Dear Friends,
It seems to me, I’ve been thinking about alternative ways humanity could organize itself, other than hierarchical government. It must be possible to utterly change the paradigm of government from a hierarchy to a self organizing system. I have an idea of how such a thing would work but a real plan will take someone a lot smarter than me. One reason it’ll take a genius to come up with is because we’re programmed from birth to think we need a hierarchical structure. Because that’s the way it’s always been. And maybe that’s the way it will always have to be. But perhaps not. It would be a culture based society, where individuals are not only empowered to take matters into their own hands, in full view and approval of the public, but are obligated to… whenever an exigency is recognized.
A top down government of the kind we’ve become inured to isn’t the only possible game. Though all the systems we talk about are hierarchical. Monarchy, aristocracy, polity/democracy, tyranny, oligarchy and a republic. All types of governments we’re used to are some derivation of these hierarchical systems. The government orders the people take their place. In a complex system, no one would rule, yet all would rule and no one would. People would be absolutely free, within the constraints of the culture, and if that’s too constraining, they would be free to leave for a hierarchical system elsewhere. Meaning ostracism might have to be a thing in a self organizing system. Since there may be people unable to self control, but I think a lack of self control is a childhood issue, carried to adulthood.
I’m not talking about hippy communes. A complex system of organization would need a culture that’s conducive, feed backs to limit behavior, like instant punishment at the hands of peers, and rewards for good behavior. Good and bad predicated on it’s effect on everyone else. Judged by the aggregate opinion of the people… not a judge. The basic idea of a complex system of organization, as I see it darkly, would be a culture. Early American Christian culture as Tocqueville explained it, might form a basis. They would have to be combined with cell phones and internet for the transparency required for such a system to work though. Total transparency of public actions would be necessary. For public opinion to be useful. It would be a system of equals, enforced by equals, with great men ostracized.
Thrasymacus’ great men would stand in the way. They would argue, how are the immediate hard decisions made? By prime time TV voting? Showing they’re stuck in hierarchical thinking. Democracy itself is a form of hierarchy. It’s simply the majority that tyrannizes the minority, instead of a despot or oligarchy. A complex system wouldn’t need to be led. Like a flock of birds it would self direct. If attacked the system would react like an organism does to infection. Such a system would have to embrace free enterprise since there wouldn’t be anyone to direct us… but ourselves. In this the culture driven feed backs would self limit the avarice of capitalist actors. How? By transparency producing public outrage. That outrage leading to immediate punishment. If only as a general boycott.
Replacing hierarchical government with self organization may not be possible. It does make a good thought experiment though. Moreover, perhaps someday it may be possible. Given the right confluence of events… the right culture, along with sufficient moral, philosophical, metaphysical and scientific advancement. Maybe such a self organizing system could be implemented on another planet, if we get that far, before the elite bring on the Beast system and the End times. A system without police, courts, or government to direct us, let alone a command and control anything, is at the periphery of human comprehension. Focusing on it might draw it closer to the middle. Pragmatically… from it, ideas how to limit our present hierarchical governments might be gleaned.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
