The Future of Civilization. I

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Where Does This World Go?

6 min readMar 20, 2020

Introduction

What could a social structure evolve to in the near future? I am going to conduct a thought experiment over a non specific state of the free world. In order to explore my subject I am going to apply the following logic. First, the subject will be taken and described in its simplest and purest form, as a “cell.” Second, a main trend of the cell development will be determined. Third, the trend will be directed to infinity in order to see what happens with the subject “in the end.” Finally, we turn back to better understand the subject “before the end,” on the way.

1 Free Market

1.1 Development

So, we are going to explore a state based on free market economy. First, its purest and simplest form is a state of absolutely and only free market, which immediately means totally uninhibited competition.

Second, we ask what happens to that state. How it develops? I consider as given that players on the market are of different abilities. Therefore some players grow and some do not, some stay in while others go out of business, some grow fast and others grow slowly. Obviously, those to grow obtain more tools and power to further compete, and the faster a business grows the faster its abilities to compete grow.

What does the competition cause? Considering that the economy under investigation is not regulated at all, the ever growing companies eventually become behemoths while others gradually disappear.

Where does this process lead? That is clear as day theoretically and has been observed in practice: Monopolies come up.

And what happens then? We still contemplate the same state, the same process, the same unregulated development. What will we find at the limit of this process or, in my language, in its logical infinity?

1.2 Coming to the End

If we, in our thought experiment, let this process develop unattended, we ultimately will receive one monopoly for everything. All manufacturing, all services, all education, health care, research, etc. — everything will be in one hand. Let us call this phenomenon Monopoly. And let’s have a close look at our state now.

The state consists at that point of Monopoly, people and Government. What are relationships among the three? The Government was here all along. However, in the beginning, at the time of free market economy, the Government’s functions were totally different than now with the Monopoly in place.

There used to be competition in the state. There is no more. That entails, for example, no need for any law regulating relationships between businesses. There is no actual trade there. The only “trade” left is working for a salary, meaning people give whatever they have in terms of labour time, skills, creativity and thinking in return for a fraction of all that in a monetary equivalent. Money no more facilitates trade as it did initially but measures distribution of what the Monopoly gives back to the people. There is another function there, mentioned below.

1.3 The Monopoly and Government

In the beginning, on the way from free market, the Government and businesses are separated. Suppose they manage to stay separated, at least formally, in the end, at the point of the emerging Monopoly. At that moment, money also serves as a measurement of what the Government takes from the Monopoly as “taxes” … in order to do what? It goes without saying that the Government serves the Monopoly and, respectively, the Monopoly willingly shares money in order to be served. Formally and politically, there can be different ways to organize that relationship and corresponding state structure.

Say government assigns management for the Monopoly. Or the opposite: the Monopoly determines the Government. Or something else, if any. Importantly, in the Monopoly situation, all possible political forms will differ in minute details but not in essence. Therefore, in further development without restrictions, the two will coincide completely, even formally.

2 Crude Communism

This latter case, when the state and the Monopoly coincide formally, is a special case that describes the purest representative of all political forms which accommodate the Monopoly, and it calls for another concept and corresponding term.

The concept and term has been forgotten today, but was well known about 130 years ago. It is “crude communism.”

Before we proceed, let us talk a bit about the genre of this paper. It is not a case study, even if some cases will eventually be involved. This is a thought experiment dealing with ideal objects. Of course, these objects are of interest because they are supposed to reflect reality, but the nature of the reflection is not that simple — we will discuss this later on. It is also important to remember that the ideal objects we work with do not necessarily coincide with habitual perceptions or even notions and corresponding terms used in vernacular.

So, crude communism is a state which formally coincides with the Monopoly, that is, one-monopoly-for-everything. Its more or less precise practical implementation is known nowadays as “socialism” or “communism.” Let us briefly recall what it is theoretically.

2.1 Definition

Crude communism is a society where all means of production belong to the society at large but not to any individual, group, or other entity. A development level of the corresponding state is not relevant, although the picture of people’s life could significantly differ between a poor state and one which happened to be relatively wealthy. However, development is not included in the definition. This is why it is safe to consider a poor crude communism state to be its purest form. A few more words will substantiate that below.

2.2 Outlines

My investigation does not require an extended theory of crude communism. Therefore, I am presenting a brief outline just for the sake of the context. I borrow it from a sketch by young Karl Marx (Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (1844) in Early Writings, Vintage Books, N.Y., 1975, pp. 345–346). I do not quote but present the outline as I understand and interpret it:

If a state owns all means of production (which, according to Marx, is “universal private property”), that means everybody owns nothing, which, in turn, means all members of this society are really equal in terms of ownership.
Because reality determined this way, the idea of equality becomes dominant in this society. That is, it dominates the consciousness of the majority. More specifically, the idea of equality dominates consciousness and subconsciousness, feelings, interactions, speech and behavior of the majority.
Because of that any and all ideas subordinate to the one of equality and thus twist to match it.
The above, in general, entails that any features and properties which bring an individual above the crowd literally hurt everyone’s feelings and are not tolerated. For example:
Exceptional talent brings an individual above the crowd and thus is not tolerated. A unique idea, for the same reason, is not tolerated. Marriage is compromised for being a form of exceptional belonging of two people to one another. Greed, while being not able to translate into business, turns into universal envy, etc.
Because any and all things and features to bring an individual above the crowd are to be levelled down by all means, crude communism tends to bring an individual to “simplicity of defined minimum,” just enough to merely support one’s life and ability to work.

I think that young Marx didn’t really believe that state of crude communism would ever exist or survive if established and for a good reason. It is obvious that above described social structure predetermines social, economical, scientific, even military stagnation with all imaginable consequences.

PS. The rest of the work:

Part 2. Ideals, Reality, Fantasy. Where to Go?: https://medium.com/where-does-this-world-go/the-future-of-civilization-ii-1210d5a0db78?source=friends_link&sk=eded6e79c22067840822f958b3c939f8

Part 3. Ideal Solution, My Wishes, Problem Statement: https://medium.com/where-does-this-world-go/the-future-of-civilization-iii-1548e4295352?source=friends_link&sk=d0f93e2c44f54b06de26480be38f3be2

Part 4. Economy of Free Time, Dialogue of Cultures, Etc.: https://medium.com/where-does-this-world-go/future-of-civilization-iv-57ec15b2d7f0?source=friends_link&sk=041a84363733649a47b403fa4fde98a2

Part 5. Culture, Civilization & Automation: https://medium.com/where-does-this-world-go/the-future-of-civilization-5-4ea72ac2f705?source=friends_link&sk=1b8017e58afa7f33c5120dd73f879f27

Part 6. Socium of Small Groups, Socium of Freedom: https://medium.com/@anatolyvolynets/the-future-of-civilization-small-groups-1033297794c9?source=friends_link&sk=91dddf1ea25c823d33ee80fd5077dadd

Part 7. Transition from Present to Future: https://medium.com/@anatolyvolynets/the-future-of-civilization-vii-60e7220ae250

Part 8. The Disease of Intellectual Property: https://medium.com/@anatolyvolynets/67ef8718113c?source=friends_link&sk=1da4f7c199d2c8e08f2b20b84d7d5682