“The Circle” Society
Please Note: This article was originally posted January 28th, 2017 on Medium by James Rhule
This is not about the foreshadowing of humanity by the upcoming Emma Watson + Tom Hanks flick by the same name, and the trajectory Facebook. I know there’s a book too but watch the trailer and tell me that wasn’t Facebook-ish, I mean thematically. Mark Zuckerberg’s seems to be talking about running for president, you get that kind of vibe. It’s not that big a stretch, i’m just putting it out there — see it on the table? there it is… I put it there, moving on..lol
Nope, this is about the future of business, wealth and life in a rational society. A global society that doesn’t have things like money or nations. It can exist in one like ours, one that has geographically sectioned nations states, its whatever you fancy, the idea is the important part.
Imagine: we don’t have money, people value each other’s lives, so society is governed around a social democracy with a no-alternative left ideological agenda. This is underlying political ideology is fundamental, because of what it entails when put it to true motion: no level of social inequality is allowable, every solution requires further action and equal cooperation to make it more equitable, freedom and individual development is key but not to the subjugation of others.
This isn’t liberatrianism.
This is society where the resources of society belong to the members of society, so the ideals of conservation, sustainability and transparency are the base thought when approaching things. This can be transitioned to in a world like ours, if we start doing the next thing: social investment businesses. Both in our society and the theorized society, what remains: is how we value things and that we chose to improve. The idea of any successful business is making something that creates value in our lives, that’s it. Sure, there’s manipulation of raw products or mediums to make a service or a product, but if everyone has access to resources, it’s simply requires innovative thought. If everyone has access to education, it’s an application of thought. What makes it remarkable, is the democratized demand for it, that need is the only thing that this type of society needs. The way we live now, isn’t simply going to fade to nothing because the way live as a vast population now uses only a fraction of our collective wealth. The ecological impact is disproportionate but so the distribution. The pyramid scheme that is our global society is wasteful, its demeaning and it is a false dichotomy of necessity to remain as we are. This can exist within a current system when a spectrum of excess resources are exchanged for what isn’t produced within the system. Kinda like central planned china, but with actual complete social redistribution and circulated labour but the focus is how smaller mechanisms work, not whole nations.
Now, some progressive thinkers have talked about a social diamond to replace this failing tower of idealized order, but that is not progressive enough, because it allows a few to be at the bottom of society. In a society where human life is the principle value, there is no bottom to society. So, now you’re probably wondering what makes people want to work? What is the value for hard jobs and complicated professions? To this I have two answers, technology and passion. Sure technology is the easy answer, but passion is the one we should value. How many people go to law school to bring justice? How many people become doctors to care? If not all of them, I would not want them helping me. It is the passion for professions that make it worth having. Technology — is literally tools to do what we can’t do or don’t want to do. So the argument is not one of applicability or possibility but reconstruction of what we value. It is the ideal of the unyielding progressive thought, it is lobbying a population for a cause and not settling for the rallying point. Because once accepted, there is new fight to be had for further progressive states of society: this is no-alternative leftism. When this political ideology is embraced, life and the value of it thrives.
Now, you may point out areas of society that require development to embrace this: education, transparency and selfless greed. This means businesses that make products and not hoarding profits, instead they share them. Not to the level of current society; the “let me keep the profit and pay the workers enough to live and buy more stuff” — ideology of capitalism. That called a pyramid scheme. No, this society requires businesses that have a “let’s pay everyone enough, let’s not need a disproportionately paid owner tier to stop us from careening off the path of making value and progressing.” And this shouldn’t be a surprise, why do all the good corporations crowdsource efficiencies and new ideas — from their own employees? Because when it’s your job to do something, you’re going to understand it better and know the best ways to do the thing: that you do for a living.
I haven’t explained the real circle society enough, when we fairly distribute resources and are entitled to them, we don’t hoard them through things like inheritance: because society strives to make every life worth living and enjoying. There is no need to collect pebbles. Even if we did tally resource allocations, redistribution goes to those who are born with actual disadvantages, so they can have optimal life experiences. This is a real circle, the highest level earners giving to those that don’t or can’t. One could say that most of the 1% or super rich do give back, then why is society still so uneven? Why is corruption and extraction still the fundamental drivers of society and the most pervasive element of current policies? Think about it, if they’re smart enough to invent themselves fortunes based off things we value, why isn’t the issue solved yet? Most didn’t take generations to amass wealth. It’s because greed and self-interest haven’t been removed, there’s a lingering control by several actors along the chain of social control and order which obstruct clear and open dialogue. In most cases, it’s to hide past misdeeds to achieve gain or to remain in control of the current. Lack of transparency is a poison, that fuels the greed of control. It is the pervasive issue in society’s pyramid. When we look at the mechanisms that form the current system, we see that the issue is ideology and interpretation.
The delusion of needing owners is the delusion of a class society, just minimized within a creature of society — corporations. This issue isn’t the problem with the structure, it’s a problem with mentality. It’s the need for power and control, when open direct conversation and common benchmarks for social improvement is the goal. This becomes perverted when society and ideologies are supposed to value life, but only serve self-interests. Some will counter this argument that both sides of conventional political spectrum advocate that they believe in life’s’ value, but when transparency and collaboration are used instead of manipulated; the fundamental value wouldn’t become perverted by personal greed. Family values is just an idea of group mentality on a micro and macro scale of political ideology, when you value life, you value every member of the group. So when you discriminate an individual phenotype based social role, you don’t value life, you value control over a group.
This transhumanism, cannot exist through innovation with the confines of our society because the separation of labour and control is the mechanism for schism and division. When the thought remains that we do what we do because it this way simply works out best, the question then becomes how long does it work? and that’s a greedy question that stalls change in the system. That’s how you build a pyramid, not a circle.
See the curve to the peak?