The Fourth Sphere Of Sovereignty

There are 3 traditional fields of sovereignty of which we are not all aware: the family, the nation and the company.

The family

It is the first place in history where the rules of community life were formed. Subsequently, the family nucleus expanded to include the tribe. As long as there was no hierarchical organisation of a society, it can almost be said that the rules of family life could be applied to a society as a whole. With the specialisation of tasks and the necessary hierarchisation that it implies, the rules of life in society have differed from the rules of life in community, sometimes causing conflicts of sovereignty, as the boundary between the two spheres is so porous. Typically, the family is the place where a simulated kingdom is played out: one (patriarchy) or even two sovereigns (parents) who apply their law to subjects (offspring).

The nation (the societal dimension)

When a group of individuals grows, the collectivist approach reaches its limits. There is a transition that requires the emergence of a social law coexisting with family law. According to Dunbar’s number, it is not possible to maintain close ties with more than 150 individuals, hence the need to establish rules favourable to community life. Society imposes its strength because the regal powers are commonly referred to as: hitting the currency, imposing justice, holding the monopoly of legitimate (internal) force and defending the territory against external aggression.

The company

Until the industrialisation of labour and the massification of education, the law of the enterprise could be confused with the law of the family: enterprises were above all family businesses, and activities that were not were often linked to regalian powers (so the laws of the nation imposed themselves on them). The business with its values, its codes, its symbols (logo, brand name, etc.) could present itself as an extension of the feudal lords: an entrepreneur leading people to undertake operations to capture or create wealth. Here the company does not go to war in the literal sense of the word by trying to capture territories and the serfs who live there, it conquers market shares and sometimes absorbs its competitors through mergers or acquisitions. The company is the modern vassal; it works for a king (here the nation or the state) to whom it pays taxes and for whom it is ready to fight on the international stage (particularly true for multinationals). Despite this allegiance, the company is a place where the rules of life and work are different from the rest of society (labour law and collective agreements specific to each sector).

The fourth of sovereignty: your telephone

There is a new sphere of influence and sovereignty that eludes the other three and which tends to produce a globalized and decerebrated culture: your telephone. As we have all realised, the telephone has a growing hold on all generations. The rules of life and behaviour organised by the three other sovereignties are being turned upside down. It is flagrant that today, lifestyles are dictated by virtual mimicry, injunction or persuasion of influencers (rightly termed) – themselves engaged in a frantic race -.
and applications of all kinds. This new stage of loss of sovereignty does not bode well for the future because the values offered by these new tools are above all mercantile and are based on a constant game of narcissistic comparison. The different spheres of sovereignty before the Internet world were not perfect, but they had the advantage of offering a sharing of power. The world to come may be a technological dictatorship that shatters the old models of society.