The sculpture is already complete within the marble block before I start my work. It is already there; I just have to chisel away the superfluous material
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Legend has it that, once the work on La Pietà was finished, more than 500 years ago Michelangelo coined that phrase which, true or invented, is still valid. Things are often hidden from our eyes, and from the eyes of others. When we imagine something, possibly no one else sees it until it takes form. Then we can share and receive support from others. Those who trusted in the vision without the figure, in something that they had not been able to touch yet — such as the sculpture that inhabited the stone-,will be our main allies.
The idea is the seed, small as a mustard seed. What is going to be, ‘the act of its potency’, needs to be ‘purified’ of all that is left over. You have to uncover the beauty of the brutal with the blow of the chisel, with pain, patience and effort, but with perseverance and consistency. There is sculpture in stone! That we do not see it or do not glimpse the concrete idea does not mean that it is illusory. But it takes talent, perspective, and daring to find it. (Máximo Potencial, 2020)
Making the human figures emerge from the cold marble implies agony and ecstasy.
Using the marble block as an analogy and extrapolating it to other areas, we will find that there are various stones that need to be ‘purified’ of what is left over to find the sculpture, as a synonym for good, beautiful and true. A case to analyze would be the economic system. Monumental rock if there are any. There are many differences in the metaphor sought, but a contrast is cardinal: there does not seem to have been ‘architects of the economy’ with the talent, effort and dedication of medieval sculptors and carvers, especially like the stormy Michelangelo. This is a small, big difference.
The parody and stereotype of ‘businessmen’ during the 19th and 20th centuries was that of fat men in tuxedos smoking cigars and drinking brandy. Ambitious and greedy, selfish, and arrogant men who had no itch or scruple to hoard more and more dollars while resting perfumed in their palaces like Charles Foster Kane’s Xanadu. Filled with power, wealth and impunity, these caricatures of capitalism dominated the collective unconscious during the 19th and 20th centuries, and to some extent a disdain for the flabby capitalists still prevails.
Caricatured or not, these were the experts, the talents who made ideologies concrete, the forgers of capitalism that dominated the economy of the last centuries by force of iron and fire, extraction, wage earners and a firm hand. This caricature of capitalism, dehumanized and vile, led to many advances, but at the cost of what? What was the reward of the price paid? Commercial voracity produced obscene inequality and destruction of natural resources.
Even though the almanac passed into the 21st century, with numerous political, social and cultural changes that have dismantled millenary structures, economic and financial ‘Gatopardism’ continues to be the norm. Less explicit than a few decades ago but no less in cahoots with the elites. The story endlessly states that the wolves change the sheep’s disguise to a horse or unicorn disguise, but behind the mask they are still wolves. The form changed, not the content. The devalues are maintained with other packaging.
We are shouting: The wolf is coming; the wolf is coming! As in the fable of ‘The boy who cried wolf` (attributed to Aesop). The negative omens of the ill-fated essays that we publish over and over again seem like jokes. But it is surprising that they do not recognize the wolfish qualities of some wicked, ferocious men, nocturnal predators of lambs who managed and do manage bulky resources. There is no worse blind than the one who does not want to see.
With the changes of the times, the stereotype of ‘businessmen’ was changing. From fat to fit. They are now a bit more diverse, healthy, and inclusive in appearance. But they remain the same. But there are also, as in every age, men and women who, in appearance and substance, in form and content, are different from the typical stereotypes. The rebels, the madmen, the agitators, mischievous and unruly who always aspire, nonconformists, to modify the status quo.
Michelangelos capable and lucid but who are confused by the cunning of the ambitious, greedy, selfish, arrogant and unscrupulous. The latter know how to appear similar to those so that in the general view ‘everything is the same’. Monetary sweet tooths are artists of disguise, deception, and cheating. The puppet strings are difficult to see amidst all the smoke, mirrors and lights.
Among these skilled authors wanting to modify existing state of affairs I place Mariana Mazzucato who in her book Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism describes why capitalism is in crisis, how to define a mission and a purpose and change bad theories and practices. The next mission is to reimagine the economy and our shared future. Mazzucato mentions seven principles to make it possible:
1. Value: collectively created
2. Markets: shaping not fixing
3. Organizations: dynamic capabilities
4. Finance: outcomes-based budgeting
5. Distribution: sharing risks and rewards
6. Partnership: purpose and stakeholder value
7. Participation: open systems to co-design our future
How great to have this visualization ability! She is sharing with us a world imagined in her mind that she has these principles and their components, similar to each and every one of the folds of the clothing of the protagonists of the marble scene of La Pietà by Michelangelo. Every one of her muscles and her facial expressions before chiseling the first blow in her workshop was thought of by her creator. All things considered, such a talent for modeling such a detailed and well-proportioned set is chilling without the constant presence of the model itself (Máximo Potencial, 2020). This is what the innovator intends with this new mission.
Let’s imagine and have the ability to visualize the sculpture within the stone, the best capitalism in current capitalism. Let’s set a realistic goal. Let’s commit ourselves to the maximum to achieve it. Let’s carve, let’s work, let’s busy ourselves day and night to conquer it. Let’s define the type of company (what) and the amount of money (how much) it takes to optimize the present.
When we have succeeded in extirpating the giant work of the marble block, like a Moses measuring more than two meters, let us shout with joy, striking his knee ‘Ma parla Mosè! Parla’
