[-empyre-] Towards a drift in values? (part 3/3) QUESTIONS

[Maurice Benayoun]

When they barter their VoV (value tokens) they contribute to defining
the relative value of human values: if they need to give PEACE and
LOVE to get POWER, they clearly state than for them, POWER is more
than PEACE and LOVE together.
This is where we generate the Transactional Poetry. The virtual poet
generates automatically an interpretation of the actual transaction.
It can be literal: “I give SEX for MONEY” or more elaborate “I was so
eager to get POWER, I would have given all my PEACE, and even my LOVE”
…
When it comes to trading, value collectors want to keep some values
and give away some other.
They define their scale of values, and in a way, they define
themselves as a set of values.
They can determine a price or offer a token for auction.
As a real trading platform, charts are displayed showing the values
ranking. The final price reached at auctions tells us how people
consider the value of each human value. We know this for a City (where
the show happened), for a Country, and for a Continent. It becomes
possible to compare the hierarchy of values in UK, China, USA, France,
Italy…
More about Value of Values (VoV): www.v-o-v.io

This brings us back to the present pandemic. Most of us noticed how
the crisis led the power, and the people, to take positions, to make
choices and to prioritize values:
Human Life vs Money
Elderly vs young
Shareholders vs workers
Religion vs Science
Family vs company
Solidarity vs individualism

In the Shock Doctrine, the Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Naomi Klein
explains how capitalism and totalitarian power use crises to move the
lines: more surveillance, less regulations, lower environmental, less
protection for the poor and the weak. Taking advantage of the criseis
Trump limits immigration, China consolidate the surveillance/tracking
system, Hong Kong arrests 15 democrat leaders. May we eventually
expect a different scenario?

It was rather surprising to hear recently the German President saying:
"No, this pandemic is not a war. Nations do not oppose other nations
nor soldiers against other soldiers. It is a test of our humanity,"
Steinmeier said, notably countering a view that French President
Emmanuel Macron gave in March. Steinmeier implored Germans to show
solidarity with others and with Europe. This crisis "brings out the
best and the worst of people. Let us show others what is best in us,"
he asked his fellow citizens. (Quoted in Euronews, 11/4/2020).

And, a more moderate position, but even more surprising from a banker:
« The coronavirus announces "the end of neoliberal capitalism",
according to the chief economist of the bank Natixis” (…) Patrick
Artus does not predict a radical upheaval in the existing social
order. By the end of neoliberal capitalism, he means a change in the
way capitalism works today. A capitalism that has bet on
"globalization", "the reduction of the role of the state and the tax
burden", "privatizations", and "the weakness of social protection" in
certain countries, such as the United States. (article in the French
newspaper Marianne, 1/4/2020)

This position contrasts with the one of Boris Johnson, Donald Trump
and Jair Bolsonaro on the one hand, and China on the other hand.
Industry and private interests first, and MORE Control and submission
(China).

In 2016, a research led in 2 universities mentioned the possibility
that a virus would be at the origin of
memory/consciousness/intelligence
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5884693/).
Of course, it took something like 500 M year before becoming the
stable mind of our brilliant leaders. As we can’t wait that long for
modification of individual human mindset, could we imagine,
metaphorically, that epidemic of this nature could trigger societal
mutations in a shorter-term?

I would like to get your feedback on 2 questions raised by these considerations:
1/ Could we expect a constructive fight for values as a possible
outcome of the crisis?
2/ can the artists be considered as viruses of social consciousness/awareness?