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226 CHAPTER 5The Nietzsche-inspired critic of the General Economy comes to realise that thecurrent economic system is based on the transformation of moral guilt in financialdebts. It is almost self-evident that the triumphal march of capitalism could onlybegin with this shift. The time of guilt is characterised by the haunting of aperpetrator by the consequences of his deeds: Logically, he ends up expiating theseconsequences. ‘Being in debt’, to the contrary, means to spend a time characterisedby the obligations of repayment. But while guilt burdens us, debts revive us, at leastwhen they are accompanied by enterprising energy. Guilt and debts share a crucialcharacteristic: Both produce the effect that the life of those on which they areimposed remains tied to the past. Together they create a backward oriented compulsionto connect with the past, causing that past to retain its power over comingevents. 73Although in this crucial passage of Sloterdijk’s Nietzsche-inspired thoughtshe speaks of the transformation of guilt into debts, my understanding of hisargument leads me to believe that he could just as well speak of the transformationinto debt of shame, which is generally seen as guilt’s twin, withdishonour being their little sibling. The construction of revenge as a tie thatconnects perceptions of a painful, shameful, anger provoking past with a determinedvision of future repayment works through the transformation of anger inhateful revenge projects, on an anger account filled with wrath. This is exactlywhat egha is. Apparently, the Kel Tamasheq preceded Sloterdijk’s thinking inanalogy on ‘anger banking’. At least when they speak French and use the standingFrench expression ‘des comptes à régler’.Me:Keyni:Me:Keyni:Me:Keyni:Me:Keyni:Me:Keyni:Me:Keyni:Me:What is egha?Egha is when you have fought and you have not made up afterwards, youhave not acquiesced, you have not shaken hands. Then, something remainsopen. That is egha.It is an open account?Exactly, that's it, a settlement of scores.Can that take long? Years?Oh yes, sure, more than that.All your life?Absolutely.Even several generations?Absolutely. Oh, the Tuareg have too many open accounts. There are alwaysaccounts to balance. That happens too much among the Tuareg.Was 1990 egha?No there was no egha between the Tuareg. Only more recently egha hascome between us. But there was definitely egha between the Tuareg and theblacks.Between the Tuareg and Mali?73Ibid.: 42.