Shiny stuff and designer societies (addenda)

[Steve Kinney]

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On 10/30/2015 12:54 PM, Sean Lynch wrote:

> David C. Rose's "Moral Foundation of Economic Behavior" cites
> some pretty convincing evidence that individualist moralities
> (perhaps what people here are callign "Western") are inherently
> superior to collectivist. Of course, I was already biased in
> that direction when I picked up the book, so I'd be interested
> to hear what someone who is already fairly sympathetic to
> collectivism thinks.

The word "collectivism" carries a lot of baggage, as it has been
flown as a banner over many authoritarian, violent dictatorships
"of the proletariat."  But the base concept of concern for the
well being of one's community as integral to one's own well being
has also been called compassion, honor and common sense.

Darwinian evolution does not favor the me-first individualist,
however strong, dominant, awesome, etc. that individual may be.
Humans have a genetic predisposition to form families, villages
and tribes, to identify with them and hold the interests of the
group at co-equal to self interest.  Purely self centered motives
are socially pathological, and Darwinian evolution selects against
this trait:  Because the awesome dominance of the "fittest" has
negative long term survival value, compared to those who work at
maintaining a strong, resilient community that provides a
favorable environment for the whole community's progeny out to the
Nth generation.  When the smartest guys in the room tell us
otherwise, they are not mistaken:  They are lying.  The more power
is afforded to purely self-interested socioeconomic "winners," the
more their actions damage the long term viability of the community.

Big problems arise when unnaturally large "communities," i.e.
States exist, because they can not exist without the services of
an elite group of political and economic power brokers who provide
millions (!) of subjects with a convincing illusion of "community"
with people they will never meet in real life.  Deception alone
won't do the job, so armed guards must also be employed to enforce
the orders of these facilitators.  Viola:  Rent-seeking absentee
landlords, serving their own interests at the expense of the
ersatz "communities" they rule.  It's all downhill from there.

"Democracy" so-called, an attempt at community self regulation
among strangers who will never meet, does not scale well.  My
favorite historical example is the response of Iceland and the
United States to the "financial crisis" of 2008.  Iceland,
population 1/3 million, responded as a human community, "regulated
the regulators" and has since jailed corrupt bankers who failed to
flee the country in time.  The United States, population 360+
million, responded as directed by the perpetrators of a massive
fraud, and rewarded them handsomely for their efforts.

Any -ism that is proposed to replace the policies of an existing
large State without eliminating that State, promising Utopian
outcomes, is at best a shockingly ignorant error in judgement.
But it is more likely a deliberate swindle backed by socially
pathological "individuals" and interest groups.  If the -ism
involves a large State with a putative monopoly on violence (as
violation: robbery, kidnapping, murder), it's just one more brand
label and PR campaign for Fascism.

Any -ism that proposes breaking up large States into small,
independent communities governed without delegating decision
making authority to "representatives" is difficult to implement
anywhere the modern State has taken root.  Intellectual types
rarely approve of any such scheme, because it would mean trusting
people to "do the right thing" of their own accord, without
morally and mentally superior guidance from On High.  But I am
confident that people who implement such schemes where and as
possible stand the best chance of producing societies worth living
in.  We are heading into a global industrial and human population
crash that will produce numerous local opportunities to do just that
.

And that's why I look forward to the End Of The World with
considerable optimism.  By definition the real "collectivists"
will be the long term winners, and I don't think that will be a
Bad Thing.

:o)


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