Among the many aspects of our culture that we take for granted, the most ubiquitous is the current financial system. Few people realize that our fiscal system is not the sole method of economy, and though the present system is responsible for all of the economic problems and deficiencies that we now face, a substitute is never considered.
Our present economical method (which we shall call Method F for the sake of brevity.) is deeply flawed and ultimately doomed to obsolescence, along with all who rely upon it for their livelihood.
The flaws of Method F are numerous, but here we will just elucidate a few of the main culprits.
First and foremost is the fact that our monetary standard is based on a "precious" metal of little practical utility (other than niche electronic and plating applications) and artificial scarcity. There is nothing inherently valuable about gold*, and in a universe of infinite resources it is sheer folly to place value on a substance for rarity value alone.
The next major flaw of Method F is the system of centralised administration and control which can cause artificial poverty (which has nothing to do with a lack of real resources) and administrative problems that reduce nations to destitution. Were there any less people or resources the day after the 1929 Wall St crash compared to the day before? Clearly in real terms nothing had really changed, but due to artificial rareness or excess of a non-intrinsically valuable substance (money), millions were impoverished and growth was set back decades as a select few profited immensely from the ensuing chaos and begun a masterful domination of Method F which continues to this day.
Others also gained from this sorry situation - Hitler was able to rise to power from the ashes of the depression which consumed Germany by offering (and providing) solutions (some more final than others...) to Germany's myriad of economic problems, that were themselves very much a legacy of the first world war and the treaty of Versailles, which called for vast reparations from Germany.
The treaty of Versailles
exasperated the global knock-on effects of the Wall St crash upon Germany and thereby create a situation where anyone could rise to power with the promise of rescuing Germany from the third world status that it had attained.
In the same vein, many of the pivotal moments of the 20
th and 21st centuries can be traced to the omnipresent and insidious influence of Method F - It often creates power vacuums that are frequently filled by unsavoury dictators and/or irrational political systems.
The primary problem with the present
socio-economic system however, is mainly conceptual - It is based on a closed system with limited resources, and therein lies the main barrier to its future continuation.
We live in a Universe of near limitless resources - even within our own solar system, there are thousands and thousands of years of available raw materials, and if used correctly this planet has renewable resources that will last as long as the earth itself. Though we tend not to bother, there is quite enough food on this planet to feed everyone, and every human being that dies of mere starvation is yet more blood on the hands of the disconcertingly small group of people that control the global economy (and by extension the world).
We need to start thinking of serious alternatives to this Method F, because clearly it has Failed in its aim of (we presume) sustaining stability, peace and prosperity. But what other systems are there?
One notorious and derided substitute is Communism - a
socio-economic system with a shaky history, but which has not been fully explored
vis a
vis a disassociation from authoritarian and dominating government.
A key reason that neither capitalism or communism have been the success stories that their creators wanted them to be is that western political thought is suffering from a one-dimensional perspective upon
socio-economics in that politics is seen to move on one axis only - from left to right.
We are of the belief that this is a limited world view that does not take into account many important variables.
We propose that this system of thought be replaced by one which more accurately represents the multi-dimensional nature of Human society, and here we give an example of how this may be done in a conceptual way. Try this yourselves - the important thing is not
necessarily what the axes represent, but that there is more than one of them.
The Politikube
If, as stated above, Communism and Capitalism occupy opposite ends of a single axis, what else could be said to have a binary opposite within politics? In the diagram above, we have drawn three axes to represent the three-dimensional space which we are used to. Each axis consists of two binary opposites that are still inherently related and have a sliding scale of decreasing opposition between them. Here we have...
Capitalism/Communism
Patriarchal/Matriarchal
Authoritarian/Libertarian
...all set around the three axes of a cube. Rather than be set on a one-dimensional sliding scale, any political system can now be plotted in three dimensions by considering its relationship to all three axes.
This will clearly show that though two systems may be at the opposite extremes of, say, Authoritarianism and Libertarianism, there are still many ways in which they can be similar. For example they may both be very Patriarchal, male dominated societies or they may both be run in a Capitalistic fashion. Every
socio-economic system occupies a point within this phase space, which can be denoted by a set of three coordinates when an arbitrary set of sequential numbers are applied to the scale of each axis.
By analysing present political frameworks, and plotting their position within the
Politikube, it is possible to gain insight into the unused phase space of the cube and determine whether other permutations of this space may produce viable alternatives to Method F - For example most civilizations throughout history have been male-dominated affairs, and the matriarchal side of the cube has been mostly
unutilised.
This system is not perfect, but it is an order of magnitude more accurate a representation than the worldview that predominates. The main thrust of this discussion is not to define how the world should be administrated, but rather to point out how it should not be (arguably an easier task).
In a later article, we shall discuss serious alternatives to Method F and the feasibility of their implementation. In the meantime, please experiment with the
Politikube, explore its phase space and please let us know of any insights you may have.
*this may not be strictly true - this will be discussed further in a future article entitled "
Monoatomic elements and Human potential"
postscript;
We apologise for the long wait between posts - they will now revert to more regular installments.
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