Digital Direct Democracy, episode #4 ___COLLECTIVISM is our CAGE___
Central planners can’t plan for every unique person. Instead, they plan for the collective “greater good” using statistics to consider your personal data amidst vast oceans of population datasets.
How COLLECTIVISM Traps You.
Abraham Maslow famously published a model of human motivations which is known as the Hierarchy of Needs. While, like statistics, this model can’t present each person’s individual motivational state at any point in time, it is useful for contemplating the possibilities.
Human motivations matter. They are influenced and governed by many continually-shifting situations and variables throughout each human life. Statistics may be meaningful to central planners, but they are generally inconsequential for each human being as he or she goes about navigating life each hour of every day.
Language matters too. Terms like Socialism, Communism, Capitalism, Corporatism and Fascism are labels for different Economic models which describe how human beings interact with each other within defined populations and during specific periods of time. They describe, usually in the language of statistics, the dynamics between the three classes of Economic ‘actors’ - consumers, producers, regulators.
An analogy.
ATOMS are the building blocks of the NATURAL universe. God is considered the Creator of all material reality.
DATA are the building blocks of the DIGITAL universe. With data, statistics and computers, humans are the emerging gods of all digital creation and reality.
CONSIDER THIS: Government leaders possess the central planning and regulatory authority PLUS the resources to capture and analyze all data associated with every consumer and producer transaction that takes place. Does this mean that they are EMERGING GODS who will preside over every choice you make throughout your lifetime?
My beliefs are at odds with theirs.
I may be naive, or just old-fashioned, but I have lived seven decades understanding my place in society to be based on the following:
Every person possesses a body, mind, and will of their own. Survival and prosperity are largely determined by the choices and efforts made by each person to use these personal assets wisely. For these reasons, I have instinctively understood that the natural rights and freedoms to apply these assets are essential to life itself. These must be respected and honoured at all costs.
Governments exist to secure these individual rights and freedoms in a manner that is affordable, transparent and trustworthy. Fair and unbiased laws must exist to ensure that ALL citizens, including those employed in public institutions, are equally free to act in their own interests so long as they don’t harm or aggress against the person or property of others. Consequences for transgressing these laws must be paid by any responsible person or organization that abridges them, and those harmed should be made whole.
We are all social and economic beings as Maslow pointed out so well, along with many other writers and thinkers. Throughout human history, the family of one’s birth has always been understood as essential to thriving societies, but “families of choice and circumstance” are also vital for survival and prosperity. These latter manifest in myriad ways from tribes to various types of social communities to economic supply chains.
In the modern era, especially since the Internet, “families” have fractured into social, cultural, political and ideological pods which are often at odds with each other over differences in core beliefs. Many of the larger ones grow into instruments of influence on the centres of power and commerce. They come is all shapes and sizes, and exist for many different reasons. Collectively, they actively shape human societies locally, regionally, nationally and globally.
NO ESCAPE HATCH
Everything discussed so far boils down to ONE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM:
Each person’s FREEDOM OF INFORMED CHOICE is being systematically eliminated by powerful actors who wish to exploit humanity for their own purposes. Their “collectivist” methods, systems and rulebooks leave NO AVENUE OF ESCAPE FOR ANYONE WHO OPPOSES THEIR PLANS.
This ends the episodes that discuss The PROBLEM.
A proposed SOLUTION comes next.
Stay tuned.
