-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Brian Holmes Sent: Sunday, December 01, 2002 11:08 AM To: nettime Subject: Re: <nettime> joxe's empire of disorder
>Keith's Hart's answer to Ken Wark is brilliant writing, because it takes all the terms of the arguments seriously enough, and historically enough, that a next step can then be envisaged. Keith recounts "the formation [in the 1860s-70s] of new industrial states by means of national revolutions from above, all in the name of democracy and science." I'd say the next step or the next scale of that kind of argument begins right here Comment: I agree and have the following thought. One question is, where does social belief go in a period that looks like punctuated equilibrium? My view is that we are in an entropic civilization -our social institutions in their decay are producing free and chaotic human energy. I believe that the future depends upon a vision that is 1. Responsive to real conditions, human nature, ecology, and large populations 2. Optimistic about human development 3. Optimistic about the use of technology 4. Fair in outcomes 5. Just in practice 6. Fascinated and conserving of cultural traditions 7. Fascinated and creative of cultural futures In chaos theory there is the idea of what is called a "strange attractor". It is the point around which forces gather and replicate themselves. The nation state has been the strange attractor of the last 200 years. It is being undone by the passing of sovereignty, not to the people, but to corporations, and corporations are less interested in the total welfare and they are of the good of their own limited ownership. Watching its emergence over the last couple of decades I've become convinced that "sustainability", for all its logical inconsistencies, is the strange attractor for a non fascist future. Here, in the form of a party platform -liberal or conservative - is the idea. There are two models of the future. One is that a free market leading to human abundance. But where in fact governments and large businesses work together for control of markets. The ideology is individualist and entrepreneurial but the practice is simply one of control and centralization is a world of administration. It lacks the theory of the relation of the economy and society to the environment, and lacks a theory of society, and it lacks any understanding or honoring of the deep human capacity for compassion which should lead to a practical culture of individuals, and especially leaders, with social responsibility for the well-being for all. The second model is based on the broader sense of human nature. It simply says that we can use our minds to put together an economy and governments under the leading idea of sustainability by the active use of technology, existing and emerging, and create a vibrant economy both less extractive and with many more transactions. It would be an economy that has a chance of coming closer to meeting the full range of human needs.. In the current market, with an over production of consumer durables, and too many people with jobs in administration and too many people unemployed, could, if encouraged, shift to a world where more complex human needs and desires, such as more attractive education and more attractive living environments. This framework has a chance of providing guidance on emerging social questions such as genetic food manipulation, the implications of the genome project for health, ways to allocate health resources across the population, to foster quicker and more judicious and fair legal systems, and above all create the conditions for a society of civility and art and humor and dignity. The simple platform is . The framework of sustainability taken seriously . A vital economy with many more transactions with less extraction and pollution, making full use of the potentials of technology and human ingenuity. . A focus on government programs that enter into partnerships with local and regional authorities to implement the above guidelines through making available tax dollars and knowledge of alternative models. . A posture towards the rest of the world that is friendlier and more supportive of democratic and human development agendas, based more on the projection of American ideals than the projection of American power. These four points would be supported by the following: . The quick reduction of all current subsidies which support non sustainable business practices. . A steady evolutionary shift of the tax code from income to environmental extraction and resource use. . Rethinking the speed and fairness of our criminal justice system . Rethinking the legal framework for corporate charters . A cabinet level position on appropriate technology Our understanding is that this framework will go a long way to providing guidance on many other crucial questions, such as the nature of education, investment, and financial rewards. This approach is based on four primary perspectives. . The need for an environmentally sane policy . The recognition that business is a strategy for meeting humans, not a game for individual wealth gathering . A society fit for the human life cycle . The need for complex governance in the world with 6 billion people . The idea that constitutions imply what they mean: a balance of parts. That means that o Global o National o Regional o Local o And individuals have approximately equal access to power and money and leverage so that each level can manifest its creativity and responsiveness to the whole situation. This second model recognizes human creativity and initiative and provides a framework which is socially responsive. This model acknowledges that life does not have solutions, but only approaches and agreements and that each generation will bring its own energy, learning, and initiative to the situation as it finds it. We respect all that the past brings us and can teach us, each generation knows that the responsibility is now it's own. We believe that this platform would be not only good for America, but attractive to the world, and provide a framework for fulsomely lived individual lives, in a context of attractive citizenship responsibilities, in a much safer world for people of all ages and most traditions. Douglass Carmichael email [EMAIL PROTECTED] home page www.dougcarmichael.com weblog www.dougcarmichael.com/roughcut.html # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]