Fortuna e azzardo ai tempi del capitalismo

(Fortune and Chance in the Age of Capitalism)

Abstract

Of the ancient meanings of the Latin term “fortuna”, the only ones that still survive are those of “abundance” (that is, the so-called cornucopian worldview) and “chance” (that is, to take a chance, to gamble). Capitalism has oversimplified our attitude toward reality. At the same time, though, new myths have been entering the picture, mixing with the professed purity of our economic considerations. Between the illusion of abundance and the unbridled race after the last paradise on earth, nature, now reduced to a mere trace of its old splendor, has fallen into decay, and lies at the foot of our hyper-frantic consumerism.