Portrait of Vigdor in blue 2001.
Democracy is curbed by an assault on the minds of the masses that persuades them to live within the rules of the market system rather than become "masters of the situation." Charles E. Lindblom, The Market System 216-235 (Yale University Press, 2001) (Mr. Lindblom is Professor Emeritus of Economics and Political Science at Yale University).
The "assault on the minds of the masses" that has historically impeded democracy arises not only by the exercise of elite power over the multitude but also, and more fundamentally, by the inherent limitations that the multitudes assert over themselves in their pursuit of the will of the whole. Mr. James Madison described in the following words first published in 1787 the problem of factions:
The smaller the society, … the fewer the distinct parties and interests … the more easily will they concert and exercise their plans of oppression. Extend the sphere, and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; y ou make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens; or if such a common motive exists, it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength, and to act in unison with each other. Federalist No. 10, The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection (J. Madison).
The inherent constraints on social factions that Mr. Madison endorses in his 18th-century paper have been reconfirmed as inherent human constraints, by various systems scientists during the 20th-century, as described in A Technique of Democracy. Irreversible globalization insures that the situation will progressively worsen.
This debilitating social dynamic is exacerbated in the larger sphere of global communications -- by Internet, satellite, and by TV and Radio -- that is also stunted by superficiality. Different forms of dictatorship have in common superficial communications. "All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning." (U.Eco "Eternal Fascism" in The New York Review of Books 12, 15-16 (June 22, 1995)).
For example, the e-culture is being shaped by global Internet connectivity without organization and management standards that were originally intended to sustain meaningful dialogue. Internet superficiality conforms to "Internet time" that requires "fast, cryptic, communications among strangers" without the time or ability "to interpret subtleties or build a deep relationship based on intimate knowledge." (Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Evolve! (2001)). This insures an ill-designed, capitalist e-culture for the future (see e.g., Book review of Evolve! by V. Schreibman, in Amazon.com (Oct 17, 2001)).
An e-culture that is limited to superficiality cannot survive the complexities that it promotes, without having the capacity to rise above the limited concerns of strangers, to contemplate the needs of communities that give life to the medium. Indeed, telecommunications in virtual space can work as a marvel of illusion spinning powerful virtual images that are largely indistinguishable to viewers, researchers have show, from real images concerning the sensitive relationships involving men and women, rich and poor, markets and nature, political advocacy and political action. Deprived of the capacity to examine deeper, more complex attributes of such relationships those virtual images can pose significant risks of false pretenses, particularly, in an environment when "infectious greed seem[s] to grip much of our business community." (Congressional testimony of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, July 17, 2002).
Meanwhile, an estimated population of 7.6 billion individuals is expected to inhabit the Planet Earth by the year 2020. The whole global people are likely to be robbed of their minds and their lives by the elite unless the multitudes are allowed to participate fairly if not perfectly in the structures of decisions that affect their lives.
The tower of Babel constructed during the 19th and 20th-centuries by the tyranny of the elite property owners, which The Founders preferred over the feared "tyranny of the majority" of ordinary citizens, is shifting toward collapse. This is made inevitable by the mutually exclusive social, economic, political, and environmental movements that define the existing situation: the culture of corruption, soaring population increases, catastrophic economic inequity and biodiversity crash, all opposed by the unvanquishable promise of democracy.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The "Little" Tower of Babel. c.1563.
Oil on panel, 60 x 74.5 cm.
Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam
The dead wood of superficial media, power brokers, professional experts, and "Representative government," have all pathetically failed the ethical tests of authenticity, sustainability, and responsiveness. The tyranny of the emerging global capitalist Empire, as brilliantly described by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri (Harvard University Press, 2000), must be absolutely refused and transformed, the authors argue, by the construction of a democratic counter-Empire.
Such a movement will require nothing less than the end of laissez faire capitalism, described as "market fundamentalism" by Joseph E. Stiglitz, the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics, in his book Globalization and its Discontents (2002). While the transformation from communism to the market system should have been "pragmatic" and "gradualist," to allow a buildup of necessary infrastructure, Stiglitz cautioned, Id at 186-187, ending laissez faire capitalism like pulling a bad tooth, should be carried out forthwith. The laissez faire market system is incommensurable, especially, with the key components of a desired system of social interaction based on sound principles of democracy encompassing: A) relationships; B) responsibilities; C) interpersonal action; and D) political structure. Nevertheless, overcoming these fundamental conflicts to strengthen democracy and allow the multitudes to become "masters of the situation" cannot be achieved in merely operational terms. "The greatest challenge is not just to the institutions themselves but in mindsets" Stiglitz recognizes, Id at 216. The basic condition of social transformation requiring destruction of the old paradigm to make room for the new, is applicable here, consistent with the wisdom of Thomas S. Kuhn's masterpiece, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), followed in V. SCHREIBMAN, A STRUCTURE OF THE NEXT POLITICAL REVOLUTION: The End of Capitalism & triumph of democracy.
Moreover, Knowledge Organization for the Informatioin Age, which must especially include the interdependent process of Knowledge Management, requires guidance by the supremacy of the human spirit, that is, by citizens designing a synthesis of valued ideas for their own democratic future. Three millennium have passed since the literary vision of the democratic assembly was first placed before humankind in The Illiad, by Homer. More than two centuries have passed since the promise of democracy was recognized in the Constitution of the United States. All the necessary democratic infrastructure is available or obtainable. My article on Knowledge Organization reveals the existing situation has been counterproductive. It has blocked realization of the primary goal of the Information Age during the past half-century, to enhance "the entire process by which man (sic) profits by his inheritance of acquired knowledge" as articulated by Dr. Vannevar Bush, Director of the US Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II. That history is a peremptory mandate for rejection without further delay of the supremacy of technology employed in the domains of Knowledge Organization and Knowledge Management.
Economic theory such as laissez faire capitalism has no constitutional basis (see e.g., Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 43, 74-75 (1905) (Holmes, J., dissenting); Nebia v. New York, 291 U.S. 502, 537 (1934)). The authors of Empire make clear capitalism has no moral foundation. It is based on a vile culture of corruption in which "new avenues to express greed [have] grown so enormously." (A.Greenspan, infra). Capitalist corruption has attacked the very life of this writer, Assassination by Suicide: Betrayal of capitalism (Mar 2002).
In contrast to the fundamental absence of capitalist legitimacy, under the constitutional assumptions of the republican form of government guaranteed by US CONSTITUION art. IV, § 4, the Supreme Court has ruled, "all power derives from the people." City of Eastlake v. Forest City, 426 US 668, 672 (1976). When the multitudes learn how to exercise their sovereign democratic powers directly, coherently, and purposefully, becoming "masters of the situation," a global democratic Empire will appear in the world out of the wisdom of the multitude.
The collective political power of the whole global people is needed for that purpose. This kind of political power requires direct engagement by and between the people in meaningful group dialogue and action.
The possibilities for transformative change, which can be released by democratization, are wide open. Such a participatory strategy can emancipate the most underdeveloped resource in existence in this world, namely, the creative powers of the whole people. The arguments in favor of democratic participation are not merely sentimental and political. They are logical and ethical.
Bela H. Banathy, a renowned systems scientist, educator, and author of Guided Evolution of Society (2000), observes, "When it comes to the design of social and societal systems of all kinds, it is the users, the people in the system who are the experts." Banathy continues:
Nobody has the right to design social systems for someone else. It is unethical to do so. Design cannot be legislated, it should not be bought from the expert, and it should not be copied from the design of others. If the privilege of and responsibility for design is "given away," others will take charge of designing our lives and our systems. They will shape our future. Id at 288-291. (Accent in original).
The elite demand for autocratic control and the inherent human constraints on the exercise of the sovereign democratic powers of the multitude have paralyzed the promise of democracy during the past two centuries. In her 20th-century classic, The New State 155 (1918), Mary Parker Follett saw the problem and anticipated the answer:
We have said, "The people must rule." We now ask, "How are they to rule?" It is the technique of democracy which we are seeking. We shall find it in group organization.
During the last several decades of the 20th-century two systems scientists, John N. Warfield, and Alexander N. Christakis, offered a brilliant systems methodology called, "Interactive Management" (IM), for management of decision-making by groups. This is a revolutionary scientific breakthrough in managing group dialogue, with the potential if broadly applied of placing ordinary citizens in control of their future. The successful research and development of IM followed initial explorations, during the early 1970s, by Warfield and Christakis into the problem of group dialogue in designing complex systems, at the Battelle Memorial Institute, Academy for Contemporary Problems (A.N. Christakis, Systems Profile 4 SYSTEMS RESEARCH 53, 57-58 (1987)). This writer was invited to attend a conference of American research professionals at the Academy for Contemporary Problems, in 1974, for a critical review of that initiative.
The original Battelle initiative ended in disaster. A core problem in the technological civilization was discovered, namely, there was no effective methodology for solving complex design problems. The use of interdisciplinary teams involving people from a variety of disciplines is needed for an understanding of complex multidimensional problems and these teams cannot work productively unless their work is augmented by methodologies that support meaningful dialogue but no such methodology then existed. That discovery motivated a life long interest in the subject, both by the principle research scientists, Warfield and Christakis, and by this writer.
Subsequent to development of IM and resolution of the systems methodology problem by Warfield and Christakis, systems design practitioners failed to provide a strategy for broad access. They were, instead, limiting access to the new methodology, to the elite who can pay the highest fees. The "have-nots" were locked out, once again.
In order to address that need, in January 2002, this writer introduced at the CyberspaceCapital web site, plans for A Technique of Democracy. That venture draws upon the success of IM, configured to assure that the multitudes can share in its benefits.
This writer also admonished practitioners Warfield and Christakis, and their colleagues, to resolve the issue of "equal access" to the new democratizing methodology. Warfield cut off communications with his IM web site at the Ohio State University following my all too frequent messages on the topic. In January 2002, Christakis appointed a Conference Committee of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, as incoming President, and announced a new initiative, which was later posted to the ISSS web site. The announcement states inter alia
Globalization is being described by many as an emerging new system of world order that has accelerated following the end of the Cold War order in 1989. Systems thinking must make clear what is being eliminated and what constructed by globalization. We must rise to the challenge of democratizing the processes of conscious evolution to ensure that globalization empowers all peoples and not just elites-
However, it was intended to develop this bold initiative in "a balanced and gentle way to bring about the conscious evolution of humanity" as a labor of love without funding, placing in doubt the seriousness of the project. Christakis also expressed fear that my call for an instrumental structure to aid the ISSS Conference Committee was a "very radical approach." Gradualism marked natural selection defined by Darwin but guided cultural evolution is radically different defined by evolutionary science, Banathy explains, infra § 2.3. During rapid social changes "the radical individual" like Socrates, Galileo, or van Gogh "may be the very instrument of creative evolution itself." (E.Becker, The Structure of Evil 232 (1968)).
Nevertheless, popular control is what the American capitalist elite, including Republicans and Democrats against democracy, has been aggressively working since the nation's founding, to prevent. For example, when CyberspaceCapital introduced a slide show of A Technique of Democracy, last March, visitors downloaded more than one hundred million bytes of information within the first five days after posting CCs show. However, shortly thereafter big business sabotage struck down CCs web site and operations, as explained in Schreibman, Assassination by Suicide, "Blockade of CyberspaceCapital" infra.
This is an age of "contempt for democracy and democratic institutions" writes Larry D. Kramer, "The Supreme Court in Politics," in Jack N. Rakove, editor, The Unfinished Election of 2000, 105, 151-152 (2001). The Democratic elite is fearful of a possible loss of their autocratic powers resulting from a shift to democratic social and political structures. Democrats against democracy are blooming in the political landscape, a serious impediment to democratic reforms, while the battle for democracy looms on the horizon chronicled in depth with penetrating incisiveness by Ralph Nader, in Crashing the Party (2002).
Fearful political insiders involved in Republican and Democratic politics are just now beginning to feel the not so hidden hand of a democratic backlash made inevitable by the multitudes that have been left out, victims of the politics of rich and poor. Every PC is a potential node for a new revolt of the masses. Desperate leaderless resistance and grass roots street protests are storming the Empire. Homeland Security has joined the momentous struggle between democracy and plutocracy.
The politics of rich and poor must be reframed. An ethical "user-designer" approach to social systems design described by Banathy, infra, is the hopeful new standard. In this struggle for democracy the winners must be the multitudes--both rich and poor-- by integration of the majority and minority view into "the will of the whole." This is the true meaning of democracy as described by Follett.
Democracy Right Now! A Technique of Democracy can facilitate meaningful dialogue in a cellular structure that can emancipate the collaborative creative capabilities of the multitudes. Democracy can guide the evolution of human souls under Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the outer metaphysical cosmos, toward a universal environmental ethic that can alone sustain the future of life on the Planet Earth.
Contact
DEMOCRACY RIGHT NOW!
Vigdor Schreibman, The Registrar
18 - 9th Street NE Apt #206, Washington, DC 20002-6042
Integrated Phone, Fax, Voice Mail: (202) 547-8715
Email: vigdor3K@aol.com
Web site URL: http://sunsite.utk.edu/FINS
Credits
The image of a Portrait of Vigdor in blue is published here by courtesy of CyberspaceCapital. The image of The "little" Tower of Babel is published here by courtesy of WebMuseum, Paris. Nicolas Pioch.
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 by Vigdor Schreibman.
All rights reserved.