The subtitle makes it clear right away: “The rhythm of freedom – The time factor in politics and economics”. The authors’ thesis is in fact that only by managing the time factor there can be true freedom. Even more so in complex areas such as the political and economic one where emancipating oneself from electoral deadlines and the urgency of the contingent are the only ways to be free to think and plan for the future.
The book intertwines history, philosophy, economics and biology (Roberto Menotti is senior advisor at the Aspen Institute Italia but also a member of the NATO Defense College Foundation scientific board; Maurizio Sgroi is a scholar of the history of globalization and editor of the blog The Walking Debt) in a more interdisciplinary approach than ever.
“Let’s keep in mind two distinctions that illustrate two prejudices of our mind, which we have translated into computers. The one between cause-effect, and the one between idea-action – we read in the text – Now think that the hyphen between the two pairs of words is time. In fact, the cause precedes the effect in the timeline, just as the idea of doing something precedes the moment in which it is done. The shorter this time becomes, the closer the two words become. For a time that tends to zero, the cause and the effect become indistinguishable, as well as the idea from the action. This zero time is the natural place of our existence. We travel it continuously, leaving the past behind and turning towards the future. An intrinsically uncertain place.”
For a time that tends to zero, the cause and the effect become indistinguishable, as well as the idea from the action. This zero time is the natural place of our existence
Concepts that in politics and economics become even more evident if possible. And to understand this, it is enough to reflect on the fact that in both areas time is an integral part of their functioning (on the one hand the mandate, the legislature, the planning; on the other the economic cycles themselves, the analysts’ expectations, the estimates).
A very interesting essay, which combines academic rigor and narrative passion, accurate but accessible in the same way, which brings with it a basic thesis: only by learning to manage time and urgencies well can we hope for a future acted upon and not immediately.
Only by learning to manage time will we be truly free.
