How boring people made us rich

The economic success of the West was made possible by the valorization of bourgeois virtues and freedom. They were ignited in 1848. Switzerland is a perfect example.

The original article appeared in German in Schweizer Monat.

The Swiss philosopher and writer Alain de Botton once spoke proudly of his native Zurich, saying that «its particular lesson to the world lies in its ability to remind us how imaginative and humane it can be to ask a city to be nothing but boring and bourgeois». Yes.

He quoted Montaigne, that gentle nobleman from a family of fish merchants, who wrote similarly in the late 16th century in favor of bourgeois life: «To succeed in an assault, to lead an embassy, to govern a nation are brilliant feats. To reprimand, to laugh,