(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . THINKING [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-11 Politics definition, in its broadest sense, is all of the ways in which the human animal organizes its societal and group activities. We use systems based on the exercise of power over the individual and others to accomplish our purposes as a group. Everything we do or don’t do is the subject of our politics. In the course of our recorded history, we have used consensus, tribal chiefs, democracies, tribal counsels, kings, emperors, a feudal society of lords & surfs, city/state democracies, republican democracy, communism, fascism, tyrant-led “communism, and oligarchies. As civilized Homo sapiens, we have an extremely short ontology. We have only been passing and preserving what we have learned for future generations for about 15,000 years. At the time of my birth, we had entered a new knowledge age where it was no longer possible for one person to truly be a polymath. i.e. Someone who knew basically everything there was to be known. Now before the terminus of my life, we are adding to our store of knowledge at a rate commensurate with Moore’s Law and though this doubling every two years in transistor technology and the diminution of its cost is estimated to slow to a trickle in about twelve years, the speed and cost of our computer technology are truly mind-boggling. These limits of Moore’s Law only apply to the current transistor paradigm and do not figure in computing information based on new paradigms we have not considered. The calculus of change is so great we are at a loss to function well under our current governing methods. This increase in our technology has almost exceeded the individual Homo sapiens' ability to be a significant factor in the distant future. I say “distant” but it is a real problem already. The calculus of this change has resulted in information growth that can only be appreciated and thus used, by relatively few of our best minds. This has also put a great strain on our political institutions which were designed for a much less complicated age. Politically the only state of mind that lends itself to this new age is one accepting of and encouraging “change”. Which is often exactly that thought since the Enlightenment, characterized as “liberal”. However, the constraints of conservatism are probably of value in preventing us from stepping too far before proper preparation. I started referring to myself as a liberal more often as a consequence of the intentional changing of the word’s meaning by conservative operatives who wished to attack “thoughtfulness” which is a necessary adjunct of the liberal mind. We are now embroiled in a worldwide crisis arising from allowing our economic beliefs and attitudes to overly dominate our politics to the point where very few do, or certainly will in the future, control the vast majority. The way the majority lives or even “if” they survive are or will be, will be the result of the decisions of very few who have the power. If we continue with our current politics it will be those few who are wealthy. Not necessarily knowledgable or accomplished, but wealthy. Wouldn’t Adam Smith be proud? No, he would not! Even Adam Smith taught that capitalism and its markets required political controls and should not be left to their own devices. Today’s idea, that “markets” should be left alone and unregulated to produce their magic, is not supported by the claimed founder of the movement (Adam Smith). This movement is popular with large numbers because it is easy and requires much less intelligence and work by the so-called, experts and the people in general. Today under our political system a person can become wealthier in relatively few years than anyone ever did in the twentieth century. Is it because they are goal-driven and work hard? In part, but not that alone nor even primarily. No, it is because with a small amount of intelligent work and the expanded size and speed of markets their efforts and rewards are expanded exponentially by the society and systems developed before any of their personal efforts were made. Of course, you can see where our Calvinist attitudes have led us and why we cannot stay in our current position. We can’t stay here in stasis. Change is the one law of the Universe which we must acknowledge and is fully supported by all our verified facts. Our economic system of capitalism ameliorated by socialism is out of control. All our learning and our systems still require unchecked growth for economic success. There is no possibility of success without growth as long as interest is due to the providers of capital. We humans have been spending most of our mental effort on survival and our genome is full of information which has gotten us this far. Almost all of it has been developing skills that require us to subdivide reality into discrete parts. Our very method of determining intelligence is a measure of our ability to divide and subdivide us into them and us. I think if we are to be successful in this next stage of development we need to improve our powers of empathy and unity to which we will sacrifice much of our autonomy for the good of the whole. The age of individualism will give way to a new age of group loyalty and endeavours aimed at the improvement of life for our species which will necessarily involve us in the preservation of the world. We have much to learn from the examples of honeybees and ants. The trick may involve combining group coordinated efforts but preserving the individual inventiveness of our fellows. Economics is the tool we use to control and aim power in pursuit of our physical goals and as such is only concerned with a part of power. We are often confused and think our economics is our politics. We have been doing this intensely in the USA by equating capitalism with democracy. I think it is going to be quite a ride full of blood, and tears but it all must yield to love if we are to have long-term prospects of survival and surely a survival worth having. The new iteration of Homo which I call Homo technius will likely be the result of intentional action on our part to create a new man/woman based on intentional action for the first time in evolutionary history. Manipulating our genome, incorporating hardware into our bodies (now possible with nanotechnology) connection between individuals and the whole of humanity reminiscent of the ants & bees is where we are going. Whether democracy can long survive in its present form is questionable. What reliable ameliorating forces can we marshal against our crude creation of power? HELP? [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/11/2198858/-THINKING?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/