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CWB 9:91-92 (2014)

Appendix. The Tavistock Seminars

Author: W. R. Bion

Abstract

Extract from Péguy's Basic Verities:1

“Not only are the three terms of the republican device, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity not on the same plane, but the last two, which are nearer to each other than both are near the first, present several notable differences. Fraternity obliges us to tear our fellow men from destitution. That is a preliminary duty. Contrarily, equality is a far less pressing duty. Whereas it is intensely pressing and alarming to know that there are men still in want, the knowledge that, outside of destitution, men possess more or less large slices of riches does not worry me. I cannot profess much interest in the famous question of knowing to whom bottles of champagne, blooded horses, castles in the Loire valley, will belong in the city of the future. I hope that this will be settled somehow. But I really don't care if so and so has such and such a position, as long as there will really be a city from which no man can be banished or held in exile by economic destitution. Doubtless many other problems will engross the attention of citizens, but to nullify the civic pact it would be sufficient that a single man be wittingly held or, what comes to the same, be wittingly left in destitution. As long as one man remains outside, the door slammed in his face closes a city of injustice and hatred.
“The problem of destitution is not on the same plane, or of the same order as the problem of inequality. Here again, the old, traditional preoccupations, instinctive to humanity, are found, when analysed, to be much deeper, far better justified, far more real than the recent and always artificial manifestations of democracy. To save the destitute is one of the oldest cares of noble humanity, persisting throughout all civilizations. From age to age, fraternity, whether it puts on the guise of charity or the guise of solidarity; whether it is practised towards a guest in the name of Zeus Hospitable; whether it welcomes the poor as an image of Jesus Christ
Basic Ver
Page
Basic Ver

CWB 9:91-92 (2014)

Appendix. The Tavistock Seminars

Author: W. R. Bion

Abstract

Extract from Péguy's Basic Verities:1

“Not only are the three terms of the republican device, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity not on the same plane, but the last two, which are nearer to each other than both are near the first, present several notable differences. Fraternity obliges us to tear our fellow men from destitution. That is a preliminary duty. Contrarily, equality is a far less pressing duty. Whereas it is intensely pressing and alarming to know that there are men still in want, the knowledge that, outside of destitution, men possess more or less large slices of riches does not worry me. I cannot profess much interest in the famous question of knowing to whom bottles of champagne, blooded horses, castles in the Loire valley, will belong in the city of the future. I hope that this will be settled somehow. But I really don't care if so and so has such and such a position, as long as there will really be a city from which no man can be banished or held in exile by economic destitution. Doubtless many other problems will engross the attention of citizens, but to nullify the civic pact it would be sufficient that a single man be wittingly held or, what comes to the same, be wittingly left in destitution. As long as one man remains outside, the door slammed in his face closes a city of injustice and hatred.
“The problem of destitution is not on the same plane, or of the same order as the problem of inequality. Here again, the old, traditional preoccupations, instinctive to humanity, are found, when analysed, to be much deeper, far better justified, far more real than the recent and always artificial manifestations of democracy. To save the destitute is one of the oldest cares of noble humanity, persisting throughout all civilizations. From age to age, fraternity, whether it puts on the guise of charity or the guise of solidarity; whether it is practised towards a guest in the name of Zeus Hospitable; whether it welcomes the poor as an image of Jesus Christ
Basic Ver
Page
Basic Ver