is in; we can abandon the modernist order without finding ourselves
defenseless. On the contrary, there are abundant procedures for regis-
tering the countless conflicts having to do with the production of a
common world. One final advantage: every single one of these compe-
tencies and callings already exists in the most banal everyday reality. I
have no utopia to propose, no critical denunciation to proffer, no revo-
lution to hope for: the most ordinary common sense suffices for us to
take hold, without a minute of apprenticeship, of all the tools that are
right here at hand. Far from designing a world to come, I have only
made up for lost time by putting words to alliances, congregations,
synergies that already exist everywhere and that only the ancient prej-
udices kept us from seeing.
If the fairies have been so generous, if the baskets are so full of pres-
ents, I shall be asked why I have needed dozens and dozens of pages to
restore self-confidence to a collective that, showered with such favors,
SKILLS FOR THE COLLECTIVE
163(Box 4.1 continued)Task no. 5: separation of powers
Scientists:protection of the autonomy of questioning against the obligation
to be reasonable and realistic.
Politicians:distinction between phases of deliberation and decision on the di-
vision between liberties and necessities.
Economists:total distance between attachments and their reduction to calcu-
lations.
Moralists:resumption of the shuttle between the two houses, to prevent them
from separating.Task no. 6: scenarization of the whole
Scientists:opportunity to imagine a simplified but coherent and total com-
mon world.
Politicians:production of the one/all relation through continual motion and
resumption of totality through multiplicity.
Economists:definition of the inside and the outside and modelization of the
public for itself.
Moralists:continual rejection of totalization and pluralism as equally un-
founded; obligation of resumption.Task no. 7: power to follow through (see Chapter 5 and Figure 5.1)