How to Save Ourselves
I am qualified to tell you this because I have spent most of my life listening while others talk their heads off. I pay attention to the world around me instead of polluting it with useless information about myself. I am also qualified because my brain has been conditioned to handle floods of information while retrieving the most essential parts. This is a result of having seen the transition from the pre-Internet world. Some call it ADHD, I call it adaptation. In short, I understand how this world works on a large scale. I also understand how it is broken. More importantly I understand what must be done.
Our global society is too large to continue fighting amongst ourselves. It is quite obvious to me that our governing system has three out of four flat tires. What system is that? Capitalism. "But we have a representative democracy!"... Unfortunately, Capitalism supersedes the authority of government. In our capitalist system, we vote with our money; rather, the person that controls the most money has the most say in what happens. The more wealth a person commands, the more influence they have. Humans, especially politicians, are not above currency's influence. This new "voting" system has come to replace the fine government that our ancestors had to fight to establish. Replaced with greed and corruption...
We need is a system we can trust. As such, the core value of this new society will be truth. The best way I know for finding truth is the scientific method. We need a system where everyone's voice is heard instead of having a few people speak for many. What has prevented an ideally democratic system was a lack of sufficient communication technologies. Facebook has 500 million users these days. Each user has a voice. Why can't we do that with our government? And why does an ideal democracy sound so much like socialism? Is it that Socialism may actually be a good thing? Well, good for those that don't crave power, anyway.
One system I've grown to trust over the years is the open source ideology. As long as we're building a system on truth, we may as well use open-source for maximum effectiveness.
Such a system would provide each individual with their basic needs while affording each the same opportunities to earn their wants. This could be done by keeping track of "societal contribution" on the internet. This system could replace currency altogether, freeing ourselves from the grip of greedy bankers! To continue participating in the world market, a modified barter system could be used. For things we would typically import, we could trade enough raw materials to make two of the items we want while receiving one of the items.
Knowledge and information are power in this system. The more detail we can know about ourselves and our actions, the better decisions we can make. The extreme end is an all-knowing society where privacy is completely sacrificed for total freedom. Being free is about trust. We make rules to keep people in check while we can't see what they're doing. If we know what everyone is doing at all times, we can trust them. So you don't need to harass them over their actions unless they are exercising power over an unwilling individual or group. You may say it's too "Big Brother" but I think people only do bad things if they know no one is watching.
Knowledge and information are tied very closed to education. If information is abundant, as it is on the internet, we only need to learn two things: 1) how to teach ourselves new things and 2) how different aspects of society operate. We have to get rid of 18 years of misconceptions when we become adults, having to relearn how the world actually works instead of what everyone told you growing up. This makes for a very simple education system that can allow children to become productive members of society at a very young age.
I have come to the conclusion that secrets and other ways of hiding information (patents, state secrets, DRM, etc) only occur to save someone from being roasted on a spit, so to speak. What I mean is secrets only exist for selfish reasons. I've never heard a secret do anyone any good. If a particular bit of truth is going to hurt your feelings, you needed to hear it.
The next thing we need is have the ability to do is make decisions that effect many people. It reasons that everyone affected by a decision should have an equal say. No more of this "majority rules" crap. The majority exists to oppress the minority and this can no longer be tolerated. Again, with the advent of the internet, we have the ability to allow everyone to have an equal voice. Decisions will be made using the scientific method because it proves time and time again that it can find truth.
Unfortunately, I don't believe the current possessors of power will happily relinquish their thrones. We would rather not have to fight them, but unless they grant us freedom, there can be no other result but revolution. My ideas are the way of the future, I would like if you would help me get there.
09.28.2010. 09:29
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