“Hello, my name is Julien”, “My name is Cathy”, “Aude”, “Arthur”… The faces are mostly familiar but for the new kids, like us, a little reminder of the rules is in order. “Welcome to Capitalists Anonymous, I remind you that the only condition for participating in this circle is the desire to begin a process of sobriety”, explains Julien, 38 years old, moderator of the session and founder of this discussion group. It’s 6:45 p.m. sharp, and the presentations have already started, despite a few latecomers joining us.
This Wednesday evening, there are around ten of them sitting in a circle on chairs that are all different from each other, but comfortably decorated with cushions. Like every two weeks, since November 23, 2022, they have met at the associative café La Fabrique, at the foot of the Epinettes district, in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine) in the Paris region.
Vers des quotas carbone ?
That evening, the group tackles the seventh and penultimate step of the program : confronting the limits of social justice and political obstacles in order to remain sober and campaigning to remove the obstacles that hinder our daily sobriety. Julien asks a first question to open the debate: “Do you feel encouraged or on the contrary discouraged by the political and social measures concerning the ecological transition?” “I’m disappointed”says Aude, statistician at the Ministry of Health, without hesitation.
For the forty-year-old, “as long as GDP and growth are used as a compass by politicians, we will not be able to move in the right direction”. Several hands wave in approval. Marie-Noëlle, on the other hand, sees the glass half full. “There is an awareness that has emerged over the last four or five years, more and more people cycling, public transport is full,” she defends.
Faced with this observation that everyone shares, these Anonymous Capitalists are led to think about political solutions that could remove the last obstacles to achieving sobriety. Aude, who admits “sometimes be in the extreme”, would be for the establishment of a carbon quota per person. “I am in favor of it provided that a market for trading carbon quotas does not develop in parallel. It is obvious that someone will have this idea and it will ruin the effectiveness of the measure,” agrees Aurélie. On the other hand, she says she is in favor of ecological incentive measures as certain companies can do by offering two additional days of leave to their employees who justify going far away by train.
Get out of your addiction
With an engineering degree in hand, Julien branched off into humanitarian work for the first time, but it was not enough. “When the documentary film ‘Tomorrow’ by Cyril Dion was released, I had an ecological trigger. he remembers. With the help of his partner, he decides to move towards more sobriety. He gets information, animates climate frescoes, but he doesn’t understand one thing: “Why is no one acting when everyone knows?”. He tilts when he comes across some research on the definition of addiction. According to Larousse, “Addiction is a process by which human behavior provides access to immediate pleasure while reducing a feeling of internal discomfort. It is accompanied by an inability to control this behavior despite knowledge of its negative consequences”.
But once the diagnosis is established, how to get out of it? “I wanted to go beyond the awareness-raising speech to move towards an approach of care because we are indeed addicted to the capitalist system, to its goods, its services and the pleasures it can provide us”, details this father of two children. And to achieve this, he relied on one of the oldest support groups in the world, whose effectiveness no longer needs to be proven, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Hence the obvious name Capitalists Anonymous. “At first, I had a lot of trouble with the name ‘Capitalists Anonymous’, but I understand the idea behind it”, Aude tells us. Tania, a Café volunteer who has only missed one session since the group launched, admits that it could have been “a hindrance for some, but at least it sparks debate”.
In any case, the 12 steps developed by the AA were adapted by Julien into 8 key steps to move towards ecological sobriety. Among which, those “to admit one’s participation, sometimes in spite of oneself, in a capitalist society”or of “trust and train yourself in scientific speech”also going through the fact of “understand and feel that sobriety is as much desirable as it is necessary”.
“We are not alone”
8:30 p.m. It is now time to conclude this session with the final word – or rather phrase – to define our ideal society. Last round of the table, everyone has their wish: a more united society… more peaceful… freed from its addictions… in harmony with nature…. A positive final note to reboost the troops. That’s what Tania likes. “It’s important to realize that we are not alone. I find real daily support with this group,” testifies the sixty-year-old. “It’s important to see that we are all in the same situation, that the most complicated thing is often to align with our own convictions while society pushes us to consume ever more”adds Aude.
Before leaving the room, everyone carefully notes the date of the next meeting. “Free, no registration, no commitment”: everyone is free to come and go here or elsewhere. Because if Issy-les-Moulineaux saw the birth of Capitalists Anonymous, other discussion circles have opened all over France. In recent weeks alone, three new groups have been created in Mérignac, Marseille and the 20th arrondissement of Paris.
2024-04-07 11:00:13
#evening #Anonymous #Capitalists #Novethic
