crisis: history, society, economics and human nature. 
Life has its course: a beginning, a middle and an end. The psychology of the life cycle is the branch of psychology that attempts to correlate the point where an individual is in the course of his life with the kind of tasks that the person is called to deal with the kind of resources it has available for address these tasks, and finally, with the type of disorder that may develop if the individual is unable to properly address these challenges. If we transfer the assumptions of the psychology of the life cycle of the company, is to consider that the company has its moments of development, stop, and decline in the unfolding of "historical courses and resorts, in time, it is obvious that will also develop physiological times of crisis. Using a series of theoretical contributions, below I will try to "draw" a kind of map on which to track and trace of a hypothetical project in which, on the same street, crisis, history, society, economy.
time ago, at the Festival of Economics in Trento met three Nobel Prize winners (George Akerlof, Michael Spence and James Heckman) to make the point about "Identity and the global crisis."
One of the most interesting thesis emerged from Akerlof's words on this occasion is that which declares the failure of the idea that people, and therefore the economy as well as its current crisis, are motivated by economic reasons only rational pursuit " is only by analyzing the role of animal spirits and their influence on economic decisions - explains economist California - which may explain why the economies fall into recession, banks are able to economy, people can not find work in the long run there is an inverse relationship between inflation and unemployment, save for the future is so arbitrary price, financial and corporate investment are so volatile, the markets go through cycles and real estate for minorities disadvantaged poverty persists for generations "(Akerloff, Shiller, 2009).
optimism, a sense of justice, corruption and bad faith, the illusion of money, the lies we tell ourselves and others, according to George Akerlof, the economy revolves around those who, referring to John Mainard Keynes, called the 'animal spirits', the mental energy basic (now recognized as economic factors) that drive the actions of individuals. They are the "animal spirits" that make up the psychology of individuals, and therefore these animal spirits are the categories you can use to build a new economic theory, a new manual that can explain why the world economy has plummeted. According to the Nobel Prize (2001), individuals have moved trusting the fairness of the system, thousands of savers have invested their money in junk bonds, capitalism has taken advantage of over-confidence and end up producing what people believe they need , was perhaps miraculous snake oil. But what happens when trust is less? It happens that the crisis of confidence becomes a credit crisis. The history of economics has experienced many cycles of trust given and then withdrawn, only that the classical economists, who have always believed nell'autoregolamentazione free-market capitalism, the crisis did not have anything planned for. Another opinion seems relevant to Giovanni Sartori, in an editorial in Corriere della Sera, according Sartori wealth wealth produced by the pre-industrial society was to be consumed (in palaces, churches, and, of course, the good life for the few that they were available), not to accumulate wealth for investment, and therefore wealth in money to invest in the economic process. Therefore
up the industrial revolution man has lived in great poverty. The warmth of well-being appeared in the context of the territorial State as a whole, only in the nineteenth century. But until the twentieth century, sometimes in addition, the Western man did not know the affluent society, the so-called affluent society.
And again: "homo bulla est" some say, in the belief that periodically create economic bubble of speculation, fads, fashions, interest, investments are not well thought out and negligently or intentionally exaggerated, creating an unparalleled increase in prices and " irrational bubble "ready to explode at any moment and create a crisis, Once these prices have collapsed. Bubbles or no bubbles, rational and irrational factors, co-exist to create a normal pattern of one's life, as in society. I personally think that one wonders why the crisis because we are increasingly a society of extremes, a society that favors or for any or all of the rationale for the irrational, always tend to separate and divisions have their price. And so the crisis comes and takes all by surprise, almost. If that was not natural, as if it were, to some extent, predictable or feasible. Yet the crisis is natural, normal saline. Of course sitting there waiting for the crisis at any moment, can not be forecast a reassuring (if ever paralyzing) for any company, but consider that the crisis is part of the game "can perhaps help live more peacefully and appropriately when it occurs. You can stand there and look for the reasons of the crisis, to analyze, to seek the origins, and perhaps, and I stress maybe, you'll find these reasons, or at least you will be convinced to have found them.
But perhaps you will find just a clue about the crisis, a key based (because it is obvious that the crisis is the result of behavior, plots of socio-political-cultural and the unpredictable) maybe, but who can not give us no more certainty than that which the crisis can not surprise us because it's part of human nature and human society.
When you go to make comparisons with the current economic and financial crisis, trying to find in ages past events with similar characteristics, sometimes forget about the economic facts far removed from present day, with the mistaken belief that so long an interval in time can not be compared, especially when it comes to matters that have thus evolved as the economy. We see instead
together, a bit 'in more detail, what we mean by crisis. The term crisis reminds us of what? Naively, it can be considered a "crisis" as a diminution values, but a definition that would require too much of unproven and not very usable in science.
speak of "crisis" means, in historical perspective, see and try to understand a transformation. The story is nothing, really, what a story of transformation: the crisis is moving, and now the general crisis hour special.
However, the motion passed by the implicit explicit historiography when the transformation involves a large portion of the component of the existing structure, when the changes are concentrated in a given period, that is when the physiological transformation known accelerating. The existing balance is broken to give way to another form of static. Even this new static, however, certainly will not be absolute, but only see the preservation of the relationship between certain elements. The Italian
"crisis" is a word fear, arising from the greek and the corresponding Latin κρίσις crisis. The lemma has the same greek root of the verb κρίνω, resulting dall'indeuropeo * (s) q (e) rei, giving rise to even Latin hinges both items, Greek and Latin, retain the meaning of "distinguish, separate "and then" choose ". In greek history unfolds in a number of the noun meaning: "choice" to go easy on "trial" to "conviction" and finally "outcome, resolution, event." But it also moves toward the suggestive meaning of "explanation, interpretation of dreams" that the text of the Septuagint, the translation of the Old Testament in greek which was considered as inspired as the Hebrew text. In Latin, the noun comes from the greek with only the medical sense. (Racquet, 2008).
Let us now, beyond the definitions, let's see how the story can "tell" the story.
start. How can we not mention the
crisis of the Greek polis, which took place between fifth and fourth centuries BC? Central hub of this case is the end of the Peloponnesian War, with the victory of Sparta and the Peloponnesian League and the defeat of Athens (404 BC). Athens and Sparta were only two enemy cities, but they represented different models of society, economy and culture. The phenomena that appear intense and disruptive in the fourth century were already present, at least in embryo, in V. These centuries saw the end of the hoplite-farmer model of society in favor of a more diverse, less homogeneous, but at the same time the most politically leveled, which is the result of conflicts between farmers and the rest of the population its the fifth century, even if new players come into play, especially the foreign merchants or mercenaries, more and more. So there are now also interest outside the community, but internally the political participation decreases. Created by private banks, which are to counteract the activities of temples, public as sacred. And 'the era of Socrates and then to follow Plato, Aristotle, and it is these great thinkers to express the crisis before, and the need for renewal and change occurred, then. We make a leap, we come to the Middle Ages, in the Florence del'300, when between 1343 and 1346, the Bardi and Peruzzi, two of the most important family of Florentine bankers were literally swept away by an ambiguous history of mortgages. As early as seven centuries ago there was very active and a capitalist assault, which had granted substantial loans at very high risk without too much worry about the consequences: it was similar to that speculation on the current subprime crisis. And the consequences follow exactly those of today, in fact, the crisis caused the insolvency of debtors and numerous bankruptcies in the financial system (which meant the end of the credit crisis and the resulting real economy).
The main players in these events were two families: the family of the Bardi (whose most famous relative was Bartolo, who had served as prior of Florence in 1282) and the most outrageous of the Peruzzi family (54 ancestors were priori and their entry into Florentine society dating back to 1100). In the background we can insert a main player Edward III of England (his bellicose lust demanded increasingly large sums of money to find and these demands could be met by the two families, who still wielded by strong capital endowments) and these was a founder Order of the Garter and considered a major contributor to the Hundred Years War. At a time when Florence was considered the real "European Central Bank," in 1312 the Bardi and Peruzzi were able to fill the void left by another important family, the Frescobaldi, according to the chronicles of one family of the Bardi in the '300 could boast the possession of as many as 25 branches in Italy and abroad whose main outposts were Tunis, Paris, Istanbul and Seville, which soon became a corporation of any borrowed funds with the intent to finance the wars of Edward III. I Peruzzi, in turn, put to good operation of mortgage lending since the king ensured only by his word and prestige of the monarch. Things went well until 1337, but everything got worse when he decided to move to English expansionism south, Edward tried to win the French throne and proclaimed himself king came to Ghent in France, but it was a serious error of assessment, because the conflict was far from won. The Bardi and Peruzzi boasted at the time of £ 125,000 claim against the English king, a truly enormous sum at that time. The situation then took the dramatic: Edward was caught in an endless war and announced not to be able to repay those loans. This was done to precipitate the failure of the two families, because most of the money lent to the king had entrusted to savings in trust by depositors, who now demanded the return of capital, with interest high. The Peruzzi were the first to surrender, which declared insolvency and chaffer with his creditors a percentage of repayments, which led them to ruin. Bardi also had to give: first reacted calmly, but then over the years lost control. Plot a coup to take over the government, but the plot was discovered and many of them exiles, other family members, however, began to mint counterfeit currency. They too were caught and sentenced to death avoided by running away. This story, which can be considered the first history of the mortgage crisis, saw the death at the stake of two officials of the Mint and the beginning of an unprecedented economic depression: commercial traffic of any kind were destroyed and the market went into
confusion.
Now for the second half of the sixteenth century in Europe. If you try to type on an internet search engine "crisis of tulips", you will be aware of each other economically linked to these beautiful flowers. Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries tulips attract the interest of growers and find the joy of the audience, the Netherlands, it exports all over the world and this flower is becoming increasingly valuable. There are stories that tell of the time that a miller would even be deprived of its mill in exchange for a tulip bulb, in short, the whole of Europe is crossed in those years as a "tulip fever" after which the value of the flowers grew and began to make more crosses, more and more variations in short, this beautiful flower is the economic center of each round of speculation that leads however, to shortly thereafter, in an inevitable drop in prices, in an economic crisis and nell'ingolfamento the Dutch province of the judicial system which was unable to handle the huge number of complaints and disputes arising from the trafficking of tulips. A short crisis, says Galimberti (2002), that of ancient and modern tulips: how the performance of prices, such as conflict between greed and fear, as a source of doctrinal disagreements still existing.
And how not to name the crisis of 1929? a ghost conjured up every day for several months. It is even said that the current financial crisis in size than the collapse occurred under President Hoover in 1929, but who can really determine this? We come back even closer to us: in the first half of the 70 were issued by the European branches of U.S. banks and European banks and petrodollars and Eurodollars. They were the first example of financial instruments which escaped the control of central banks. Their release was imposed to bring urgently for the operators the necessary capital to buy new high oil prices, stemming from the oil crisis. Liquidity, ristabilitesi normal conditions, was struck by the producing countries in Western economies. He remained on the market. Produced effects of attraction, causing capital flight from the national currencies. It boosts the volume. Financial operators were able, individually, to implement the major currencies on speculation the European states. To guard was planned since the early 80s the establishment of a large common currency area. The Treaty of Maastricht (1992) was the European Union and dictated the rules of the euro. That same year he carried the full liberalization of capital, even in the short. The euro came into operation on a virtual 1 .1.1999, as money actually circulating 1 .1.2002. The EU had eliminated internal borders, and had undertaken to mitigate to the greatest extent possible, the external duties. China, since the 80's, has entered a phase of strong growth, with effects of stimulus related to emerging economies. It was the WTO and reached the first agreements for the removal of customs duties. The reunification of Germany and the Soviet Union collapsed and collectivist regimes concurred in the process of expansion of the market. It was an unprecedented rise in international trade. The cash crunch grew dramatically.
The euro was subjected to a rigid discipline that link the management of the target currency stability. U.S. and China in the management of their currencies could pursue development objectives and employment. They could not, however, apart from the fundamental balance their budgets. The economic boom of the '80s and then, in the first half of the 90 satellite technology and computer unified system of world stock markets made it possible to communicate from one side of the planet in real time, voice, image , in a documentary. The financial system had had an extra boost, an exponential growth, and in the last ten years, we know firsthand what happened, big hopes, big promises and then suddenly, but not too much a descent steeply to the crisis.
It has been said that the era of the great dictators is over, but apart from the fact that this may perhaps be said to be true for much of the world but not for everyone, is there to say that especially in the last two decades, however, a big dictatorship has certainly established and spreading: the god of money. Even the so-called global development has grown "watered" by the desire for profit and not real and global development.
Let's stop with the historical overview and then proceed step by step, along with analyzing the concept of development of Morin. The basis for the formulation of the biological concept are: the concept of economic and social development, says Morin, is the analogon of biological development. In both cases, a process of specialization of the cells (biological and social) would be the basis of development. All the processes of cellular specialization is also home to the aging process. The individual units of the various processes can escalate, regardless of the progress of the whole, and indeed it is the progress of the whole which can act as a cause of degeneration. The development, in other words, whether biological or social, it always worked through constraints, limits and regressions. It may be deduced - Morin concludes - that, from a rigorous point of view and epistemologically founded, development can not never be a category uniquely determined. However, Morin continues, the harder rock is located elsewhere: the biological development is necessarily genetic repetition of a cycle already and, therefore, and return to the past. Western humanism, says Morin, has hinged on these paradigms, ending with the myth. The myth of unlimited growth is invariably associated with that of the unlimited power over nature. There was more freedom to decide on development, but the power to govern the freedom of development. Thus, both in advanced countries than in arrears, the dominant minority, a half of development (and the associated underdevelopment), have built and expanded their power and organized their own welfare. The leap forward made by the Western economies and social systems and lifestyles fees went to him this poisonous serum that has not hesitated to deploy its harmful effects as early as the 60s. The positive results of short-term (1945-1965 cycle) have, soon proved their fallacy and their counterfactuals. Over the past four decades, minorities have started dominating humanity towards catastrophe: famine, poverty, injustice, pollution and resource scarcity are already a disturbing phenomenon and mass. The result is that development, rather than enrich it, robbed humanity and irreparably scarred the environment. The false infinity of development leads us straight to the heart of the crisis of civilization that has gripped the advanced societies and those governed by the "socialist planning". Having, in whole, the civilization founded on the development has meant, inevitably, push a comatose crisis, once the "sirens developed" were unable to sing their song. The growth, in a sense, mitigates the unbridled consumerism, channeling resources towards capital goods. So, if the reduction in consumption does not generate, in itself, a crisis of growth, the decrease in savings is among the causes of the fall in investment and hence growth. And it is here that the semantic gap between development and growth becomes a social crisis of accumulation on a capitalist basis.
In this brief review, I borrowed the thought of Morin to try to understand why the crisis, its origins, the social mechanisms that help create it. However, I repeat that I believe that even if the crisis can and should be studied and understood, however, happens and will happen, it is intrinsically linked to that amazing game of life through the story, and enthusiastic crowds that eighth wheel on which the life forces us to rise. The crisis is in fact correlated with the inevitability of the development, history, human nature, if we look at the historical facts mentioned We can not say that the corruption of the polis, the arrogance of the Bards, the visionary views and demands coming and expansionist last century have made the crisis, in every historical moment. The fact is that this is done, human nature, of arrogance, opportunism, stupidity or excessive cleverness. When then the delusions become excessive, the bubbles burst, the crisis comes and the social structures collapse or individual is not enough to ask why, but we must act with alternative strategies, because the crisis we belong; surprising that occur would coem wonder of our own existence. We must think of creative new strategies, new fads do not recycle, or to sow or tangled new illusions and myths disappointing.
to close back to the words of one scholar of economics "The crisis, in short, will always be among you." And it is then important to understand what is in us, in the breath of a homo sapiens is that even before being aeconomicus, which makes us easy prey for a mechanism to enhance and full of dangers [...] The fact remains that there may be institutions and innovations are able to circumscribe the area of \u200b\u200brisk, deter or mitigate the consequences of the bubble [...] we can not escape the bubble. But maybe we can make a little break out 'before, with less noise and less pain (Galimberti, 2002). Exactly then it is important understand what is in us, what are the external forces that move us and manipulate us, and which are internal and we block or support us. I do not think this kind of explanation may be helpful to those who can not make ends meet, those who are already struggling and struggling first hour or who has gone from star luxury at the stables of the crisis, but I think that the alternative strategies is also useful that acting it out and must go hand in hand. And the time of this post, I assault reminiscent of the TV, or the damned wonderful tv, memories of a television service on a "Low Impact Man" (a man who decided to live a low consumption and low environmental impact) and a hairdresser who devoted his room on the lower environmental impact by minimizing the use of electricity and using only natural products, the customers bring their own shampoo.
One shampoo will not solve the crisis, a couple of positive experiences that have emerged before my eyes on the TV screen, can not force me to ignore the crisis and the devastation it may cause, but I plan to say: Another World is possible, another life is possible and even if, from the above is very clear that another crisis is possible, alternative strategies and creative thinking is a way to react. Now I move away from TV and from this cursed / pc wonderful and, considering the crisis, rather than stories and examples filtered by the media-TV, in my mind the words of a victim of the earthquake that I met in one of my interventions in Abruzzo: "I do not know where I will share riaprtirò from nothing and all that I find myself, I just know that if semtto imagine being able to go ahead I have no roads in front of me, and instead must do it. "
