The Zeitgeist Movement Defined PDF Final
The Zeitgeist Movement Defined PDF Final
The Zeitgeist Movement Defined PDF Final
DEFINED
www.thezeitgeistmovement.com
ISBN-13:
978-1495303197
ISBN-10:
1495303195
Contents
Preface ................................................................................................... 1
Part I: Introduction
Essay 1: Overview ................................................................................... 5
Essay 2: The Scientific Worldview ............................................................ 14
Essay 3: Sourcing Solutions .................................................................... 21
Essay 4: Logic vs. Psychology .................................................................. 26
Essay 5: The Case for Human Unity .......................................................... 33
Essay 6: The Final Argument Human Nature ........................................... 39
Part II: Social Pathology
Essay 7: Defining Public Health ................................................................ 46
Essay 8: History of Economy ................................................................... 61
Essay 9: Market Efficiency vs. Technical Efficiency ...................................... 93
Essay 10: Value System Disorder ........................................................... 114
Essay 11: Structural Classism, The State and War .................................... 136
Part III: A New Train of Thought
Essay 12: Introduction to Sustainable Thought ........................................ 160
Essay 13: Post-Scarcity Trends, Capacity and Efficiency ............................ 166
Essay 14: True Economic Factors ........................................................... 231
Essay 15: The Industrial Government ..................................................... 250
Essay 16: Lifestyle, Freedom and the Humanity Factor .............................. 278
PART I: INTRODUCTION
-OVERVIEWNeither the great political and financial power structures of the world, nor the
specialization-blinded professionals, nor the population in general realize
that...it is now highly feasible to take care of everybody on earth at a higher
standard of living than any have ever known. It no longer has to be you or
me. Selfishness is unnecessary and henceforth unrationalizable as mandated by
survival. War is obsolete.4
-R. Buckminster Fuller
About
Founded in 2008, The Zeitgeist Movement (TZM) is a sustainability
advocacy group that operates through a network of regional chapters,
project teams, public events, media expressions and charity
operations. TZM's activism is explicitly based on non-violent methods
of communication with the core focus on educating the public about
the true root sources of many common personal, social and ecological
problems today, coupled with the vast problem solving and humanity
improving potential science and technology has now enabled, but yet
goes unapplied due to barriers inherent in the current, established
social system.
While the term activism is correct by its exact meaning,
TZM's awareness work should not be misconstrued as relating to
culturally common, traditional activist protest actions such as we
have seen historically. Rather, TZM expresses itself through targeted,
rational educational projects that work not to impose, dictate or blindly
persuade, but to set in motion a train of thought that is logically selfrealizing when the causal considerations of sustainability5 and public
health6 are referenced from a scientific perspective.
However, TZM's pursuit is still very similar to traditional civil
4
5
rights movements of the past in that the observations reveal the truly
unnecessary oppression inherent in our current social order, which
structurally and sociologically restricts human well-being and potential
for the vast majority of the world's population, not to mention stifles
broad improvement in general due to its established methods.
For instance, the current social model, while perpetuating
enormous levels of corrosive economic inefficiency in general, as will
be described in further essays, also intrinsically supports one economic
group or class of people over another, perpetuating technically
unnecessary imbalance and high relative deprivation. This could be
called economic bigotry in its effect and it is no less insidious than
discrimination rooted in gender, ethnicity, religion, creed or the like.
However, this inherent bigotry is really only a part of a larger
condition that could be termed structural violence,7 illuminating a
broad spectrum of built in suffering, inhumanity and deprivation that is
simply accepted as normality today by an uninformed majority. This
context of violence stretches much farther and deeper than many tend
to consider. The scope of how our socioeconomic system unnecessarily
diminishes our public health and inhibits our progress today can only
be recognized clearly when we take a more detached technical or
scientific perspective of social affairs, bypassing our traditional, often
blinding familiarities.
The relative nature of our awareness often falls victim to
assumptions of perceived normality where, say, the ongoing
deprivation and poverty of over 3 billion people8 might be seen as a
natural, inalterable social state to those who are not aware of, for
example, the amount of food actually produced in the world, where it
goes, how it is wasted or the technical nature of efficient and abundant
food production possibilities in the modern day.
This unseen violence can be extended to cultural memes9 as
well where social traditions and their psychology can, without direct
malicious intent, create resulting consequences that are damaging to a
human being. For instance, there are religious cultures in the world
that opt out of any form of common medical treatment.10 While many
might argue the moral or ethical parameters of what it means for a
child in such a culture to die of a common illness that could have been
resolved if modern scientific applications were allowed, we can at least
agree that the death of such a child is really being caused not by the
disease at that point, but by the sociological condition that disallowed
the application of the solution.
As a broader example, a great deal of social study has now
been done on the subject of social inequality and its effects on public
health. As will be discussed more so in further essays, there is a vast
array of physical and mental health problems that appear to be born
out of this condition, including propensities towards physical violence,
heart disease, depression, educational deficiency and many, many
other detriments that have a truly social consequence which can affect
us all.11
The bottom line here is that when we step back and consider
newly realized understandings of causality that are clearly having
negative effects on the human condition, but go unabated
unnecessarily due the pre-existing traditions established by culture, we
inevitably end up in the context of civil rights and hence social
sustainability. This new civil rights movement is about the sharing of
human knowledge and our technical ability to not only solve problems,
but to facilitate a scientifically derived social system that actually
optimizes our potential and well-being. Anything less will create
unnecessary imbalance and social destabilization and constitute what
could be considered a hidden form of oppression.
So, returning to the broad point, TZM works not only to create
awareness of such problems and their true root causes (and hence
logic for resolution), it also works to express the incredible potential
we have, beyond such direct problem solving, to greatly improve the
human condition in general, solving problems which, in fact, have not
yet even been realized.12 This is initiated by embracing the very nature
of scientific reasoning where the establishment of a near empirical
train of thought takes precedence over everything else in importance.
A train of thought by which societal organization as a whole can find a
more accurate context for sustainability and efficiency on a scale never
before seen, through an active recognition (and application) of the
scientific method.
Focus
10 Reference: Very religious parents causing suffering to sick kids, says report
(http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/religious-parents-causing-suffering-sick-kidssays-report-115021612.html)
11 Reference: The Spirit Level, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, Penguin,
March 2009
12 More on this issue will be presented in a following essay titled Sourcing
Solutions
7
unfamiliar with this train of thought and the application set15 related,
but also for those who already subscribe to it. Just as there is no
utopia, there is no final state of understanding.
Create:
While certainly related to the need to adjust human values through
education so the world's people understand the need for such social
changes, TZM also works to consider how a new social system, based
on optimum economic efficiency,16 would appear and operate in detail,
given our current state of technical ability.
Programs such as the Global Redesign Institute,17 which is a
digital think tank that works to express how the core societal
infrastructure could unfold based on our current state of technology,
working to combine that technical capacity with the scientific train of
thought so as to calculate the most efficient technical infrastructure
possible for any given region of the world, is one example.
It is worth briefly noting that TZM's advocated governance
approach, which has little semblance to the current manner of
governance known today or historically, originates out of a multidisciplinary bridging of various proven methods for maximized
optimization, unified through a counter-balancing systems approach
that is designed to be as adaptive as possible to new, emerging
improvements over time.18
As will be discussed at length, the only possible reference that
could be considered most complete at any given time is one that
takes into account the largest interacting observations (system)
tangibly relevant. This is the nature of the cause and effect synergy
that underscores the technical basis for a truly sustainable economy.
Natural Law/Resource-Based Economy
Today, various terms exists to express the general logical basis for a
more scientifically oriented social system in different circles, including
the titles Resource-Based Economy or Natural Law Economy. While
these titles are historically referential and somewhat arbitrary overall,
the title Natural Law/Resource-Based Economy (NLRBE) will be
utilized here since it has the most concrete semantic basis.19
15 The phrases train of thought and application set are paired. The former
16
17
18
19
Tradition to Emergence
The perceptual clash between our cultural traditions and our ever
growing database of emergent knowledge is at the core of what
defines the zeitgeist as we know it and a long-term review of history
shows a slow grind out of superstitious cultural traditions and
assumptions of reality as they heed to our newly realized benchmark
of emergent, scientific causality. This is what TZM represents in its
broadest philosophical context: A movement of the cultural zeitgeist
itself into new, verifiable and more optimized understandings and
applications.
Hence, while society certainly has witnessed vast and
accelerating changes in different areas of awareness and practice,
such as with our vast material technology today, it appears our social
system is still long behind. Political persuasion, market economics,
labor-for-income,
perpetual
inequality,
nation
states,
legal
assumptions and many other staples of our current social order
continue to be largely accepted as normality by the current culture,
with little more than their persistence through time as evidence of
their value and empirical permanence.
It is in this context that TZM finds its most broad imperative:
changing the social system. Again, there are many problem solving
technical possibilities for personal and social progress today that
continue to go unnoticed or misunderstood.25 The ending of war, the
resolution of poverty, the creation of a material abundance unseen in
history to meet human needs, the removal of most crime as we know
it, the empowerment of true personal freedom through the removal of
pointless and/or monotonous labor, and the resolution of many
environmental threats, are but a few of the calculated possibilities we
have when we take our technical reality into account.
However, again, these possibilities are not only largely
unrecognized, they are also literally restricted by the current social
order for the implementation of such problem solving efficiency and
prosperity stands in direct opposition to the very mechanics of how our
current social system is operating at the core level.26
Therefore, until the socioeconomic tradition and its resulting
social values are challenged and updated to present day
understandings; until the majority of the human population
understands the basic, underlying train of thought technically needed
to support human sustainability and public health, as derived from the
rigor of objective scientific investigation and validation; until much of
the baggage of prior false assumptions, superstition, divisive loyalties
and other socially unsustainable, conflict generating, cultural
hindrances are overcome - all the life improving and problem resolving
possibilities we now have at hand will remain largely dormant.
The real revolution is the revolution of values. Human society
25 Reference: Zeitnews, a science and technology website related to TZM, is
recommended (http://www.zeitnews.org/)
12
13
-THE SCIENTIFIC WORLDVIEWAlmost every major systematic error which has deluded men for thousands of
years relied on practical experience. Horoscopes, incantations, oracles, magic,
witchcraft, the cures of witch doctors and of medical practitioners before the
advent of modern medicine, were all firmly established through the centuries in
the eyes of the public by their supposed practical successes. The scientific
method was devised precisely for the purpose of elucidating the nature of
things under more carefully controlled conditions and by more rigorous criteria
than are present in the situations created by practical problems.27
-Michael Polanyi
28 Source: As quoted in All the Questions You Ever Wanted to Ask American
likely most notable with his use of the term MetaMagical. His work is
recommended: http://benatlas.com/2009/12/robert-sapolsky-onmetamagical-schizotypal-thinking/
30 The term New Age is generally defined as A broad movement characterized
15
Symbiosis
A second point deeply characteristic of the scientific worldview worth
bringing up in this regard has to do with the symbiotic nature of
things, as we know them. Largely dismissed as common sense today
by many, this understanding holds profound revelations for the way
we think about our world, our beliefs, our conduct and ourselves.
The term symbiotic is typically used in the context of
interdependent relationships between biological species.33 However our
context of the word is broader, relating to the interdependent
relationship of everything. While early, intuitive views of natural
phenomena might have looked upon, say, the manifestation of a tree
as an independent entity, seemingly self-contained in its illusion of
separation, the truth of the matter is that a tree's life is entirely
dependent on seemingly external input forces for its very
culmination and existence.34
The water, sunlight, nutrients and other needed interactive
external attributes to facilitate the development of a tree is an
example of a symbiotic or synergetic relationship. However, the scope
of this symbiosis has become much more revealing than we have ever
known in the past and it appears the more we learn about the
dynamics of our universe, the more immutable its interdependence.
The best concept to embody this notion is that of a system.35
The term tree is really a reference to a perceived system. The root,
trunk, branches, leaves and other such attributes of that tree
could be called sub-systems. Yet, the tree itself is also a subsystem, it could be said, of, perhaps, a forest, which itself is a subsystem of other larger, encompassing phenomena such as an
ecosystem. Such distinctions might seem trivial to many but the fact
is, a great failure in human awareness has been not to fully respect
the scope of the Earth system and how each sub-system plays a
relevant role.
The term categorical systems36 could even be used here to
describe all systems, seemingly small or large, because such language
distinctions are ultimately arbitrary. These perceived systems and the
words used to reference them are simply human conveniences for
communication. The fact is, there appears to be only one possible
33 Source: Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/symbiotic)
34 The term external in this context is framed as relative to a perceived
object. The broader point here is that there is no such thing as external or
internal in the context of larger order systems.
35 A system is defined as: a set of things working together as parts of a
mechanism or an interconnecting network. It is worth noting up front the
importance of this concept as the relevance of the system or systems
theory will be a returning theme with respect to what frame of reference
actually supports true human sustainability in our habitat.
36 This term is a variation on the more common notion of categorical
thinking which is thinking by assigning people or things to categories and
then using the categories as though they represented something in the real
world.
17
th
1946
43 A notable modern example is new transport technology such as Maglev
transport that uses less energy and moves substantially faster than
commercial airlines http://www.et3.com/
21
Gilligan, 1996
(www.thezeitgeistmovement.com)
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc1117770/)
49 A 1996 NHTSA study found the fatality reduction benefit of airbags for all
due to its very design and hence activist and social institutions which avoid
this reality and can only be working to help patch problems, not fix them,
since they originate from the social system itself. A common example is
charity organizations that wish to provide food to the poor. These
organizations are not usually addressing why those people are poor to begin
with and hence are not truly working to resolve the root problem(s).
25
-LOGIC vs. PSYCHOLOGYWe do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we
rather have those because we have acted rightly.55
-Aristotle
1999, Chapter 1
27
adaptation.
Marxism is not based on this calculated worldview at all,
even though there might be some scientifically based characteristics
inherent. For example, the Marxist notion of a classless society was
to overcome the capitalist originating inhumanity imposed on the
working class or proletariat.
TZM's advocated train of thought, on the other hand, sources
advancements in human studies. It finds, for example, that social
stratification, which is inherent to the capitalist/market model, to
actually be a form of indirect violence against the vast majority as a
result of the evolutionary psychology we humans naturally posses.68 It
generates an unnecessary form of human suffering on many levels,
which is destabilizing and, by implication, technically unsustainable.
Another example is TZM's interest in removing universal
property69 and setting up a system of shared access. This is often
quickly condemned to the Marxist idea of abolishing private property.
However, generally speaking, the Marxist logic relates the existence of
private property to the perpetuation of the bourgeois and their
ongoing exploitation of the proletariat. He states in the Manifesto:
The distinguishing feature of Communism is not the abolition of
property generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property.
TZM's advocated logic, on the other hand, relates the fact that
the practice of universal, individual ownership of goods is
environmentally inefficient, wasteful and ultimately unsustainable as a
practice. This supports a restrictive system behavior and a great deal
of unnecessary deprivation, and hence crime is common in societies
with an unequal distribution of resources.
At any rate, such prima facie allegations are very common
and many more could be expressed. However, it is not the scope of
this section to discuss all alleged connections between Marxism and
TZM's advocated train of thought. In the end, the debate is essentially
pointless as to argue such a correlation is to simply ignore the true
purpose and merit of the societal conception itself.
The Straw-Man Fallacy
The second argumentative fallacy has to do with the misrepresentation
of a position, deliberate or projected, commonly referred to as a
straw-man.70 When it comes to TZM, this usually has to do with
68 Reference: The Spirit Level, Kate Pickett & Richard Wilkinson, Bloomsbury
Press, 2011
69 This concept will be explored more in part III but it is worth noting that the
type of access enabled by the suggested social system (NLRBE) does not
rule out legal relationships to secure the use of goods. The idea of reducing
the current property system to one of 'protected access' where, for
example, a camera obtained from a distribution center is given legal status
upon it rental to that person, is not to be confused with the capitalist notion
of property, which is a universal distinction and a great source of industrial
inefficiency and imbalance.
70 Likely the best description of this is to imagine a fight in which one of the
30
current system worsens, is the basis of influence. The logic does not
support a dictatorial disposition because that approach, apart from
being inhumane, wouldn't work.
In order for such a system to work, it needs to be accepted
without active state coercion. Therefore, it is an issue of investigation,
education, and broad personal acceptance in the community. In fact,
the very specifics of social interaction and lifestyle actually demand a
vast majority acceptance of the system's mechanics and values.
Similarly, and final example here of the straw-man, is the
confusion about how a transition to a new system could happen at all.
In fact, many tend to dismiss TZM's proposals on that basis alone,
simply because they don't understand how it can happen. This
argument, in principle, is the same reasoning as the example of a sick
man who is seeking treatment for his illness but does not know where
he can get such treatment, when it would be available, or what the
treatment is. Does his lack of knowing how and when stop his need to
seek? No - not if he wants to be healthy. Given the dire state of affairs
on this planet, humanity must also keep seeking and a path will
inevitably come clear.74
In the end, it is worth reiterating that the battle between logic
and psychology is really a central conflict in the arena of societal
change. There is no context more personal and sensitive than the way
we organize our lives in society and an important objective of TZM, in
many ways, is to find techniques that can educate the public as to the
merit of this logical train of thought, overcoming the baggage of
outdated psychological comforts which serve no progressive, viable
value role in the modern world.
32
-THE CASE FOR HUMAN UNITYMy country is the world, and my religion is to do good.75
-Thomas Paine
one race - the human race;77 there is only one basic habitat - Earth;
and there is only one working manner of operational thought
scientific.
Origins and Influence
Let's quickly consider the root origins of the competitive/divisive
model. Without going into too much detail, it is clear that the evolution
of society has included a vast history of conflict, scarcity and
imbalance. While there is debate as to the nature of society during the
period of time preceding the Neolithic Revolution,78 the Earth since
that time has been a battlefield where countless lives have been taken
for the sake of competition, whether material or ideological.79
This recognized pattern is so pervasive in fact that many today
attribute the propensity for conflict and domination to an
irreconcilable, impulsive characteristic of our human nature with the
conclusion that the human being is simply unable to operate in a social
system that is not based upon this competitive framework and any
such attempt will create vulnerability that will be exploited by power
abuse, expressing this apparent competitive/dominance trait.80
While the subject of human nature itself is not the direct focus
of this essay,81 let it be stated that the empirical power abuse
assumption has been a large part of the defense of the
competitive/divisive model, using a general broad view of history as its
basis for validity. However, the specifics of the conditions in those
periods, coupled with the known flexibility of the human being are
often disregarded or ignored in these assessments.82
78
79
80
81
82
with respect to the changes in society and how they reflect the original
premise of the market economy. The standard theories of economic science
have assumed the rights of property and contract as axiomatic premises
and ultimate terms of analysis; and their theories are commonly drawn in
such a form as would fit the circumstances of the handicraft industry and
the petty trade... these theories ...appear tenable, on the whole, when
taken to apply to the economic situation of that earlier time... It is when
these standard theories are sought to be applied to the later situation,
which has outgrown the conditions of handicraft, that they appears nugatory
or meretricious. (An Inquiry Into The Nature Of Peace And The Terms Of
Its Perpetuation) He also foreshadowed the rise of the investment class as
today non-producing financial institution like banks & the stocks market
have become more rewarding profit-wise than the actual manufacturing of
true goods.
37
probability that the line of descent from an individual with a specific trait will
not die out." In this context we are linking human actions, socially, to the
idea of species survival.
88 Reference: Applications for Warfare
(http://crnano.typepad.com/crnblog/2005/05/applications_fo.html)
89 Source: Nuclear Weapons: 20 Facts They Don't Want You to Think About,
Jim McCluskey, 2011
(http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/db_article.php?article_id=253
38
-THE FINAL ARGUMENT: HUMAN NATUREMan acquires at birth, through heredity, a biological constitution which we must
consider fixed and unalterable, including the natural urges which are
characteristic of the human species. In addition, during his lifetime, he acquires
a cultural constitution which he adopts from society through communication
and through many other types of influences. It is this cultural constitution
which, with the passage of time, is subject to change and which determines to
a very large extent the relationship between the individual and society.90
-A. Einstein
(http://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism)
91 The train of thought has to do with the underlying reasoning that arrives
are bound by physical laws and hence so must the overall physical
design of the airplane in order to function properly. Constructing such
a machine to perform a job with the goal of optimized performance,
safety and efficiency is not a matter of opinion, just as no matter how
many ornaments we may place around our homes, the physical
structure of the building must adhere to the rigid laws of physics and
natural dynamics of the habitat for safety and endurance and hence
can have little respective variation in a technical sense.
The organization of human society can be no different if the
intention is integrity and optimization. To think of the functional nature
of a working society is to think about a mechanistic schematic, if you
will. Just as we would design an airplane to work in the best way
possible, technically, so should our approach be to the social system,
which is equally as technical in its needed functionality. Unfortunately,
this general perspective has never been given a real chance in history
and today our world is still run in an incongruous manner where the
principal incentive is more about detached, immediate, shortsighted
personal gain and differential advantage than it is about proper,
strategic industrial methods, ecological alignment, social stability,
public health considerations and generational sustainability.
This is all pointed out, again, because the human nature
argument against such an approach is really the only seemingly
technical argument that can possibly defend the old system we have
today; it is really the only argument left when people who wish to
uphold this system realize that nothing else they logically argue can
possibly be viable given the irrationality inherent to every other claim
against a natural law based social model.
Irrationally Bound?
Boiling it down, this challenge can be considered in one question:
Is the human species able to adapt and thrive in a technically
organized system, where our values and practices align with the
known laws of nature in practice, or are we confined by our genes,
biology and evolutionary psychology to operate in only the way we
know today?
While many today argue the specifics of the nature vs. nurture
debate - from blank slate behaviorism95 to genetic determinism96 - it
95 The notion of the Blank Slate was made popular by Thomas Hobbes but
can be linked back to the writings of Aristotle. This is the idea that, in short,
individuals are born without built-in mental orientation and everything is
learned. Now largely debunked as a broad view due to proven programmed
learning and humans' inherent evolutionary psychology, the idea still
persists in general.
96 The view that human beings are substantially more affected by Genes and
Biology than environmental conditioning with respect to human behavior is
still a heated debate, not to mention a frequent intuitive reaction by many
to certain human patterns. The phrase it's just human nature is all too
often tossed out by the layman. Authors such as Steven Pinker are notable
for promoting the dominance of evolutionary psychology over environmental
41
has become clear, at a minimum, that our biology, our psychology and
our sociological condition are inexorably linked to the environment we
inhabit, both from the standpoint of generational evolutionary
adaptation (biological evolution), to short-term biases and values we
absorb from our environment (cultural evolution).
So, before we go into detail on this issue, it is well worth
noting that our very definition as human beings in the long and shortterm view is based upon a process of adaptation to existing conditions,
including the genes themselves.97 This is not to discount the per-case
genetic relevance itself but to highlight the process to which we are a
part, for the gene-environment relationship can only be considered as
an ongoing interaction, with the outcomes largely a result of the
environmental conditions in the long and short term. If this wasn't the
case, there is little doubt the human species would have likely
perished long ago due to a failure to adapt.
Moreover, while it is clear we humans still appear to maintain
hardwired, predictable reactions for raw, personal survival,98 we
have also proven the ability to evolve our behaviors through thought,
awareness and education,99 allowing us to, in fact, control/overcome
conditioning.
45
Overview
What is the true measure of success for a society? What is it that
makes us happy, healthy, stable and in balance with the world around
us? Is not our success really our ability to understand and adapt to the
realities of our world for the best outcome possible for any given
circumstance? What if we were to find that the very nature of our
social system was actually reducing our quality of life in the long term?
As will be argued in this essay, modern social structures,
values and practices have deviated away from, or are largely ignorant
of, what true societal health means. What our social institutions today
give priority to or discount by design, coupled with the goals and
motivations associated with personal success, which are all too often
clearly decoupled from what true life support and advancement
means,108 is a subject given little thoughtful consideration in the world
today. In fact, most prosperity and integrity measures for the
human condition are now haphazardly equated to mere economic
baselines such as GDP, PPI or employment figures. Sadly, these
measures tell us virtually nothing about true human wellbeing and
prosperity.109
The term public health is a medical classification, essentially
defined as: the approach to medicine that is concerned with the
health of the community as a whole.110 While often narrowly used in
relationship to transmittable disease and broad social conditions, the
context here will extend into all aspects of our lives, including not only
physiological health but mental health as well. If the value of a social
system is measured by the health of its citizenry over time, assessing
and comparing conditions and consequences through simple trend
1880, p316
108 The point here relates to how modern society rewards and reinforces
certain behaviors over others. For instance, in the Western World more
financial reward comes to non-producing financial institutions than from true
good and service production. This has generated an incentive problem,
which also includes environmental disregard and the ignoring of public
health in general. As will be alluded to later in this text, the psychology of
the market economy actually opposes life support.
109 In recent years other attempts have been made to quantify happiness
and well-being, such as the Gross National Happiness Indicator (GNH) which
conducts measures via periodic surveys
(http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/)
110 Public Health defined:
(http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=5120)
46
analysis and factor accounting should give insight into what can be
changed or improved on the social level.
The central context here is how the social condition itself - the
socioeconomic system - is affecting human health on the whole. In the
words of physician Rudolph Virchow: Medicine is a social science and
politics nothing but medicine on a large scale.111 Virchow recognized
that any public health issue is invariably related to society as a whole.
Its structure, characteristics and value reinforcements have a profound
influence on the health and behavior of a society and arguments
regarding the merit of new social ideas inevitably come down to a
rational assessment of quality through comparison.
Since each respective component of public health has its own
characteristics and causality, we can also work to consider alternative
approaches to a given problem resolution or improvement that might
not be currently in practice, but clearly should be. An analysis of
current public health components to understand what is happening
over time and in different circumstances, coupled with a per case
evaluation of each issue with an inferential consideration of what could
fix or improve these results on the largest possible scale, is the
basis of the train of thought expressed here.
It is the conviction of TZM that the existing social model is a
cause of social pathology, with a perpetuation of imbalance that is
unnecessarily generating both physiological and psychological
disorders across the population, not to mention systemically limiting
human potential and problem resolution in many ways. Of course, this
context also naturally extends into environmental health, meaning the
state of the planet, as such ecological problems/pressures/alleviations
always have an effect on our public health in the long-term. However,
that will not be a focus in this essay.
This analysis will separate the subject of public health into two
general categories - physiological and psychological112 - with each
category broken into categorizes that represent dominant problems
seen in a relevant percentage of the overall population. However, let it
be well understood that physiological and psychological outcomes
rarely, if ever, have singular causes. There is a bio-psycho-social113
111 Source: The Evolution of Social Medicine, Rudolph Virchow: Rosen G., from
(http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/index.html)
nations by comparison shows that the real cause is now not the
disease itself, but the poverty condition that enables it to flourish.
However, the causality doesnt stop there. We then need to ask the
question: what is causing the poverty?
A more abstract micro example would be human
development problems when adverse pressures in family or
community structures occur. Imagine a single mother who, due to the
financial need to raise her child, must work for income a great deal in
order to make ends meet, limiting her availability for the child
personally. The pressures not only reduce needed support and
guidance for the child's development, she also develops tendencies for
depression and anxiety due to the ongoing stress of debt, bills and the
like, and frustration-driven abuse begins to materialize in the family.
This then causes severe emotional loss119 in the child and the
development of neurotic and unhealthy mental states emerge, such as
a propensity for drug addiction.120 Years later, still suffering from the
pain felt in those early periods, the now adult child dies in a heroin
overdose. Question: what caused the overdose? The heroin? The
mother's influence? Or the economic circumstance the mother found
herself which disallowed balance and thoughtful care of her child?121
Clearly, there is no utopia for the human condition and to think
we can adjust the socioeconomic system to thwart all such
structurally related issues, macro and micro, 100% of the time, is
absurd. However, what is possible is a dramatic improvement of such
public health problems by shifting the nature of the socioeconomic
condition in the most strategic manner we can. As we proceed with the
per case analysis of major mental and physical disorders in the world,
it will be found that the true imperative for public health improvement
rests almost entirely on this socioeconomic premise of causality.122
119 The term emotional loss relates to severe emotional trauma experienced,
mostly as a child, that persist in effect. In the words of Dr. Gabor Mat
The greatest damage done by neglect, trauma or emotional loss is not the
immediate pain they inflict but the long-term distortions they induce in the
way a developing child will continue to interpret the world and her situation
in it. In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, North Atlantic Books, 2012, p.512
120 As noted prior, the work of Gabor Mat is highly recommended on the
subject of addiction resulting from emotional loss in childhood and feelings
of insecurity. In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, North Atlantic Books, 2012
121 The work Mental Illness and the Economy, by M.H. Brenner is
recommended. Abstract: By correlating extensive economic and
institutional data from New York State for the period from 1841 to 1967,
Harvey Brenner concludes that instabilities in the national economy are the
single most important source of fluctuations in mental-hospital admissions
or admission rates.
122 A study for reference in the same basic context is The Effect of Known Risk
Factors on the Excess Mortality of Black Adults in the United States, Journal
of the American Medical Association, 263(6):845-850, 1990. This
epidemiological study found that two-thirds of African-American deaths
noted in context could only be accounted for due to low socioeconomic
status itself and its direct/indirect consequences.
49
Physiological Health
The core physiological problems of the human population today include
major mortality producing epidemics such as cancer, heart disease,
stroke, etc. Relatively minor problems that not only reduce quality of
life, but also often precede those major illnesses include high blood
pressure, obesity and other issues that, while less critical by
comparison, are still usually a part of the process that can lead to
major illnesses and death over time.124
Again, it is important to remember that the causality of these
physical diseases is not strictly physical in the narrow sense of the
124 Reference: As obesity rates rise, chief heart surgeon sees more high-risk
decision difficult if not impossible as, again, such goods are more
expensive on average.
In an age where food production and human nutrition is a well
understood scientific phenomenon as far as what works and what
doesnt - what is healthy and what isn't on the whole - we have to
wonder why the abundance of deliberately unhealthy foods and
detrimental industrial methods exist at all. The reasoning is that
human health is not the pursuit of industrial food production and never
has been due to the isolated interest to generate income. More on this
incentive disorder inherent to the market economy in later essays.
The Stress Factor
Let's now consider the role of stress. Stress has more of an effect on
heart disease than previously thought and this isn't just referring to
the statistical fact that lower income peoples tend to have a propensity
to cope by smoking and/or drinking, manifesting high blood pressure
and hence disregard their bodies and well-being due to the ongoing
struggle for income and survival. While those factors are clearly
evident and, again, found tied to the inevitable stratification found in
the market economy,138 the most detrimental form of stress comes in
the form of psychosocial stress, meaning stress related to one's
psychological connection with the social environment.
Professor Michael Marmot of the Department of Epidemiology
and Public Health at the University College of London directed two
important studies relating social status to health.139 Using the British
civil service system as the subject group, they found that the gradient
of health quality in industrialized societies is not simply just a matter
of poor health for the financially disadvantaged and good health for
everyone else. They found that there was also a social distribution of
disease as you went from the top of the socioeconomic ladder, to the
bottom and the types of diseases people would get would change on
average.
For example the lowest rungs of the hierarchy had a fourfold
increase of heart disease based mortality, compared to the highest
rungs. Even in a country with universal health care, the worse a
138 Class stratification is an immutable part of the current socioeconomic model
person's financial status and position in the hierarchy, the worse their
health is going to be on average. The reason is essentially
psychological as it has been found that the more stratified a given
society, the worse public health is in general, specifically for the lower
classes.140
This pattern has been corroborated by many other studies over
the years, including a deep collection of research organized by Richard
Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. In their work, The Spirit Level Why
Equality is Better for Everyone, they source hundreds of
epidemiological studies on the issue, outlining how more unequal
societies perpetuate a vast array of public health problems, both
physiological and psychological.
Heart disease aside, some cancers, chronic lung disease,
gastrointestinal disease, back pain, obesity, high blood pressure, low
life expectancy and many other problems are also now found to be
linked to socioeconomic status in the broad view, not just singular risk
factors.141 There is a social gradient in health quality across society
and where we are placed in relation to other people has a powerful
psychosocial effect. Those above us have better health on average
while those below us have worse health on average.142
In fact, a statistical comparison of public health between
countries with high levels of income inequality (such as the United
States) and those with lower levels of income inequality (such as
Japan) reveals these truths quite obviously.143 However, such
generally deemed physical illnesses are only part of the public health
crisis generated by inequality that, again, is yet a consequence unto
itself originating out of the direct, immutable stratification inherent to
our global social system.
Psychological Health
Perhaps more profound in its public health implication is the result of
social inequality on our mental or psychological health. This extends
into behavioral reactions and tendencies such as acts of violence or
abuse, along with emotional issues like depression, anxiety and
personality disorders.
A general trend assessment of depression and anxiety in
developed countries, countries that many intuitively would think would
have more joy and ease due to the material wealth available, reveals a
140 Ibid.
141 A qualifier here to note is that this phenomenon relates more so to
153 Suicide rates rocket in wake of economic downturn recession, Nina Lakhani,
154 Chart from The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, Penguin,
56
155 Belief Systems and Durable Inequalities, Policy Research Working Paper,
Waskington DC: World Bank, 2004 | Chart from The Spirit Level by Richard
Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, Penguin, March 2009, p.113-114
156 Source: The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, Penguin,
March 2009
57
157 The hormone testosterone has been commonly blamed for male
163 Source: Violence, James Gilligan, Grosset/Putnam, New York, 1992, p.236
59
In Conclusion
This essay has attempted to give a concise overview of core causal
relationships to human health on both the psychological level and the
physiological level. The theme is how the socioeconomic condition in
general improves or worsens public health overall, alluding to ideal
conditions which would improve happiness, reduce general disease and
alleviate epidemic behavioral problems, such as violence.
While direct economic relationships are very clear in how they
reduce human health and wellbeing in the form of absolute
deprivation, such as an inability to obtain quality food, labor-related
time restraints that reduce emotional and developmental support for
children, loss of education quality due to regional funding problems,
along with case by case turmoil such as the fact that most marriages
end due to monetary problems,164 the relative deprivation issue has
been more of a focus here due to the fact that it is less understood
and more relevant than most understand.
Put into the structural, socioeconomic context, these realities
firmly challenges the ethos that competition, class and other
capitalist notions of incentive and progress are drivers of social
progress and health. The more we learn about this phenomenon, the
stronger the argument becomes that the nature of our socioeconomic
system is somewhat backwards in its focus and intent. Human
progress, health and success are clearly not defined by the constant
influx of market goods, gadgets and material creations for purchase.
Public health and wellbeing are based on how we relate to each other
and the environment as a whole and market induced stratification is
extremely caustic to society.
The result is a hidden form of violence against the population
and hence the public health issues we see are really civil & human
rights issues, since they simply do not need to exist. When we see
clear genocide in the world we object strongly on purely moral
grounds. But what if there existed a constant genocide that is unseen
but very real, perpetuated not by a specific person or group but by
disorder born out of stress/effects generated by the traditional method
of human interaction and economic ordering that has been created and
codified?
As will be argued in the following essays, mere adjustments to
the current socioeconomic system are not enough in the long-term to
substantially resolve these problems. The very foundational principles
of our current model are bound by hierarchical economic and
competitive orientations and to truly work to remove those attributes
and consequences is to completely transform the entire social system.
(http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/money-fights-predictdivorce-rates/)
60
-HISTORY OF ECONOMYIt is a telling symptom of our condition that no established school, discipline
or general theory of social analysis has grounded itself in life requirements...
Instead, some social construct is invariably adopted as the ultimate reference
body- set of ideas, the state, the market, a class, technological development,
or some other factor than the
life-ground itself.165
-John McMurtry
Overview
Economics is likely the most critical, relevant and influential societal
characteristic there is. Virtually every aspect of our lives, often without
conscious recognition, has a relationship to the historical development
and present practice of economic thought on one level or another,
molding our most basic social institutions, core beliefs and values. In
fact, the very essence of how we as a society think about our
relationship to each other and the habitat that supports us is, in large
part, a direct result of the economic theories and practices we
perpetuate.
Thoughtful review of historical religious & moral philosophies,
governmental development, political parties, legal statutes and other
social contracts and beliefs that comprise a given social system and its
culture, reveal the deep impact economic assumptions have and
continue to have in shaping of the zeitgeist of a time.
Slavery, classism, xenophobia, racism, sexism, subjugation
and many other divisive & exploitative notions still common to human
cultural history will be found to have kernels of origin or perpetuation
in many generally accepted economic philosophies to one degree or
another. History is fairly clear with respect to how the social condition
is groomed by the prevailing economic assumptions of a given period
and this broad sociological consideration is sadly not given much
gravity in the world today when thinking about why the world is the
way it is and why we think the way we do.
As a preliminary point, a point which will reemerge later in this
essay, there has commonly been a duality noted in most modern
economic thought where the capitalist free market, meaning the
free actions of independent producers, laborer and traders, working
in aggregate to buy, sell and employ,166 is to be contrasted to that of
the state, meaning a unified system of delegated power that has the
capacity to set legal policy and economic mandates that can inhibit the
actions of the free market through interference. Most economic
debates today revolved around this duality on one level or another
165 Source: The Cancer Stage of Capitalism, John McMurtry, Pluto Press, 1999,
p.viii
1956
when he takes something from the state that nature has provided and
left it in, he mixes his labour with it, thus joining to it something that
is his own; and in that way he makes it his property.196 This
statement (supporting in gesture what was later to associate with the
labor theory of value), proposes the logic that since labor is owned
by the laborer (since he owns himself), any energy expelled through
his labor transfers that ownership to the product made.
His philosophical disposition is essentially derived from a
Christian perspective, stating: God gave the world to men in
common; but since he gave it to them for their benefit and for the
greatest conveniences of life they could get from it, he cant have
meant it always to remain common and uncultivated.197
Given this declaration of the common nature of the earth and
its fruits to all of humanity before its cultivation via appropriation in
the form property, he also derives that owners are required to not
allow anything to spoil (Nothing was made by God for man to spoil or
destroy.)198 and they must leave enough for others (This
appropriation of a plot of land by improving it wasnt done at the
expense of any other man, because there was still enough [and as
good] left for others...).199
These values, in simplistic form, seem socially justifiable in
general. He makes it clear up until this point that the ownership
context is relevant only in so far as the owner's needs and ability to
cultivate, or produce.200 However, in Section 36, he reveals a unique
reality, the implications of which Locke likely did not anticipate and, in
many ways, nullifies all prior arguments in his defense of private
property. He states: The one thing that blocks this is the invention of
money, and mens tacit agreement to put a value on it; this made it
possible, with mens consent, to have larger possessions and to have a
right to them.201
Now, in effect, his original premise, summarized in part here,
that: Anyone can through his labour come to own as much as he can
use in a beneficial way before it spoils; anything beyond this is more
than his share and belongs to others
202
becomes very difficult to defend as money now not only allows
196 Source: Second Treatise of Government, John Locke, 1689, Chapter V,
Section 27
Ibid, Chapter V, Section 34, 1689
Ibid, Chapter V, Section 31, 1689
Ibid, Chapter V, Section 33, 1689
Locke States: Nature did well in setting limits to private property through
limits to how much men can work and limits to how much they need. No
mans labour could tame or appropriate all the land; no mans enjoyment
could consume more than a small part; so that it was impossible for any
man in this way to infringe on the right of another, or acquire a property to
the disadvantage of his neighbor... (Second Treatise of Government, John
Locke, Chapter V, Section 36, 1689)
201 Ibid, Chapter V, Section 36, 1689
202 Ibid, Chapter V, Section 31, 1689
197
198
199
200
69
70
They consume little more than the poor, and in spite of their natural
selfishness and rapacity, though they mean only their own conveniency,
though the sole end which they propose from the labours of all the
thousands whom they employ, be the gratification of their own vain and
insatiable desires, they divide with the poor the produce of all their
improvements. They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same
distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the
earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants, and thus
without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of the society,
and afford means to the multiplication of the species. [The Theory of Moral
Sentiments par. IV.I.10, 1790]
209 Source: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,
Adam Smith, 1776, par. IV.2.9
210 There is no static definition of neoclassical economics. However, a
general, culturally common summary includes the broad interest in free,
unregulated markets, focusing on the determination of prices, outputs, and
income distributions in markets through supply and demand, often mediated
through a hypothesized maximization of utility by income-constrained
individuals and of profits by cost-constrained firms.
71
211 Source: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,
212 Ibid.
213 Ibid.
214 Ibid., par. IV.9.51
72
215 This power of capitalist interests to engage and, in many ways, become the
Chapter 1
nd
edition of An Essay on the Principle of Population, 1836,
Principles of Political Economy, vol. 1, p.14. New York, Augustus M. Kelley,
1964.
221 It is worth noting that the Malthusian Population Theory is actually very
inaccurate with respect to factors pertaining to population growth, based on
statistical understandings today. Apart from the effect technology has
played in expanding production capacity and efficiency exponentially,
particularly with respect to food production, the generalization that higher
standards of living increase population proportionally is not supported by
regional comparison. Poor countries statistically reproduce faster today than
wealthy countries. The issue appears to be a cultural, religious and
educational phenomenon, not a rigid law of nature as Malthus concluded.
222 Reference: Abolishment of Welfare: An Idea Becomes a Cause
(http://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/22/us/abolishment-of-welfare-an-ideabecomes-a-cause.html)
74
75
machinery.227
However, as with other aspects of his writing, contradiction is
common. While maintaining the basic idea that the general public
would benefit from the introduction of labor displacing machinery
under the assumption that market prices would cleanly decline and
those displaced would always smoothly relocate, in the third edition of
his Principles, Ricardo starts chapter 31 by stating: "Ever since I first
turned my attention to questions of political economy, I have been of
the opinion that...an application of machinery to any branch of
production as should have the effect of saving labour was a general
good...[but] that the substitution of machinery for human labor is
often very injurious to the interests of the class of laborers.228
He later re-qualifies the argument by stating The statements
which I have made will not, I hope, lead to the inference that
machinery should not be encouraged. To elucidate the principle, I have
been supposing, that improved machinery is suddenly discovered, and
extensively used; but the truth is, that these discoveries are gradual,
and rather operate in determining the employment of the capital which
is saved and accumulated, than in diverting capital from its actual
employment.229
His general dismissal of the issue of humans being displaced
by machines, later to be called technological unemployment will also
be found in common with many other economists that followed him,
including John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), who stated, in line with
Ricardo's general assumption of adjustment: We are being afflicted
with a new disease of which some readers may not yet have heard the
name, but of which they will hear a great deal in the years to come namely, technological unemployment. This means unemployment due
to our discovery of means of economizing the use of labour outrunning
the pace at which we can find new uses for labour. But this is only a
temporary phase of maladjustment. All this means in the long run that
mankind is solving its economic problem.230
The subject is brought up here as an accent of focus because it
will be revisited in part III of this text, presenting a context of
technological application apparently unrealized or disregarded by the
major economic theorists of modern history who, again, are often
locked into a narrow frame of reference.
As a final point regarding Ricardo, he is also credited for his
contribution to international free-trade, specifically his Theory of
Comparative Advantage, along with perpetuation of the basic invisible
hand ethos of Adam Smith. Ricardo States: "Under a system of
perfectly free commerce, each country naturally devotes its capital and
labour to such employments as are most beneficial to each. This
227
228
229
230
Ibid., p.53
Ibid., pp.263-264
Ibid., p.267
Source: Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren, John Maynard
Keynes, 1931
76
231 Source: The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, David Ricardo,
77
80
All human actions are reduced to this system of exchange and hence
all political or social distinctions disappear in theory.
The Socialist Uprising
Socialism, like capitalism, has no universally accepted definition in
general public conversation but is often technically defined as an
economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of
production and co-operative management of the economy.240 The
root of socialist thought appears to go back to 18th century Europe,
with a complex history of reformers working to challenge the
emerging capitalist system. Gracchus Babeuf (1760-1797) is a notable
theorist in this area, with his "Conspiracy of Equals" which attempted
to topple the French Government. He stated Society must be made to
operate in such a way that it eradicates once and for all the desire of a
man to become richer, or wiser, or more powerful than others.241
French Socialist-Anarchist Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865) is
famous for declaring that Property is Theft in his pamphlet An
Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government.
By the early 19th century, socialist ideas were expanding
rapidly, commonly in response to perceived moral and ethic problems
inherent to capitalism, such as class imbalance and exploitation. The
list of influential thinkers is vast and complex, so only three
individuals, noting their most relevant contributions, will be discussed
here: William Thompson, Karl Marx and Thorstein Veblen.
William Thompson (1775-1833) was a powerful influence on
socialist thought. He was in support of the idea of cooperatives,
made famous by Robert Owen as something of an alternative to the
capitalist business model and philosophically took a utilitarian
perspective when it came to human behavior. He was very influenced
by Bentham but his use/interpretation of utilitarianism was rather
different. For instance, he believe that if all members of society were
treated equally, rather than engage class warfare and exploitation,
they would have equal capacities to experience happiness.242
He argued extensively for a kind of market socialism, where
egalitarianism and equality prevailed in his famous An Inquiry into the
Principles of the Distribution of Wealth Most Conducive to Human
Happiness. He made it clear that Capitalism was a system of
exploitation and insecurity, stating: The tendency of the existing
arrangement of things as to wealth is to enrich a few at the expense of
the mass of producers, to make the poverty of the poor more
(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/551569/socialism)
241 Source: The Defense of Gracchus Babeuf before the High Court of
242 Reference: An Inquiry into the Principles of the Distribution of Wealth Most
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
Ibid,
Ibid,
Ibid.
Ibid,
Ibid,
Ibid,
Ibid,
p.xxix
p.259
pp.260-261
pp.261-263
p.263
p.267
82
250 Source: Grundrisse, Karl Marx, tr. Martin Nicolaus, Reprint Vintage Books,
83
3, p.163
84
Modern Civilization and Other Essays, Thorstein Veblen, New York, Russell
and Russell, 1961, p.241-242
259 Source: Professor Clarks Economics, Place of Science in Modern
Civilization, Thorstein Veblen, p.193
260 Reference: Absentee Ownership and Business Enterprise in Recent Times,
Thorstein Veblen, Augustus M. Kelley, New York, 1964, p.407
261 Reference: The Beginnings of Ownership, Essays in Our Changing Order,
Thorstein Veblen, p.32
86
264 Source: The Engineers and the Price System, Thorstein Veblen, New York,
87
267 Source: The Theory of Business Enterprise, Thorstein Veblen, New York,
268
269
270
271
has been generated from the serving of cancer. If cures for cancer where to
actually emerge, the downsizing of these massive medical institutions would
naturally result. This means that the solving of problems can result in the
loss of livelihood for many who worked to service those problems. This
89
275 It is worth pointing out that market discipline, or the corrective nature of
the market by which all business are supposed to be susceptible, only really
applies to the lower classes today. As noted historically by the too big to
fail rhetoric and recent (~2008) bank bailouts amounting to well over 20
trillion dollars, the wealthy sectors are protected by the gesture of so-called
given Socialism, not Capitalism.
91
92
-MARKET EFFICIENCY VS TECHNICAL EFFICIENCYThe synergetic aspect of industrys doing ever more work with ever less
investment of time and energy per each unit of performance...has never been
formally accounted as a capital gain of land-situated society. The synergistic
effectiveness of a world-around integrated industrial process is inherently vastly
greater than the confined synergistic effect of sovereignly operating separate
systems. Ergo, only complete world desovereignization can permit the
realization of an all humanity high standard support.276
R. Buckminster Fuller
Overview
Scientific development, while evolving in parallel with traditional
economic development over the past 400 years or so, has still been
largely ignored and seen as an externality to economic theory. The
result has been a decoupling of the socioeconomic structure from the
life support structure to which we are all tied, and upon which we all
depend. In most cases today, apart from certain technical assumptions
with respect to how a system not based on market dynamics and the
price mechanism277 could function, the most common argument in
support of market capitalism is that it is a system of freedom or
liberty.
The extent to which this is true very much depends on one's
interpretation, even though such generalized terms are often
ubiquitous in the rhetoric of proponents of the model.278 It appears
such notions are really reactions to prior attempts at alternative social
systems in the past that generated power problems like
totalitarianism.279 Hence, ever since, based on this fear, any model
conceived outside of the capitalist framework is often impulsively
relegated to the supposed historical tendency towards tyranny - and
then dismissed.
Be that as it may, this underlying gesture of freedom,
whatever its implication in subjective use, has generated a neurosis or
confusion with respect to what it means for a species such as ours to
survive and prosper in the habitat a habitat clearly governed by
natural laws. What we find is that on the level of our habitat
276 Source: Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, R. Buckminster Fuller,
1968, Chapter 6
277 Ludwig von Mises in his famous work Economic Calculation In The Socialist
281 While some historians often place the dawn of the scientific method in
ancient Greece, The Renaissance, starting around the 16th century, appears
to be a major period of significant discovery and acceleration. Galileo (1564
- 1642) is considered today by some as the father of modern science.
However, these emerging understandings shared very little interest in the
economic realm.
282 The disruption of ecosystem processes by human action has shown clear
negative consequences. Pollution, deforestation, loss of biodiversity and
many other common characteristics of the current state of the world today
reveals a deep misalignment with the immutable symbiotic/synergistic
realities of our habitat to which we are bound.
Reference:
http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/current/lectures/kling/e
cosystem/ecosystem.html
283 See the essay Defining Public Health.
94
world and its natural, tangible dynamics. This logic takes the science of
human study, hence, again, the shared nature of human needs and
public health, and combines it with the proven rules of our habitat, to
which we are synergistically and symbiotically connected. Put together,
a ground up, rational model of economic operation can be
generalized with very little need, in fact, for the centuries of
traditionalized economic theory.284
This isn't to say those historical arguments do not possess value
with respect to understanding cultural evolution, but rather to say that
if a truly scientific worldview is taken with respect to what works or
doesnt work in the strategy of efficiency demanded by the chessgame of human survival, there is very little need for such historical
reference in abstraction. This view sits at the core of TZM's reformist
logic and will be reviewed again in part III of this text.
The bottom line is that these points of near-immutable scientific
awareness are almost completely without recognition in the economic
model dominant today. In fact, it will be argued that the two systems
are not only decoupled, they are diametrically opposed in many ways,
alluding to the reality that the competitive market economy is actually
not fixable as a whole, and hence a new system based directly on
these natural law realties needs to be constructed from the ground
up.
This essay will examine and contrast a series of economic
considerations from both the perspective of the market system
(market logic) and this noted mechanistic or technical logic. It will
express how efficiency takes on two very different meanings in each
perspective, arguing that market efficiency285 works only to be
efficient with respect to itself, using man-made rule-sets related
mostly to classical economic dynamics that facilitate profit and growth,
while Technical Efficiency, referencing the known laws of nature,
seeks the most optimized manner of industrial unfolding possible to
preserve the habitat, reduce waste and ultimately ensure public
health, based on emerging scientific understandings.286
Cyclical Consumption & Economic Growth
Market capitalism in basic operation can be generalized as an
interaction between owners, laborers and consumers. Consumer
demand generates the need to produce via the owners (capitalists),
who then employ laborers to perform the act of production. This cycle
essentially originates with demand and hence the real engine of the
market is the interest, ability and act of everyone buying in the market
in effect, debt) doubled from $57 trillion to $109 trillion from 2000 to 2010.
It also forecasts $210 trillion in global credit (debt) by 2020.
(http://www.weforum.org/reports/sustainable-credit-report-2011)
292 According to the Federal Reserve, as of 2009 total US (Public and Private)
debt was about $51
trillion.(https://www.federalreserve.gov/datadownload/Download.aspx?rel=
Z1&series=654245a7abac051cc4a9060c911e1fa4&filetype=csv&label=inclu
de&layout=seriescolumn&from=01/01/1945&to=12/31/2010) If we
compare this to the existing money supply, as measured by M3, which is
the broadest measure, we find that as of Dec. 2012 it was about $15
trillion.* (http://www.shadowstats.com/charts/monetary-base-moneysupply) *Note: M3 has been discontinued in reporting by the US. However,
its numbers can be extrapolated based on component measures.
293 For example, in the US, the venture capital industry, which essential
invests money in new businesses, was 21% of GDP in 2010.
(http://www.nvca.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25
5&Itemid=103) According to a 2012 article in The New Republic: the
largest six banks in our (us) economy now have total assets in excess of
63% of GDP (http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/shooting-banks#)
97
(http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns)
298 The notion of strategically optimized will be addressed in part III but it is
worth noting here that the equation which decides what is to be used in the
construction of anything, technically, not only involves the properties of the
99
only by its natural wear and tear with a very deliberate design focus
on upgrading attributes of the car when they have become obsolete or
damaged by natural-use circumstances.
The result would be a production designed to last, hence
reducing waste and invariably increasing efficacy of utility. It is safe to
assume that many in the world today believe this is what actually
happens in the design and production of goods but that simply isn't
the reality. It is mathematically impossible for any competing company
to produce the strategically best good, technically, in a market
economy, as the cost efficiency mechanism guarantees a less-thanoptimal production.
The second form (b) of obsolescence is known as planned and
this production technique to ensure cyclical consumption gained
interest in the early 20th century when industrial development was
advancing efficiency at an accelerating rate, producing better goods,
faster. In fact, there was not only a need to encourage more
purchases by the general public,299 the problem of resulting increased
lifespan and general efficiency of goods was also slowing consumption.
Again, the more with less phenomenon was surfacing in a rapid way.
Rather than allow for a good's lifespan to be determined by its
natural capacity, with the logical natural law intention for it to exist as
long as possible, given limited resources on a finite planet and a
natural interest to save energy, both material and human,
corporations decided it was instead best to create their own lifespan
for goods, deliberately inhibiting efficiency for the sake of repeat
purchases.300
In the 1930s, some even wanted to make it mandatory for all
industries, legally, where life cycles were decided not by the natural
state of technological ability but by the mere ongoing need for labor
and increased consumption. In fact, the most notable historical
example of this period was the Phoebus light bulb cartel of the 1930s
where, in a time where light bulbs were able to last up to about
25,000 hours, the cartel forced each company to restrict light bulb life
to less than 1000 hours to assure repeat purchases.301 Today, every
ideal materials, but the relative utility of related materials (with similar
properties) which may alter the necessary material component for use due
to other efficiency related factors, such as resource supply.
299 Charles Kettering, Director of General Motors in 1929, wrote of the need to
'keep the consumer dissatisfied' (1929)
(http://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/archive/resources/documents/c
h27_02.htm). Wall Street banker Paul Mazur wrote: "We must shift America
from a needs to a desires culture. People must be trained to desireto want
new things even before the old have been entirely consumed. We must
shape a new mentality in America." (Harvard Business Review, 1927)
300 In 1932, industrialist Bernard London propagated a well-known pamphlet
entitled Ending the Depression through Planned Obsolescence, which
outlined the need for the model.
301 Reference: Planned Obsolescence: The Light Bulb Conspiracy, ESSA, 2012
(http://economicstudents.com/2012/09/planned-obsolescence-the-light100
bulb-conspiracy/)
302 As a simple example, the sharing of bikes in Europe has become common.
(http://www.treehugger.com/cars/bike-sharing-now-in-100-europeancities.html)
303 As an aside, the only reason this library exception has persisted is because
of a tradition put in place long ago that saw the need for this sharing of
knowledge as critical to human development. The tradition of shared
libraries goes back 1000s of years.
101
oil cost trends: "What we're going to find is it's not going to make sense to
produce things on the other side of the world, no matter how cheap labor
costs are there, when it's so expensive to transport things."
(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104466911)
309 This is mentioned in passing to point out the extensive modern
breakthroughs in agricultural methods that are not based on traditional
arable landmasses. Vertical farming, for example, has been shown to have
immense possibilities on a global scale, removing the common regional
restrictions to agricultural production. Suggested Reading: The Vertical
Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century, Dickson Despommier, Thomas
Dunne Books, 2010
103
webster.com/dictionary/usufruct)
105
the vast period of human history where one's creativity has become
tied to one's personal survival. In an economic system where people's
ideas have the capacity to generate income for them personally, the
idea of such ownership becomes relevant. After all, if you invent
something in the modern system which could generate sales and
hence help your personal economic survival, it would be extremely
inefficient, in the market sense of the word, to allow that idea to be
open-source, since others, seeking survival themselves, would likely
quickly seize that invention for their own financial exploitation.
It is also easy to see how the phenomenon of ego has manifest
around the idea of intellectual ownership as well, since the basis of
reward in such a system invariably has a psychological tie to one's
personal sense of self-worth. If a person invents something, files for
intellectual ownership, exploits it for profit and then manifests a large
house and extensive property, his or her status as a human being is
traditionally elevated as far as the standards set by culture he/she is
considered a success.
Yet, if we were to think about it in general, the sharing of
knowledge has no negative recourse outside of the economic premise
of ownership for profit exploitation. There is nothing to lose and,
indeed, an enormous amount to be gained socially by the sharing of
information. Coming back to the prior example in this essay of
competing cell phone companies, we will notice that within the
confines of boardroom meetings where often marketers, designers and
engineers consider how to improve their product in general, the
sharing of their ideas is paramount.
However, imagine if that meeting was extended to all competing
cell phone companies at once, where not only could they remove their
contrived, utility-less marketing angles devised to gain the market
share of other competitors (such as aesthetic gimmickry), they could
work to produce the cumulative best in concert. Extending even
more so, what if all designs were public domain in the sense that
anyone in the world who had an interest to help improve an idea was
able to?
The schematics of a cell phone design could be posted publicly
with a system of technical interaction where people from all around the
world could help, if they had the ability, with the technical efficiency
and utility of the design. While this is an abstract hypothetical
example, it is clear that the result of such an open approach to the
sharing of information could facilitate an explosion of creativity and
productivity never before witnessed. As will be discussed in Part III,
the removal of the monetary-market system is critical to the
facilitation of this capacity.
Labor for Income
At the core of the market system is the selling of an individual's labor
as a commodity. In many ways, the ability of the market to employ
the population has become a measure of its integrity. However, the
advent of mechanization, or the automation of human labor, has
106
(http://www.history.com/topics/water-and-air-pollution)
112
and consequences for the human species. It is clear which system will
win in this battle. Nature will persist with its natural rules regardless
of how much we theorize this or that validation of the way we have
traditionally organized ourselves on this planet.
Nature doesnt care about our vast monetary economic ideas, its
theories of value, sophisticated financial models or detailed
equations regarding how we think human behavior manifests and why.
The technical reality is simple: learn, adapt and align to the governing
laws of nature, or suffer the consequences. It is absurd to think that
the human species, given its evolution within the same natural laws to
which our economic practice (and values) must align, would be
incompatible with such laws. It is merely an issue of maturity and
awareness today.
As a final point, as well as a general aside, there has emerged a
trend in the 21st century, in the wake of all the growing and persisting
ecological problems that claims to seek what is called a green
economy. Some have even divided this economic view into sectors,
including applications for renewable energy, eco-buildings, clean
transportation and other categories of focus.325 It will be noticed that
all of those awarenesses and sought applications are generally in line
with the technical or scientific awareness perspective discussed in this
essay.
Sadly, as positive as the intent of these new organizations and
business planners may be, the inefficiency inherent to the capitalist
model of economics - with all its need for certain forms of contrived
efficiency to maintain itself - immediately pollutes and deeply limits
all such attempts, which explains why such technical efficiency
approaches have still yet to really be applied. The sad reality is that
while some improvement can be made, such progress will be
inherently limited to an ever-increasing degree since, as described, the
very structural basis of the way market capitalism works is actively
opposed to the efficiencies inherent in the natural law view. The only
logical solution is to rethink the entire structure if any real efficiency,
elevated prosperity and problem resolution is to be achieved in the
long run.
325 Reference: (regarding the green economy) How do you define the 'green'
-VALUE SYSTEM DISORDERI believe that greed and competition are not a result of immutable human
temperament; I have come to the conclusion that greed and fear of scarcity are
in fact being continuously created and amplified as a direct result of the kind of
money we are using...The direct consequence is that we have to fight with each
other in order to survive.326
-Bernard Lietaer
Thought Genes
Given the relatively slow rate of change of the human being with
respect to biological evolution, the vast societal changes that have
occurred over the past 4000 years of recorded history have occurred
due to the evolution of knowledge hence cultural evolution. If we
were to search for a mechanism for cultural evolution, the notion of
the meme327 is useful to consider. Defined as an idea, behavior,
style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture,
memes are considered to be sociological or cultural analogues to
genes,328 which are functional (biological) units controlling the
transmission and expression of one or more traits.
While genes basically transmit biological data from person to
person through heredity, memes transmit cultural data - ideas - from
person to person via human communication in all forms.329 When we
recognize, for example, the power of technological advancement over
time and how it has dramatically changed our lifestyles and values and
will continue to do so, we can view this overall, emergent phenomenon
as an evolution of ideas, with information replicating and mutating,
altering the culture as time moves forward.
Given this, we could gesturally view the human mental state and
its propensities for action as a form of program. Just as genes encode
a set of instructions which, in concert with other genes and the
environment produce sequential results, the processing of memes by
the intellectual capacity of human beings, in concert, create patterns
of behavior in a similar way. While free will is certainly a complex
debate to be had with respect to what actually triggers and manifests
human decisions, it is fundamentally clear that people's ideas are
limited by their input (education). If a person is given little knowledge
about the world, their decision process will be equally as limited.330
326 Bernard Lietaer is an economist, author and professor most notable for his
work to help design the EU currency system. Quote from YES! Magazine,
Interview with Bernard Lietaer, Beyond Greed and Scarcity, Sarah van
Gelder (http://www.transaction.net/press/interviews/lietaer0497.html)
327 Source: ('meme' defined) Merriam-Webster.com (http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/meme)
328 Source: ('gene' defined) Merriam-Webster.com (http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/gene)
329 Richard Dawkins' book The Selfish Gene introduced the term "meme".
Dawkins cites as inspiration the work of geneticist L. L. Cavalli-Sforza,
anthropologist F. T. Cloak and ethologist J. M. Cullen.
330 The inverse relationship of literacy/knowledge accumulation to superstitious
114
http://semmelweis.org/about/dr-semmelweis-biography/
117
anthropological research by Franz Boas in the first few decades of the 20th
century.
338 Similar to cultural relativism, moral relativism is generally defined as:
any of several philosophical positions concerned with the differences in
moral judgments across different people and cultures.
(https://www.boundless.com/management/definition/moral-relativism/)
339 Please see the prior essay Defining Public Health
340 A general example would be the consumer values prevalent in the world
118
existing profit establishments was the successful effort made by the oil
industry and, by extension, the US government to slow progress toward
fully electric vehicles in the 1990s. Reference: Who Killed the Electric Car?
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489037/synopsis)
120
status elevating credit for the idea, even though they are, again,
clearly part of a continuum larger than themselves. While appreciation
for the time and labor of a given person working towards the progress
of an idea is a productive social incentive and fundamental to our
sense of purpose in action, the perversion of intellectual ownership and
all its contrived attributes extend this operant satisfaction into
distortion.
In fact, on the largest scale of knowledge culmination, such acts
of appreciation inevitably become irrelevant in the memory of
history. Today, for instance, when we use a modern computer to assist
our lives, we seldom think about the thousands of years of intellectual
study that discovered the core scientific dynamics related, nor the
enormous amount of cumulative time spent by virtually countless
people to facilitate the invention of such a tool, in its current form.
It is only in the context of manifest ego and monetary reward
security that this becomes a natural value issue with respect to the
market system. If people do not claim credit, they will not be
rewarded and hence they will not gain survival from that contribution
in the market. So, the condition has compounded this neurosis that is
invariably stifling towards progress via the sharing of knowledge.
Furthermore,
disorders
associated
with
market
selfpreservation can take many other forms, including the use of
government as a tool,343 the pollution of academia and information
itself344 (since educational institutions are supported by income as
well), and even common interpersonal relationships.345 The fear
inherent to the loss of livelihood naturally overrides almost everything
and even the most ethical or moral person, when faced with the
risk of non-survival, can usually justify actions that would be
traditionally called corrupt. This pressure is constant and is the
source, in part, of the vast co-called criminality and social paralysis
we see today.
346 Reference: Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior, Piffa,
Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2012/03/01/the-40highest-earning-hedge-fund-managers-3/)
354 There is a common argument that the financial sector is relevant to
industrial production because it facilitates the capital by which production is
originated by investment. However, that facilitation is a contrivance since
the act of production in physical reality, absent the Capitalist model, has
nothing to do with money or investment at all it has to do with education,
resources and engineering. Investment and finance is not real as it does not
produce - it is not needed with respect to the real components of
production.
124
356 Source: An Inquiry into the Principles of the Distribution of Wealth Most
2009; Also See: The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett,
Penguin, March 2009
126
Times, 1999
(http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/20/world/study-finds-tv-alters-fiji-girlsview-of-body.html)
361 Reference: Pat Robertson: Obama A 'Socialist,' Wants To 'Destroy' The
United States, Paige Lavender, The Huffington Post, 2012,
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/14/pat-robertsonobama_n_2301228.html)
362 Much controversy has existed with respect to continual decline of Western
education, specifically in America. Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt, former Senior
Policy Advisor in the U.S. Department of Education, has written about what
she calls The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, Conscience Press, 1999
127
(https://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=489)
and the like.365 These laws are, in reality, not to protect free-trade or
the like but to settle extreme acts of competitive intent inherent in
the market place, with all sides jockeying for advantage by whatever
means possible.366
Even the very constituents of all governments in the world today
are invariably of the corporate-business class. Hence, deep business
values are clearly inherent in the mindsets of those in power. Thorstein
Veblen wrote of this reality in the early 20th century:
The responsible officials and their chief administrative officers so much as may at all reasonably be called the government or the
administration - are invariably and characteristically drawn from
these beneficiary classes; nobles, gentleman or business men, which
all come to the same thing for the purpose in hand; the point of it all
being that the common man does not come within these precincts and
does not share in these counsels that are assumed to guide the
destiny of the nations. 367
So, to argue that the free market is not free due to
intervention is to misunderstand what the nature of free really
means with respect to the system. The freedom is not the freedom
of everyone to be able to fairly participate in the open-market and all
the utopian rhetoric we hear about today by apologists of the capitalist
system the real freedom is actually the freedom to dominate,
suppress and beat other businesses by whatever competitive means
possible. In this, no level playing field is possible. In fact, if the
government did not interfere by way of monopoly/anti-trust laws or
the bailing out of banks and the like - the entire market complex
would have self-destructed a long time ago. In part, this inherent
instability of the market is what economists like John Maynard Keynes
basically understood, but arguably to a limited extent.368
365 Even Adam Smith in his writings implies that businessmen use every
a person has. Those below the poverty line have severe limitations on
personal freedom as compared to the wealthy. Likewise, while
proponents of the free market often talk about coercion in the
context of state power, the reality of economic coercion is ignored.
Traditional economic theorists constantly use rhetoric that suggests
that everything is an issue of choice in the market and if a person
wishes to take a job or not, it is their choice.
Yet, those in poverty, which is the majority,371 face a severe
reduction of choice. The pressures of their limited economic capacity
creates a powerful state of coercion by which they not only must take
labor roles they might not appreciate to survive, they are often subject
to vast exploitation in the form of low wage rates due to that same
desperation. In fact, general poverty, in this context, is a very positive
condition for the capitalist class for it ensures cost-efficiency in the
form of cheaper labor.
So again, while we may have seen some societal improvement
over time, this improvement is really just a variation of a common
theme of general elitism, exploitation and bigotry. The long history of
assumed resource scarcity and limits on production have also
compounded this idea, in the Malthusian sense,372 where the idea of
everyone finding some level of economic equality was deemed simply
impossible.
(b) Yet, modern science and the exponential development of technical
application, along with a deeper awareness of our human condition,373
has opened the door to future possibilities for social improvement and,
in fact, a further elevation of freedom in ways never before seen. This
awareness presents a problem since the possibility of achieving this
new level is deeply inhibited by the values and establishments set
forth by the traditional capitalist social order. In other words, the
market system simply cannot facilitate these improvements because
the nature of their culmination is against the very mechanisms of the
system.
For example, the efficiency made possible on the technical,
scientific level today, if correctly applied, could provide a high standard
of living for every human on earth, coupled with the removing of
dangerous and monotonous labor through the application of
cybernated mechanization.374 In the world today, the vast majority of
people spend most of their life working an occupation and sleeping.
371 While the poverty line standard is relative based on the region of
application, over 50% of the world as of a 2005 World Bank Study live on
less than 2.50 a day, or about $912.00 a year. Source: GlobalIssues.org
(http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats)
372 See the section on Malthus and Ricardo in the essay History of Economy.
373 Clarification: Socially causal or psychosocial effects of the human-society
relationship have proven some powerful realities about the origins of
aberrant or destructive behavior. See the essay Defining Public Health for
more explanation.
374 A detailed extrapolation will be presented in part III of this text.
132
377 Albert Einstein was quoted as saying, "I know not with what weapons World
War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and
stones." (The New Quotable Einstein, Alice Calaprice, Princeton University
Press. 2005 p.173)
378 Reference: What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, Michael J.
Sandel, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012
379 Reference: Data can be viewed online with respect to the EU at
www.pointcarbon.com
380 Source: For $82 a Day, Booking a Cell in a 5-Star Jail, New York Times,
April 29, 2007
381 Source: Saving the Rhino Through Sacrifice, Brendan Borrell, Bloomberg
Businessweek, December 9, 2010
382 Source: At Many Colleges, the Rich Kids Get Affirmative Action: Seeking
Donors, Daniel Golden, Wall Street. Journal, February 20, 2003
134
383 Source: Is Cash the Answer, Amanda Ripley, Time, April 19, 2010, pp.44-
45
384 Source: Paying people to lose weight and stop smoking, Kevin G. Volpp,
-STRUCTURAL CLASSISM, THE STATE AND WARMan is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under his own
flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinous uniformed
assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other people's countries,
and keep them from grabbing slices of his. And in the intervals between
campaigns he washes the blood of his hands and works for "the universal
brotherhood of man"- with his mouth.387
- Mark Twain
Overview
Human conflict has been a consistent characteristic of society since the
beginning of recorded history. While justifications of this have ranged
from assumptions of immutable human propensities towards
aggression and territoriality, to the religious notion of polarized
metaphysical powers at work, such as forces of good and evil,
history has revealed that cases of conflict generally have a rational
correlation to environmental circumstances and/or cultural conditions.
From the immediate, fearful stress reaction of our fight or flight
propensity,388 to the calm, calculated planning of strategic national
warfare, there is always a reason for such conflict and the general
public's interest to reduce conflict naturally requires we fully assess
causality as deeply as we can to consider tangible solutions.
This essay will examine two general categories of warfare:
imperial warfare and class warfare. While perhaps seemingly
different, it will be argued that the root psychological mechanisms of
these two categorizations are basically the same, along with how some
of the actual mechanisms of battle are actually much more elusive or
covert than many recognize. Overall, the central thesis is that the
source of these seemingly immutable realities resides within the
socioeconomic premise itself - in the context of a certain reinforced
psychology and hence sociological schemata - not rigid determinations
in our genes or lack of some moral aptitude.
Put another way, these present realities are not fueled by
ideologically isolated groups such as, for example, a rogue countrys
government or some exceptionally greedy business mentality but
rather by the most fundamental, underlying values inherent to
virtually everyone's lives in the current socioeconomic condition we
perpetuate as culturally normal. The only difference is the degree to
which these values are harnessed and for what purpose.
387 Source: Man's place in the animal world, What is Man? And other
388 The fight-or-flight response (or the acute stress response) was first
webster.com/dictionary/imperialism)
396 The use of religion to generate political support for imperial acts of war is
quite common historically. Even in the United States today, politicians, with
respect to recent military actions, have consistently made a general
undertone of religious war or of acting on the behalf of God. Islamic and
138
399 The term paternalism is defined as: a system under which an authority
nations culture.402
This last point on the perpetuation of the nation's culture is
best exemplified with the common, modern Western imperial claims of
seeking to spread Freedom and Democracy. This claim takes a
paternal position, positing the idea that the current political climate of
a targeted nation is simply too inhumane and intervention to help its
citizens becomes a moral obligation of the invading power.
Veblen Continues: Any Patriotism will serve as ways and
means to warlike enterprise under competent management, even if
[the people are] not habitually prone to a bellicose temper. Rightly
managed, ordinary patriotic sentiment may readily be mobilized for
warlike adventure by any reasonably adroit and single-minded body of
statesmen - of which there is abundant illustration.403 ...it is [also]
quite a safe generalization that when hostilities have once been got
fairly underway by the interested statesman, the patriotic sentiment of
the nation may confidently be counted on to back the enterprise,
irrespective of the merits of the quarrel.404
In America, the phrase I'm against the war but support the
troops405 is common among those who oppose a given conflict but
wish to be viewed as still respectful of their country in general. This
phrase is unique as it is actually irrational. To logically support the
troops would mean to support the role of being a troop, hence the
acts that are required by that role. The implicit gesture, of course, is
that one supports the need for war and hence supports the men and
women of the armed forces who assist that need. Yet, the statement
itself is fully contradictory and exists as a form of doublethink,406 as
to disagree with the existence of a certain war is to wholly disagree
with actions of those who engage it. It is similar to saying, I'm
against cancer killing people but I support cancer's right to life.
The armed forces have historically been held in high public
esteem by a citizenry and the government continually glorifies this to
the extent that the assumption of honor takes on an irrational life of
its own. In fact, it is compounded psychologically by a built-in
ceremonialism. Honor is formalized through awards, medals, parades,
postures of respect and other adornments which impress the public as
to the supposed value of the actions of the soldiers and hence the
institution of war. This further reinforces the cultural taboo where to
insult any element of the war apparatus is seen as showing disrespect
for the sacrifice of the armed forces.
From the standpoint of true protection and problem resolution,
402 Source: An Inquiry Into the Nature of Peace and the Terms of Its
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-rieckhoff/can-you-support-thetroop_b_26192.html)
406 Doublethink a term coined by George Orwell which describes the act of
simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct.
141
Times, 2005
(http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2002612542_recruits09.html)
414 Source: Pentagon Spending Billions on PR to Sway World Opinion, Fox
News, 2010 (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/05/pentagonspending-billions-pr-sway-world-opinion/)
415 Source: Federal Revenues by Source, Heritage.com, 2012
(http://www.heritage.org/federalbudget/federal-revenue-sources]
143
2008 (http://www.businesspundit.com/the-25-most-vicious-iraq-warprofiteers)
417 Reference: Ten Companies Profiting Most from War, 247WallSt.com, 2012
(http://247wallst.com/2012/02/28/ten-companies-profiting-most-fromwar/)
418 Reference: Advocates of War Now Profit From Iraq's Reconstruction,
LATimes.com, 2004 (http://articles.latimes.com/2004/jul/14/nation/naadvocates14)
419 Reference: Deadly Sanctions Regime: Economic Warfare against Iran,
GlobalResearch.ca, 2012 (http://www.globalresearch.ca/deadly-sanctionsregime-economic-warfare-against-iran/5305921)
420 Reference: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses
Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions, DemocracyNow.org,
2004
(http://www.democracynow.org/2004/11/9/confessions_of_an_economic_hi
t_man)
421 Reference: Banana Wars: Major General Smedley Butler, About.com
(http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/1900s/p/Banana-Wars-Major-GeneralSmedley-Butler.htm)
422 Source: War is a Racket, Smedley D. Butler, William H Huff Publishing,
1935, Chapter 1, p.1
144
National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of
half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I
helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown
Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for
the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right
for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped
see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back
on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do
was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three
continents.423
John A. Hobson's (1858-1940) monumental work Imperialism:
A Study described the tendency as a social parasitic process by which
a moneyed interest within the state, usurping the reins of government,
makes for imperial expansion in order to fasten economic suckers into
foreign bodies so as to drain them of their wealth in order to support
domestic luxury.424
Now, many would think about these acts of abuse as a form of
corruption but this reasoning is difficult to justify in the broad view.
The ethical and moral argument of fair and unfair has no cogent
integrity within the system framework inherent to capitalism. This is
one of the unfortunate failures of realization by those who are active in
the message of world peace or anti-war activism but yet still
defend the competitive market model. In other words, world peace
appears simply not a possibility within the currently accepted model of
economic practice.
Every step of the application of global capitalism, starting from
its European inception, has been associated with vast violence,
exploitation and subjugation. European colonialism,425 the capture of
African slaves for use and sale, the forced subjugation of countless
colonial peoples, and the creation of privileged sanctuaries of
profiteering and power for the many government-created or
government-protected businesses, only touches the surface of its
inherent character as a war system of thought.
Thorstein Veblen, again writing from 1917, makes the direct
connection to what he called the pecuniary or monetary foundation
of war: It has appeared in the course of the argument that the
preservation of the present pecuniary law and order, with all its
incident of ownership and investment, is incompatible with an
unwarlike state of peace and security. This current scheme of
investment, business, and [Industrial] sabotage, should have an
appreciably better chance of survival in the long run if the present
(http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/70162/percy-w-bidwell/oureconomic-warfare)
429 As noted by research by the STWR regarding the World Bank: In most of
its client countries, it is virtually the only doorway to access international
trade, development finance and private investment capital. It derives its
power and policy agendas from its wealthiest shareholders governments
that comprise the G-7...who routinely use the Bank to secure lucrative trade
and investment deals in developing countries for their respective
transnational corporations (TNCs). Source: IMF, World Bank & Trade,
STWR (http://www.stwr.org/imf-world-bank-trade/corporate-power-andinfluence-in-the-world-bank.html)
430 Reference: East India Company, Britannica.com
(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/176643/East-India-Company)
431 As of 2011, it has been reported that the US military exists in over 130
countries, with an estimated 900 bases. Source: Ron Paul says U.S. has
146
2011 (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/31/one-percent-holds-39percent-of-global-wealth/)
148
been an historical favoring of the corporate rich over the working poor,
is one example.437 The argument of the establishment usually revolves
around the idea that since the rich are also the ownership class and
are partly responsible for the generation of general employment, they
should be given more financial freedom.438 As an aside, it is easy to
see that there is very little true merit in this one-sided argument since
the financial oppression through public taxation is actually limiting the
purchasing power of the general public, creating an arguably more
powerful impediment to economic growth than the mere limiting of the
coffers of the corporate employers.439 The only exception to this,
which transcends the argument of the rich as job creators, is the
advent of plutonomy, which will be addressed towards the end of this
essay.
Class favoring taxation aside, four other more critical structural
factors will be discussed: (a) debt, (b) interest, (c) inflation and (d)
income disparity.
(a) Debt is a misunderstood social practice in that most assume debt is
an option in society today. In reality, the entire financial system is
built out of debt, quite literally. All money is brought into existence
through loans in the modern economy, coming from central and
commercial banks who essentially create the money out of demand
itself.440 This basic mechanism of monetary creation is a powerful force
of economic oppression. Household debt today tends to consist of
credit card loans, housing loans, car loans and student (educational)
loans. Those in the lower classes naturally hold higher levels of this
consumer debt than the upper class since the very nature of being
unable to pay outright for basic social staples, such a car or home,
forces the need for banks loans.
The result is that the pressure of debt is constant in the lives
of the vast majority.441 442 443 The general wage and income rates
437 Reference: Poor Americans Pay Double The State, Local Tax Rates Of Top
(http://www.cnbc.com/id/40680905)
444 Reference: The American Household Is Digging Out of Debt in the Worst
obligation. The loan contract and legal system support the power of
banks, in most cases, to repossess the physical property of those
who cannot pay.446
If we think deeply about this ability to repossess, it is
arguably an indirect form of theft. If it is inevitable that some will
succumb to not meeting their loan repayment due to the inherent
scarcity in the money supply, with the possible result of the physical
property obtained from that loaned money being repossessed by the
bank via contractual agreements, then the bank's acquisition of such
true, physical property is inevitable over time. This means the banks,
which are always owned by members of the upper class to be sure, are
taking houses, cars and property of the lower classes, simply because
the money they created out of thin air in the form of a loan is not
being returned to them. This is, in essence, a covert form of physical
wealth transfer from the lower to the upper class.
However, returning to the subject of interest itself, such
realities are of little direct concern to the upper class. Given the wealth
surplus inherent to their financial status, coupled with the lack of
necessity to even take loans most of the time due to this surplus, the
scarcity pressure inherent to the money supply due to interest fees
always falls on the shoulders of the lower classes. Also, the wealthy
are actually further class-protected as the phenomenon of investment
income via interest earned from large savings accounts, certificates of
deposit and other means, turns this vehicle of social oppression for the
poor into a vehicle of financial advantage for the rich.447
(c) Inflation is generally defined as The rate at which the general level
of prices for goods and services is rising, and, subsequently,
purchasing power is falling.448 Unfortunately this common definition
gives no insight into its true causality. While there has been debate as
to the true causes of inflation in different economic schools,449 the
Quantity Theory of Money450 has been proven as the most relevant.
In short, this theory simply recognizes that the more money in
loans are obtained for a purchase - such as a home are able to take the
full property regardless of the value paid in prior. Even if 99% of the loan is
paid off, they can still take 100% of the property if the final payments are
not made.
447 For example, a person who deposits $1 million into a C.D. at 3% interest
annually will generate $30,000 a year merely for that deposit alone. In
terms of percentage, 3% may not seem as that dramatic. In terms of
absolute value, compared to the income of the vast majority, it is quite
dramatic.
448 Source: Investopedia.com
(http://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/inflation.asp#axzz2JypjmRJs)
449 Reference: Macroeconomics: Theory and Policy, Robert J. Gordon, Modern
theories of inflation McGraw-Hill, 1988
450 Quantity Theory of Money defined source:
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/05/010705.asp#axzz2JypjmRJs
151
455 Reference: U.S. Income Inequality: It's Worse Today Than It Was in 1774,
TheAtlantic.com, 2012
(http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/us-incomeinequality-its-worse-today-than-it-was-in-1774/262537/)
456 Reference: The Unequal State of America: a Reuters series, Reuters.com,
2012 (http://www.reuters.com/subjects/income-inequality/washington)
457 Reference: Income Inequality Around the World Is a Failure of Capitalism,
TheAtlantic.com, 2011
(http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/05/income-inequalityaround-the-world-is-a-failure-of-capitalism/238837/)
458 Reference: The Top 0.1% Of The Nation Earn Half Of All Capital Gains,
Forbes.com, 2011
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlenzner/2011/11/20/the-top-0-1-ofthe-nation-earn-half-of-all-capital-gains/)
459 Source: Investorwords.com
153
(http://www.investorwords.com/706/capital_gain.html)
460 Reference: Capital gains tax rates benefiting wealthy feed growing gap
percent (up from 14 times greater in 1979), and incomes of the top
0.1 percent were 220 times greater (up from 47 times greater in
1979).464
Similar patterns can be found in other industrialized nations. In
fact, in 2013 even China has been discussing their growing income gap
problem with proposals to ease the disparity.465 The Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development in a 2011 report found that
countries with historically low levels of income inequality have
experienced significant increases over the past decade.466 467
Causality in the form of clearly defined structural mechanisms
are more difficult to pin down with respect to this general trend of
employment related income imbalance. The combination of the
psychological incentive of self-preservation and self-maximization
inherent to the value system of capitalism, coupled with the everchanging legal, tax and financial policy related variables in play, along
with the basic strategic edge maintained by the upper classes due to
their existing wealth security, creates a complex, synergistic
mechanism of class preservation and external oppression.
A subtle yet revealing statistical point to also note is how
during recent recessions in the United States, the wealth gap has
actually widened.468 It is axiomatic to conclude that if the system of
economy was without structural interference in favor of the wealthy, a
national recession on the scale of the what occurred from 2007 onward
should have affected most everyone negatively, regardless of social
class. Yet, it was reported in 2010 that the wealthiest 5 percent of
Americans, who earn more than $180,000, added slightly to their
annual incomes last year...Families at the $50,000 median level
464 Ibid.
465 Reference: China Issues Proposal to Narrow Income Gap, NYTimes.com,
2013 (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/world/asia/china-issues-planto-narrow-income-gap.html)
466 Reference: Society at a Glance 2011 - OECD Social Indicators, Oecd.org,
2011
(http://www.oecd.org/social/socialpoliciesanddata/societyataglance2011oecdsocialindicators.htm)
467 Reference: 10 Countries With The Worst Income Inequality: OECD,
HuffingtonPost.com, 2011 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/23/10countries-with-worst-incomeinequality_n_865869.html#s278244&title=1_Chile)
468 U.S. Census data revealed:The top-earning 20 percent of Americans
those making more than $100,000 each year received 49.4 percent of all
income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4 percent made by the
bottom 20 percent of earners, those who fell below the poverty line,
according to the new figures. That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an increase from
13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low of 7.69 in 1968. At the top, the
wealthiest 5 percent of Americans, who earn more than $180,000, added
slightly to their annual incomes last year, the data show. Families at the
$50,000 median level slipped lower. Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/28/income-gap-widens-census_n_741386.html
155
slipped lower.469
As a final point on the issue of income inequality, it is
important to note how national economic growth often relates to those
of the upper class itself, reducing the general economic relevance of
the lower classes. The term plutonomy is appropriate in this case. A
plutonomy is defined as Economic growth that is powered and
consumed by the wealthiest upper class of society. Plutonomy refers to
a society where the majority of the wealth is controlled by an evershrinking minority; as such, the economic growth of that society
becomes dependent on the fortunes of that same wealthy minority.470
Perhaps the best way to describe the nature of plutonomy and
its relevance to the modern day, is to consider the words of those who
embrace it. In 2005, Citigroup, a powerful global banking institution,
produced a series of internal memos on the subject and it was quite
candid in its analysis and conclusions.
They stated: The world is dividing into two blocs - the
Plutonomy and the rest. The U.S., UK, and Canada are the key
plutonomies - economies powered by the wealthy.471 In a plutonomy
there is no such animal as the U.S. consumer or the UK consumer,
or indeed the Russian consumer. There are rich consumers, few in
number, but disproportionate in the gigantic slice of income and
consumption they take. There are the rest, the non-rich, the
multitudinous many, but only accounting for surprisingly small bites of
the national pie.472 We should worry less about what the average
consumer - say the 50th percentile - is going to do, when that
consumer is (we think) less relevant to the aggregate data than how
the wealthy feel and what they are doing. This is simply a case of
mathematics, not morality.473
With 20% of the American population controlling 85% of the
country's wealth,474 it is clear that those utilizing that 85% are more
important to the GDP or growth of the economy. What this means is
that the financial system has little incentive to care about the actions
or financial wellbeing of most of the public.
It continues: the heart of our plutonomy thesis [is] that the
rich are the dominant source of income, wealth and demand in
plutonomy countries such as the UK, US, Canada and Australia...
Secondly, we believe that the rich are going to keep getting richer in
469 Reference: Income Gap Widens: Census Finds Record Gap Between Rich
coming years, as capitalists (the rich) get an even bigger share of GDP
as a result, principally, of globalization. We expect the global pool of
labor in developing economies to keep wage inflation in check, and
profit margins rising good for the wealth of capitalists, relatively bad
for developed market unskilled/outsource-able labor. This bodes well
for companies selling to or servicing the rich.475
With respect to the relevance of the rest of the population, the
memo states: We see the biggest threat to plutonomy as coming
from a rise in political demands to reduce income inequality, spread
the wealth more evenly, and challenge forces such as globalization
which have benefited profit and wealth growth.476 Our conclusion?
The three levers governments and societies could pull on to end
plutonomy are benign. Property rights are generally still intact,
taxation policies neutral to favorable, and globalization is keeping the
supply of labor in surplus, acting as a brake on wage inflation.477 478
While plutonomy itself might not exactly be a source of class
conflict it is certainly a result. Chrystia Freeland, author of Plutocrats:
The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else
makes a point about the nature of this framed psychology inherent to
those of the opulent minority:
You don't do this in a kind of chortling, smoking your cigar,
conspiratorial thinking way. You do it by persuading yourself that what
is in your own personal self-interest is in the interests of everybody
else. So you persuade yourself that, actually, government services,
things like spending on education, which is what created that social
mobility in the first place, need to be cut so that the deficit will shrink,
so that your tax bill doesn't go up. And what I really worry about is,
there is so much money and so much power at the very top, and the
gap between those people at the very top and everybody else is so
great, that we are going to see social mobility choked off and society
transformed.479
In Conclusion
A great deal more could be said with respect to the multi-level battling
occurring on the planet Earth, mostly centric to financial and market
power and its institutional preservation. From physical violence to
475 Source: Revisiting Plutonomy: The Rich Getting Richer, Citigroup Internal
476 Source: The Plutonomy Symposium - Rising Tides Lifting Yachts, Citigroup
http://www.insideriowa.com/en/opinion/index.cfm?action=display&newsID=
17761
479 Source: National Public Radio (October 15, 2012) "A Startling Gap Between
Us And Them In 'Plutocrats'"
(http://www.npr.org/2012/10/15/162799512/a-startling-gap-between-usand-them-in-plutocrats)
157
existing profit establishments was the successful effort made by the oil
industry and, by extension, the U.S. government to slow progress toward
fully electric vehicles in the 1990s. (Suggested viewing: Who Killed the
Electric Car?: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489037/synopsis)
481 Reference: Oil Giants Loath to Follow Obamas Green Lead
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/business/energyenvironment/08greenoil.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)
482 Source: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,
Adam Smith, Modern Library Reprint, 1937, New York, p.250
483 Reference: The U.S.: Arms Merchant to the Developing World, Time.com
2012 (http://nation.time.com/2012/08/28/theres-no-business-like-thearms-business-2/)
158
Socioeconomic Spectrum
As alluded to in prior essays, sustainable practices can only come
about by a value re-orientation towards sustainable thought. While the
notion of sustainability is often reduced to an ecological context, the
real issue under the surface is cultural. This hence becomes a process
of education. It is the perspective of The Zeitgeist Movement that the
economic system utilized in a society is the greatest influence on the
values and beliefs of its people. For instance, deeply rooted in even
the seemingly separate politico-religious doctrines of our time, resides
an undercurrent of values set forth by economic assumptions.490
The term socioeconomic, which is the social science that
links the effects of economic activity to other social processes,491 could
have its meaning more specifically extended to also include religious
views, political biases, military initiatives, tribal loyalties, cultural
customs, legal statutes and other common societal phenomena. It
appears that the very fabric of our lives and hence our value system is
born, most dominantly, from the cultural perception of our survival,
social relationships and ideas of personal/social success.
Moreover, it is critical to restate that political systems, which
most in the world still seem to award priority of importance when it
comes to the state of affairs in society, are, at best, secondary in
relevance (if not, in fact, entirely obsolete) when the true ramifications
of the economic structure are factored in. In fact, as will be argued in
future essays, political governance as we know it is really nothing
more than an outgrowth of economic inefficiency. Very few would care
much about who was in power or other such traditional notions if
they clearly understood the process of economic unfolding and were
able to contribute and gain without conflict. Therefore, there is no
greater issue of importance than the system of economic unfolding
when it comes to the conduct and stability of human beings on both
489 Source: The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3, Verse 27, Translation: Shri Purohit
Swami
490 An example would be this Old Testament scripture which seems to imply
that the poor will always exist no matter what society does: There will
always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be
openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your
land. -Deuteronomy 15:11
491 Socioeconomic is defined as: of, relating to, or involving a combination
of social and economic factors (Source: http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/socioeconomic)
160
arbitrary nature with respect to human wants, such as the powerful shift
in values that occurred in the early 20th century with the application of
modern Western advertising. Human needs, however, are basic
necessities, largely shared by all humans, which maintain physical and
psychological health. While many still argue subjective interpretations of
such terms, needs are essentially static and wants are essentially
variable. Generally speaking, wants are a consequence of one's value
system and are culturally derived. Therefore, needs are hence of greater
priority in meeting than wants.
493 Fuller States: Wealth...is inherently regenerative. Experimentally
demonstrated wealth is: energy compounded with intellect's knowhow.
From Utopia or Oblivion, R. Buckminster Fuller, Bantam Press, NY, 1969,
p.288
494 Ephemeralization, a term coined by R. Buckminster Fuller, is the ability of
technological advancement to do "more and more with less and less..." over
time. This trend can be noticed in many areas of industrial development,
from computer processing (Moore's law) to the rapid acceleration of human
knowledge (information technology). A common example would be the
computation power and size relationships of computers over time. The
ENIAC computer of the 1940s covered 1800 square feet of floor space,
weighed 30 tons, consumed 160 kilowatts of electrical power and cost about
$6 Million in modern value. Today, an inexpensive, pocket size cell phone
computes substantially faster than ENIAC. Hence - less material and yet
more power. [http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventions/a/Eniac.htm]
495 Malthusianism is a perspective linked to economist and cleric Thomas R.
Malthus that, in short, has to do with the need to control/limit population
growth due to an empirical assumption of relative resource scarcity. Ideas
such as "not helping the poor" as "it only gives false hope" and the like are
common to this view. [Suggested Reading: An Essay on the Principle of
Population, Thomas Malthus, 1798]
161
everyone's needs.
As noted in prior essays, this worldview is ever apparent in the
economic system we still embrace today globally, forging deep
structural biases496 that have inevitably favored one class of people
over another in survival advantage. In other words, a war game has
culminated, built out of the assumption of universal, perpetually
reinforced scarcity, which moves forward today on its own momentum,
largely absent of its original causal reasoning.
The vast majority of what we define as corruption today,
more often than not, finds its psychological root in this competitive
awareness both on the personal level, the corporate (business) level &
on the level of government in the form of war, tyranny and selfpreserving collusion. In fact, it can be well argued that the very notion
of ethical in a world decidedly working to gain at the expense of
others becomes a highly relative and almost arbitrary distinction.
Yet, this trend of ephemeralization, having increased rapidly
from
the
20th
century's
almost
sudden
industrial/scientific
advancements, deeply challenges this protectionist, elitist, scarcitydriven worldview, suggesting new, paradigm-shifting possibilities for
human organization.
These possibilities, in part, statistically reveal that we are now
able to take care of the entire world's population at a standard of living
unknown to the vast majority of humanity today.497 However, in order
for this new reality of efficiency to be harnessed, the archaic barriers
ingrained in our everyday way of life, specifically our perception of
economics, need to be reevaluated and likely overcome entirely.
As noted in prior essays, the term utopia commonly arises as
a pejorative term amongst those who tend to dismiss large scale social
improvement due to either a cynicism of so-called human nature or
an outright disbelief in humanity's technical capacity to now adjust
greatly with new technical means.
For example, an objection common to the current culture,
specifically the wealthy First World nations, rests in the value of what
could be termed the violence of mass acquisition. At its root, this
view takes the Malthusian concept of need-oriented resource
496 See prior essay: Structural Classism, The State and War
497 While this reality will be discussed in the following essay Post-Scarcity
a small island of ten people were two people decide to extract and
hoard 1,000% more than they need to be healthy, leaving eight
people to live in abject poverty and/or dying - would you find this
arrangement an act of personal freedom by those two - or an act of
social violence against the eight?
This is brought up here to dismiss the utopian abundance
fallacy reaction common to many regarding, in part, the implications
of ephemeralization. Just as we as a global society are realizing the
inherent physical limitations of our industrial behaviors, slowly
adjusting away from ecologically destabilizing consequences, the
understanding that an infinite wants-based value orientation is
equally as detrimental to social balance is critical to realize.
System Limitation
When it comes to cultural philosophies, the human population must
gain, in part, a clear understanding of its limitations and derive its
expectations and values from this physical reality. The limitations
imposed by our environment exist irrespective of human values,
interests, wants or even needs in abstraction. If we were to remove
humanity from planet Earth and observe the Earth's natural ecological
operations with the causal, scientific understandings we have today,
we would witness a synergistic/symbiotic system governed by the
universal dynamics of nature.
Hence, no matter what we think about ourselves, our
intentions or our freedoms,501 once we are placed into this system of
physical law we are bound to it regardless of our beliefs or the cultural
norms we have taken for granted, or which have been imposed as
"inevitable" or "immutable" by our various cultures. If we choose to
learn and align with the logic inherent, we find sustainability and hence
stability. If we choose to ignore or fight these pre-existing rules, we
will inevitably decrease stability and problems will arise, as is the nearconstant state of affairs today in the early 21st century.
This awareness of natural limitations, as we have come to
understand them today via the scientific method, expresses perhaps
the most profound shift in human loyalties in history. In short, we
now understand that we either align with the natural world, or we
suffer. Sadly, this firm referential association still stands at odds with
social stability.
501 The word freedoms is in parenthesis due to the prolific cultural use.
Patriotic slogans about freedom and liberty, born out of, in part, the
historical problem of tyranny and government abuse, exist today often
creating an almost neurotic and misleading view of human behavior. In
reality, there is no such thing as universal freedom in the world as rigid
physical laws bind us. The cultural notion of freedom, as most propagated
by the Capitalist ideology, can be argued as intrinsically dangerous to
species sustainability in many ways - specifically with respect to its absolute
ignoring of larger order synergistic system factors, assuming the fallacy that
a detached, self-interest based pursuit secures social and ecological
balance.
164
502 Later in his life, astronomer Carl Sagan made a video commentary which
-POST SCARCITY TRENDS, CAPACITY AND EFFICIENCYThe worlds present industrial civilization is handicapped by the coexistence of
two universal, overlapping, and incompatible intellectual systems: the
accumulated knowledge of the last four centuries of the properties and
interrelationships of matter and energy; and the associated monetary culture
which has evolved from folkways of prehistoric origin.504
-M. King Hubbert
Evaluating Design
Examining the surface of Earth today, a network layer of communities,
industrial centers, transport routes, recreational areas, agricultural
systems and the like dominate much of the landscape. Whether
intended as a total system construct or not, this result, at any given
point in time, constitutes the appearance of a topographical design.
Yet, on the other hand, given that this resulting design today
is, actually, a consequential amalgamation of mostly business
dynamics - moving money around for personal or group self-interest,
based around decision-making mechanisms such as profit, costefficiency and the prevailing logic surrounding property relationships
it could also be argued that what has manifest is actually not a
design at all. Rather, it is rooted in a mechanism that has created
the appearance of design ex post facto505 since the structural outcome
recognized was not fully anticipated as a whole prior to its
construction.
In other words, the technical order we see in the world today
is mostly the result of financial processes that have little to no
perception of larger scale structural outcomes. It is more of a proxy
system506 and while there are some relative exceptions, such as the
placement of highways, pipelines and the like by funded city planners
who simply must take a broad physical view to be functional, even
those circumstances are often working around pre-existing property
claims and other forms of interference which tend to reduce design
efficiency on the whole.
This is an interesting observation, as once it is recognized that
our society operates without a large scale preconception of its own
physical design, one might begin to realize the enormous level of
unnecessary waste and technical inefficiency inherent to such a short504 Source: Two Intellectual Systems: Matter-energy and the Monetary
505 Ex Post Facto is a Latin term that means done, made, or formulated
506 Proxy, defined as the agency, function, or office of a deputy who acts as
sighted process.
To consider this more so, two points are worth considering:
a) Existing yet Unapplied Solutions
b) Broad Conception vs. Spontaneous Conception
a) Existing yet Unapplied Solutions:
This first point concerns the tendency of many new innovations for
problem resolution to go unapplied within the current economic
tradition.507 If further life improving methods or technologies have not
found their way into a system within a respectable amount of time (or
at all) after general validation, we can rightly assume there are
inefficiencies, if not deficiencies, with the very process of economic
incorporation and development.
In other words, this delay between proven solutions, and their
application in the real world, gauges the ability of the socioeconomic
system to adapt properly to improved methods and applications. If, for
some reason, the social order in question is not able to incorporate
such new means to further ecological balance, improve public health,
solve problems and increase prosperity, then there is likely a structural
problem inherent.508
b) Broad Conception vs. Spontaneous Conception:
Secondly, from a strictly formulaic viewpoint, direct, total system
considerations will always be more efficient and effective than
spontaneous generation by processes blind to the final outcome or
507 A classic example is the electric car that has been around since the 19
th
purpose.509
In other words, as gestured before, a basic good, such as a
car, has a design that is conceived of in advance, before physical
production. Once this design is decided upon, it is then followed by
applying real life materials and processes to create the actual physical
product. This may seem obvious to most as a logical process but the
relevance of such preconception is often lost when it comes to larger
order contexts.
We have to wonder what the outcome would be if we applied
the pseudo-democratic market process of bidding, buying and selling
for short-term profit, if even possible on such a scale, to the creation
of high integrity goods systems, such as an airplane, computer, car,
home or the like. While today the resources, labor and sub-component
systems of these items are certainly in play in the open market, the
design itself is not.
The design is relegated, necessarily, to the discipline of science
overall. It could be said that a line is intuitively drawn in this way
between what is susceptible to monetary opinion and what is tangibly
needed to keep some basic level of technical, system integrity. (Please
note that this notion of design is not to be confused with subjective
style interests. Design, as used here, is not an aesthetic
consideration but a technical one.)
Imagine, hypothetically, if people bid and offered for the
physical design construction of a house in each tiny physical detail,
ignoring scientific principles. In other words, instead of referencing the
basic laws of physics and the natural science that defines the core
structural integrity of any building, we let the market decide, with
everyone buying and selling such premises for their personal gain,
regardless of their technical understanding. Of course, such an idea is
truly absurd in such abstraction and most reading this probably can't
even imagine such an irrational interplay.
However, this is exactly what is occurring as a result of our
economic system in many other less obvious ways. For example, on
the macroeconomic scale, the global commercial network created by
what is termed globalization510 - with its basis in cost efficiency which,
among other things, utilizes cheaper labor in often distant regions,511
while wasting large amounts of energy sending resources all over the
509 The main exception to this would be a situation where the assumed system
design is simply not understood properly at that time. In other words, if the
goal or function of a given system is not fully realized, then naturally that
system can only be designed to that level of understanding.
510 Globalization is defined as: the development of an increasingly integrated
global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the
tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets. (http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/globalization)
511 Reference: Globalization: Between Fairness and Exploitation
(http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/land-of-wanderingsouls/globalization-between-fairness-and-exploitation/3073/)
168
prices (http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/EnergyVoices/2013/0228/Why-globalization-is-energy-intensive-and-wreakshavoc-on-oil-prices)
513 This is a rather subjective example as, ideally, a planned design should be
thorough enough to take into account the actual, physical materials and
their characteristics, decided upon down to the smallest relevant part. In
truth, this only happens to a certain degree, with many components of a
given good included as a means to keep a product cheap and competitive
in the open market. An example would be tires on a car. While general
specification of tire grade may be suggested, the use of cheap tires could
prevail due to an interest to limits costs by the consumer or even the
producer.
514 An example of multiplicity is how good production today grades quality
based on a targeted demographic. There are deliberately poor goods
continuously designed for those with limited purchasing power and there are
more optimized goods, which are longer lasting and effective, designed for
those who can afford such quality. While native to the logic of the market
system's inherent and resulting class stratification, this type of waste is
actually unneeded if society had the intention to share design ideas in
totality, seeking optimization as strategically as possible. In a NLRBE, this
169
of now. In the Gym: Clean Energy from Muscle Power, Time, 2010
(http://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2032281,00.html)
532 Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a
design discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating natures
time-tested patterns and strategies, e.g., a solar cell inspired by a leaf.
(http://www.asknature.org/article/view/what_is_biomimicry)
533 Two broad trends worth noting would be ecological & social. Regarding the
ecological, it has been noted that most, if not all major life supporting
systems are currently in decline. Ref: Data Shows All of Earths Systems in Rapid
Decline (http://www.ipsnews.net/2011/07/data-shows-all-of-earths-systemsin-rapid-decline/) Regarding social trends - a worthy statistical observation
is the apparent general increase in social destabilization or uprisings that
174
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/carrying+capacity
(http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpm/wpm2001.pdf)
178
education.545
Likewise, if current regions of accelerating population growth
are analyzed, it is found that those existing in deprivation and poverty
are reproducing faster than those who are not in poverty. While there
is some controversy as to why this pattern prevails, the correlation
appears to still be accurate. This evidence suggests that increasing
people's standard of living can curtail their rates of reproduction and
this furthers the social imperative to create a more equitable system of
resource allocation.
(1) Food Production
According to The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization,
one out of every eight people on Earth, (nearly 1 billion people) suffer
from chronic undernourishment. Almost all of these people live in
developing countries, representing 15 percent of the population of
these counties.546 Poverty is, needless to say, clearly linked to this
phenomenon.
Yet, politics and business aside, world agriculture today
actually produces 17 percent more calories per person than it did 30
years ago, despite a 70 percent population increase. There is enough
food to provide everyone in the world with at least 2,720 kilocalories
(kcal) per day, which is more than enough to maintain good health for
most.547 548 Therefore, the existence of such a large number of
chronically hungry people in the developing world today reveals, at a
minimum, that there is something fundamentally wrong with the
global industrial and economic process itself and not the Earth's
carrying capacity, or humanity's ability to process enough resources.
According to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, [W]e
produce [globally] about four billion metric tonnes of food per annum.
Yet due to poor practices in harvesting, storage and transportation, as
well as market and consumer wastage, it is estimated that 3050%
(or 1.22 billion tonnes) of all food produced never reaches a human
stomach. Furthermore, this figure does not reflect the fact that large
amounts of land, energy, fertilizers and water have also been lost in
545 Presently a great fear persists that curtailing or attempting to control the
(http://www.imeche.org/knowledge/themes/environment/global-food)
550 Source: Author: European food waste adds to world hunger, dw.de
(http://www.dw.de/author-european-food-waste-adds-to-world-hunger/a15837215)
551 Reference: Food waste within food supply chains: quantification and
potential for change to 2050
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2935112/)
552 Topsoil is the top layer of soil that possesses the greatest concentration of
organic matter and microorganisms and it is from which plants obtain the
overwhelming majority of their nutrients. Today, it is disappearing at an
alarming rate primarily due to conventional agricultural practices such as
monoculture (the practice of planting one single crop over and over again).
Likewise, soil erosion is increasing rapidly with a large number of
problematic effects due to inefficient farming practices. Reference:
(http://www.ewg.org/losingground/)
553 Ref: http://newearthdaily.com/floating-vertical-farms-could-feed-theworld-with-cheap-plentiful-produce/
554 Dickson Despommier, a professor of environmental health sciences and
180
automobiles".560
In Singapore, a vertical farm system, custom built in a
transparent enclosure, uses a closed loop, automated hydraulic system
to rotate the crop in circles between sunlight and an organic nutrient
treatment, costing only about $3 a month in electricity for each
enclosure.561 This system is also reported as ten times more
productive per square foot than conventional farming, with much less
water, labor and fertilizer used, as noted above. There is also no real
transport cost given all produce is distributed locally, saving more
resources and energy.
Overall, there is a spectrum of applications as of now and, in
many cases, these preexisting structures, not intended for such work,
are being utilized.562 In Chicago, IL, USA, the worlds largest certified
organic vertical farm is in operation. While producing mostly greens for
the local Chicago market, this 90,000 square foot facility uses an
aquaponic system,563 with waste from tilapia fish providing nutrients
for the plants. The farm reportedly saves 90% of its water, compared
to conventional farming techniques, and produces no agricultural
runoff. Additionally, all of its waste, such as plant roots, stems and
even biodegradable packaging, is recycled in collaboration, making it a
zero-waste facility.564
Current statistics vary with respect to the efficiency, often due
to monetary-based limitations and inherent profitability concerns. As
with much in the market system, promising technology finds
development only if it proves competitive. Given how new these ideas
are, we cannot expect to see many examples nor can we expect to see
an optimization of such methods to a high degree for measurement
without market acceptance.
However, we can extrapolate the realized potential of existing
systems, scaling the application out as if it were incorporated in every
major city, in its most relatively efficient form. The following list
confirms the superiority of this approach to the current, traditional
land based model, not only showing a more sustainable practice, but a
(http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/16/eco.food.miles/)
(http://www.offgridworld.com/feeding-9-billion-vertical-farming-singaporevideo/)
562 Source: 'Mega' Indoor Vertical Farm: Chicago Suburb New Home To
Nation's Largest Such Facility
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/28/mega-indoor-verticalfarm_n_2971328.html)
563 Aquaponics is a food production system that combines conventional
aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish or prawns
in tanks), with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic
environment.
564 Source: Worlds largest vertical farm is certified organic
(http://www.forumforthefuture.org/greenfutures/articles/world%E2%80%9
9s-largest-vertical-farm-certified-organic)
182
565 It is worth noting that all major nutritional requirements are technically
(http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/10/13/vertical-farms-from-vision-toreality/)
567 Source: Country, the City Version: Farms in the Sky Gain New Interest
(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/science/15farm.html?_r=0
568 Generally, in NYC the average length of a north-south block is 1/20th of a
mile, or 264 feet. An east-west block is about 1/5th of a mile, or 1,056 feet.
So, a square block would be 264 x 1056 = 278,784 square feet, which is
equal to 6.4 acres.
569 Source: United States Census Bureau, 2013 (http://www.census.gov/)
570 The city of Los Angeles is 498.3 sq miles that converts to 318,912 acres.
571 78 Buildings occupying 6.4 acres each equals 499.2 acres used total. 499.2
acres is 0.15% of the total acreage of Los Angeles (318,912)
572 Source: worldometers.info (http://www.worldometers.info/worldpopulation/)
573 7.2 billion (total population) divided by 50,000 (production capacity of one
30 story vertical farm) equals 144,000 needed structures.
574 6.4 (acres used per farm) times 144,000 (vertical farms) = 921,600 acres
575 Source: Farming Claims Almost Half Earth's Land, New Maps Show
(http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1209_051209_crops_
map.html)
576 921,600 (acres of land needed to place vertical farms) is 0.006581% of
13,981,811,200. (Total acres of land on earth used for traditional
agriculture, both crop and livestock)
184
577 Source: Farming Claims Almost Half Earth's Land, New Maps Show
(http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1209_051209_crops_
map.html)
578 6.4 acres (which is what has been determined as enough space to feed
50,000 people) goes into 4,408,320,000 (total land used currently for only
crop cultivation on earth) 688,800,000 times. 688,800,000, which represent
the number of possible facilities where each can produce enough food to
feed 50,000 people, translate into an output capacity of
34,440,000,000,000 people that can be fed. (688,800,000 x 50,000 =
34,440,000,000,000)
579 Source: Livestock and climate change
(http://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/10601/IssueBrief3.pdf)
580 Source: Livestock a major threat to environment
(http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/News/2006/1000448/index.html)
581 Source: Big-Fish Stocks Fall 90 Percent Since 1950, Study Says
(http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/0515_030515_fishdecli
ne.html)
185
burger was cooked and eaten in London.582 Other benefits include the
reduction of livestock sourced disease which is very common, along
with being able to avoid certain negative health characteristics of
traditional meat, such as the removal of fatty acids in production.
(2) Clean Water
Given that the human body can only survive a few days without fresh
water,583 making this most basic resource abundantly available to all is
critical. Likewise, it is the backbone of many industrial production
methods, including agriculture itself. Fresh water is naturally occurring
water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, icebergs,
bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as
groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Of all the water on
Earth, 97% of it is saline and not directly consumable.
According to the World Health Organization: About 2.6 billion
people half the developing world lack even a simple improved
latrine and 1.1 billion people have no access to any type of improved
drinking source of water. As a direct consequence:
1.6 million people die every year from diarrhoeal diseases (including
cholera) attributable to lack of access to safe drinking water and basic
sanitation and 90% of these are children under 5, mostly in developing
countries;
160 million people are infected with schistosomiasis causing tens of
thousands of deaths yearly; 500 million people are at risk of trachoma
from which 146 million are threatened by blindness and 6 million are
visually impaired;
Intestinal helminths (ascariasis, trichuriasis and hookworm infection)
are plaguing the developing world due to inadequate drinking water,
sanitation and hygiene with 133 million suffering from high intensity
intestinal helminths infections; there are around 1.5 million cases of
clinical hepatitis A every year.584
According to the United Nations, by 2025, an estimated 1.8
billion people will live in areas plagued by water scarcity, with twothirds of the world's population living in water-stressed regions.585 As
with most all of the world's current resource problems, it is an issue of
582 Source: World's first lab-grown burger is eaten in London
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23576143)
583 Freshwater is defined as water that does not contain salt and can be used
586 Source: Water: Use Less-Save More, Jon Clift & Amanda Cuthbert, 2007
587 Source: Compliance and Enforcement National Priority: Clean Water Act,
(http://www.renegademedia.info/books/ashok-gadgil.html)
(http://www.nesc.wvu.edu/pdf/dw/publications/ontap/2009_tb/ultraviolet_d
wfsom53.pdf)
591 Source: Multi-barrier Disinfection Strategy - New York City (Case Study)
(http://www.trojanuv.com/uvresources?resource=403)
592 Source: waterfootprint.org
(http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=cal/waterfootprintcalculator_national
)
593 Source: Ibid.
594 Source: Which Nations Consume the Most Water?
(http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=water-in-water-out)
595 Source: worldometers.info (http://www.worldometers.info/water/)
188
would require to disinfect (assuming it was needed) all the fresh water
currently being used in the world on average by the population, in all
contexts. Given the global average of 1385 cubic meters and a
population of 7.2 billion, we arrive at a total annual use of 9.972
trillion cubic meters.
Using the New York UV plant's output capacity of roughly 3
billion cubic meters a year as a base per installation of such a plant,
we find that 3,327 plants would be needed globally.596 The New York
plant is about 3.7 acres (160k sq. ft.).597 This means about 12,309
acres of land is needed, in theory, to facilitate a purification process of
all the fresh water currently used globally by the population. Of
course, needless to say, there many other footprint factors that
come into play, such as power needs, coupled with the critical
importance of location.
However, let's put this into a larger, more thoughtful
comparison. The United States military alone, with its roughly 845,441
military buildings and bases, occupies about 30 million acres of land
globally.598 Only 0.04% of that land would be needed to disinfect the
total fresh water use of the entire world, if it were even needed at
scale, which it is not.
(b) Desalination
The realistic possibility of mass, global purification of polluted fresh
water aside, likely the most powerful means to assure usable, potable
water is to convert directly from a saline source, namely the ocean.
With a planet comprised of mostly salt water, this technique, if done
properly, assures global abundance alone.
The most common method of desalination used today is
reverse osmosis, a process that removes water molecules from salt
water, leaving salt ions in a leftover brine waste by-product. According
to the International Desalination Association: Currently, reverse
osmosis (RO)...accounts for nearly 60 percent of installed capacity,
followed by the thermal processes multi-stage flash (MSF) at 26
percent and multi-effect distillation (MED) at 8.2 percent.599 As of
2011, there were roughly 16,000 desalination plants worldwide, and
the total global capacity of all plants online (e.g., in operation) was
66.5 million cubic meters per day, or approximately 17.6 billion US
gallons per day.600
As with everything technological, many advancing methods
596 9 trillion 972 billion divided by 3 billion
597 Source: Catskill-Delaware Water Ultraviolet Disinfection Facility
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CatskillDelaware_Water_Ultraviolet_Disinfection_Facility#cite_note-nyc_pr-1)
598 Source: The Worldwide Network of US Military Bases
(http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-worldwide-network-of-us-militarybases/5564)
599 Source: Desalination Overview (http://www.idadesal.org/desalination101/desalination-overview/)
600 Source: Ibid.
189
(http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/03/sea-water-desalinationcapacitive-deionisation)
602 Source: Advancements in Desalination
(http://www.weat.org/sanantonio/files/06%20%20Summer%20Seminar%202013%20-%20Jim%20Lozier%20%20Adv%20in%20Desal.pdf)
603 Source: Victorian Desalination Plant
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonthaggi_desalination_plant)
604 Source: Wonthaggi Desalination Plant
(http://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/melbourne_details.php?id=31996#.Ulj
SCWRDp94)
605 9 trillion, 972 million divided by 150 million
606 Source: The Coastline Paradox
(http://grokearth.blogspot.com/2012/04/coastline-paradox.html)
190
possible. (http://www.bmtdesigntechnology.com.au/designsolutions/floating-desalination-plant/)
610 An advanced technology called the Slingshot, invented by Dean Kamen, is
a small-scale water purification system that can produce clean water from
almost any source, including seawater, by means of vapor compression
distillation. It requires no filters, and can even operate using cow dung as
fuel.
191
(http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/tech/home)
(http://phys.org/news/2011-10-fukushima-nuke-pollution-sea-world.html)
(http://www.energyzone.net/aboutenergy/renewable_energy.asp)
(http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTENERGY2/0,,con
tentMDK:22855502~pagePK:210058~piPK:210062~theSitePK:4114200,00.
html)
192
(http://www1.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/faqs.html)
(http://thinkgeoenergy.com/archives/1733)
(http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=geothermal-drillingearthquakes&page=2)
625 Source: First Google.Org-funded geothermal mapping reportconfirms vast
coast-to-coast clean energy source
(http://www.smu.edu/News/2011/geothermal-24oct2011)
626 Source: Plate Tectonics
(http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/earth/the-dynamicearth/plate-tectonics-article/)
627 Source: First Google.Org-funded geothermal mapping reportconfirms vast
coast-to-coast clean energy source
(http://www.smu.edu/News/2011/geothermal-24oct2011)
628 Source: geni.org (http://www.geni.org/globalenergy/library/renewableenergy-resources/geothermal.shtml)
629 Source: geo-energy.org (http://geoenergy.org/geo_basics_environment.aspx)
194
considered one of the most polluting practices in the world along with
being likely the largest contributor to the human-made increase of CO2
in the atmosphere.
(a2) Wind Farms
U.S. Department of Energy studies have concluded that wind
harvesting in the Great Plains states of Texas, Kansas, and North
Dakota could provide enough electricity to power the entire USA.639
More impressively, a 2005 Stanford University study published in the
Journal of Geophysical Research found that if only 20% of the wind
potential on the planet was harnessed, it would cover the entire
worlds energy needs.640
In corroboration, two more recent studies by unrelated
organizations published in 2012 calculated that with existing wind
turbine technology the earth could produce hundreds of trillions of
watts of power. This, in effect, is many more times what the world
currently consumes.641 Wind power is perhaps one of the most simple
and low impact forms of renewable energy and its scalability is limited
only to location.
Using the 9,000-acre Alta Wind Energy Center California as a
basis, which has an active capacity of 1,320 MW of power, a
theoretical annual output of 11,563,200 MWh is possible.642 This
means 13,231 9000-acre wind farms would be needed to meet the
current output figure of 153 billion MWh. This means 119,079,000
acres of (wind sufficient) land would be required.643 This amounts to
0.3% of the Earth's surface that would be needed to power the world,
in abstraction.644 Once again, this is not to suggest such a thing is
ideal given what land is feasible for wind farms, along with other
important factors. This is simply to give a general perspective of
possibility.
However, one unique reality of wind power generation is the
potential of offshore harnessing. Compared to land-based wind power,
offshore wind power has, on average, a much larger yield, as wind
speeds tend to be higher. This reality also alleviates land-based
pressures given land scarcity and regional restrictions.
According to the Assessment of Offshore Wind Energy
Resources for the United States, 4,150 gigawatts (4,150,000 MW) of
potential wind turbine capacity from offshore wind resources are
available in the United States.645 Assuming this power capacity was
639 Source: "U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. February 6th 2007
640 Source: Evaluation of global wind power
(http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/winds/global_winds.html)
641 Source: The Earth Has Enough Wind Energy Potential To Power All Of
Civilization (http://www.businessinsider.com/the-earth-has-enough-windenergy-potential-to-power-all-of-civilization-2012-9)
642 8760 (hrs in a year) x 1320 (MW) = 11,563,200 MWh/year.
643 13,231 x 9000 acres = 119,079,000
644 119,079,000 acres is 0.32% of 36,794,240,000 acres (total land on Earth)
645 Source: Assessment of Offshore Wind Energy Resources for the United
196
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States#cite_noteIEA2012-13)
647 Source: The Earth Has Enough Wind Energy Potential To Power All Of
Civilization (http://www.businessinsider.com/the-earth-has-enough-windenergy-potential-to-power-all-of-civilization-2012-9)
648 Source: thefreedictionary.com
(http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/solar+energy)
649 Source: Worlds biggest solar thermal power plant fires up for first time
(http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/worlds-biggest-solar-thermal-powerplant-fires-first-time-89135)
197
While Ivanpah does not use any form of storage, it serves about
140,000 homes in the region. If we were to extrapolate using Ivanpah
as a basis, it would take 141,767 fields or 496,184,500 acres to
theoretically meet current global energy use based on output. This is
1.43% of total land on Earth.651
Once again, this is not to suggest such a thing is practical nor
is it to ignore the radiation yield differences found on different areas of
the Earth. However, deserts, which tend to be highly conducive for
solar fields while often less conducive to life support for people, are
roughly 1/3 of all the land mass in the world or about 12 billion acres.
Compared to the roughly 500 million acres theoretically needed to
power the world as per our extrapolation, only 4.1% of the world's
desert land would be needed.652
Likewise, other projects similar to the Ivanpah field have been
incorporating storage systems. The Solana 280MW solar power plant in
Arizona combines parabolic trough mirror technology with molten salt
thermal storage and is able to continue outputting up to six hours after
the sky goes dark.653
In general, the rate of advancement of photovoltaic, solar
thermal, storage methods and other existing and emerging
technologies continue to rapidly advance, revealing that many
installations seen as highly efficient today will be grossly inefficient in
a decade or two. As will be addressed more so with respect to smaller
scale renewable energy solutions, the use of solar power localized in
the very construction of buildings and domiciles is likely to be where
true future efficiency will take place. The issue is making the
technology compact and efficient enough for localized, per case use.
However, solar field power stations, just like geothermal and
wind, have an enormous global potential in and of themselves and
there is little doubt that given proper resources and attention, these
fields alone could theoretically establish an infrastructure and
efficiency level to power the world alone.
(a4) Water/Hydro Energy
Water-based renewable energy extraction could generally be said to
have two broad sources: the ocean itself and river-type water flows
which use the gravitational force of falling or flowing water, usually in
an inland watercourse. The latter is generally referred to in practice as
650 Source: Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System
(http://www.nrel.gov/csp/solarpaces/project_detail.cfm/projectID=62)
(http://www.worldwatch.org/node/9527)
655 Source: Ocean currents can power the world, say scientists
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/renewableenergy/3535012/Ocea
n-currents-can-power-the-world-say-scientists.html)
656 According to Michael Bernitsas, a professor at the University of Michigan
Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering: "...if we could
harness 0.1 percent of the energy in the ocean, we could support the
energy needs of 15 billion people." [
http://michigantoday.umich.edu/2009/01/story.php?id=7334#.UmB1B2RD
p94 ]
657 Source: Our Current Technologies
(http://voith.com/en/Voith_Ocean_Current_Technologies(1).pdf)
658 Source: Assessing the Global Wave Energy Potential
(http://www.oceanor.no/related/59149/paper_OMAW_2010_20473_final.pd
f)
659 Source: Wave farm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_farm)
199
northern coast of the UK, and the Pacific coastlines of North and South
America, Southern Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
Tidal:
Tidal has two sub-forms: range and stream. Tidal range is essentially
the rise and fall of areas of the ocean. Tidal streams are currents
created by periodic horizontal movement of the tides, often magnified
by the shape of the seabed.
Different locations of Earth have large differences in range.660
In the United Kingdom, an area with high levels of tidal activity,
dozens of sites are currently noted as available, forecasting that 34%
of all the UKs energy could come from tidal power alone.661 Globally,
older studies have put tidal capacity at 1800TWh/yr.662 More recent
studies have put the theoretical capacity (both range and stream) at
3TW, assuming only a portion would be extractable.663
Tidal, while very predictable, is also subject to daily periods of
intermittency based around tidal shifts. Assuming only 1.5 TW could
be harnessed in a year based on advanced technology, this means
about 7% of the world's power could come from tidal.
Ocean Current:
Similar to tidal streams, ocean currents have shown great potential.
These currents flow consistently in the open ocean and various
emerging technologies have been developing to harness this largely
untapped medium.
As with all renewables, the capacity to harness such potential
is directly related to the efficiency of the technology employed. The
EOEA estimates the current potential at 400 THW/yr.664 However,
there is good reason to assume this figure is outdated. Prior
applications of turbine/mill technologies to capture such water flows
have needed an average current of five or six knots to operate
efficiently, while most of the Earth's currents are slower than three
knots.665 However, recent developments have revealed the possibility
to harness energy from water flows of less than two knots.666 Given
(http://www.lunarenergy.co.uk/factsFigures.htm)
662 Source: Ocean Energy: Prospects & Potential, Isaacs & Schmitt, with 15%
this potential, it has been suggested that ocean current alone could
power the entire world.667
The Gulf Stream668 potential has been estimated at 13GW of
actual output, assuming a 30% conversion efficiency using more
traditional turbine technology.669 This means 13,000 MW or, assuming
constant harnessing of the stream all year, about 113,880,000
Mwh/yr.670 The United States, in 2011, is estimated to have used 4.1
billion MWh in electricity.671 This means 30%672 of the US's electrical
consumption could be generated by the Gulf Stream alone. Once
again, this is assuming the use of only established technology.
Osmotic:
Osmotic power or salinity gradient power is the energy available from
the difference in the salt concentration between seawater and river
water. The Norwegian Center for Renewable Energy (SFFE) estimates
the global potential to be about 1,370 TWh/yr.673 with others putting it
at around 1,700 TWh/yr674 or the equivalent of half of Europe's entire
energy demand.675
While still largely in its infancy, osmotic power harnessing
through advancing technology is promising. Power plants can, in
principle, be built anywhere freshwater meets seawater. They can
generate power 24/7, regardless of weather conditions.
Ocean Thermal:
The final ocean-based means for energy harnessing worth noting is
ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC). Exploiting the differences in
Currents
(http://michigantoday.umich.edu/2009/01/story.php?id=7334#.UmB1B2RD
p94)
667 Source: Ocean currents can power the world, say scientists
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/renewableenergy/3535012/Ocea
n-currents-can-power-the-world-say-scientists.html)
668 Source: Gulf Stream (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Stream)
669 Source: Theoretical Assessment of Ocean Current Energy Potential for the
Gulf Stream System
(http://www.researchgate.net/publication/256495742_Theoretical_Assessm
ent_of_Ocean_Current_Energy_Potential_for_the_Gulf_Stream_System)
670 8760 (hrs a year) x 13000 MW = 113 million 880 thousands MWhs/yr
671 Source: Energy in the United States
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States#Consumption)
672 4.1 billion / 133.880 million
673 Source: Osmotic Power (http://www.sffe.no/?p=2446)
674 Source: First osmosis power plant goes on stream in Norway
(http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18204-first-osmosis-power-plantgoes-on-stream-in-norway.html#.UmCJ-WRDp94)
675 Source: Osmotic Power Play: Energy Recovery Teams with GS Engineering
& Construction Corp to Develop Highly Available Renewable Energy Source
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/osmotic-power-play-energy-recoveryteams-with-gs-engineering-construction-corp-to-develop-highly-availablerenewable-energy-source-2013-10-15?reflink=MW_news_stmp)
201
heat existing around the surface of the ocean and below, warmer
surface water is used to heat a fluid, such as liquid ammonia,
converting it into vapor, which expands to drive a turbine which, in
turn, produces electricity. The fluid is then cooled using cold water
from the ocean depths, returning it into a liquid state so the process
can start all over again.
Of all the ocean-based energy sources, OTEC appears to have
the most potential. It has been estimated that 88,000 TWh/yr could be
generated without affecting the ocean's thermal structure.676 While
this figure may not express total, usable capacity, it implies that well
over half of all current global energy consumption could be met with
OTEC alone. As of 2013, most of the existing OTEC plants are
experimental or very small scale. However, a few major industrial
capacity projects have been set in motion, including a 10 MW plant off
the coast of China677 and a 100MW near Hawaii.678 One 100MW
offshore plant can theoretically power Hawaiis entire Big Island
alone,679 meaning 186,000 people as of a 2011 census.
Now, in conclusion to this subsection of ocean energy
harnessing, keeping consistent with the prior categorical estimations
set forward for solar, wind and geothermal, it is worthwhile to consider
the total, combined (largely conservative) potential of each noted
medium. While this will, of course, be a crude extrapolation since there
are many complex variables, including the fact that some applications
are still semi-experimental and difficult to properly assess, this general
figure still helps to digest the broadest perspective of the potential of
ocean renewables. Here is a list of the noted global potentials:
Wave: 27,280 TWh/yr
Tidal: 13,140 Twh/yr (1.5 TW x 8760hr )
Ocean Current: 400 Twh/yr (old estimate with old tech)
Osmotic: ~1,500 TwH/yr (average of noted statistics)
Ocean Thermal: 88,000 Twh/yr
Added together we arrive at 130,320 TWh/yr or 0.46 ZJ a
year. This is roughly 83% of current global use (0.55 ZJ). It is
important to note that such numbers are derived, in part, from
traditional technologies, with no adjustment made for more recent
improvements. If we bring traditional Hydroelectric (watercourse
676 Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation, Ottmar
677 Source: Ocean Thermal Power Will Debut off China's Coast
(http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ocean-thermal-powerwill-debut-off-chinas-coast)
678 Source: 100-mw OTEC project planned for West Oahu
(http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/print-edition/2012/10/05/100-mwotec-project-planned-for-west.html?page=all)
679 Source: Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Could Power All Of Hawaii's Big
Island (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/16/ocean-thermal-energyconversion-hawaii_n_3937367.html)
202
based) back into the equation, which, according to the IEA has a
potential of 16,400 TWh/yr,680 this brings the figure up to 146,720
TWh/yr or 96% of current global use.
(b) Small Scale & Total Mixed-Use Systems
The prior section described the vast potential of large-scale, base-load
renewable energy harnessing. Wind, solar, water/hydro and
geothermal have all shown that they are capable, individually, of
meeting or vastly exceeding the current 0.55 ZJ annual global energy
consumption at this time.
The true question is how are such methods to be intelligently
put into practice. Given the regional limitations coupled with other
native issues such as intermittency, the real design initiative to create
a workable combination of such means is needed. Such a systems
approach is the real solution, harmonizing an optimized fraction of
each of those renewables to achieve global, total use abundance.
For example, it is not inconceivable to imagine a series of
man-made floating islands off select coastlines which are designed to
possibly harness, at once, wind, solar, thermal difference, wave, tidal
and ocean currents all at the same time and in the same general
area. Such energy islands would then pipe their harvest back to land
for human use. Various combinations could also be applied to landbased systems as well, such as constructing wind/solar combinations
to compliment the fact that often wind is more present at night, while
solar is more present during the day.
Likewise, creative ingenuity with respect to how we can
intelligently combine various methods also extends to what we could
consider localized energy harnessing. Smaller scale renewable
methods that are conducive to single structures or small areas find the
same systems logic regarding combination. These localized systems
could also, if need be, connect back into the larger, base-load systems
as well, revealing a total, mixed medium integrated network.
A common example today is the use of single structure solar
panels, such as for home use. While the efficiency of these panels is
still improving, coupled with imposed cost limitations as per the
investment/profit mechanism of the market, most people utilizing
these solar power systems are only able to compliment their home's
electricity use rather than gain 100% utilization. (For example, most
systems are applied to power the home during the day, while pulling
power from the regional base-load grid at night.) This kind of approach
that seeks to maximize localized possibilities first, before resorting to
larger scale energy use, in a system approach, is the key to practical
energy abundance, efficiency and sustainability.
To understand the relevance of this more thoroughly, let's
expand the example of household solar array application to it possible
680 Source: Renewable Energy Essentials: Hydropower
(http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/Hydropower_E
ssentials.pdf)
203
(http://www.statisticbrain.com/u-s-household-statistics/)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electricity_consumption)
684 While the current state of CPV solar efficiency, as of 2013 is 44.7% [
(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/piezoelectric)
(http://inhabitat.com/tokyo-subway-stations-get-piezoelectric-floors/)
(http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/six-sidewalks-that-workwhile-you-walk.html)
693 Reference: Israel Highway Equipped With Pilot Piezoelectric Generator
System (http://www.greenoptimistic.com/2009/10/06/israel-piezoelectrichighway/#.UmHNTmRDp94)
694 Reference: New Piezoelectric Railways Harvest Energy From Passing Trains
(http://inhabitat.com/new-piezoelectric-railways-harvest-energy-frompassing-trains/)
695 Reference: Under Highway Piezoelectric Generators Could Provide Power
to Propel Electric Cars
(http://www.greenprophet.com/2010/09/piezoelectric-generators-electriccars/)
696 Reference: Piezoelectric kinetic energy harvester for mobile phones
(http://www.energyharvestingjournal.com/articles/piezoelectric-kineticenergy-harvester-for-mobile-phones-00002142.asp?sessionid=1)
697 Reference: Cisco's Laura Ipsen: Smart grid success requires infotech,
energy tech savvy (http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/sciencescope/charge-your-phone-by-typing-on-it/8797)
206
airplanes;698 and even an electric car that uses piezo tech, in part, to
charge itself as it travels.699
If we think about the enormous mechanical energy wasted by
vehicle transport modes and high traffic walking centers such as
downtown streets, the potential of that possible regenerated energy is
quite substantial. It is this type of systems thinking that is needed in
order maintain sustainability, while actively pursuing a global energy
abundance.
(4) Material Production/Access
Unlike the prior three sub-sections, which have taken only existing,
established methods into consideration with respect to humanity's
potential to achieve an abundance700 of each given focus, this section
will necessarily be approached differently.
The problem with creating a basis for an overall material
abundance extrapolation in a similar manner, taking into account
general raw materials, is that the level of industrial revision needed to
embrace the high degree of efficiency sought, is radically different
from current traditional practices. In other words, we cannot
definitively extrapolate in the same way, using an existing, singular
process or genre technology in order to draw such a conclusion about
the level of productivity possible on the whole.
This is because the true abundance-generating efficiency mechanism is
to be found in the large- scale system orientation, taking into account
the synergy present between the sustainability laws inherent to the
natural world and the level of efficiency incorporated within the entire
societal operation.
For example, today there are over one billion automobiles in
the world.701 From a narrow view, the idea of an abundance of
automobiles would perhaps imply, based on the current property
oriented framework, that every human being on the planet should then
own a private automobile. Put bluntly, this is the wrong perspective
and an outgrowth of a non-synergetic conditioning which is common to
the market system's reinforcement of property as value. From the
698 Reference: Harvesting energy from vehicle air flow using piezoelectrics
(http://www.gizmag.com/harnessing-vehicle-air-flow-energy/13414/)
(http://psipunk.com/p-eco-electric-concept-vehicle-powered-bypiezoelectricity/)
700 As will be explained more so in this section, the abundance state sought
has to do with use-time and access, not outright property. An access society
is very different from a propertied one in many profound ways, especially
when it comes to sustainability, values and human behavior itself. Food,
energy and water already assume an access state since such items are
perishable or part of an continuum that separates it from physical good
ownership as we traditionally think of it.
701 Source: Number Of Cars Worldwide Surpasses 1 Billion; Can The World
Handle This Many Wheels? (http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/08/23/carpopulation_n_934291.html)
207
(http://www.gu.se/digitalAssets/1344/1344071_city-of-la-transportationprofile.pdf)
703 Source: United States Census Bureau, 2013 (http://www.census.gov/)
704 Many other influences and outcomes can arise to the effect of increasing
efficiency in such a context. For example, with about 1.2 million deaths
occurring annually from automobile accidents, many design initiatives to
assist future safety could dramatically alter that reality. The use of sensor
rigged, driverless cars, which are now a reality, could end such deaths
immediately. Given about 50 million auto accidents worldwide each year,
the result is not only saved lives, but saved medical expenses, insurance
claims, lawsuits, data entry, resources, time, the toil of stress and grief that
result from injury or death, and a massive array of other alleviations.
208
705 Source: 46 per cent global wealth owned by richest 1 per cent: Credit
Suisse (http://profit.ndtv.com/news/economy/article-46-per-cent-globalwealth-owned-by-richest-1-per-cent-credit-suisse-369109)
706 Source: U.N.: One billion worldwide face starvation
(http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/11/15/un.hunger/)
707 Source: Water Crisis: Towards a way to impove the situation
(http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/library/archives/water-crisis/)
708 Source: An estimated 100 million people worldwide are homeless. Source:
United Nations Commission on Human Rights, 2005.
(http://www.homelessworldcup.org/content/homelessness-statistics)
709 Source: Causes of Poverty (http://www.globalissues.org/issue/2/causes-ofpoverty)
710 Source: Heres why 1.2 billion people still dont have access to electricity
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/29/hereswhy-1-2-billion-people-still-dont-have-access-to-electricity/)
209
711 Social stability is directly correlated to public health. For example, social
there is no need for further trade for survival. The latter, of course, is not
open to all in a market economy of any kind.
715 All goods created assume a class relationship. The spectrum could range
from the type of extreme poor production found at a 99 Cent store where
one could purchase a plastic watch which has little integrity, vs an extreme
luxury item which can only be afforded by the most wealthy in the world.
Thorstein Veblen inspired the term Veblen Good due to his observation of
prestige generated from extremely high priced goods, which transcend
utility. http://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/veblen-good.asp
212
213
London, 1932
214
closed to all transfers of matter and energy, the mass of the system
must remain constant over time, as system mass cannot change
quantity if it is not added or removed. The quantity of mass is
"conserved" over time. This natural law implies that mass can neither
be created nor destroyed. Human society's use of resources is perhaps
best thought of as a process of intelligent rearrangement, rather than
of using and "discarding".
6) Material use per a given production output is strategically calculated
to assure using the most conducive & abundant materials known.
As will be expressed more so in the essay The Industrial
Government, a new model of evaluation is created which orients
materials based on certain efficiency parameters. Two critical ones are
material conduciveness and a material's overall state of
abundance.
Conduciveness relates to how appropriate the proposed use is,
based on the material's properties. Abundance refers to how much of it
is available and hence its state of scarcity. Put together, you weigh the
value of conduciveness against the value of how accessible and low
impact the material is, as compared to other materials that may be
more or less conducive and more or less abundant. In other words, it
is a synergistic efficiency comparison that makes sure the materials
used are optimized for the purpose.
Probably the best example of this is home or domicile
construction. The common use of wood, brick, screws, and the vast
array of parts typical of a common house, is comparatively inefficient
to more modern, simplified, abundant prefabrication or molded-able
materials.
A traditional 2000 square foot home is reported to require
about 40 to 50 trees. Compare that with houses that can now be
created in prefabrication processes, like mold extrusion, with simple,
Earth-friendly polymers, concrete and other easily formable and
movable methods. Such new approaches have a very small footprint,
as compared to our destruction of global forests for wood. Home
construction today is one of the most resource intensive and wasteful
industrial mediums in the world today and it doesn't need to be that
way.
7) Design conduciveness for labor automation.
The more we conform to the current state of rapid, efficient production
processes, the more abundance we can create. Most manufacturing
approaches typically divide labor into three categories: human
assembly, mechanization and automation. Human assembly means
hand- made. Mechanization means using machines to assist the
human worker. Automation means no human interaction in the
process.
Imagine if you needed a chair and there were three designs.
The first is elaborate and complex and could only be done by hand at
216
that time. The second is more streamlined where its parts could be
made mostly by machines, but would need to be assembled by hand in
the end. The third is a chair that is produced by one machine process,
fully automated.
This latter chair design type would be the design goal in this
new approach. What this would do is reduce the variety of automation
machine configurations needed. Imagine, if you will, a robotic-based
processing plant that can not only produce cars, it can produce
virtually any kind of industrial machine/good comprised of the same
basic set of raw materials. This would increase output substantially.
An easy way to understand this trend of simplification is to
consider the power of digital software and how one piece of hardware
(i.e. computer) can now serve an enormous number of programmable
roles. This dematerialization, as it could be termed, is best
exemplified by the modern cell phone. Due to the vast program
applications now available for such smart phones, from medical
measurements to full musical synthesizers, the functionality of these
small, handheld computers can now take on almost countless roles.
Such roles long ago, before the digital age, would have usually
required one hardware configuration for each task. Today, any basic
operating system can run a dramatically large number of programmed
functions, all contained in a small device. This logic applies to the
nature of physical machine production as well as it is simply a matter
of time before the act of producing a vast array of goods can be
accomplished by small, modular mechanical systems, just like a digital
operating system can conduct almost countless programmed functions.
8) Serviceable problems resulting from the prior, inefficient economic
process are reduced if not eliminated.
This idea is often difficult to fully comprehend, as the chain of causality
resulting from one general inefficiency can be vast and complex. For
example, the resolution of water scarcity alone has enormous
preventative potential for disease. The amount of labor and resources
once used for treating those then resolved diseases can find other
roles. Energy abundance has the same reality since energy is the
driver of all human activity. A clean, reliable, renewable state of
absolute energy abundance would have enormous effects on the
production and abundance capacity of this future society.
Likewise, the pursuit of meeting human needs and the removal
of labor-for-income occupations, which often have no real technical
function, would set in motion a new educational possibility, reinforced
by an incentive to pursue personal interests and hence the freedom
not to feel pressured away from fields of interest since survival and
well-being are already taken care of by the social model itself. It is
hard to imagine the explosion of creativity possible when this pressure
is removed and society is set free to think clearly.
9) Invigorating the group mind, meaning human connection and the
217
nanotubes (CNT), which can be arranged to create what has been termed
Buckypaper, is an example of tremendous potential. Buckypaper is a
macroscopic aggregate of carbon nanotubes that owes its name to R.
218
there is of any one thing in absolute terms. Rather, the qualifier has to
do with how we are to achieve the purpose sought. For instance, the
available amount of oil in the Earth, as would be needed for its nonenergy uses today (since in this model it isn't needed for energy, as
noted), is only as relevant as our incapacity/capacity to find other
ways to achieve the same goals oil has achieved, but without it.
Another example is lumber. If home construction completely
transcended the use of wood frame houses, globally, using Earthfriendly concrete and polymer processes instead, coming from
ubiquitous and abundant raw materials, suddenly a once potentially
scarce resource becomes exceptionally abundant, relatively speaking.
Moving on, natural resources are best organized initially by
dividing them into (a) biotic and (b) abiotic. Biotic resources are
derived from the biosphere and are often called living resources.721
Examples of biotic resources are forests, plants, animals, etc. By some
definitions, it also includes resources originating from life in the distant
past, such as fossil fuels. Abiotic resources are often considered nonliving resources and include water, soil, minerals and the like.
(a) Overall, the biotic resources of the planet have been suffering
greatly due to ever-increasing industrialization. Forest depletion, the
loss of biodiversity, loss of fish populations and other issues have
brought the sustainability of many such resources into question. In all
cases, the problem is not a limited supply of these resources; it is a
blatant disregard for any equilibrium with natural regeneration and
basic environmental respect. The solution to these declines is to
obviously deviate from their rates of use. This can be done by simply
substituting other comparable materials for those being harvested at
unsustainable rates.
In the essays True Economic Factors and The Industrial
Government, this process is described in detail. In short, there is no
biotic resource being used today which cannot have its rate of
consumption subsided by conscious, strategic adjustment. Wood does
not need to be used today for all the current purposes. Not everyone
needs to eat fish from the wild ocean as advanced and humane aquafarming processes now exist. We have already discussed the ability to
produce a vegetarian abundance with vertical farming and the move to
in-vitro meat can be more healthy and sustainable than livestock
methods that are damaging the environment.
With such alleviations, we would see a vast improvement in
overall resources, biodiversity, the preservation of life-saving medicine
derived from the rainforests and so forth. The other, largely untapped
renewables mentioned prior, can also rapidly displace fossil fuels for
energy use today. So, the issue is really a matter of intelligent choice.
(b) Abiotic resources have a different, yet similar management reality.
721 Source: biology-online.org (http://www.biology-
online.org/dictionary/Biotic_resource)
220
(http://www.seattlepi.com/national/article/The-lowdown-on-topsoil-It-sdisappearing-1262214.php)
723 Source: Mineral (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral)
724 Source: World mineral statistics
(http://www.bgs.ac.uk/mineralsuk/statistics/worldStatistics.html)
725 Source: World Mineral Production 2007-2011
(http://www.bgs.ac.uk/downloads/start.cfm?id=2701)
221
726 Source: Risk list 2012: An updated supply risk index for chemical elements
earth-recycling/)
(http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/ecycling/manage.htm)
boom (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/sep/26/rareearth-metals-technology-boom)
731 Source: Why Recycle Cell Phones? Why not just throw it away?
(http://secondwaverecycling.com/why-recycle-cell-phones-why-not-justthrow-it-away/)
732 Source: Nanosys: We Can Replace Some Rare Earth Metals
(http://www.fastcompany.com/1705030/nanosys-we-can-replace-somerare-earth-metals)
223
(http://www.intechopen.com/download/get/type/pdfs/id/39155)
734 Source: New Nano Material Could Replace Rare Earth Minerals In Solar
(http://persquaremile.com/2011/01/18/if-the-worlds-population-lived-inone-city/)
739 Reference: airbnb.com (https://www.airbnb.com/)
225
seeking to visit that region look elsewhere. As demand ebbs and flows,
feedback is used to produce new structures and the like, no different,
again, than how it is done today in the vacation market.
The educational and value imperative is the idea of sharing the
world. Many today would consider this to be grossly idealized. The idea
of freely moving about the planet, staying virtually anywhere, with no
obligation to feel the need to return to any central place, seems like a
fantasy. Yet, it is very possible. Also, since remote communication is
exponentially increasing, engaging in any social/community task or
creative interest can occur virtually anywhere as well.
Again, this is a value choice. If a person wishes to keep his
family in one place for the rest of their lives, there is more than
enough space on the planet (given the Texas statistics noted) to
provide for both possibilities, assuming an intelligent revision of city
layouts, responsible conservation and an earnest interest to be
efficient. Either way, the same access system can be employed to find
and settle a certain location, whether it is temporary or permanent.
Oil
In conclusion to this essay, issues surrounding modern society's
addiction to the use of oil are important to address. Oil is likely the
most industrial resource utilized on the planet today, used most
notably for transport. As described prior, between battery technology,
improved design and the vast renewable mediums we have today,
there is no legitimate technical reason we need gasoline to power
automobiles anymore. The handful of currently available electric cars
today is also a clear testament to this fact. Airplanes and other
extremely large powered machines might still need such oil force
currently but the trends show it is simply a matter of time and focus
before planes are able to use solar energy740 coupled with advanced
storage means for large scale, heavy weight commercial needs.
Yet, we should always try to think outside of the box when it
comes to efficiency and sustainability. In the context of this largescale, high-energy transport, the question arises: is there a
replacement for plane travel which bypasses such high concentration
energy needs? The answer is yes. Maglev technology is many times
faster and uses a fraction of the energy.741
So, even if some oil was used for power purposes here and
there, such new approaches could reduce its use footprint
exponentially, if pursued correctly. In America alone, 70% of the oil
used in total goes towards transport in the form of gasoline, diesel and
jet fuel.742 Likewise, if a new condition of peace can be negotiated on
(http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/05/05/181407952/solarpowered-airplane-completes-first-leg-of-u-s-flight)
741 Reference: New York to Beijing in two hours without leaving the ground?
(http://www.gizmag.com/et3-vacuum-maglev-train/21833/)
742 Reference: Petroleum (http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/energy226
744 Reference: The Elephant in the Room: The U.S. Military is One of the
(http://bigthink.com/think-tank/big-idea-technology-grows-exponentially)
228
(http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21594298-effect-todaystechnology-tomorrows-jobs-will-be-immenseand-no-country-ready)
230
-TRUE ECONOMIC FACTORSThe world has changed far more in the past 100 years than in any other
century in history. The reason is not political or economic but technological technologies that flowed directly from advances in basic science.751
-Stephen Hawking
Overview
In Greek, economy means the management of a household.752 The
defining qualitative attribute of an economy is its level of efficiency.
As opposed to the practice of market efficiency common today, this
form of efficiency relates to physical systems not the inter-workings
of money, the market and other arguably cultural contrivances.753
In this process of physical evaluation, we inevitably end up
with a set of interrelated components appropriately called economic
factors. Again, these components, unlike the vast financial theories in
play in the modern world today, have nothing to do with the act of
commerce or the like. Rather, they factor in the actual technical
processes, hence trends, potentials and measurement requirements,
needed for optimized system organization of industrial extraction,
production, distribution, design, recycling protocols and the like.
However, for the sake of comprehension, even though this
manner of economic thought is a vast departure from the traditional
monetary-based economic theories we endure today, this essay will
still frame these resource-based economic components in the context
of traditional microeconomic and macroeconomic categorical
distinctions, as would be found in common textbooks with respect to
monetary economics.
The macroeconomic components have to do with the largest
possible physical system degree associations we can comprehend.
The microeconomic components relate to specific industries or sectors,
usually associated with singular good production, regional distribution
and regenerative specifics. (This will be expanded upon more so later
in this essay.) By system extension, macroeconomic components
naturally govern the logic related to the microeconomic components as
well. For example, the macroeconomic attribute of global resource
management has a universal bearing on the proper unfolding of
microeconomic operations such as product design efficiency (which
invariably use such global resources).
However, before these component factors are addressed, a
further discussion of systems is in order, along with a declaration of
what our societal goals actually are.
31st, 1999
752 The term 'economy' in Greek [Oikonomia] means the "management of a
household; thrift - hence to economize, or increase efficiency.
753 See the essay Market Efficiency vs. Technical Efficiency.
231
755 Ecology is defined as: the branch of biology dealing with the relations and
a few resource sets, it does not change the goal and importance of the
pursuit of post-scarcity. Social improvement in general has been based
upon such alleviations.
760 See the essay Post-Scarcity Trends, Capacity and Efficiency.
234
common to the current culture's ideal of high social status and success
today needs alleviation.
762 Suggested Reading: R. Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path, St. Martin's Press,
1981
763 See the essay Transition & The Hybrid Economy.
764 See the essay History of Economy, where Adam Smith's notion of the
Invisible Hand is discussed.
235
Humanity
from
Monotonous,
"outsourcing" and other issues brought into the equation (along with other
narrow, truncated distinctions). In truth, looking at human labor without
borders, on the global scale, over generational time, we see that it has been
technology and only technology that has shifted both production methods
and what is of interest to produce. If this progress were not seen, humanity
would never have experienced the Neolithic Revolution and hence would still
be hunting and gathering in a primitive way.
767 This assumption is part of what has been historically termed the The
Luddite Fallacy. It is worth noting that even if one were to entertain the
Luddite Fallacy's claim that new jobs are created to equally compensate for
displaced labor in a now-mechanized sector, increasingly it is becoming
realized that such jobs arguably have little to no actual relevance to the
viability and function of life-support. Hence, the "new jobs created"
invariably serve as a kind of waste of human energy. It is one thing to
perform acts of interest in one's life, on one's own accord. It is another to
be coerced into such meaningless labor simply because you must "work for
a living". Suggested Reading: David Graeber, On the Phenomenon of
Bullshit Jobs, Strike Magazine, 2013 (http://www.strikemag.org/bullshitjobs/)
768 The issue here is the rate of technological acceleration. One hundred years
ago, this rate of change was much less rapid, while today the rate of change
is increasing exponentially forward. While social shifts in industry and labor
were able to dynamically compensate for this change in the past due to the
236
relatively slow pace, as time moves forward, it will become ever more
difficult to maintain "labor for income" as we know it in the current tradition.
This is also because the exponential growth curve reduces the cost of
machine automation tools over time, setting up a general inevitability that
human labor in a certain sector will not only be outdone in performance by
machine but they will be cheaper in the long run. Suggested Reading:
http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns
769 News and statistical reports on an emerging Global Unemployment Crisis
have been prolific in the early 21st century, specifically with young adults.
Reference: Generation jobless
(http://www.economist.com/news/international/21576657-around-worldalmost-300m-15-24-year-olds-are-not-working-what-has-caused)
770 Reference: Could Automation Lead to Chronic Unemployment? Andrew
McAfee Sounds the Alarm
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/singularity/2012/07/19/could-automationlead-to-chronic-unemployment-andrew-mcafee-sounds-the-alarm/)
237
774 Today, it is only through price and profitability that demand is accessed.
775 This will be addressed further in the essay: The Industrial Government
239
Clothes? (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/MadeInAmerica/made-americaclothes-clothing-made-usa/story?id=13108258)
781 Source: China Said to Buy 1 Million Tons of U.S. Cotton for Reserves
(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-15/china-said-to-buy-1-milliontons-of-u-s-cotton-for-reserves-1-.html)
241
782 Reference: Why do competitors open their stores next to one another? -
also when product life expires or when the good is no longer needed.
As an aside, there is a common reaction to this idea that
problems such as hoarding or some kind of abuse would ensue. This
assumption is basically superimposing current monetary-market
consequences on the new model, erroneously. People in the scarcity
driven world today hoard and protect impulsively when they have
something to fear or wish to exploit goods for their market value. In
the NLRBE, there is no resale value in the system since there is no
money.784 Therefore, the idea of hoarding anything would be an
inconvenience rather than an advantage.785
3b3) Tracking/Feedback:
Tracking and Feedback, as implied above, is an integral part of
keeping the system, both regional and global, as fluid as possible,
when it comes to not only the meeting of regional demand through
adequate supply, but also keeping pace with changes in extraction,
production, distribution technology and new demands. Naturally, these
factors are highly synergistic. Sensor systems, programs and other
resource tracking technology have been rapidly developing for various
industrial uses.786 Modern commercial inventory systems are already
quite advanced in the proper context when it comes to demand and
distribution. The issue is merely its scalability in certain contexts to
account for all necessary attributes.
In conclusion to this section on macroeconomic factors, the
overarching consideration is efficiency on all levels and this has its own
causal logic as noted before, when considered in the larger ecological
and physical system interconnectivity inherent to the natural world.
This efficiency has to do with waste reduction and meeting human
needs, always oriented in its possibilities by the current state of
technology via the scientific method.
Microeconomic Factors:
Given these so-called macroeconomic concepts, it is important to
restate that the underlying principles regarding optimum efficiency,
productivity and sustainability are the same throughout the whole
model, from top to bottom. This is, again, the train of thought coming
from the scientific method, calculated within the near-empirical
framework of natural law logic itself.
Now, while traditional market-based economic theory
considers microeconomics as something of a study of the behavior of
784 A summarized explanation of why a monetary economy is structurally
incompatible with the level of efficiency and goals of this new model is
detailed in the essay: "Post-Scarcity Trends, Capacity and Efficiency"
785 The subject of seemingly unpredictable, human behavioral aberration (i.e.
crime) is addressed in the essay "Lifestyle, Freedom and The Humanity
Factor"
786 Reference: HP invents a central nervous system for earth.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1548674/hp-invents-central-nervous-systemearth-and-joins-smarter-planet-sweepstakes
243
(http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57434525/report-consumptionof-earths-resources-unsustainable/)
245
considered the work reality in the modern day. Rather, the act is
respected as a form of personal contribution for personal and social
gain, since every act engaged in this type of system has a direct
personal benefit to the people working to keep it operating smoothly.
Again, this incentive is almost non-existent in the current
mode since the capitalist system is designed for all the core profit
benefits to go to the owners of the businesses, with the fruits of
production often never relating to the worker in a direct sense, absent
mere wage rewards. Today, employee/owner relations exist as
something of a class war, with animosity between the groups a
common occurrence.788 In this new approach, all acts of contribution
benefit the person performing the act, and the community at large.
They are connected directly.
That being understood, only a very small fraction of the
population would be required, as it were, to engage in maintaining
the core systems, likely about 5% of the population when industrial
methods reach modern possibilities. This 5% could then be broken-up
across the population. So, if a given population of a city region is
50,000 people, the industrial system would require 2500 people,
assuming a traditional work week of eight hours a day for five days per
week. This translates into 100,000 hours being worked a week. In
terms of the total population this work responsibility amounts to a
mutual obligation of each person working only two hours a week.
Clearly, this is a hypothetical as in such an advanced system, a
system that serves everyone, human values would change greatly and
many would likely be honored to take on more hours, reducing the
obligation of others. Once again, we are talking about barebones
maintenance here, as opposed to an immersive "job" as is currently
understood and required. In reality, a free society of this nature could
create an eruption of creative advancement and progress never before
seen, with people working to contribute in vast, robust ways. Why? Because, again, such individuals would also be helping themselves
directly in the process. Any invention, or breakthrough in efficiency
serves the entire community in this model. Self-interest becomes
social interest.
So, to conclude this point, this new means of production is
about focusing core labor on true technical productivity that has a
direct social/personal return, with the most liberal focus on automation
and such efficiency increasing technology and automation as much as
possible.
Conclusion
As with anything of this brevity, we have an inevitable incompleteness.
Other factors, both macro and micro, could be expressed in further
detail. However, if one follows this basic train of thought, a train of
thought governed by scientific logic to ensure optimized physical
efficiency and sustainability, these other parameters inevitably make
788 See the essay Structural Classism, the State and War.
248
themselves known.
In short, the outcome of this NLRBE system requires the same
type of respectful engagement as with any other natural system. Just
as our understanding of the forest and its regeneration and
biodiversity has led a basic philosophy to engage this ecosystem with
respect to its vulnerabilities to ensure its long-term integrity, the same
logic applies to the NLRBE as a whole.
This social model is an attempt to mirror the natural world in
the most direct way possible and could be considered a natural
system just like anything else we find in nature, such as an
ecosystem. Would it ever be perfect? No. But the logical foundation is
there for constant improvement, far beyond the state of affairs today.
The following summary tree, as a general outline for this essay, has
been generated for review:
NLRBE: An Economic Model Overview:
-System (Social) Goals
(1) Optimized Industrial Efficiency; Active Pursuit of PostScarcity Abundance.
(2) Maintain Optimized Ecological/Cultural Balance &
Sustainability.
(3) Deliberate Liberation of Humanity from
Monotonous/Dangerous Labor.
(4) Facilitate Active System Adaptation to Emerging Variables.
-Macroeconomic Components
(a) Global Resource Management
(b) Global Demand Assessment
-Creating awareness of new technical possibilities
-Public consensus to decide what is of interest to
produce
(c) Global Production and Distribution Protocols
-Global Production
-Strategic Localization
-Global Distribution
-Facility Location
-Method of Access
-Tracking & Feedback
-Microeconomic Components
(a) Specific Good Efficiency
-Optimized durability
-Optimized adaptability
-Universal standardization
-Integrated Recycling Protocols
-Conducive for Automation
(b) Means of Production Efficiency
-Applied Mechanization
249
-THE INDUSTRIAL GOVERNMENTModern politics is business politics...This is true both of foreign and domestic
policy. Legislation, police surveillance, the administration of justice, the military
and diplomatic service, all are chiefly concerned with business relations,
pecuniary interests, and they have little more than an incidental bearing on
other human interests.789
-Thorstein Veblen
actually causing problems, not realizing that the dyad of state and
market synergy is, in reality, a single power system in play, at once.
Irrespective of the merit of any specific argument as to the
favoring of the free market vs. the favoring of state regulation, all
business dealings have historically required some level of legal
mediation. This is because all transactions are a form of competition
and all competition invites the possibility of fraud or abuse, given the
natural pressure of external circumstances and the nature of survival
itself, within the bounds of the scarcity-based market. The fact is, any
form of commerce that exists in this scarcity-reinforced worldview, will
manifest so-called corrupt or dishonest behavior constantly. It is
firmly incentivized. The degree of corruption itself even becomes a
matter of opinion, in fact. The line between accepted business acumen
and blatant dishonest persuasion is not an easy distinction to make
today in the broad view.
Therefore, some type of overriding decision-making power has
always been granted to some group body to mediate conflicts and this
is the seed of governmental power, as we know it. Yet, the punch line
of the whole circumstance is that in a world where everything is
powered by money; in a world where, in truth, everything is for sale,
the rapid corruption of any such regulation or power establishment is
also essentially guaranteed over time, to one degree or another.791
Put another way, there will always be a need for legal
regulation of transactions in the market by some publicly sanctioned
institution, and the market ethic will always corrupt such regulation to
some extent with the influence of money because money and business
are actually what make the world move. This is simply what is to be
expected when the entire psychological foundation of existence is
based on survival through acts of competitive self-interest, oriented by
the universal assumption of empirical scarcity, with no real structural
safeguards given to members of society for some reassurance in
survival. To think any regulatory agency would not be susceptible to
such corruption; to think state policy and hence coercion could not be
'purchased' like any other commodity is to deny the basic philosophical
foundation inherent to the market's notion of freedom itself.
Therefore, complaining about state regulation or lack thereof is
ultimately a moot issue in the broad scheme of long-term societal
change. True social change will not come about by the illusive
preference of one of these over the other. It will only come about by
installing a completely different system which eliminates both the
791 Corporate Lobbying, which is legal across the world, is a perfect example.
market and the state as we know it, elevating the entire framework
out of the narrow, competitive focus of managing scarcity in the
current earn a living or suffer system, to a focus on facilitating a
sustainable abundance and the meeting of human needs directly.
So, the following economic and management information
presents a vast departure from the current, day-to-day unfolding of
life as we know it when it comes to commerce and social management.
What this model does is literally remove the edifice of representative
government and replace it with a kind of participatory democracy. This
participation is mediated through digital communication methods that
can bring the interests of the whole community into calculation,
whether dealing with interests of the so-called public sector or the
private sector. In actuality, there is no difference in the process of
participation and hence there would no longer be a public or private
sector.
The importance of this kind of management resides in several
areas. For one it assures that human social operation is in accord with
basic sustainability principles needed to operate with generational
longevity, whilst also maintaining a vigilant focus on producing the
most strategically necessary goods at the peak technical capacity
known at the time of production. Such management is also about
removing the vast incentive and requirement for corruption and
corrupt behaviors, abuse and business/government collusion which has
plagued civilization since antiquity. The active pursuit of abundance
through these sustainable means ensures not only survival and
efficiency, but stability, ease and a higher state of public health on a
vast scale.
Economic Model Defined
An economic model is a theoretical construct representing component
processes by a set of variables or functions, describing the logical
relationships between them. If one has studied traditional or marketbased economic modeling, a great deal of time is often spent on things
such as price trends, behavioral patterns, inflation, the labor market,
currency fluctuations, and so forth.
Rarely, if ever, is anything said about public or ecological
health. Why? - Because the market is life-blind and decoupled from
the actual science of life support and sustainability. It is a proxy
system that is based only around the act of exchange and exchange
preferences.
Therefore, the best way to think about a NLRBE is not in the
traditional terms of any form of market-oriented economic model
common today. Rather, this model can best be thought about as an
advanced production, distribution and management system, which is
democratically engaged by the public, through a kind of participatory
economics.
This type of approach facilitates input processes, such as
design proposals and demand assessment, while also filtering all
actions through what we could call sustainability and efficiency
252
protocols. These protocols are the basic rules of industrial action set by
natural law, not human opinion. As noted, neither of these two
interests is structurally inherent in the capitalist model.
Goals, Myths & Overview
All economic systems have structural goals and often times these
goals are not exactly apparent in the theories set forward in principle.
The market system and a NLRBE have very different structural goals.
-Market capitalism's structural goal is growth and maintaining rates of
consumption high enough to keep enough people employed at any
given time. Likewise, employment itself requires a culture of real or
perceived inefficiency and that often means the preservation of
scarcity in one form or another.
-A NLRBE's goal is to optimize technical efficiency and create the
highest level of abundance possible, within the bounds of Earthly
sustainability, seeking to meet human needs directly.
That noted, there are a number of assumptions, myths and confusions
that have arisen over time that are worth addressing upfront. The first
is the idea that this model is centrally planned. What this assumes,
based on historical precedent, is that an elite group of people will
make the economic decisions for the society.
A NLRBE is not centrally planned. It is a Collaborative Design
System (CDS). It is based entirely upon public interaction, facilitated
by programmed, open-access systems, that enable a constant,
dynamic feedback exchange that can literally allow for the input of the
public on any given industrial matter, whether personal or social.
Given this, another outcry is but who programs the system?,
which once again assumes that an elitist interest could exist behind
the mediating software programs themselves (as will be expanded
upon more so in this essay). The answer, as odd as it may sound, is
everyone and no one. The tangible rules of the laws of nature, as they
apply to environmental sustainability and engineering efficiency, are
an objective frame of reference. The nuances may change to some
degree over time, but the general principles of efficiency and
sustainability remain, as they have been deduced by basic physics,
along with several thousand years of recorded history by which we
have been able to recognize basic, yet critical patterns in nature.
Moreover, the actual programming utilized by this interactive
system would be available in an open source platform for public input
and review. In fact, the system is predicated entirely upon the
intelligence of the group mind and the open source/open access
sharing virtue will help bring all viable interests to the surface for
public consideration, in an absolutely transparent manner.
Another confusion surrounds a concept that has, to many,
become, the defining difference between capitalism and most all other
historically proposed social models. That has to do with whether the
253
http://mises.org/econcalc.asp
254
purpose textile-printing house. You find the design you are interested
in online, along with the materials you prefer and other
customizations, and you print that article of clothing on-demand at
that facility. Consider for a moment how much storage space,
transport energy, and overrun waste is eliminated by this approach if
virtually everything could be created on-demand, done by automated
systems which can continually produce a greater variety of goods,
from increasingly smaller manufacturing configurations.
In truth, the real fallacy of this private ownership of the
means of production objection is its culture lag. Today, industry is
witnessing a merger of capital goods, consumer goods and labor
power. Machines are taking over human labor power, becoming capital
goods, while also ever reducing in size to become consumer goods.
The result is an increasingly smaller and more optimized industrial
complex that can do more and more with less and less.
It is also worth mentioning that labor automation is now
making the historically notable 'labor theory of value'793 increasingly
moot as well. Today, the labor energy that goes into a given good,
while still a factor for process recognition, does not have much of a
quantifiable correlation anymore. Today, machines now make and
design machines. While the initial creation of a machine might require
a good deal of human planning and initial construction at this time,
once set in motion, there is a constant decrease in that labor value
transference over time.
theory-of-value.asp)
255
Design Efficiency
Edesign
Production Efficiency
Ep
Distribution Efficiency
Edist
Recycling Efficiency
Er
Figure 1. Block-Scheme of System Process
256
fP .
Figure 3 is a
Edesign
Adesign
Nc
cr
Nc to a possible minimum.
HL
AL . The aim
where
li
cr
fdesign
where
td
is recycling conduciveness,
HL
is durability,
Nc
Adesign
is the minimum
is a human labor.
facilities,
Design Servers:
These computer servers connect the design database to the
designers/consumers, while constantly being updated with relevant
physical data to guide the process of product creation in the most
optimized and sustainable way.
As noted, the engaged CDI (or collaborative design interface)
is an open source program that facilitates collective, computer-aided
design, running each step through the set of efficiency and
sustainability filters (I.e. Figure 4) which assure optimized design.
These designs are tested in real time, digitally, and in most cases, the
good will exist in whatever state online for others to obtain, on
demand, or for use as a preliminary model by which new ideas can be
built upon.
Production Facilities:
These structures facilitate the actual manufacturing of a given design.
These would evolve as automated factories that increasingly are able
to produce more with fewer material inputs and fewer machine
configurations. Again, if the interest existed to consciously overcome
unnecessary design complexities, we can further this efficiency trend
with an ever-lower environmental impact and ever lower resource use
per task, while maximizing our abundance producing potential.
The number of production facilities, whether homogeneous or
heterogeneous, would be strategically distributed topographically
based on population statistics, no different than how grocery stores
today try to average distances between pockets of people around
neighborhoods. This is the proximity strategy, which will be revisited
in this essay.
263
Distribution Facilities:
Distribution can either occur directly from the production facility,
usually in the case of an on-demand, one-off production for custom
use, or sent to a distribution library for public access in masse, based
on regional demand interest.
Some goods will be conducive to low demand, custom
production and some will not. Food is the easiest example of a mass
production necessity, while a personally tailored piece of furniture
would come directly from the manufacturing facility once created.
It is worth reiterating that regardless of whether the good is
classified to go to a library or directly to a user, this is still an 'access
system'. In other words, at any time, the user of the custom or mass
produced good can return the item for reprocessing or restocking.
Recycling Facilities:
Recycling Facilities would likely exist as part of the production facility,
allowing access to returned parts for updating and reprocessing. As
noted in the design protocol, all goods have been pre-optimized for
'conducive recycling'. The goal here is a zero-waste economy. Whether
it is a phone, a couch, a computer, a jacket, or a book, everything
goes back to a recycling facility, likely the point of origin, which will
directly reprocess any item as best it can.
Of course, an item may be returned elsewhere if needed; the
integrated and standardized production and recycling centers, having
been conceived of as a complete, compatible and holistic system,
would be able to handle returned goods optimally, as is not the case
today.
Global Resource and System Management:
These four facilities are also connected, to one degree or another, to a
Global Resource Management (GRM) network, which is a sensor and
measurement system that provides feedback and information about
the current state of raw materials and the environment.
Resource Management, Feedback & Value
As noted, this computer-aided design and engineering process does
not exist in a vacuum; it does not process designs with no input as to
the current state of the planet and its resources. Connected to the
design process, literally built into the noted Optimize Design
Efficiency function, is dynamic feedback from an Earth-wide
accounting system that gives data about all relevant resources that
pertain to all productions.
To whatever degree technically possible, all raw materials and
related resources are tracked and monitored, in as close to real time
as possible. This is mainly because maintaining equilibrium with the
Earth's regenerative processes, while also working strategically to
maximize the use of the most abundant materials, while minimizing
264
For example, if the use of wood passes the steady state level of 50,
which would mean consumption is currently surpassing the Earth's
natural regeneration rate, this would trigger a counter move of some
kind, such as the process of 'material substitution' or finding a
replacement for wood in any future productions.
As far as a comparative evaluation, in a market system the
price mechanism is used to decide which material is more cost
efficient, assuming a given price will have already accounted for
relevant technical information or, in this case, the issue of scarcity.
This new approach, rather than use price to compare or assess
value, accounts for a given technical quality directly by a comparative
quantification. In the case of scarcity concerns, it is best to organize
genres or groups of similar use materials and quantify, to the highest
degree possible, their related properties and degrees of efficiency for
any given purpose. Then, a general numerical value spectrum is
applied to those relationships.
For example, there is a spectrum of metals that have different
efficiencies for electrical conductivity. These efficiencies can be
physically quantified and then compared by value. So, if copper, a
conductive metal, goes below the 50 value of equilibrium regarding its
scarcity, calculations are triggered by the management program to
265
compare the state of other conducive materials, their scarcity level and
their efficiency level, preparing for substitution.
This is just one example and naturally this type of reasoning
would get extremely complicated depending on the material and
purpose problems posed. However, that is exactly why it is calculated
by machine, not people. The human mind, either singly or organized
into large groups, simply cannot process such data effectively. Also, it
is worth pointing out that this type of direct value calculation, based
around purpose, conduciveness and sustainability, dramatically
eclipses the price mechanism when it comes to true resource
awareness and intelligent resource management in calculation.
(b) Likewise, labor complexity and its assessment simply means
estimating the complexity of a given production and drawing a
numerical value based on the degree of process complexity.
Complexity, in the context of an automation-oriented industry, can be
quantified by defining and comparing the number of process stages.
Any given good production can be foreshadowed as to how many
stages of production processing it will take. It can then be compared
to other good productions, ideally in the same purpose genre, for a
quantifiable assessment. In other words, the units of measurement are
these 'stages'.
For example, a chair that can be molded in three minutes,
from simple polymers in one process, will have a lower labor
complexity value than a chair which requires automated assembly
down a more tedious production chain, with mixed materials. In the
event a given process value is too complex or hence comparatively
inefficient in terms of what is currently possible (by comparison to an
already existing design of a similar nature), the design would be
flagged and would hence need to be re-evaluated.
Such adjustments and flagging would come in the form of
feedback from the design interface, during the design stage. There is
also no reason not to assume that with ongoing advancement in AI,
the system could actually feed back with actual suggestions or even
direct solutions to a given efficiency or sustainability problem, in real
time.
Design Calculation
Those generalizations noted, a walkthrough of this overall, linear
process is expressed below. There will be some repetition here for the
sake of clarity. If we were to look at good design in the broadest
possible way with respect to industrial unfolding, we end up with about
four functions or processes, each relating to the four dominant, linear
stages, including design, production, distribution and recycling. Again,
each of these processes is directly tied to the Global Resource
Management system that provides value feedback that assists in the
regulatory apparatus to ensure efficiency and sustainability.
The following propositions apply (Figure 1):
266
Figure 1. (repeated)
td
[Adaptability] =
Adesign
Nc
[Standardization] =
[Recycling Conduciveness] =
cr
[Automation Conduciveness] =
HL
Please note that further breakdown of each of these subprocesses and logical associations can be figuratively made as well to
ever-reducing minutiae. However, as noted, this expression is the
top tier by which all other sub-processes are oriented. It is, again,
not the scope of this text to provide all attributes of a working
algorithm. It is also not implied here that the parameters expressed
are total or absolutely complete.
2) Optimized Production Efficiency
This filter's parameters can change based on the nature of the facilities
and how much machine variation in production (fixed automation vs.
flexible automation)796 is required at a given time. For the purpose of
796 "Fixed automation", also known as hard automation, refers to an
DS
the
A(ai ) ,
meaning
unvaried
production
methods
ideal
for
high
~
A(t , Dc (t ), ai ) , which can do a variety of things but
the distribution scheme is direct (Figure 8a). In this case the product
goes directly to the consumer without the help of network
intermediaries.
269
the distribution scheme is mass (Figure 8b). In this case the product
goes to intermediary facilities, such as libraries Di to engage the
potential consumers
Ci .
Edist ,
d dist
to the existing facilities. In this case the facilities are places in regional
distribution (libraries), based on the level of demand in the given
region. (i.e. Proximity Strategy d p ).
4) Optimized Recycling Efficiency
After distribution, the product then goes through its life-cycle. Once its
life-cycle ends, the product becomes "void and moves to process #4,
or the [Optimized Recycling Efficiency] filter. In short, all voided
products will follow the current [Regenerative Protocol]
Preg .
This
797 Source: Giving and Volunteering in the United States: Findings from a
(http://www.gallup.com/poll/166250/americans-practice-charitable-givingvolunteerism.aspx)
799 Reference: Despite Economy, Charitable Donors, Volunteers Keep Giving
(http://www.gallup.com/poll/113497/despite-economy-charitable-donorsvolunteers-keep-giving.aspx)
272
historian and moralist, who was otherwise known simply as Lord Acton,
expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887
273
With respect to who has the power to notice the problem and
implement this redundancy, technical teams exist to monitor the
network, just like any other existing vocation.
Of course, the question then arises: what if someone on the
technical team is corrupted and purposefully messes up the system?
Once again, the counter question is: why would they do it? What is the
incentive? In the event this did happen, it would not take long for
others to notice and the system could be corrected in the same
semblance of redundancy, with the person removed. That person
would then be questioned by his or her peers and society overall to
better understand why this act occurred.802
Overall, we trustfully give ourselves over to authority all the
time. Doctors, mechanics, and any other specialization always involve
a level of trust by those seeking such help, and most of the time, even
in a monetary society which generates dishonesty, people are mostly
honest, or as honest as they can be, the majority of the time. It is
simply too cynical to assume that any allocation of control is
dangerous. At no time in human history have we not shared some
level of delegated power responsibility to each other, and in almost all
cases, as with dentistry or mechanics, the nature of the "power"
delegated in question is characterized by its technical merit; precisely
the kind of oversight advocated within the present context.
In a NLRBE, the reinforcement is to help oneself, which means
to help society, not to exploit or abuse. There is literally no reward
reinforcement for such negative behavior, as opposed to the natural
state of general corruption we endure today.
As far as the physical network itself, it is decentralized in its
orientation in many ways, often more so than we see today. The
topographic layout of Earth makes many things logically obvious as far
as structure placement. People, being social, naturally have an interest
to have some kind of community centralization; the existence of
certain
energy
providing
areas,
such
as
for
solar/wind/geothermal/hydro, carve out their own locations logically;
extraction, production and distribution networks also have a
topographical logic inherent as efficiency mandates we keep such
facilitates as close to each other as possible, reducing energy waste
and transport; etc.
Cities themselves will change in two major ways. For one, the
construction and networking of the internal city system will seek to
meet the highest state of technical efficiency possible, including
sustainable infrastructure, homes, production/distribution networks
and the like, taking the systems basis into direct account.803 Secondly,
802 The subject of enforcement and how such an act is dealt with, will be
talked about in the essay Lifestyle, Freedom and The Humanity Factor
803 The design work of Jacque Fresco, specifically his city system concepts, is a
804 Maglev transport uses less energy and moves substantially faster than
commercial airlines and can also be used as local transport systems within a
city. ET3 is a company currently working on this technology.
http://www.et3.com/ Otherwise, the use of extremely safe, driverless cars
would serve other transportation needs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/science/10google.html?pagewanted=
all&_r=0
805 Such sensor technology and system networks have already been
hypothesized and are slowly making their way into certain facets of society.
The task is simply to scale it out. HP has introduced an idea for what it calls
a "A Central Nervous System for the Earth". http://hbr.org/web/2009/hbrlist/central-nervous-system-for-earth
806 To clarify per scale degree - this simply means smaller and larger order
systems, with the smaller inside the larger. For example, a house is one
degree, while the city that contains the house is a larger degree.
276
277
-LIFESTYLE, FREEDOM AND THE HUMANITY FACTORIs freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.807
-Epictetus
What is happiness?
It is difficult for most in the world today to imagine a society without
the duress and daily strife endured by the act of simply trying to
survive and keep a healthy mental and physical state. So much of our
lives today is centered around staying financially ahead and making
sure we have enough money for today, tomorrow, our family and even
perhaps for the next familial generation, we often lose sight of what it
is that actually creates well-being and happiness.
In fact, this fear and often predatory motivation has created a
social climate that has even generated a positive value association
toward narrow, self-interested behavior. While the line is always
subjective as to what behaviors are to be considered ethical or not,
the competitive, scarcity-driven orientation toward gaining an
acceptable quality of life continually reinforces our lower brain, fightor-flight propensities, perpetuating a constant sense of social
detachment and general loss of empathy for others. In many ways,
money itself has even become the reward and status standard, not
what it can do with its potential to move the world.
Therefore, given these values, it is always a challenge to
discuss a NLRBE's non-market premise with the vast majority of those
in modern culture, as certain knee-jerk contradictory assumptions
almost always prevail. It is not the purpose of this essay to address
these in detail but to denote how communication of a future lifestyle
not based on these now long-sustained values is difficult, as the idea
of existence without such strife is almost impossible for many, due to
our history.
Merging Society and Individuality
Ayn Rand and other famous authors and theorists in the 20th century
spent a great deal of time talking about a duality between self-interest
and social interest, or individualism and collectivism.808 In these
works, whether in fiction-based literary form or in actual economic
treatment, rarely is consideration given to a possible balance between
the two.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said: Communism forgets that life
is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the kingdom of
807 Source: quote-wise.com (http://www.quote-wise.com/quotes/epictetus/is-
freedom-anything-else-than-the-right-to-li)
808 Ayn Rand's famous novel Anthem is a notable, influential example of this
280
811 This may sound like a utopian step for a society in the current climate, but
when his team was on the front lines when this breakthrough for
humanity was achieved. It was like the elation felt amongst soccer
teammates after a goal has been scored.
Slowly gaining focus as your pupils find balance with the
invading light, you glance out of the window and notice an enormous
machine, suspended from a crane of sorts, slowly adding a new
section to the very building structure you are a part of. Almost like
magic, the machine is able to form, from what first appears like a kind
of liquid plastic, a new apartment configuration and appends that form
onto the existing structure. Quietly, safely and oddly with very few
parts, there is no technician in sight, even though likely someone is
monitoring the process from somewhere. Blinking and scanning sensor
lights on the huge machine appear to suggest that it understands
everything about the surrounding area and what it needs to do.
Glancing further around the city's skyline, there is an
immediate sense of synergy with nature. The city has no awkward
concentrations or imbalance. The slick transport systems that zoom
by, which are high-tech indeed, seem to merge seamlessly with the
greenery, lakes and canals. Suddenly, a picture on the wall next to the
window catches your eye. It is an old archival shot of almost the same
perspective, but taken many, many decades before, during what
modern folk now call the last dark age.
In this shot a sense of tension, congestion and strife is felt. A
long stream of automobiles is seen on a strip of crude concrete
highway backing up all the way out of frame. You remember from your
history education years ago that back then a monetary practice
created great duress and discord, with people piling into cities to gain
employment and hence to gain the money, in order buy things and
survive. You then think of how things have changed indeed, feeling
rather sorry for that primitive culture and happy you were born when
you were. Of course, realizing that you too live in a fleeting era as
time marches on, you further try to imagine what aspects of your life
today will one day be considered outdated in the future.
Feeling hungry, you enter into the apartment's kitchen. It is a
fairly new design you hadn't seen before. While the systems concept
and the interest to combine and unify industrial design was mentioned
prolifically in your educational materials as an engineering student,
you notice the advanced degree of efficiency now achieved. The
kitchen is one unit. The dishes and ware are designed for the washing
and placement process, which is directly built in. Once a plate is dirty,
it is set into a compartment that already understands the nature of the
pre-designed plate and processes the plate with a kind of cleansing
steam and a UV configuration that also sterilizes it. Automatically, the
plate is then returned to the proper disperser location in the shelf for
the next use. It was as though the kitchen was one big, unified
machine.
However, checking the refrigerator, you realize you have
forgotten to pick up provisions for your short stay. You ponder
whether to do go down to the lower level to pick up such provisions
284
and come back, but you decide it is time to get going and you will grab
something at a caf on the way. As you exit the apartment, you swipe
the access key into the control panel to confirm your final exit and
then glance at the control panel to find the clean button. After a bit
of frustration, you finally realize the apartment has been designed with
a time-based motion sensor system to clean itself automatically when
no motion is detected.
You then notice the CF6 robot in the corner and take pause as
to the amazing technical feat it is to have this robot understand the
exact nature of the space, where things belong and where they do not,
all programmed with absolute 3D spatial awareness of the apartment
to clean and arrange. It is hard for you to imagine what it must have
been like to maintain such daily drudgery generations prior.
Exiting the apartment, which is actually a temporary access
location you rented through an online service, you then enter the
hallways and almost collide with a fast moving older man who drops a
small laptop. You realize he is one of the managers of the apartment
complex. You help him pick it up and he apologizes profusely. Very
sorry! he exclaims. We have a problem with the CF6 on level 12 and
I need to reboot him! Good thing we always have a few backups for
each room!
You thank him kindly for his well-kept place and continue on
your way, with a brief reflection back to that historical photo in the
room you just left. Long ago, people's sense of contribution was
always associated to money. They had jobs, as they were called.
Today, people's vocation is a matter of choice, facilitated also by a
basic sense of social responsibility. Our society is designed to take care
of us as one, so why should we not take care of society itself in return?
The man who passed you maintains that building because he enjoys
helping others and since he, himself, only needs to work a few hours a
week at this role, he views his volunteer time as valuable and without
burden, happily assisting others who very much appreciate the
contribution. It makes him feel like he is more a part of the
community.
Exiting the building, the street is bustling with motion. You
notice an artsy looking, retro French caf on the corner and laugh to
yourself at the pointless, yet cute nostalgia. You enter and sit at a
small corner table, smiling politely at the family across the way.
Realizing you are running out of time since you have to catch a train to
attend a conference a couple hundred miles away, you tap a simple
order into the kiosk menu in the center of the table. Tea and waffles.
Once submitted you can't help but notice a mild vibration occurring
behind your head.
Since your grandfather was an engineer who helped design the
original automated kitchen system, this is curious to you as the usual
tradition was to put the processing facility above and center in the
space. It appears there was some restriction in this narrow area so
they hid it to the side. About two minutes later, a red light appears on
the table to alert you that your order is ready. A glass door opens that
285
Then, it comes to you! So, you enter the title and there it is. However,
your remember your trip is only about 275 miles so you know you
won't get far as this maglev train goes about 3000 mph. You will be
lucky if you get 8 minutes into the film. So, rather than spoil the
experience, you decide to go over some notes you brought for the
conference. The subject of the conference is terraformation. Great
interest is being shown by humanity to further explore the idea of
inhabiting space, and this conference will address the potentials
currently available.
However, before too much thought can be done, you arrive at
your destination. You exit the train and enter the station. You realize
you need some equipment for some program work that will be
addressed at the conference, so you make your way to the local
technology library. You need a versatile laptop and a series of storage
cards to bring your notes and work with you after it is done. You enter
the library and feel a buzz on your phone. You pull it out and a curious
notification welcomes you to that region's technology center and asks
if you need search assistance.
This perplexes you at first but then you remember that the
library network in that region has recently been updated to allow for a
universal recognition system, facilitated by a phone application you
had installed prior, while using another library in the same region
years ago. You had forgotten about this. How convenient! you think.
You describe the laptop and memory cards and it returns the product
profiles. You find that it is correct. Once confirmed, a visual map of the
library appears that shows your location and the location of the area
with the goods you need. You navigate to that area and check out the
items. Then, you exit the library, retrieve an automated cab, and you
are off to the conference.
A number of hours later the conference ends. You are inspired,
exhausted and hungry, having forgotten to eat most of the day. You
decide an Italian style meal sounds good. Luckily, you notice just such
a restaurant a few blocks down and start walking. Your phone rings. It
is an associate from your hometown. He states there is a problem with
one of the food production manifolds and he is unable to respond due
to his own personal emergency. You state you will go online and check
the system status and get back to him.
You quickly enter the Italian restaurant and take a seat at a
small table. It is a pretty busy night so it is noisier than you would
prefer. You whip out the laptop, which has a satellite-based Internet
connection at all times, and navigate to your region's technical
mainframe to check for status errors. Sure enough, there is a power
problem in sector five of the automated vertical farm structure in the
northeast region. You bring up a digital image of the physical layout,
which, by a kind of color-coding, reveals a severed cable line to a
power converter. Having seen this problem before, since you have
been overseeing your region's food production for about eight years,
you gain a sense of relief, as the problem is very simple to fix.
287
With a few keystrokes, a CR9 modular robot is now under your control
in the farm. Through this remote control ability you are able to guide
the machine to the problem area and explain the issue. This robot, like
the one in the apartment rental you had prior, has a complete
understanding of all physical and technical systems in the operation. A
3D model of the plant and its infrastructural design is literally
programmed into these CR9s and all it needs is a little orientation from
the management team and it quickly goes into action to fix a problem.
Once in place, the CR9 quickly understands the problem clearly and
moves to replace the bad power cable. In a few minutes, the problem
is solved. You call your associate back and he thanks you kindly for the
assistance.
Now extremely hungry, you whip around the menu kiosk and
find the largest plate of pasta you can! You enter your order, along
with a strong cocktail and some water, and wait. About ten minutes
later a mechanism in the table opens from the side, elevating your
now ever-enticing looking meal to the surface in front of you. You dive
in! Eating away, you can't help but notice a gentle faced woman
staring at you from the corner. You smile and she comes over.
She asks, How is everything? You state Quite good. Are you
the manager here? She nods. You then go on to describe how your
grandfather helped design the kitchen system she is using. She lights
up and says, My family has been feeding people for nine generations.
Sometimes I go back and cook the food myself, just for fun! You both
laugh at the nostalgia, comparing the idea to those who still manually
fix up old cars just for fun.
After the meal and conversation, you decide it is time to retire
for the evening. Pulling out your phone you locate an available room a
few doors down. You enter the building, obtain a keycard from an
automated key wall, and ascend to your room and sleep. Life moves
forward.
288
Trends
The early 21st century marks an extremely interesting period of time.
On one side we see many clear and present problems that, as this
essay will discuss, show an accelerating gravitation toward further
negative consequences, both environmental and social. Yet, on the
other side, an ever present and accelerating solution orientation,
technically, reveals so much potential to change course for the better,
positive future possibilities appear profound and limitless.
To the casual observer, the idea that the worst is over
regarding the evolution of human culture may appear intuitively
accurate, depending on where one resides on the planet. We have
seen an overall increase in life expectancy, an overall decline in
behavioral violence,813 a rising standard of living on the whole in the
Western world, along with a generally maturing global culture which
has been inching its way out of vast periods of bigotry, sexism, racism,
and nationalism, further promoting a much needed global
consciousness.
Yet, the truth of the matter is that any such social progress,
specifically the overall standard of living elevation occurring due to our
technological ingenuity, is actually amalgamating within a highly
detrimental framework that has just started to really reveal itself as
such. These surfacing problems are of a scientific nature, not an
ideological one. The fact is, market capitalism, no matter how you wish
to regulate it or not regulate it, contains severe structural flaws, which
will always, to one degree or another, perpetuate environmental abuse
and destabilization, along with human disregard and caustic inequality.
As expressed at length in other essays, this market/trade
concept manifested out of an environmental condition which viewed all
material things in the world as universally scarce. This has forged a
competitive and invariably exploitative value system that generates
certain behavioral propensities and loyalties that are misaligned with
812 Source: Speech by Dr. King, 1967
(http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/21/dr_martin_luther_king_in_1967
)
813 Reference: Violence Vanquished
(http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405311190410670457658
3203589408180)
289
the sole root of the problem. Capitalism is a symptom as well, birthed out of
the fear-oriented psychology inherent to the historical condition of a
scarcity-saturated society.
815 Reference: Data shows Earth's systems in decline
(http://www.bt.com.bn/science-technology/2011/08/01/data-shows-earthssystems-decline)
816 Reference: Study highlights global decline
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4391835.stm)
817 Reference: Top REPUBLICAN Leaders Say Iraq War Was Really about Oil
(http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/03/top-republican-leaders-sayiraq-war-was-really-for-oil.html)
290
818 Reference: Water scarcity to drive conflict, hit food and energy, experts say
(http://www.trust.org/item/?map=water-scarcity-to-drive-conflict-hit-foodand-energy-experts)
819 Source: World population projected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050 UN
report
(http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45165#.UtyMb2TTm2w)
291
(a) As far as food, there is no shortage of studies that project that our
traditional food production methods are not going to come close to
meeting demand by 2050.821 822 Estimates put production needs at a
60 to 110% increase823 and given the current industrial climate which
also has an extremely wasteful and inefficient supply chain, wasting
30-50% of all food created,824 the only logical expectation is a
worsening of the global poverty and starvation levels in terms of
population percentage. This doesn't even bring into consideration the
ongoing plea for more sustainable agricultural practices to stop
pollution/soil erosion, which would not be a convenience if this
820 Source: Global agriculture towards 2050
(http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/wsfs/docs/Issues_papers/HLEF205
0_Global_Agriculture.pdf)
821 Source: Food Security Raises the Obvious: Can We Feed 9.6 Billion by
2050? (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-zacka/food-security-raisesthe-_b_3948986.html)
822 Source: Yield Trends Are Insufficient to Double Global Crop Production by
2050
(http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0066428)
823 Reference: Current Global Food Production Trajectory Won't Meet 2050
Needs
(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130619195135.htm), UN:
farmers must produce 70% more food by 2050 to feed population
(http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/nov/28/un-farmersproduce-food-population)
824 Source: Feeding the 9 Billion: The tragedy of waste
(http://www.imeche.org/knowledge/themes/environment/global-food)
292
This chart shows yields per acre for the important foundational crops corn, rice,
wheat and soybeans. The solid lines show what would happen if this growth
continued. The dashed lines, however, show what is really needed to satisfy
expected demand by 2050.825
(b) Potable water statistics are equally if not more dramatic, and
needless to say, water scarcity means even more problems for
traditional agriculture. According to the United Nations, by 2025, an
estimated 1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water
scarcity, with two-thirds of the world's population living in waterstressed regions.826 The OECD projects that fresh water demand will
rise by 55% by 2050, corroborating the U.N. water stress statistic,
extending it to 3.9 billion by 2050, or nearly half the world's
population.827
825 Source: Yield Trends Are Insufficient to Double Global Crop Production by
2050
(http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0
066428)
826 Source: A Clean Water Crisis
(http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/fresh
water-crisis/)
827 Source: Water: The Environmental Outlook to 2050
(http://www.oecd.org/env/resources/49006778.pdf)
293
(http://www.oecd.org/env/resources/49006778.pdf)
(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-13/water-pollution-tied-toagriculture-increasing-costing-billions.html)
830 Source: The Most Polluted Places On Earth
(http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-most-polluted-places-on-earth/)
831 Reference: Too Much Nitrogen and Phosphorus Are Bad for the Bay
(http://www.cbf.org/how-we-save-the-bay/issues/dead-zones/nitrogenphosphorus)
832 Reference: Nitrates in Drinking Water
(http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/crops/00517.html)
294
ocean. The mercury released by the burning of coal then pollutes the
fish and those fish are then caught as a food source, containing this
deadly toxin, hurting human health. Given current trends, mercury
pollution is expected to rise as well.833
In short, if all patterns stay the same, water, both in the
context of its symbiotic relationship to biodiversity and its direct
relationship to human survival, given that humans can only go a few
days before dying without it, is on pace for severe shortages and
extremely detrimental environmental outcomes overall. This again
assumes we conduct ourselves in the same basic ways we have for the
past 50 years, embracing market logic, which is life-blind and
decoupled from environmental awareness.
(c) As far as energy, as alluded to in the prior note about coal, there is
literally nothing positive about any fossil fuel combustion process when
it comes to environmental sustainability.834 These means will always
have a detrimental footprint and it can only get worse as population
and industry increases.835 Compounding this is also the fact that such
resources are non-renewable and ensuing scarcity is simply a matter
of time.
(http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mercury-contamination-in-fish-expectedto-rise-in-coming-decades/)
834 Reference: The Hidden Cost of Fossil Fuels
(http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/our-energy-choices/coal-and-otherfossil-fuels/the-hidden-cost-of-fossil.html)
835 Reference: Leaked UN Report: If We Don't Stop Polluting Now, We May
Never Have The Technology To Save Ourselves
(http://www.businessinsider.com/leaked-un-draft-report-on-climatechange-2014-1)
836 See globalshift.co.uk for more country details.
295
The issue of peak oil has been looming for many decades.837
While controversial, what we know today is that convention oil
production, meaning the usual raw crude which used to occur in large
vast pockets under the Earth's surface, is in decline on the global
scale, with an estimated 37 countries already past their peak of
production.838
According to Dr. Richard G. Miller, who worked for British
Petroleum from 1985 to 2008, "We need new production equal to a
new Saudi Arabia every 3 to 4 years to maintain and grow supply...
New discoveries have not matched consumption since 1986. We are
drawing down on our reserves, even though reserves are apparently
climbing every year. Reserves are growing due to better technology in
old fields, raising the amount we can recover but production is still
falling at 4.1% p.a. [per annum].839
Of course, many others today speculate that the world is still
awash in oil, with grand speculations of future capacity. However,
these projections are centered on non-conventional sources that are
often extremely difficult to extract and process. Oil shale and tar
sands, along with fracking for natural gas, are currently accelerating
methods and, on paper, they can give the sense of abundance.
However, there is a great deal of dispute about just how viable these
means are to meet growing demand,840 while the environmental costs
of these complex and often destructive practices are vast and
counterproductive.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, The
development of 'oil shale' and 'tar sands' has been shown to be
environmentally destructive, and water and energy intensive.
Extracting oil from U.S. public lands through oil shale or tar sands
would deal a disastrous blow to any hope of reducing atmospheric CO2
levels to below 350 parts per million the level we need to reach
soon to stabilize Earths climate. Besides helping push us toward global
warming catastrophe, oil shale and tar sands development destroys
species habitat, wastes enormous volumes of water, pollutes air and
water, and degrades and defiles vast swaths of land.841
Likewise, hydraulic fracturing or fracking has been found to
be exceptionally polluting and dangerous with even recorded instances
of ground water being so polluted that home water supplies have
become literally flammable.842 Regardless of such contaminated water
837 Reference: Peakoil.net (http://www.peakoil.net/)
838 Reference: Former BP geologist: peak oil is here and it will 'break
economies' (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earthinsight/2013/dec/23/british-petroleum-geologist-peak-oil-break-economyrecession)
839 Ibid.
840 Ibid.
841 Source: Oil Shale and Tar Sands
(http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public_lands/energy/dirty_en
ergy_development/oil_shale_and_tar_sands/)
842 Reference: Fracking hot: N. Dakota man sets tap water on fire
296
by 2050.846
Projections for (a) human population size, (b) human ecological demand and
(c) ecological debt under different scenarios of human population growth and
use of natural resources. Ecological demand is calculated by multiplying the size
of the worlds human population by the average yearly demands of a person
and dividing this amount by the Earths biocapacity; this yields the number of
planet Earths required to meet the whole human demand. Reproduced from
Marine Ecology Progress Series, Vol. 434847
Path (http://growingblue.com/water-in-2050/)
(http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/water_use/index.stm)
299
Computerization (http://www.technologyreview.com/view/519241/reportsuggests-nearly-half-of-us-jobs-are-vulnerable-to-computerization/)
861 Source: Business acumen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_acumen)
302
History
(http://www.alternet.org/story/142171/there_are_more_slaves_today_than
_at_any_time_in_human_history)
863 Reference: Does money make you mean? (TED lecture by Paul Piff)
(http://www.examined-life.info/2013/12/does-money-make-you-mean-tedlecture-by-paul-piff/)
864 Source: Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior
(http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/02/21/1118373109)
865 Source: Class and compassion: socioeconomic factors predict responses to
suffering. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22148992)
303
(http://pss.sagepub.com/content/21/11/1716.abstract)
867 Source: Having less, giving more: the influence of social class on prosocial
behavior. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20649364)
(http://philanthropy.com/article/America-s-Geographic-Giving/133591/)
(http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/blogs/insight/number-world-billionaires-hitsrecord-u-leads-152954753.html)
870 Source: Annual income of richest 100 people enough to end global poverty
four times over (http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressrelease/201301-19/annual-income-richest-100-people-enough-end-global-poverty-fourtimes)
871 Reference: Forty U.S. billionaires pledge to give half their money to charity
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/201008/05/c_13430367.htm)
304
872 The idea of partially achieving a NLRBE might be confusing to some. This
statement is made to express how certain management practices and halfmeasures, constituting a "hybrid-economy" are not out of the question
toward some degree of sustainable, abundance generating progress. This
will not be explored in this essay but the possibility is worth personal
consideration.
307
(http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/cc/NMfHC/chp12.html)
net.com/design/home.html)
(http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/02/05/torontos_first_tool_library_
gears_up_to_open_in_parkdale.html)
312
(http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/magazine/switzerlands-proposal-topay-people-for-being-alive.html?_r=0)
313
international influence.
However, the leaders of this country really were not aware of
this technical reality. So, one day a relative of one of the leaders finds
his or herself at a TZM conference talking about those very design
initiatives and advancements in production methods. This person
notifies the leaders of the country and the government takes notice.
This hypothetical government is perhaps impoverished, as many Latin
American countries are, mostly due to international trade dealings,
corruption, debt problems, unemployment problems and the like. This
government, enlightened by what they have learned, decides to take
the initiative to incorporate a localized NLRBE, as best they can.
They understand that a true NLRBE is global, with a total
Earthly resource management system. However, knowing this will not
occur anytime soon in the current global climate, they calculate that
with a number of adjustments, they can still utilize the model to a
limited but powerful degree, solving most all of its country's
material/financial woes. So, the country then adjusts its industrial
methods in accord, creates a domestic sensor system and
management network to understand its resources and keep
equilibrium, fully digests the new industrial capacity to do more with
less, also installing the sustainability and efficiency protocol algorithms
inherent to the CDS - and they proceed with the new model in full
force, literally stopping all trade with foreign nations, being selfcontained and 100% sustainable in their region, once established.
After a period of this success, the world slowly begins to see
the incredible result of their moneyless economy. The population,
which had a very low standard of living prior, is elevated to an
economic abundance they have never seen. It helps greatly that the
people's values in that country consist of conservation and modest
living, furthering balanced progress of the nation.
So, given this evidence of feasibility and fruitfulness, other
adjacent nations begin to understand the vast merit of the new model
and decide to take part. This process of joining expands the resource
network greatly and the more it expands, the more other country's
people also see the merit and the more they demand it, and so on. In
time, the world unites.
Now, while this example might be over simplified, also clearly
ignoring the international political pressures that most certainly would
cause conflict, the reader should be able to understand that it is still a
possibility. In truth, we don't really know what exactly will start such a
move, but we do know that planting as many seeds of possibility as
possible is the key, coupled with the increasingly negative eco-biosocial pressures that will appear to have no end in sight.
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-BECOMING THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENTSometimes the slightest things change the directions of our lives, the merest
breath of a circumstance, a random moment that connects like a meteorite
striking the earth. Lives have swiveled and changed direction on the strength of
a chance remark.877
-Bryce Courtenay
Responsibility
While on the surface the following proposition may seem like a mere
poetic gesture, the truth of the matter is that it is absolutely true and
inescapable. We are all in The Zeitgeist Movement whether we like it
or not.
Everyday of our lives we make decisions in social and
environmental contexts that create influence on the wellbeing and
perception of others. It doesn't matter what one's political, religious or
overall ideological disposition may be specifically; if you live on this
planet you are influencing it and the cultures spawned from it. What
this also means is that you are responsible. You are responsible for
what you set in motion and hence responsible for the state of the
habitat and you are response for the balance or imbalance of the
human species itself, to one degree or another.
Each act of empathy or indifference resonates with those who
received those effects, and due to the basic, evolutionary laws of
human adaption we adjust our expectations and propensities as we
experience the environment around us. Naturally, early childhood is
the most sensitive period to our species, as we try to figure out if this
new world we have come into is safe and supportive or if the world is
unsafe and indifferent. This type of programming, while established in
early childhood most dominantly, still continues throughout our lives,
and the effect it has on the larger order cultural perception is also
profound.
Yet, while our capabilities are truly powerful, particularly when
it comes to human society's recent capacity to build technological
tools, which can change the societal construct rapidly, it is easy to
forget that at the root core of this existence is a kind of subservience
and acceptance of factors that we will never have control of. After
millennia of confusion about the nature of our existence, inventing
complex and ultimately false systems of belief as we cope with this
confusion, the slow discovery of what are commonly termed the laws
of nature have provided not only a means to create and invent, but to
also understanding that we are actually not in control in many
profound ways.
We appear to only be in control of how we relate to this
existing rule structure and those natural law rules show no sign of
changing. Our submission to this reality rests at the heart of the
technical proposals made by The Zeitgeist Movement. It is merely a
877 Source: goodreads.com
(http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/change?page=2)
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878 Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, Carl Sagan, 1994
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GRI as a sub-system.879
(c) Likewise related to the LSP, the CDS or Collaborative Design
System, is a programming project that would seek to produce the
actual regulatory and network aware source code that facilitates the
process discussed in the essay The Industrial Government. This
system could be coded in the exact same, open source and open
access manner by which the prior two projects are, utilizing the group
mind and the scientific method to help maximize potential.
As a communication tool, this project would not have to be
complete to be effective. Even if only a small set of parameters were
utilized that relay the calculation of a theoretical design evaluation, the
educational value alone has great potential. In time, primitive versions
of the CDS could be directly incorporated into the LSP and GRI, since
they are connected in purpose. Such expressions could be
demonstrated at movement conferences.
Chapters and Events
A TZM activist almost always has a relationship to a regional chapter.
As of 2014 there are many chapters across dozens of countries. A
chapter can be a few people or thousands, and those in regions
currently without local chapters are encouraged to start one. It is a
very easy process and the time commitment needed comes down to
the degree of dedication and one's time availability.880
Chapters are organized by local and international tiers. For
example, there is national chapter coordination for the entire United
States, while each US state has its own chapter (or sub-chapter).
Likewise, each city in any given state can also have its own chapter.
This network creates a multi-dimensional information flow and while it
may appear hierarchical, the ethic of the movement is not a top-down
power system. Chapters often hold meetings about their work in each
tier and the ideas talked about are brought up the chain as much and
they are brought down the chain.
As far as events, since the inception of TZM in 2008, certain
periodic events have emerged as staples of the movement, with two
occurring annually. These two are called Zeitgeist Day (or ZDay)
and the Zeitgeist Media Festival. 2013, for example, marked the fifth
annual ZDay and the third annual Media Festival. ZDay is the
movement's flagship public awareness event, which is intellectually
driven, describing progress in the movement and expanding relevant
research. It is also a public media activism event, always trying to
entice media outlets to cover it in order to further spread awareness of
879 In many ways, this process of design and evaluation is a crude, manual
TZM's mission.
In contrast, the Zeitgeist Media Festival is a multi-media arts
event, which works to bypass the intellectual side and use art for the
sake of personal transformation. The arts have an emotional and
experimental capacity to inspire change and generate new ideas and
TZM views the arts as an underpinning of scientific development itself.
This event is also a means to express the creative and exciting
capacity and potential of the human condition and to remind ourselves
that we should also celebrate humanity, as we work to improve it.
Each of these events has the same basic format. There is a
main event and there are sympathetic chapter events. In the case of
ZDay, the global main event tends to focus on the most dominant
global issues and projects for the movement each year, usually
featuring well-known speakers and contributors to the movement.
Mirrored sympathetic events, which are regionally targeted, occur the
same day or weekend around the world via the chapters. In 2009, for
example, there were over 400 sympathetic events, along with the
main event in New York City.881 Likewise, very often chapters conduct
food and resource charity drives for the suffering in their
community.882
Other events, such a townhalls, which can be monthly or bimonthly, are also common. It is up to a given group/chapters to
decide the frequency of these public meetings.883 Beyond these core
ideas, many other possibilities are out there and it is, again, up to any
chapter to be creative in how it conducts its activism.
Mission Statement
In conclusion, the official mission statement of TZM will be stated in
full.
Founded in 2008, The Zeitgeist Movement is a sustainability advocacy
organization, which conducts community based activism and
awareness actions through a network of global/regional chapters,
project teams, annual events, media and charity work.
The movement's principle focus includes the recognition that
the majority of the social problems that plague the human species at
this time are not the sole result of some institutional corruption,
absolute scarcity, a political policy, a flaw of "human nature" or other
commonly held assumptions of causality. Rather, the movement
recognizes that issues such as poverty, corruption, pollution,
homelessness, war, starvation and the like appear to be "symptoms"
born out of an outdated social structure.
While intermediate reform steps and temporal community
881 Source: ZDayGlobal.org (http://zdayglobal.org/)
882 The inaugural 2011 Media Festival main event in Los Angeles raised enough
townhalls)
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Join us:
www.thezeitgeistmovement.com
statement)
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