|
|
Musings Report 2018-16 4-21-18 Can a Solution Be Both Radical Left and Radical Right?
You are receiving this email because you are one of the 500+ subscribers/major contributors to www.oftwominds.com.
For those who are new to the Musings reports: they are basically a glimpse into my notebook, the unfiltered swamp where I organize future themes, sort through the dozens of stories and links submitted by readers, refine my own research and start connecting dots which appear later in the blog or in my books. As always, I hope the Musings spark new appraisals and insights. Thank you for supporting the site and for inviting me into your circle of correspondents.
Can a Solution Be Both Radical Left and Radical Right?
Let's start by noting that ideologies aren't solutions, they're mindsets / perspectives based on a specific set of values and priorities.
We say a solution is Left or Right depending on how well it aligns with the core values and priorities of each ideology. (Let's include Libertarian somewhere in the ideological spectrum.)
But what if a solution aligns with core values and priorities of competing ideologies?
We're told this isn't possible; a solution must be Left, Right or Libertarian.
But when I think about my CLIME system (Community Labor Integrated Money Economy), I see it as Radical Left and Radical Right and Libertarian, too.
Broadly speaking, the Radical Left seeks to redress poverty, institutionalized bias/inequality and exploitation of the Many by the Few, especially the private-sector Few.
The Radical Right seeks to limit the excessive powers of the Central State that undermine the traditional structures of faith and family, and provide equal opportunity and rights for all under the law.
Libertarians set individual liberty as the core value and priority.
There are two keys to understanding CLIME:
1. If we don't change the way money is created and distributed, we change nothing.
2. A system creates a culture based on a structure of incentives, disincentives and rules. That culture supports a specific type of economy and society.
Setting goals is meaningless if the existing culture doesn't support the economic-social structure that's needed to reach the goals.
The whole point of CLIME is to redress poverty/financial insecurity, eliminate institutionalized bias/inequality, limit the potential of the Few to exploit the Many, provide a culture that supports individual rights and freedom to choose their community and work, and create equal opportunities (but not equal outcomes) for all.
Since CLIME creates and distributes money only to individuals working together to fill scarcities in their own communities, this eliminates the key control of centralized states: forcing everyone to use the state's money that is created and distributed at the very top of the wealth-power pyramid.
Since CLIME requires self-organizing groups to prioritize local needs in a strictly democratic process, every individual is free to join whatever group they wish or start their own group, or not get involved at all. (Those who choose not to participate don't get paid with CLIME money. That's the incentive to participate.)
Since CLIME is an automated system (with human participation in an appeals process), there are no opportunities for institutional bias or exploitation.
Since CLIME is based on the free choice of individuals, those who want to join groups based on their faith or family values are free to do so. Those preferring groups based on other values are free to do so. The only strictly enforced requirement is that each member of each group is accorded the same rights and voice and the same pay for the same work.
If I put on my Radical Left hat, I am delighted with CLIME, as it redresses poverty, bias and exploition of the weak by the powerful, and delivers "power to the people" (money, capital and control) who can then serve their own communities in democratically organized groups.
If I put on my Radical Right hat, I am delighted that CLIME insures equal access to opportunities and democracy/self-rule, while protecting the rights and opportunities of faiths and families and limiting the over-reach of central banks and governments.
If I put on my Libertarian hat, I'm delighted by CLIME's organizing principle of the liberty of the individual to participate or not, freely choose his/her group or start their own, freely express their views on what's the highest priorities in their community and pursue their own free-market enterprises outside the group should they choose to do so.
This reveals the limits of ideologies as mechanisms that support real solutions. All too often believers are too busy making sure a solution passes their own litmus test to examine whether the culture created by the socio-economic structure can support their idealized goals.
Life is messy; people aren't saints. The structure has to create positive incentives and positive social roles and limit bias, exploitation and inequality at their sources within the structure. Only then can a culture arise that can fulfill all our goals for liberty, fairness, security and equal opportunity.
Highlights of the Blog This Past Week
The War between Public Pensioners and Tax Donkeys Is Heating Up
Best Thing That Happened To Me This Week
Two bests, different experiences: family outings with my sister, niece and her husband, and recording a new song with my mentor S.T., Dakini.
Market Musings: Currencies U.S. Dollar
Are the currency wars heating up? Is the U.S. dollar doomed as the world de-dollarizes? These are long-term trends. Shorter term, there could be dollar shortages that push the USD much higher, regardless of the longer term trends.
Currencies are zero-sum: all currencies can't devalue against each other (though they can all lose value against gold and bitcoin). Some must rise in relative value as others lose ground.
The USD has been sliding since the beginning of 2017. Will it sink further or rebound?
The daily chart reflects the choppy up and down of the USD in 2018: it's back to where it was in the first week or so of the year.
But price has traced out a pennant/wedge that the USD is threatening to break to the upside.
Given the large short position (bets against the USD gaining), any rally could morph into a short-covering rip-your-face-off move higher.
Or alternatively, the USD fails at resistance and spends more time in this narrowing pennant.
From Left Field
America’s Cultural Revolution- the Obsession with Self Esteem
Hollywood’s newest action star: The Constitution’s taking clause
Did Simone de Beauvoir's open 'marriage' make her happy? -- Existentialism's first couple, Sartre and Simone....
All by Itself, the Humble Sweet Potato Colonized the World
How economic inequality is killing us -- based on my blog post...
Class Dismissed: Class Conflict in Red State America
I was one of Facebook's first users. I shouldn't have trusted Mark Zuckerberg
Returning to the Commonplace -- John Michael Greer now writes one post a month; this one delves deeply into modernism and what it means to be an individual in a society of competing narratives.
The Corruption of Evidence Based Medicine-- Killing for Profit (via John F.)
A $76,000 Monthly Pension: Why States and Cities Are Short on Cash
Palantir Knows Everything About You -- private sector data used by public-sector agencies--for a fee...
The Multi-Billion Dollar Industry That Makes Its Living From Your Data (via Chad D.)
"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." Noam Chomsky
Thanks for reading--
charles |
|
|
|
|
|
