Axial tilting

The transformation of societies is a regular and continuous process. It takes the form of a transition when transformations are specifically oriented and coordinated in order to respond to problems that affect the proper functioning of the established order. Now, the processes and dynamics of transition take the form of a tipping point, in the simplified image of a revolution, when the new civilizational configuration is mature enough to replace and substitute the old one. What Karl Marx called the passage from formal to real subsumption.

A “tipping of the world”: the formula aims to express both the exceptional scale of the changes underway and the seriousness of the stakes. It aims to warn : beware ! we are not in a simple period of change, as there have been so many in the last few centuries ; and, if we do not become aware of it in time, we risk finding ourselves confronted with immense perils that we ourselves will have brought about (Beaud, 1997¹Beaud, Michel, Basculement du monde, http://classiques.uqac.ca/contemporains/beaud_michel/balculement_du_monde/beaud_basculement_monde_1.pdf).

In response to the evils generated by the order of globalized modernity, Michel Beaud describes the transformation to be brought about in terms of tipping. Why change ? To act on the axis of historical development in order to give it a new orientation : at the cognitive, technical, social, political, economic and cultural levels.

Notes

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  Beaud, Michel, Basculement du monde, http://classiques.uqac.ca/contemporains/beaud_michel/balculement_du_monde/beaud_basculement_monde_1.pdf