20 21 The empty throne And in everyday life? «Let me speak to the person responsible». When faced with inefficiency, when the individual before us seems unable to make the right decision, our instinct is to climb the hierarchical ladder in search of someone with greater competence and authority. Yet even here, responsibility is an increasingly rare currency, ever more elusive. Ugo Fantozzi knew this all too well. In the words of his creator and interpreter, Paolo Villaggio, the hapless accountant «knows he lives in a society that will never protect him adequately, a society in which fear is a permanent condition, a society […] where the master has no distinct identity, is not even a physical presence». Indeed, «Fantozzi lives in a pyramidal structure, and at its apex, there may well be nothing at all. Does the Mega Galactic Director even exist? Perhaps he is pure invention». Three decades later, Danish director Lars von Trier explored the theme of responsibility in satirical and grotesque fashion with his film The Boss of It All. The plot follows the owner of a Danish tech company who feigns being a mere employee, fabricating the existence of an invisible superior onto whom he shifts the burden of every difficult decision. We look to those in charge not only to solve problems, but also to serve as conduits for discontent and frustration. Imagine a river poisoned by industrial waste. The repercussions for the local population’s health are dire: contaminated drinking water, a surge in dermatological illnesses, bioaccumulation of toxic substances in the food chain, an increase in cancer rates. Who bears responsibility? The CEO, the shareholders, the engineer who designed the system, the worker who pressed the button, the legislator who turned a blind eye to environmental regulations? Who will pay for the victims? Beyond financial compensation, what is at stake here is the very demand for justice. Now, let’s envision an airport. A flight has been cancelled. The exasperated passengers seek an authoritative figure to take charge: the check-in clerk blames the airline, the airline blames the airport, the airport blames air traffic control. It is like speaking to a void. Worse, like being trapped aboard a pilotless aircraft. For this is how complex organisations operate: responsibility is so widely dispersed that, in the end, no one seems truly accountable. The pilotless plane serves as a fitting metaphor for a world gone awry: while conspiracy theorists indulge in the oddly reassuring fantasy of an omnipotent manipulator pulling the strings, the rest of us shiver at the thought that no one is truly at the helm. What if the throne of power were empty? Anthropology teaches us that traditional societies rely on simple and direct power structures, whereas modernity has constructed a governance architecture composed of institutions, procedures, and delegations. Every decision is fragmented across multiple levels, each holding its fragment of responsibility. Our democracies operate much like the aforementioned airport, perpetuating an endless buck-passing: elected representatives may exist, but the bulk of power is dispersed within the administrative machinery and is dictated by the fluctuations of global markets. There is no tribal chief, no feudal lord, no absolute monarch capable of unlocking a situation against an administrative tribunal, a high court, or a speculative assault on sovereign debt. The iron cage A century ago, sociologist Max Weber spoke of the iron cage of bureaucratic rationalisation: everything is structured, regulated, compartmentalised, ensuring efficiency and predictability, yet simultaneously generating an unsettling side effect. Responsibility crumbles. No one possesses the authority to single-handedly effect change, and consequently, no one appears truly accountable for the consequences. Frustration mounts. «Let me speak to the person responsible», we yell in airports, at supermarket checkouts, in banks, and above all, at the polls when we vote. The hope is to find someone willing to assume responsibility when everything falls apart. Flying on a pilotless plane is, understandably, not a reassuring experience, though some may argue that entrusting ourselves to an autopilot is preferable to the whims of a reckless, depressed, or drunk pilot. In the twentieth century, the demand for “strongmen” – those capable of assuming responsibility – led to the rise of tyrants such as Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, who pledged to take control of the state, society, and economy. The immediate consequence was the persecution of political opponents, an act for which Mussolini infamously declared his «political, moral, and historical responsibility» as quoted from his just as infamous speech of 3 January 1925 regarding the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti. More recently, the appeal of charismatic leaders presenting themselves as strongmen is a reaction to the widespread feeling that no one is responsible for anything anymore. The nostalgia for more vertical models of governance stems from the perception that contemporary democracy is nothing more than an excruciating buck-passing. Yet totalitarian systems could not have worked without a legion of irresponsibles serving alongside a handful of those in charge: the most infamous being Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi bureaucrat whom Hannah Arendt immortalised as the epitome of the banality of evil. According to his defence at the Jerusalem trial, Eichmann was not a sadistic monster, but rather a functionary merely following procedures, stamping papers, signing orders. He did not perceive himself as responsible for the Holocaust because he was just fulfilling his “duty”: ensuring that the death trains ran on time. This is the darkest facet of complex societies: they can foster systems in which everyone is a mere cog in the machine, and no one feels morally accountable. Lewis Mumford referred to these individuals as Eichmanns, and he was used to seeing them at work everywhere, even in democratic societies. But let’s remember that Eichmann’s crimes were not a mere malfunction of Germany’s railway network. Had some particularly enraged “user” demanded to speak to the person responsible, the diligent functionary would have had to name names of all the hierarchs of the National Socialist Party, beginning with Hitler himself.
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