The natural default for our society is a return to the Attenborough documentary on the life of chimpanzees in Senegal. The dominant male holds power over his troupe. The reward is glorious, while it lasts. From time to time this leads to war. When the boss is deposed he is discarded, a damaged and expended force, and he knows it.
Human's have flirted with different systems over the millennia, but the dominant system around the world appears to continue to be provided by the Chimps.
Three new factors present themselves offering support for change:-
1) The impact of climate change on the poor (at the point when it starts to affect the rich).
2) World population growth.
3) The futility of war. (see Harari 2018- '21 lessons for the 21st Century')
Are we prepared to stand by and watch the poor suffer and die in large numbers?
World systems have created a process of appeasement whereby the poor are kept (just) alive in camps. This follows the tradition of the workhouse, transportation and the gulag. Can the rich West inoculate itself to contain the slow whelps of death? What if the poor were given power? Would they reek revenge?
World population growth has resulted in the estimate that only 6% of animals now on earth being defined as 'wild'. All others are either human, or domesticated. Like the book 'Cutting down the last tree on Christmas Island by Weiss (2013)' we are confronted with the knowledge that our resources are reacting a limit. 'Slash and Burn' is at an end (of trees).
The forces that perpetuate this decent to oblivion are:-
1) Poverty and desperation for survival. "Why think of tomorrow when today is at an end."
2) Greed. Capitalism says 'if I don't do it, someone else will, (and I can do it more compassionately way, so let me do it.)"
3) Habit. It is very difficult to change thoughts and behaviours that are collective.
Systems that work are:-
1) International. The whole system is interlinked. For me to be rich, by definition I need the poor. If I do not acknowledge this paradox I am lost. "No one earned a Million dollars legally" said William Jennings Bryan.
2) Cooperative. This is mutually reinforcing back scratching. If it works for me, I ensure that it works for you. We retain a eye on the shared goal. 'Cooperative' is also suspicious. It's like the fact that we spend more money spying on our friends than our enemies.
3) Self correcting. "Movements become Monuments." We need a system that moderates the power that flows through the system.
An Example
The famous 1995 Ayres and Seigalman car bargaining experiment illustrated institutional racism and sexism in America. They showed that a number of factor, the main one being 'risk economics', resulted in black men paying 100's of dollars more for cars than white men. The question that I was left with was ' Of all the participants in this experiment, who might be most motivated to change the system? The answer is the black men. When the weakest components of the system are given some balancing powers, the system is likely to correct. This is the principle see when Afghani women police officers are issued with guns, or in the book 'The Power'.
It can be argued that the status of women has change globally just as most industrial and agricultural processes have become mechanised, and war is conducted with technology, rather than brute force.
The principles of change remain
- Liberte Egalite Fraternite
- Moderation of Power- Where there is power, it is accompanied by the abuse of power.
- The elimination of the necessity of 'charity' (and interestingly 'Social Work').
"We will always have the poor."
The burglar returns food stolen from the larder and is cheered by the masses.
A position of 'Charity' is a powerful position, one which is self-righteously re-enforced- it feels good.
In the West we send our children to school and grumble that we receive begging letters asking for money to pay for the books. In some African countries children write letters to their generous 'patrons' to tell then what good deeds they are doing. What if we in the West had to pressurise our children to write to wealthy Chinese or Arab sponsors to tell them how grateful they are for their lessons and their school uniforms?
Frantz Fanon, in his book The Psychology of Oppression, describes the three tools of colonial oppression as Factors, Gunpowder and Alcohol.
Factors are the 'inbetween people' who moderate colonial power and blur it's boundaries.
Gunpowder is the ultimate willingness to use lethal force
Alcohol is used to 'blunt the edge of the knife' to make it largely ineffective. (It is 'the opium of the people, and Marx put it of a different force for appeasement.)
What do we do?
1) SureStart- A universal service that sees the first few years of a child's life as essential to their happiness and wellbeing.
2) Every school' a school I would be willing for my child to go to'.
3) Minimise the power and influence of the private sector. The private sector divides society and creates difference.
4) Minimise the power of multinationals to hold political power over government.
5) Create consensus such as the 'City of Sanctuary' model. Here common sense and decency prevails. No one can disagree, though privately curse through gritted teeth. Do we really want to offer humanity to asylum seekers? They might come to us in numbers, and then what would we do?
6) Committees of common sense. In Leicester the buses compete with each other, running the same routes to out do the others. Our committee will organise transport to be convenient for the people, and ensure that our seas are not polluted, because it is cheaper to pay the fines than fix the problem.
No comments:
Post a Comment