8cy-2ctejRT-JC7SF2-dCmqnu-K7xhjY-2eiiNvy-2b4hu1L-2d5PnCL-WzFu29-WCe4Uq-cRbyHs-2aiS2nW-V2aM8U-dj1gz2-VYHNLK-2dcTv7J-2cVaPFD-23FXF26-28zfG6Q-obtKUb-pQm4Bu-oFgptT-Ry5u2o-S3RW7L-VQDNph-URL9Xq-2cFKpQC-d83DL1-Z4gyvu-2bLHsfj-RDNYcG-zrXheE-gX4eg6-d8YmPu-QAGFSq-oCtMhy-VWL3Cw-2b4E7A7-WyDkjV-VNxSy9-mYAaek-qiPwkc">michael rababy/Flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Loving couples are not necessarily easy to pick out in public. I think of my parents, and my in-laws, married for nearly 50 years. They can sit with each other in comfortable silence for long periods of time. They can also communicate with each other without saying a word.</p>
<p>Love is largely a private relationship, and demands intimacy. Only in intimacy does the inherent ambiguity or complexity of love emerge. Only in intimacy are you and your partner fully seen and known, with all your shortcomings or contradictions – and they are forgiven.</p>
<p>It is in these intimate moments that lovers learn to tolerate ambiguity, negotiate differences and endure.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110686/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Firmin DeBrabander does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On social media, people increasingly feel the need to document every event and incident in their lives in public. What does that mean for romantic love?Firmin DeBrabander, Professor of Philosophy, Maryland Institute College of ArtLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1103802019-02-03T09:17:32Z2019-02-03T09:17:32ZThe fourth industrial revolution and sport: why we need to be vigilant<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256322/original/file-20190130-108334-1x63med.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ordinary citizens are mere consumers of sport now - mainly through watching it on television.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sport has always been influenced by industrial revolutions through the millenia, starting way back in the late 18th century with the first industrial revolution. Each one since has dramatically affected sporting activities.</p>
<p>This is also true of the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/">“Fourth industrial revolution”</a>, which has become one of the most prominent buzz phrases in international policymaking since it was first coined in 2016 by the World Economic Forum founder and executive chairperson, Klaus Schwab. The concept, which explains how a combination of technologies are changing the way we live, work and interact, was the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/16/fourth-industrial-revolution-explained-davos-2019.html">theme</a> of the forum’s annual meeting in Davos this year.</p>
<p>Schwab argued that this technological revolution is already underway and that it’s,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It refers to how technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality and the internet are merging with humans’ physical lives. It ultimately leads to a societal transformation similar to previous industrial revolutions. </p>
<p>All these changes have had a dramatic effect on sport, particularly through Artificial Intelligence which is directing sports coaching within areas ranging from gene sequencing to nanotechnology, renewables and quantum computing.</p>
<p>Another major change ushered in by the fourth industrial revolution has been the hyper-commercialisation of sport. Franchised sport conglomerates and corporate sponsors are in control in uncontrolled capitalist systems. Ordinary citizens are mere consumers of products, especially through television watching and consumption, rather than producers of values.</p>
<h2>First revolution</h2>
<p>The first industrial revolution spanned the period from about 1760 to around 1840. It was triggered by the ushering in of predominantly mechanical production. </p>
<p>Modern day sport emerged then, in part, as a consequence of the western European industrial revolution and colonisation, with Britain at the epicentre, during the second half of 18th century.</p>
<p>When public schools took off in Britain at the turn of the 19th century, character training became a <em>raison d'être</em>, for the elite. Sport was used to promote national solidarity and patriotism. As French philosopher <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/rousseau_jean_jacques.shtml">Jean Jacques Rousseau</a>, <a href="https://cdn.auckland.ac.nz/assets/press/all-books/pdfs/2012/palenski-the-making-of-nzers_sample.pdf">suggested</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>sport had a special role to play in the production of patriots. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The second industrial revolution started in the late 19th century when mass production became possible. This period witnessed the advent of electricity and assembly line production. </p>
<p>At the same time, international sport federations along mainly amateur lines were formed. Amateurism was the means that the landed aristocracy used to protect their social privileges. This they did through the establishment of clubs, associations and federations.</p>
<p>The third industrial revolution began in the 1960s and was catalysed by the development of semiconductors, mainframe computing (1960s), personal computing (1970s and 80s) and then the World Wide Web. Sports specialisation took off. Fields like Adapted Physical Activity, Sport Sociology, Sport History, Philosophy of Sport, Motor Behaviour, Sport Psychology and Biomechanics emerged. </p>
<p>This period also saw the advent of increased commercialisation and the professionalisation of sport. Large business, including the tobacco industry, were attracted to this development and started investing in sport science institutes. </p>
<h2>Sport and the fourth industrial revolution</h2>
<p>The fourth industrial revolution has been evolving in a deeply unequal world. In fact, in parts of the global south, the second or third industrial revolutions are still incomplete. Nearly 1.3 billion people still lack access to electricity. Four billion people, mostly in third world countries, lack internet access. </p>
<p>According to Schwab’s analysis, the winning nations will be those who are able to participate fully in innovation-driven ecosystems by providing new ideas, business models, products and services, rather than those who can offer only low-skilled labour capital. </p>
<p>Yet, most countries are experiencing an increase in joblessness, impoverishment and criminal elements among other social outcasts that constitute what Karl Marx termed the <a href="https://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/l/u.htm"><em>lumpenproletariat</em></a>. They have little or no access to 21st century artificial intelligence. </p>
<p>What are the consequences for sport? </p>
<p>Unequal participation trends have emerged. The working class and the lumpen proletariat don’t benefit. They don’t have access to the growing number of artificial intelligence products that directs sport coaching. These range from gene sequencing to nanotechnology, renewables and quantum computing.</p>
<h2>Resistance</h2>
<p>A big challenge for progressive sport administrators and activists will be how to master (and challenge) this new world. Professional sport opened new markets of wealth creation, beyond the narrow nationalisms of the first, second and third industrial revolutions. But it’s only by embracing the nourishing aspects of traditional sport – honesty, enjoyment, health and fun – that societies can develop positive, common and comprehensive narratives. </p>
<p>This challenge can be met if communities take control of their sport organisations and administer them along the lines of traditional sport values. </p>
<p>Increased sport participation, in materially poor communities, can be achieved. This means asking hard questions. What is the continued and changing nature of sport? Also, who controls the means of sport production? What inequalities arise and what forms of resistance can be mobilised against these inequalities?</p>
<p>These will help assist community based sport activists as they organise communities in a very unequal material world of the 21st century.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110380/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francois Cleophas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Making sport accessible to ordinary people can be achieved if communities take control of their organisations.Francois Cleophas, Senior Lecturer in Sport History, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.