Revolt
from the Center
Niels
I Meyer, K Helveg Peterson & Villy Sorensen
Translated
by Christine Hauch
Marion
Boyars, 1981
When published in Danish in
1978, Revolt from the Center sparked a vigorous popular debate
across Scandinavia, giving rise to an ongoing influence on social
legislation over the intervening decades. Written by three eminent
figures in their respective fields of politics, philosophy and
physics, the success of the book in a small Scandinavian country with
a population of only 5 million is not perhaps remarkable. However,
from the first the book was tailored for a world readership. Written
in a single voice speaking, sound common sense within the setting of
a world political economy already hell-bent on social and ecological
devastation, the book has not dated with the passage of time. The
central theme is the responsibility of the individual citizen to take
account of the common good of the earth community as they go about
their everyday concerns.
To assist in the process of
freeing the individual from the inherited straight-jacket of welfare
through paid work, the authors of Revolt from the Centre
suggest the payment of a 'Citizen's Wage'. The unconditional payment
of an income to every citizen from the moment of birth is seen as a
means to blur the divisions between work, education and leisure. Over
recent decades calls for a 'Citizen's Wage' have come from a variety
of notable individuals and interest groups across a wide spectrum of
opinion, speaking with varying degrees of experience and authority in
their chosen fields. However, although discussions have ranged across
the continents, engaging academics and activists concerned with
social justice and environmental sustainability, they have been based
on the assumption that the division of labour and the wages system as
we know it are set in tablets of stone. In REVC we find
refreshing discussion of devolution of power and responsibility to
the individual and the local community.
