The A/B society in Europe
Thank you to Dalila Van den Berghe, Tayino Chérubin and Yasser Farid who helped me out in turbulent times and enriched my mind forever. These arguments were knitted together during our discussions.

A really big problem of our societies is not acknowledged. Few mainstream or alternative political theories have described and analyzed it accurately. Therefore, we must begin by listening more closely to the stories and anecdotes told by strangers. They tell the tale of two countries, of two societies. Let us call them A and B.
In Western Europe today, there are two labor markets, two groups of humans separated by human, social and economic capital. One of them is having a hard time with all the opportunities available and the everlasting increase in demands to their education and training. They take up mindfulness exercises or urban narratives about how late capitalism corrupts people.
The other group gets less face time. The other one is spoken for. The other one is mislabeled as the underclass, those vulnerable to terrorism, the parallel or colorful world of foreign cultures, the exploited. None of this is true. From last to first:
- “The Bs are exploited.” — On the contrary, usually, nobody wants to exploit them. They are talked about as cases when they create jobs for social workers, integration experts and whatnot.
- “The Bs are living in parallel cultural worlds.” — They are actually the only thing new and fresh about contemporary European pop culture. They are copied, targeted by retail stores, and recruited into media outlets.
- “The Bs are vulnerable to terrorism.” — They are not children who were treated in a mean way by white, working, educated Hans who shot them a mean look. The Bs are not the illusory ally that European sociologists are envisioning at the militant extremists’ side. The Bs are not engaging in terrorism. The Bs are not doomed to be shamed by acquaintance or proximity.
- “The Bs are the underclass.” — They are not factually less worthwhile persons. There is no evidence to show that members of the so-called second labor market are a bunch of criminals and slackers.
On the contrary, where the A’s paternalism made most B-initiatives to lead their own lives and families impossible, the Bs invented a bubbling new esprit. A re-focus on family values, on brotherhood and sisterhood. A re-focus on God and not taking your own self as the center of the world. A re-focus on children. A re-focus on the true meaning of economy: Helping out other people, assisting them and doing useful things for them. Yet, many As often only worry that these jobs are not registered at the tax man’s office!
An essential political task of our times is to struggle against the A/B society. To struggle against those who want to cement a replica of the A/B society into the structure of our welfare and states. To struggle against the social mechanisms that separate humans into A or B. To struggle against the everyday mechanisms that silence and obscure the ice cold and ever pervasive border between As and Bs.
Struggle is not a government program or pedagogical endeavor. It is a set of actions:
- Break through the walls of non-communication between As and Bs. Soften the focus on individuals and how good they are at dealing with their privileges or discrimination. Focus less on how well people perform prescribed roles of tolerance. What actually happens when the highly tolerant university student heading for an A-life meets a member of B-society? Nothing. They can’t talk because our A/B society lives in a state of oppressive ignorance. Any system of oppression can only function if it obscures its own existence. This plays out practically and concretely: A and B seemingly have nothing to talk about.
- Reject indignant bird’s eye perspectives on humans. Humans are not aggregations of resources. They are neither cultural cogs and wheels in multiculturalism nor in ethnic nationalism. They are not their passports.
- Shout it out: All humans should be equally able to gain other’s respect and trust. But how is that possible when there is no police that protects all children? How is that possible when children are forced to go to schools where they do not learn what they would need to be useful to others? But how is that possible when public administrators at your municipality want to micro-regulate when and how it is okay to work, or when and how not to? Which piece of land can be used for what exactly, how tall a building is allowed to be? Which cash machines vendors have to use?
A civic notion of love can enable us to be equally able to gain each other’s respect and trust. We do not need to look far, it is engendered in the lived B-reality of the bubbling new esprit.
“Love is a basic need. Only love, in any form, provided that it is healthy and true, can break the walls of loneliness.” *
Love is a conscious effort. Our future will not simply be better than today in some indeterminate way. A better future — free from poverty, terrorism, ethnic conflict — will only come if we start getting serious about political love.
Love thy neighbor.
We should not confuse the love for our real, physical neighbors with our obedience and servitude to maintaining current social systems as lawyers, economists and policy analysts do. What does loving our neighbor mean?
- Pulling the thorns out of their sides: actually solving the problems in their lives, helping someone out when help is needed.
- Appreciating their strengths: expecting more from every single child. Not concentrating on their weaknesses by being permissive.
- Generosity: Giving greatly to those who want to solve our greatest problems: loneliness, poverty, crime and war.
- Kindness, not permissiveness: People have a deep need to feel useful to their family, friends, neighbors, strangers. Every human has a deep need to feel that they make their own decisions, that they are capable to do what is required, and that they are not alone.
Reiterating these virtues during public discussions can help create a new common ground that traverses a society increasingly divided into A and B.
Our discussion partially emerged from the following works. I listed them after writing down this essay to make sure that each reader can follow the threads of thoughts for themselves.
*Thich Nhat Hanh, 1965, Excerpts from one of TNH’s earliest books “Nói với tuổi hai mươi”, compiled and translated by Monastic Brother Phap The and friends
Bell Hooks, 2000, “All About Love: New Visions”
Gilles Keppel, interviewed by Mark Leonard, June 2017, https://soundcloud.com/ecfr/the-rise-of-jihad-in-the-west-a-discussion-with-gilles-kepel
