Stabilizing and developing a society

Passion as a driver of a better society

In our modern world we are developing a new “caste” system. We have workers, administrators, entrepreneurs and artists. It is not a ranking system or value scale in any way. It’s just a classification based on type of interest and value added to society. It can be that I got the names wrong, that there are more or different castes or sub castes, still, bear with me for a while and let’s get on with how and why.

Workers participate to the society by providing their work capacity to build products or offer services. I am talking about employees, contract workers or anybody contributing by doing the actual work.Workers are the actual builders of goods or providers of services.

Administrators provide their capacity to organize people and tasks in order to accomplish a goal. Inside corporations they can bear the name of middle management, in public administration they can be named bureaucrats. These are people who accomplish their goals by employing others to produce the desired outcome.

Entrepreneurs are the bold people identifying new opportunities, employing workers to build products or services, employing administrators to organize the work. They risk time and money betting it will be a useful addition to the society or else fail miserably. Do not confuse entrepreneurs with business people or company administrators. Not for profit organization promoters, hobby club organizers, animal rights activists, and many others are also entrepreneurs.

Artists are the free thinkers of a society. They explore new ideas or reflect on the society itself in a new manner. I am not talking only about the classic form of art (music, painting, writing, etc.) — any free thinker, public speaker, journalist is an artist. Artists provide society with new avenues to the future and help it correct its past mistakes.

This is a remix inspired by the 4B classification: Bakers, Beggars, Bureaucrats and Bandits proposed by Pieter Hintjens in his book Culture and Empire (http://cultureandempire.com). Interesting work, please read it.

Now why the long introduction, what does it have to do with stabilizing and developing a society? In my opinion the only ones that have a direct interest in how the society is faring are the local entrepreneurs (the Bakers). Workers can provide their abilities to the best bidder, locally or elsewhere. Administrators can organize local or foreign projects. Artists will find the best place in the world to show their art. Racketeer entrepreneurs might take advantage of the weaknesses found in a society and exploit them, in extreme cases even sustain these.

The only ones with direct interest in healing and developing a society are the local entrepreneurs. A restaurant owner needs a healthy and wealthy customer base. He needs a clean and inviting place with good surroundings and scenery to build his establishment. Needs good public security so his customers feel safe walking the streets at night. Needs quality food providers. It’s best to have happy and relaxed staff so customers are provided with good service at tables. All in all he is interested that the place he is building his business in has a stable and thriving society.

In the absence of a strong community of local entrepreneurs, there is little will and action readiness to help the society develop. The government (administrators) will do what it can to preserve the status quo while reaching its financial targets and satisfying the voters with small electoral perks. The citizens (mainly workers) will strive to work for the best paying companies, increase their living standard by consuming expensive goods and live blissfully unaware ever after. Artists might struggle a bit to make a difference, mainly to break the patterns and portray themselves as revolutionary but in the end will sell to the higher bidder.

In the absence of a strong community of local entrepreneurs, racketeer entrepreneurs actually pose a threat. They will seek to exploit the local resources to their higher profit. entrepreneurs will take advantage of low wages, cheap natural resources, establish sales monopoly. They will try to keep the status quo in order to continue extracting high profit margins. To accomplish this they will “lobby” local administrators, employ local workers, pay local artists and use whatever leverage they can get on local mass-media to pose as the knight in the shining armor of progress.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to blame anybody. I am talking about the interest of doing something not the responsibility. If you talk about responsibility one can wonder about blame. I think the whole responsibility concept is overrated. Why expect for something to be done out of responsibility if there is no interest? And I’m talking about an itching interest, not the declarative type, that kind of interest that makes you stand up and do something or else your way of life will be affected and not in a positive way.

I am living in a society where we don’t have enough local entrepreneurs, or at least this is my opinion. How can we get more of them? How can we help workers, administrators and artists become entrepreneurs? Of course there is a lot the local government can do to encourage small business and local entrepreneurship, I’m not talking about that, we even have a government minister targeting especially these issues. I am talking about changing the mindset of workers, administrators and artists in order to become entrepreneurs. About planting the seed, the wish to do it.

Of course, not everybody is willing to take the risk or has the passion for it. Yes, it takes passion to be able to surmount all the difficulties that come with building and growing a business. The financial aspect is not enough. Workers can become more proficient or switch to be administrators to get a better pay check. Administrators can climb the corporate (or governmental) ladder to get better financial compensation than many entrepreneurs dare to dream. Artists can find wealthier patrons. It’s not money that drives entrepreneurship, but passion.

So, my question in the end: How can we help passionate people (hobbyists) to become entrepreneurs? I am interested in your take on it. What incentives do passionate people need to turn their hobby in a business? How can they minimize the risk, or effort of getting out and doing something? Is there a social or psychological barrier to it?

My friend, Sorin Suciu, a professor of philosophy from University Politehnica Timisoara, suggested an answer:

“I think an answer to your question can be found in awareness-raising of local communities. To put it simple, the solution lies in education. When the members of these communities will treasure and prefer local products and services, this will act as an incentive for local entrepreneurs. You can not create passion. You just have to provide the favorable cultural medium in which passion will bear fruit. Passion is a fire which needs oxygen to maintain its flame. From a psychological perspective, passion is a form of intrinsic motivation when acting individually, but became extrinsic when applying to a social activity. Accordingly, it requests a favorable response from the social environment.”

I just have a hint on how to lower the bar.