Gilets jaunes

The centralization of people and social life into bigger and bigger metropoles is typical for later modernities. This phenomenon is obviously evident today all over the world. The process is partly due to an almost diabolic attraction from the big cities and partly due to bad living conditions outside. In some cases in earlier civilizations such processes went very far. Landscapes could be depopulated, and peasants had to be replaced by ‘coloni’ from other parts of the known world.

But the process of centralization should be a voluntary movement and not be driven by disadvantageous and painful living circumstances. Such motivations should  only be the driving force in third-world countries unable to do something about it. As we see today, it creates resentment favoring the political wings to be living in the outback without services, without nearby jobs and looked upon with disrespect or even disgust from city elites. Elites who feel themselves far above people who do not eat organic food, but often themselves are guided by internet-borne viral superstitions like the belief that lactose and gluten are dangerous. In earlier modernities comparable processes could end with insurrections, often started because of taxations. We saw such phenomena in the Oriental modernity in numerous revolts in provinces away from Bagdad and the other big cities which were perceived as exploiting the smaller cities and the countryside. In the Greco-Roman late modernity the peoples in Italy (91-88 BC)  revolted against being exploited by the Romans without equal influence. In the second Chinese modernity in the Sung Dynasty there were truly anti-globalist riots in South China. They resembled right -wing populism in our time by often targeting Arab immigrants.

In our case the protests are difficult to ignore because the marginalized people have the same voting rights as the chosen few in the big cities. Also, through modern means of transportation protesters can easily reach the capital, smash the shining facades (so embarrassing that the tourists should see this) and demonstrate in front of the government.

Right- and left-wing populism is boosted from the margins, not least the geographical margins. Those who want to be an alternative to populism should not marginalize these margins further. Instead the margins could simply be given positive special treatment to counteract their disadvantages. This could be through eg. a tax reduction or a remboursement, both scaled after distance to work, or whatever.