The craftsman knows what he can do, what he receives for it, and what recognition he is entitled to. Yet the compensation standard erodes gradually while the social role is emphasized ever more strongly. Precisely this is identity abuse, and those affected experience it as such, even if they do not address it openly.
The consequence: In the long run the estate becomes unattractive. The craftsman breaks out of his habitualizationâand succeeds in doing soâafter phases of artificial identity reinforcement and a race for structural consolidation and centralization.
In the end, a new appreciation for excellence becomes unavoidable in order to maintain an adequate supply of the market.
The Mechanism in Detail â from the Craftsman to Society
Let us imagine a master cabinetmaker in the 1980s. His performance profile was clear: precise custom work, reliable deadlines, durable furniture. For this he received a compensation standard that secured a solid livelihood for himself and his family, and a social role that brought respectââthe master.â Habitualization was complete. Over the decades compensation eroded: rising material costs, bureaucratic requirements, competition from cheap imports, and a politics that praised âcraftsmanshipâ as cultural heritage while allowing real hourly wages to shrink. At the same time the social role was invoked ever more loudly: âCraftsmanship has a golden foundation,â âWe need more masters again.â This was identity abuse in its purest form. The role was inflated while the economic foundation crumbled.
At some point the estate became unattractive. Young people avoided apprenticeships; experienced masters sold their businesses or converted them. Here dehabitualization sets in. The individual breaks out. He switches to industry, becomes self- employed in a niche, or leaves the country. Yet before this succeeds on a mass scale, the phases of artificial identity reinforcement arrive: support programs, image campaigns, compulsory membership in chambers that invoke âpride in the profession.â Parallel to this runs the race for structural consolidation and centralization: guilds merge, quality standards are unified, political lobbies demand state safeguards.
At the end of this processâif the breakout succeedsâstands a new appreciation for excellence. Those who stayed or newly entered work again with a reliable performance profile: digitally supported manufacturing, absolute punctuality, customized solutions for which customers are prepared to pay significantly more. The old standard is passĂ©; excellence is redefined and newly compensated.
This cycle is no special case of the crafts. It applies to every performance domain in which profile, compensation, and role were once firmly linked. What was standard yesterday can be excellence tomorrowâand vice versa. Decisive is the distinction between manipulative-opportunistic identity formations (aimed at exploitative forced collectivization) and organic-evolutionary ones (which secure sustainable quality). Only the latter survive the cycle.
Politicians Have Long Internalized the Game Privately
Politicians publicly deny the mechanism, yet privately they have long understood it. Wherever possible they use private health insurance and private schools. They know that the public standard has eroded while the social role of âcitizen provisionâ or âeducational equityâ is emphasized ever more loudly. Identity abuse on the scale of society as a whole. Public rhetoric artificially upholds the habitualization; private action shows that the breakout has already taken place.
hose who enrich themselves from wage levels depressed by socialist waste would have the foremost duty to forgo private excellence offeringsâor to admit the discrepancy openly. Yet politics lives precisely from this hypocrisy. It thereby prolongs the painful process of dehabitualization and of general undersupply.
Why Linking Performance Profiles to Identities Fails
The long-term coupling of performance profile and collective identity is no solution. It inevitably leads to the erosion of compensation while the role is inflated. People are prepared to let go of things that no longer pay. Some join the leveling race and cling to the old role; others let go and break out. Accountability arises only when the difference between standard compensation and excellence compensation is clearly drawn again. The system no longer knows how to value performanceâprecisely because it artificially prolongs the habitualization. That must change.
The Transport System as an Object Lesson
A current example is provided by the deterioration and rising cost of the transport system through green policy. Punctuality, reliability, and comprehensive accessibility were once the standard performance profile of a public transport enterprise, linked to corresponding compensation for employees and the social role of âbasic public service.â Compensation eroded (real purchasing power of salaries, investment backlog); the role was invoked ever more loudly (âclimate protection,â âmobility transitionâ). Identity abuse. The consequence: the estate becomes unattractiveâfor drivers, for engineers, for users.
Here only one thing helps: mercilessly putting oneâs finger on the wound and clearly demanding that commuting time be counted as working time.
False Expectations of Continuity
When wages no longer cover real costs and time expenditure, the justification disappears for working for companies that one does not own.
Especially conservative entrepreneurs must take a clear position here: are they prepared to stand unreservedly against the wasteful and corrupt system, or are they prepared to divide their enterprise among those who, without such participation, no longer have any economic incentive to work for it?
Consequences of Ignoring It
If the mechanism is ignored, structures dissolveâincluding security structures. Conservative entrepreneurs intoxicated by virtue fantasies cause one economic accident after another because they cling to the old role while compensation has long since eroded. Others recognize system-adequate performance profiles and relocate production. Yet relocation resembles a start- up situation in a foreign country: the risks of failure are high. It is more probable that a migrating enterprise goes bankrupt than that a migrating employee goes permanently bankrupt. The individual can complete the dehabitualization; the organization bears higher costs.
Leap Points and the Danger of Absolute Conceptions
Systemic influence becomes especially effective when conformism grounded in social bonds meets new generations that no longer feel obliged by the identity costs of the old conformism.
These are the leap points. At them it is decided whether the breakout succeeds.
The most dangerous thing for an enterprise is left-wing executives who proceed from absolute notions of justice, and conservative executives who proceed from absolute notions of virtue. In Germany and Austriaâthanks to the red-black proportional systemâprecisely such profiles dominate. The specter of bankruptcy greets us.
Absolute justice wants to replace the eroded compensation through redistribution and emphasize the role still more strongly; absolute virtue wants to rescue the old habitualization morally. Both prolong identity abuse and delay the necessary dehabitualization.
The fear that tyrants have of doctors illustrates the same point: those whom one previously harassed and whose performance profile one devalued suddenly hold power over oneâs own health in their hands. The breakout is completeâand the old power structure stands naked.
The Stupidity of the Ceteris-Paribus Conservatives and the Game of Distraction
The ceteris-paribus conservatives talk one another into believing, and allow themselves to be talked into believing: If you climb around on a rotten wooden ladder in order dutifully to pick apples for yourself and others, nothing will happen to you because you pursue virtuous intentions.
The truth is otherwise: If you fall flat on your face, you are unequivocally to blame yourselfâindependent of the noble
intentions by which you were distracted. The ladder was rotten; emphasizing the virtuous role changes nothing about the physics. That is identity abuse in its purest form. The dangerous game of distraction serves to prevent dissolution.
Steered discontent and division act like short-circuiting lightning rods. The division between men and women dissolves social structures and accelerates demographic decline through aging. The division between migrants and natives fosters tribal thinking, violence, and a culture of distrust that corrodes the economy. The external enemy becomes an unfinanceable internal test of endurance.
Consolidating and homogenizing mergers that do not touch the actual mechanismâerosion of compensation while the role is emphasizedâcorrode what they ostensibly wish to preserve.
The Actual Path to Solution â Constructively Handling the Paradoxical
The paradox is obvious: Where radical savings would be necessary, the least can be saved because of the political systemâs lack of insight.
The antidote is relative saving. Creating new investment demand, expanding the premium performance catalog, and massively expanding expenditure relativize the value of old debts. For this the readiness must rise massively to part with money in order to invest oneâs way out of familiar and entirely new unforeseen crisesâeven at the price of maximum economic volatility.
Much is at stake.
Price mark-ups for excellence services will become unavoidable.
Performance differentiation begins with semantics. Witch doctors from the Third World who perform cheap treatments can be staged as naturopaths with ancient knowledge and gentle methods. The gentle veiling of worsened provision at old prices facilitates the revaluation.
No fear of the market mechanism.
Higher inflation can mean that appreciation for excellence must be rediscoveredâa process in which everyone can help. Ten years with 20 percent inflation are no catastrophe if they shift relative prices so that the difference between eroded standard and new excellence becomes visible again.
Practical Consequences
In general for producers: Everyone must begin to consider which of his services are still covered as standard services by the offered purchasing power and which as excellence services will in future fall away or have to be compensated separately. This must be taken into account especially in liability and medical- malpractice law. No facilitations should benefit those who declare excellence and nonetheless deliver only the old, eroded standard.
In general for consumers: They will have to accept to a certain degree that every fifth VW loses its wheels at inconvenient moments or that a Bayer aspirin occasionally causes more pain than it relievesâprovided the price corresponds to the eroded standard. Whoever wants the higher performance profile pays the surcharge. The inherited habitualization ends when this distinction becomes everyday life.
A Better World Is No Longer Far Off
The dehabitualization problem works through time and produces leap points for which we must prepare. An age of leveling and commodification is ending. The craftsman who breaks out of the eroded compensation and the inflated role ultimately creates a higher performance profileâand with it a new appreciation for excellence. The same applies to doctors, engineers, teachers, and entrepreneurs.
We can all help to ensure that this appreciation is rediscovered soon enough. By naming identity abuse, seeing through artificial reinforcements, not joining the race for centralization, and allowing the breakout from habitualization. At the end stands not chaos, but a clearer performance profile and the readiness to compensate it adequately.
The mechanism is not fate. It is a recurring pattern that one can recognize and steer in the direction of new excellence.
