The Future of Civilization. III
6 What Do We Wish for and How Does It Help?
6.1 On the Way to a Problem Statement
At the moment it looks like we are at a dead end. We bounce against the wall every direction we try to move in. First, if free market economy develops as such it leads to the Monopoly, which is evidently the worst case scenario. Second, the history never turns back, even if free market is considered to be a solution. Third, we can put forward wish, say, we don’t want the Monopoly. Or we can remind ourselves that classic capitalism bears certain features unacceptable these days and thus we don’t want it back anyway. But wish is not logic and tells us nothing about reality to develop, unfold and come.
Having said the above it is only natural to ask why should we think about future at all? We will see it when it’s here. Why to bother?
There are some presumptuous answers. I believe, pondering future affects the way it comes. Even our wishes can play some role. People wish in mass what is to come and, vice versa, future to come affects what people wish for because future does not just falls from the skies without a cause and warnings. Seeing what is to come affects reality. Even if the seeing done in the form of wishes. Even if it’s wrong. There are always people to oppose a wrong wish. These are some general, probably not very convincing ideas.
There is also one very practical and I would even risk to say logical answer. As I mentioned among other suggestions a future doesn’t fall on us without cause and warnings. We may not see or understand them but they do happen, they must happen, because future develops from inside present. And thus it is important whether we help it to be born as painlessly as possible or to do just the opposite, as it happened many times in the history — we can support forces from the past, which resist incoming future or we can even try to suppress the incoming change directly, causing, in doing so, unnecessary problems and suffering.
Finally, I can add on to the list yet another assumption that our time, in general, has a special feature in the way it deals with the future. In other words, there is a specific aspect of the social consciousness nowadays: Namely, we do want to know and try to foresee what is coming and what, respectively, is the best to be done.
Throughout the history real dramatic changes happened to humankind in social cataclysms and catastrophes, bloody wars and revolutions. Our time wants to be conscious about what is to come and try to promote the change without blood… That is the assumption and I like it.
6.2 Ideal Solution
So, what is it to look for? I am looking for the solution. Moreover, I am looking for the ideal solution and this time I mean somewhat more than I did before. I don’t just mean to deal with ideals but I want the “ideal deal,” one to work the best, to solve the problem radically, the best way, the perfect one.
But, first, why would we look for the ideal solution at all? It’s common believe that ideal solutions are not possible in the material world. Our experience will be fast to confront the very idea of an “ideal solution.” The common sense is that ideal solutions are not to be discussed and contemplated for practical reasons for being not attainable in principle. It is almost a logical stance.
And that stance is plain wrong. Absolutely, totally, ultimately wrong. It is definitely illogical.
We must look for an ideal solution. If we know what the ideal solution is we can think how to near it. We can appreciate odds, pro and contra, obstacles and problems on the way to the ideal. We can think about partial or close enough solutions if we know what would the ideal be. All in all, having an ideal in sight, we thereby see where to go. And vice versa: If we don’t know what the ideal solution is we don’t know in which direction to move, we are blind. As simple as that. This is precisely what I meant talking about “a blind move” in the previous section.
Thus, we are to start looking for the ideal solution.
6.3 The Problem Statement, Again
Our question can be rephrased now thus: What could the society of near future be if it’s not Monopoly, in other words, not crude communism to any extent? Or, yet in other words, what could be a society where monopolies are not present in its economy and social life and there is no power consolidation and, at the same time, it wouldn’t be classical capitalism. Moreover, monopolies would not be just present but will not be possible any more, not at all, in principle. That is, we are looking for an ideal, possible or not. We have to — in order to get sighted, not to remain blind.
Let us experiment.
6.4 Once Again: Is Classic Capitalism an Option?
Let’s start from the beginning and add on some fabric to the dry theory we were exploring thus far. We know free market is in direct opposition to crude communism: Absence of monopolies means competition. Since we are talking about ideals the state under the microscope features absolute competition. Historically, we saw states pretty close to that in 16–18th centuries.
Classic capitalism is based on the idea of freedom which is interpreted, for example, in the Bill of Rights. Implementation of so understood freedom was particularly effective for rapid industry development of the West. Yes, it was based on and actually implemented the idea of freedom, it developed rapidly in terms of industry and it was … not very friendly to customer. Do you remember that motto “Let the buyer beware?”
Now, if we want to turn back to strictly logical thinking we have to remember that talking about a “reality,” say, classic capitalism, even as we know it, we refer a certain ideal construct. That actually means we deal with it as “if it was invented” just for the sake of the research. That particularly means that no argument based on direct experience, or historical knowledge, or something else “derived from practices” is not accepted as a premise. It can be accepted as an assumption, at most. I am not talking about checking an ideal against reality at the moment. Now, I am asking again: If one-monopoly-for-everything to any extent is not acceptable and the opposition to it seems to be classic capitalism, is classic capitalism the desirable society for the near future?
6.5 Neither Crude Communism nor Classic Capitalism
Well, no matter how many times we ask, the answer will be the same: We want neither. We don’t want crude communism and we don’t want classic capitalism. That is, again, we don’t know what we particularly want at the moment. We also underlined at some point above that history never rolls back, anyway. And finally: If it even was desirable and implementable by the means of a magic wand, with classic capitalism we would returned to the point where we started and faced the same problem.
One side note: It happened, not once, that people in power tried to turn history back — never worked out.
6.6 What Does That Mean — to Think?
So, we are at the dead end still. But we are free to think. If we can, of course, for it is not an easy lot. Roughly, thinking involves fantasy plus checking the fantasy against reality and, in parallel, against some already understood things. The latter amounts to a theory of the subject and logic. Thus we can, at least, start with a fantasy and the question may sound like this: What would we like to our society be if we had a magic wand?
6.7 Do Good Wishes Help?
I know what I want. I want free market. Yes, I do — because I want competition. But I want good faith competition only. That demands, in terms of economy, that only good faith competition allows business to be profitable while unfair competition must entail failure. And I still want some magic which provides that winning the competition could not possibly lead to monopolies. That means being a monopoly must not be profitable. I want business interested in customers to the degree of genuine respect. I want such a market when ultimate satisfaction of customers in terms of quality and cost is a guarantee for the business success. It is known, furthermore, that classic free market economy develops from crisis to crisis and I don’t want those. Besides business, I would love to have high quality education and health care for everyone…
Hmm, all in all it looks like I just want a society somehow composed of positive features of (ideal) capitalism and (ideal, whatever that could mean) communism but without their shortcomings… Something in between, in the middle, something “balanced,” something in a “grey area…”
Which is one pure nonsense. We cannot even presume something like “golden mean” or “middle ground” or “balance” or something else along these lines “between capitalism and communism.” It’s just a wrong approach, cannot work.
If you think horses are too slow in comparison with automobile but automobile is too environment unfriendly in comparison with horses and you want a perfect means of transportation without said bad features of both, you cannot solve the problem looking for something in the middle between auto and horse. That is not doable, obviously. You’ll need to come up with something totally different, something special. You can look at horse and automobile for clues, maybe. You can even get some clues. You can even use some of those clues you have gotten … but the new machine will not be something “in the middle” under any scenario. In other words, the new machine cannot be any combination of horse and automobile, right?
Coming back to our topic, we have to presume that maybe there is an idea, a principle of a social structure to feature all those wishes of mine out there. Maybe. But if it does exist it must be something totally different, totally new. That new, obviously, cannot be constructed by simple borrowing of the features of known existing structures. That is, it cannot be constructed just out of wishes… In vain I tried.
PS. The rest of the work:
Part 1. Free Market, Monopolies, Crude Communism: https://medium.com/where-does-this-world-go/part-1-8c68d5030757?source=friends_link&sk=7613c0f6aadbb17b89a2b35a0b0195d9
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
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
