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    21st Century Ideas: Ideological Chop-Shop

    Recycling ideological edifices. Nothing is sacred.

    Started by: Prophessor Bedlam Raves:12

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    Inspired by the Energeia discussion, as well as Hacking Homo Sapiens, it occurs to me that what we need is a new ideology that's prepared to deal with the collapse and on the ground floor of constructing an ideology of any kind, there's one important thing: steal liberally from other people's ideas. This is a place where we can do that, while putting aside the method of distribution for now. Some good things to incorporate would be an emphasis on interdependency and humanity as a collective, branding (link to the Trustnet superstructure, maybe? It would overcome a lot of its inherent difficulties if the participants really believed in it), and a distinct lack of fatalism, because adherents need to believe they're affecting things, need to be willing to work against the end.

    The one thing I would rate highest in any up-and-coming ideology is a beleif in radical decentralization. To regard centralized control of anything as an evil. Because centralization makes for structures with fewer points of failure, meaning they are more vulnerable to the chaos to come.

    I think we also need to incorporate an environmental philosophy of some shade of bright green, that we revere the earth and also believe that technology can help us live on the earth more lightly and healthily.

    A model to consider is the earthseed religion from Octavia Butler\\\'s Parable of the Sower.

    Platonic Jensen: One problem with the decentralization of control is that centralized control gives centralized force. One of the sticking points with Energeia is how it will respond to coercive pressure. Having a million scattered people adhere to a belief does none of them any good if a central force can exert local coercive pressure and pick it apart piece by piece. Big governments work (in the sense of being successful) because they can overwhelm opposition with concentrated force, and often have a monopoly on force or other coercive structures (prisons, etc.). I can see certain technologies as reducing the power of centralized authority (fast and readily encrypted communication, for instance), but you are right. We need a human equivalent to the internet, an ideology that can route control -around- obstacles, making concentrations of force far less effective at disrupting it. How to do this? Governance by crowdsourcing, perhaps?

    @Antisocial Hermit: Maybe a translocalist perspective could resolve some of these problems? Translocalism can incorporate both the democratization of decentralizated control and the flexibility, resilience and resistance of small, tight-knit groups.

    Actually, I was thinking of a movement organized on a cell structure, where the group as a whole has a shared ideology, but each local group is autonomous. The early christian churches were like this, and you can see how well that worked out for them.

    I\\\'d like to see some balance between outward structures and looking inward. See Superstruct Transformation Training (http://www.superstructgame.org/SuperstructView/178). If we just build new structures with out first finding our blindspots and hidden beliefs/prejudices, it\\\'s a building with a broken foundation.

    While stealing liberally from others is handy, we also have to realize that we\\\'re unique and also uniquely qualified to establish new, brave and personally representative outlooks to face our new situation.

    I've finally returned to this thread, and am delighted to see that it's blossomed into a strange-looking flower. Suzanne, I think you're absolutely right about the environmental philosophy, otherwise there's a serious risk of winding up right back here in a few decades. PlatonicJensen (Does that mean that you are the ideal Jensen, from which all other Jensens are modeled?), I'd never thought of early christian infrastructure as cellular, but your analogy is apt, and that decentralization was exactly what helped them survive the collapse of the Roman Empire. Raven2019, I'd be interested to hear about the processes you'd employ toward realizing those, because perhaps the processes themselves could be integrated into the ideology (I'm actually thinking of borrowing some of them for Religimon, if they're effective, and if they'll fit). And Foundation, you make a very good point, and I'm definitely open to new ideas, but the reason I'm focused on older ones is threefold. First, we know that they work, or don't work, because they've been tried. We've got all of history to draw from. Second, they already exist in context that people understand, so they're easier to explain. Thirdly and most importantly, coming up with something that's a genuinely new idea is hard, because you're working within the limitations of language. Every word has a history of hidden meanings and useage, and the way you use it becomes important for the future. A good example of what I mean would be Freud's focus on maleness in psychoanalysis. He wasn't a misogynist, but rather he was trapped in the context of the language available to him. - Prophessor Bedlam, Joyriding in Stolen Bits of Catholicism

    New ideologies for new times, fantastic! For a while I'd thought that Capitalism and Democracy were obsolete - at least in their current form. If democracy means to elect one or two people who make the choices for you, they end up with all the power... and humans have a tendency to get corrupt, with all that power. Why not vote for ideas, instead of people? Out with Democracy, in with.. er.. whatever else comes next. :)

    @ Marco: Multiocracy!

    Ideology is large part of the problem humanity faces. I want to see here-and-now pragmatism rather than pie-in-the-sky dogma.




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