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"ANGER IS NOT AN AGENDA FOR THE FUTURE OF AMERICA:"



 
 
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Old March 20th 04, 06:33 PM
Grantland
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Default "ANGER IS NOT AN AGENDA FOR THE FUTURE OF AMERICA:"


THE GAIAN PARADIGM

1. Man is an ANIMAL; a product of Mother Nature; and his economic
interactions are as "natural" and as subject to natural laws as the
interactions in a forest food-chain. These "natural laws" are those
governing COMPLEX SYSTEMS - non-linear; ill-understood at present; and
only crudely simulated by the inadequate linear approximations of
economics. This is why economics (and sociology, and psychology) is a
"soft" science not amenable to exact, linear examination and
prediction. The "invisible hand" is indeed invisible.

2. The many individuals constituting an ECONOSPHERE together make up
the Gaian SUPER-ORGANISM, analagous to Hayek's "extended order"; a
natural, organic SUPER-ENTITY, much as the collection of specialized,
differentiated cells in the human body make up the SUPER-ORGANISM that
is the individual human. Just as brain-cells, bone-cells,
muscle-cells, blood-cells etc "co-operate" to deal with the
environment (make a living) more efficiently than if they were
seperate entities, so do the individual bakers, traders, craftsmen,
doctors, scientists, clerks, bankers etc "co-operate" to make up a
SUPER-ENTITY that provides them with a better living that could be had
were they forced to be generalists on their own.

3. SPECIALIZATION and TRADE in the econosphere is organic, "natural"
and subject to the (at present) unknown and unknowable laws of Mother
Nature; the laws of COMPLEX SYSTEMS.

4. PRICES reflect huge amounts of information (on scarcity,
transport costs etc. etc. etc.) and this information is invariably
dispersed and unavailable to any single controlling entity. This is
why attempts at control of prices does not and cannot work. ANY
INTERFERENCE EG -STATE REGULATION/CONTROLWILL NOT AND CANNOT WORK!
Attempts at ANY kind of control of economic activity is
counterproductive.

Suppose a new science of Complexity could show that the human
economy was actually an entirely natural organic phenomenon of Mother
Nature - an inevitable SUPER-ORGANISM obedient to Complex laws
ubiquitous throughout the universe.

"An economy interracts within itself like a giant brain, with as
many neurons as there are people, as many interactions as there are
things that they buy and services they sell. People who will never
meet affect each other through a dense network of dispersed
information processed interactively; every cause an effect, and every
effect a cause. The entire entity is an organic, information-
processing organism, vastly too convoluted for any puny human (or
politburo thereof) to comprehend, let alone control.
If one thinks of the economy as a plant, growth conditions are most
favourable when the individual cells are given maximum freedom to
develop, within the constraints of a rigid Rule of Law. The law
provides the framework on which an economy grows; and freedom the
fertilizer. To meddle with these growth conditions is directly to
institute sub-optimal growth."

Grantland
***


excerpt
...

(Milton Brewster) wrote:

(Grantland) writes:
Alec Horgan wrote:

snip


... Trouble is, the INSTINCTIVE tribal
morality always reverts with attempts at "equalisation"; subsidizing
mediocracy and penalizing merit. This is why civilizations decay and
fall.



1) Suspiciously Facist-- which is, of course, related to Postmodernism
and anarchism through its Futurist roots.


2) Grantland: Can you prove any of this??


I'll address altruism a little later. First, to refute the
"Fascism" accusation:

I've heard this "Fascist" argument many times, and I begin to tire
of it. Fascism is nationalistic; authoritarian; involving government
control - rather than ownership - of the means of production. What I
advocate is, in effect, classical liberalism - liberty under law;
which is anything but Fascism.
However - and this is probably what you object to - my
rationalization - mythological underpinning if you will - for this
system is quite different to that of liberalism. Liberalism elevates,
as a principle, the rights of the one over the needs of the many. It
rates freedom higher than equality, where socialism reverses the
emphasis. The actual outcome - in terms of economic success or lack
thereof - is not specifically inherent in either of these two
philosophies; it is rather a byproduct. The fact that free markets
*work* and central control does not, does, to some degree, validate
liberalism and discredit socialism, but it does not do so at a
radical, fundamental level. Had command economies been more
successful than markets, it would have been the other way round:
liberalism would have been "discredited" and socialism "validated".

What I am trying to do is

1. explain*why* free markets work and central control does not;
2. explain that socialism has such great appeal because it is the
direct political expression of an ancient, ingrained tribal morality;
3. synthesize a new paradigm to provide a rational SCIENTIFIC
explanation and MORAL justification for (Classical) liberalism, so
that role of (vulnerable) mythology in underpinning this system is
greatly reduced.


etc..

I'm a little bored at rehashing all this, but that should disabuse
you of the notion that I'm advocating fascism.

a. does tribal morality always "revert"; to what does it "revert";
what is the mechanism it invokes; and how do we know?


You're being "clever". Here's something I wrote that explains
altruism "reverting" - see the post-script; the rest is for context.

Proposition: The West is NOT wealthy because it is democratic.
Democracy is not the cause of economic success. Democracy
is the RESULT of economic success. ECONOMIC FREEDOM is the
cause of economic success, and, ultimately, Democracy.

Freedom is not democracy. Democracy is not freedom.

Hypothesis:

- 1. Wealth-creation is always and everywhere a function
of freedom. By "freedom" is meant the ability to live
one's life without being pushed around by the state,
which has the primary function of guaranteeing security
and stabiliy.
- 2. The moral code of altruism, developed over the eons when
individual survival was possible only in a cohesive
community, and still subscribed to by most, stresses
solidarity, cooperation and mutual reliance. Given the
choice, most put freedom behind "social justice" and a
"caring" society.
Thus they remain poor.
- 3. Freedom is invariably imposed by wise elites - from
aristocrats and founding fathers to military juntas. The
USA might be the only exception, as a new and untamed
land.
- 4. Once citizens have experienced the exhiliration of freedom
and its ability to create wealth, they come to accept it,
immoral though its consequences strike them to be.
- 5. When most citizens are prepared to vote for freedom,
the bottom drops out of any elitest resistance to
representative government. Democracy the becomes inevitable.

Democratic countries are wealthy only because people vote for
freedom. They are democratic because their people can be trusted
to vote for freedom.

GOOD GOVERNMENT protects the borders, applies the law, and other-
wise keeps its nose out of the business of its citizens.
GOOD GOVERNMENT, not necessarily democracy, is what enables a
country to succeed.
GOOD GOVERNMENT is what poor countries should be aiming for.

postscript - Once freedom has made a country sufficiently wealthy,
(and usually, democratic), a reaction sets in. The moral code of
altruism deplores wealth disparities and pockets of poverty.
Welfare programs are instituted, freedom is circumscribed, and
decay sets in. The country begins its decline.


b. Does this "reversion" always penalize "merit"? Please specify
the penalty, the mechanism used to apply it, and what happens
to the people against whom this penalty against merit is applied.


Progressive income taxes; other confiscatory taxes - anything
exceeding a proportional contribution for defence and law-enforcement.
The threat of inprisonment for failure to pay. Punitive, confiscatory
taxes.

c. Who decides what "merit" is?? You? Some strong "leader"??
The "free" market?


The market.

d. How, exactly, does "equalization" lead to the "decay and fall"
of "Civilization"?


By turning previously vibrant economies into welfare-slums.

I would like you to either make an open, honest argument in favor of
Historical Facism, or to explain and clarify how your argument (above)
is NOT an argument in favor of Historical Facism.


See above.

Milton Brewster penmanrahul.net


**
Grantland
 




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