Laboratory

Principles and Proposals Beyond Statism

 



 

Principles (^)

The 'principles' about post-statist communities, which are put forward below, represent only a first schematic draft that should be refined and clarified while remaining simple and short.
 
Rights of the individuals and rules of social life

Individual rights refer to natural rights of every human being and of communities as the right to life and the right to freedom (of expression, of movement, etc.). The laws of the state have been superimposed only at a later stage and usually to coerce and restrict these natural rights of individuals and communities and to replace them with the petty, short-term gains of artificial groups (nation, race, class, party). It is time also to reinstall and refer again to the rights of the person and to rules of social life that derive from the secular improvement and refinement of the ways of thinking and behaving. These general norms and specific rules should have the characteristics of
-  universality: act towards others according to norms that could have universal acceptability and applicability;
-  reciprocity: do not act towards others as you do not want them to act towards you;
-  liberality: do not interfere nor restrict the behaviour of another person when it does not harm either you or anybody else.

Caring and cooperating

Individuals live also in communities small (the family, the circle of friends, etc.) and large (the world society). Caring and cooperating, freely and willingly, were the basic traits of individuals and communities existing before the coming to dominance of the nation states, artificial bodies from which originate monopolism and protectionism, disorder and war. The regaining of centre stage by free individuals and communities means to focus again on mutual aid and care, as opposed to state assistance (to be totally dismantled) that leads only to moral corruption and passivity.

Health and well-being

Nowadays health means doctors and medicine and well-being is intended as high monetary income and as large consumption of material goods. It is then important to redefine concepts and to develop the capability to perceive the malaise and the disease affecting the health and well-being of individuals and communities. This means that everyone should become basically capable of looking after his/her own physical and mental health and an agent of collective well-being. These concepts needs to be clarified and operationalized. What is certain is that, amid increasing deterioration of the environment, to expect from the state bureaucracy the safeguard and promotion of health and well-being is not only simple gullibility but criminal idiocy.

Producing and learning

The reality of producing and learning has greatly changed so also the concepts need to be transformed. Work has been modified by the introduction of robots and electronic devices and has become an activity (of ideation, supervision, regulation, etc.). The school as the place and the provider of standardised information at a specific time of people's lives, needs to be replaced by a permanent modular education, variously produced and enjoyed (training, television, internet, travelling, workshops, individual study, etc.). The basic principle is freedom of ways and styles of learning. A logical premisse is the end of compulsory taxation to finance state schooling.

Amenities and utilities

One of the pillars of statism has been the monopolization of public utilities (telephone, electricity, gas, transports, mail, etc.) and the protectionism accorded to national firms. Now this model is crumbling down almost everywhere; we need to accelerate the end of monopolies. To this aim, the knowledge of experiences of non-monopolistic administration of amenities and utilities, wherever they take place, is a powerful tool for going beyond the nation state.

Management of resources

The production and use of resources have to be put in relation to the true (not false) and real (not artificial) needs of the human being. Given the fact that the state derives a lucrative gain from every single transaction, the continuous increase of production and consumption is vital for the survival of the state. So, it is important, on one side to get off the circuit of addicted consumerism, and on the other side to manage (produce and consume) resources in a way that is highly efficient and beyond the rapacious hand of the state.

Moving and travelling

One of the basic principles of the world society is the freedom of moving and travelling everywhere on the earth without any type of discrimination or oppressive regulation. The artificial borders imposed by the states have to be removed. The fact that someone travelling to a place has to undergo a series of restrictions less is stopped and classified as clandestine, is an idiotic, barbaric and criminal practice of the nation states and the central states. Moving and travelling should be a problem of transport logistic not of state laws.

 


 

Proposals (in progress) (^)

The "proposals" that are put forward below represent only jotted down ideas that should develop into integrated sets for viable post-statism communities.

Rights of the individuals and rules of social life

- Every human being is free to join the group, club, community of his/her own liking and to allocate some resources (money, time, expertise, goods, etc.) in exchange for specific services (e.g. security provision).
- Compulsory taxation is abolished in favour of voluntarily allocation of (personal-group) resources.

Caring and cooperating

- The caring for his/her own person and for each other is left to every individual through the forms of voluntarily collaboration they will consider appropriate.
- Human beings and living creatures unable to look after themselves will be cared by charitable individuals-groups, as the evidence of mutual aid has shown all along history.

Health and well-being

- Abolition of any compulsory national health service.
- Freedom to set up competing health and care services.
- Freedom to set up competing insurance services.

Producing and learning

- Independent activities replace, more and more, dependent work.
- Education and educational centres are freely promoted and set up by individuals (parents, teachers, experts, learners, etc.) without any interference by the state. The quality is assured by competition/emulation amongst educational propositions and forms.
- Manual and intellectual activities get freely mixed for an harmonious development (physical and mental) of the individual.

Amenities and utilities

- Amenities are administered (protected, improved) by individuals and associations paid and supported by those who enjoy directly those amenities or care for the general enjoyment of those amenities by present and future generations.

Management of resources

- Competition/emulation in the economical use of resources is encouraged by the cancellation of any protectionist restriction.
- Resources are used and re-used in the way most compatible with the protection of the environment and its safeguard for the future generations.

Moving and travelling

- Abolition of political borders and abolition of passports and passport control. Travelling between Paris and Chicago should be like travelling between Chicago and Denver or Paris and Lyon.
- Abolition of any restriction concerning money transfer.
- Abolition of any restriction (protective barriers, quotas, etc.) concerning the movement of goods.

 


 

A reading list (^) 

[1950]  Harold D. Lasswell and Abraham Kaplan,  Power and Society. A framework for political inquiry, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1951

[1953]  Alex F. Osborn,  Applied Imagination. Principles and procedures of creative problem-solving, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1963

[1956]  Kenneth E. Boulding,  The Image. Knowledge in life and society, The University of Michigan Press, 1961

[1956]  W. Ross Ashby,  An Introduction to Cybernetics,  Chapman and Hall, London, 1956

[1959]  Eugene Von Fange,  Professional Creativity, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1959

[1963]  J. Cristopher Jones and D. G. Thornley (editors), Conference on Design Methods, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1963

[1963-1964]  L. Bruce Archer,  Systematic Method for Designers, Design Magazine, London, 1963-1964

[1964]  Abraham Kaplan,  The Conduct of Inquiry. Methodology for Behavioral Science, Chandler Publishing Company, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1964

[1964]  Bertrand de Jouvenel,  L'art de la conjecture, éditions du Rocher, Monaco, 1964

[1964]  Arthur Koestler,  The Act of Creation, Hutchinson, London, 1965

[1966]  Charles R. Dechert (editor),  The Social Impact of Cybernetics, Simon and Schuster, 1966

[1967]  Arthur Koestler,  The Ghost in the Machine, Hutchinson, London, 1967

[1968]  Erich Jantsch (editor),  Perspectives of Planning, OCSE, 1968

[1968]  Herbert A. Simon,  The Sciences of the Artificial, The MIT Press, Cambridge Mass., 1981

[1968]  Ludwig von Bertalanffy,  General System Theory. Foundations, development, applications, The Penguin Press, London, 1971

[1968]  C. West Churchman,  The Systems Approach, Dell Publishing, New York, 1979

[1969]  Fred E. Emery (editor),  Systems Thinking, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1969

[1970]  J. Cristopher Jones,  Design Methods. Seeds of Human Future, John Wiley & Sons, New York, Revised Edition 1982

[1970]  Alvin Toffler,  Future Shock,  The Bodley Head, London, 1972

[1970]  Kenneth E. Boulding,  A Primer on Social Dynamics. History as dialectics and development, The Free Press, New York, 1970

[1971]  Serge Chermayeff and Alexander Tzonis,  Shape of Community. Realization of human potential, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1971

[1971]  Ivan Illich,  Deschooling Society,  Penguin Books,  Harmondsworth, 1977

[1971]  Victor Papanek,  Design for the Real World, Paladin, England, 1977

[1971]  Bernhard E. Bürdek,  Teoria del Design. Procedimenti di problem-solving, metodi di pianificazione, processi di strutturazione, Mursia, Milano, 1971

[1972]  Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, William W. Behrens III,  The Limits to Growth, Pan Books, London, 1974

[1972]  Erich Jantsch,  Technological Planning and Social Futures, Associated Business Programmes, London, 1974

[1972]  Ervin Laszlo,  The Systems View of the World. The natural philosophy of the new developments in the sciences, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1972

[1973]  Robert Jungk,  L'uomo del millennio,  Einaudi, Torino, 1975

[1973]  Daniel Bell,  The Coming of Post-Industrial Society. A venture in social forecasting, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1976

[1974]  Mihajlo Mesarovic and Eduard Pestel,  Mankind at the Turning Point. The second report to the Club of Rome, Hutchinson, London, 1975

[1974]  Aurelio Peccei,  Quale futuro?, Mondadori, Milano, 1974

[1975]  Alvin Toffler,  The Eco-Spasm Report, Bantam Books, New York, 1975

[1975]  Piero Angela,  La Vasca di Archimede, Garzanti, Milano, 1976

[1975]  Geoffrey Broadbent,  Design in Architecture. Architecture and the human sciences, David Fulton Publishers, London, 1988

[1975]  Nigel Cross with Robin Roy,  Design Methods Manual, The Open University, Milton Keynes, 1975

[1975]  Joël de Rosnay,  Le Macroscope, Editions Du Seuil, Paris, 1975

[1976]  Erich Fromm,  To Have or to Be. Sphere Books, London, 1984

[1976]  Sergio Los (a cura),  L'organizzazione della complessità, il Saggiatore, Milano, 1976

[1976]  Aurelio Peccei,  La Qualità Umana, Mondadori, Milano, 1976

[1977]  Conrad Waddington,  Tools for Thought, Jonathan Cape, London, 1977

[1977]  Piero Angela,  Nel Buio degli Anni Luce, Garzanti, Milano, 1979

[1978]  Arthur Koestler,  Janus. A Summing Up, Hutchinson, London, 1978

[1979]  James W. Botkin, Mahdi Elmandjra, Mircea Malitza,  No limits to Learning, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1979

[1980]  Erich Jantsch,  The Self-Organizing Universe. Scientific and human implications of the emerging paradigm of evolution, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1992

[1980]  Marilyn Ferguson,  The Aquarian Conspiracy. Personal and social transformation in our time, Tarcher, Los Angeles, 1987

[1980]  Alvin Toffler,  The Third Wave, Pan Books, London, 1981

[1981]  Aurelio Peccei,  Cento Pagine per l'Avvenire, Mondadori Editore, Milano, 1982

[1981]  Mickey A. Palmer,  The Architect's Guide to Facility Programming, The American Institute of Architects, Washington D. C., 1981

[1981]  John Zeisel,  Inquiry by Design. Tools for Environment-Behavior Research, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985

[1982]  John Naisbitt,  Megatrends. Ten new directions transforming our lives, Futura Publications, London, 1984

[1983]  Alvin Toffler,  Previews and Premises, Pan Books, London, 1984

[1984]  Ilya Prigogine and Isabelle Stengers,  Order out of Chaos. Man's new dialogue with nature, Flamingo, London, 1985

[1987]  World Commission on Environment and Development,  Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1988

[1988]  Shoshana Zuboff,  In the Age of the Smart Machine. The future of work and power,  Heinemann, London, 1988

[1989]  Nigel Cross,  Engineering Design Methods. Strategies for Product Design,  John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 1996

[1990]  Kaoru Yamaguchi,  Fundamentals of a New Economic Paradigm in the Information Age, Futures, December 1990

[1990]  Alvin Toffler,  Powershift. Knowledge, wealth and violence at the edge of the 21st century, Bantam Books, New York, 1991

[1992]  Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers,  Beyond the Limits. Global collapse or a sustainable future, Earthscan Publications, London, 1995

[1992]  Manfred Max-Neef and Paul Ekins (editors),  Real-Life Economics, Routledge, London

[1993]  Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall,  The Quantum Society. Mind, physics and a new social vision, Flamingo, London, 1994

[1993]  Alvin and Heidi Toffler,  War and Anti-war, Warner Books, New York, 1995

[1994] John Naisbitt, Global Paradox, Nicholas Brealey, London, 1995

[1995]  Kenichi Ohmae,  The End of the Nation State. The rise of regional economies, Harper Collins, London, 1996

[1999]  Michael J. Mazarr,  Global Trends 2005. An owner's manual for the next decade, Palgrave, New York, 2001

[1999] Don Tapscott editor, Creating Value in the Network Economy, A Harvard Business Review Book, Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston

[2000]  Tim Berners-Lee,  Weaving the Web, Texere, London, 2000

[2001]  Johan Norberg,  In defence of Global Capitalism, Timbro

[2002]  Brink Lindsey,  Against the Dead Hand. The uncertain struggle for global capitalism, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2002

 


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