This blog is an attempt to provide a larger context for the Basic Income discussion, create a novel point of view of money, and address the rising tide of barbarism as not understanding the nature of civilized existence. Take it for what it's worth.
The basis of civilized existence appears to be the philosophical position that meaning is structural, that it is brought into being by semi-autonomous persons cooperating in the accomplishment of strategic tasks larger than any one of them, intelligently done.
The organizing principle of civilized social existence appears to be Task Domination. One behaves in a manner intended to bring about a specific consequence necessary to the 'doing' of a specific task. One assumes and defers only to the directive intelligence relevant to the task, efficient behavioral cause to material effect. All legitimate civilized behavior contributes to benign social existence. Legitimate meaningful behavior is the primary Duty, sine qua non, of civilization. It defines the operational psychological space of a civilization, the symbol and canon, that generates ideas and motivates valid behavior.
We have a problem in English-speaking civilization with a specific word, venal. It refers, in common usage, in pejorative fashion, to persons who are amenable to the undue influence of money as corrupt, of unsound mind. It describes such persons as debauched, turned from their duty, by the prospect of wealth but a simple inspection of the literature of Classical Liberalism reveals history of venality, in the strict sense of the word, for sale, codified as a duty. Adam Smith never dreamed of an AI driven robot so adjustments must be made for purposes of relevance and negotiation. The American position on this usage conflict, Benjamin Franklin's adage, Do Well by Doing Good, defines the structure of this blog.
Money, not coinage, hard money, which is the milieu of animal avarice, but rather cash, soft money, and its instruments, is an expedient to a healthy material existence, the baseline of civilization. In the experience of Western Civilization, society is only as moral and humane as disposable income affords. The beauty of soft money is that, as essentially an accounting device, it can fuel a general prosperity, which is the Classical Liberal test of a successful political economy, and make possible the complex calculations that can decide how much morality and humanity a society can afford in sophisticated analysis. It is both the economic and social currency that empowers behavioral hypotheses serving benign social existence. However, one must have venal sensibilities for it to have purchase. Therefore, declaring a person venal and debauched is a fine discrimination in a complex monetized society. These blogs are an attempt to find a way to make that necessary discrimination.
Western Civilization, the milieu of the rational actor fiction and a useful fiction it is too, is intent upon the neutralization of the undue influence of any altered state, greed, addiction, etc., as violating contract validity and the identification of citizens amenable to such influence as questionably legal persons. That is the Regulation Duty of any civilization based on contract performance. There is a necessary tension between the Regulation Duty and benign social existence. As innovation changes the conditions of existence and moves the bar to socio-economic participation up and down, people become disoriented and subject to undue influence. Is that condition a weak mind or a temporary insanity? Wisdom, knowledge, and caring are required to answer that question with respect to any person and it must be addressed. That is the nature of civilized social existence.
Do Well and Be Well.
The basis of civilized existence appears to be the philosophical position that meaning is structural, that it is brought into being by semi-autonomous persons cooperating in the accomplishment of strategic tasks larger than any one of them, intelligently done.
The organizing principle of civilized social existence appears to be Task Domination. One behaves in a manner intended to bring about a specific consequence necessary to the 'doing' of a specific task. One assumes and defers only to the directive intelligence relevant to the task, efficient behavioral cause to material effect. All legitimate civilized behavior contributes to benign social existence. Legitimate meaningful behavior is the primary Duty, sine qua non, of civilization. It defines the operational psychological space of a civilization, the symbol and canon, that generates ideas and motivates valid behavior.
We have a problem in English-speaking civilization with a specific word, venal. It refers, in common usage, in pejorative fashion, to persons who are amenable to the undue influence of money as corrupt, of unsound mind. It describes such persons as debauched, turned from their duty, by the prospect of wealth but a simple inspection of the literature of Classical Liberalism reveals history of venality, in the strict sense of the word, for sale, codified as a duty. Adam Smith never dreamed of an AI driven robot so adjustments must be made for purposes of relevance and negotiation. The American position on this usage conflict, Benjamin Franklin's adage, Do Well by Doing Good, defines the structure of this blog.
Money, not coinage, hard money, which is the milieu of animal avarice, but rather cash, soft money, and its instruments, is an expedient to a healthy material existence, the baseline of civilization. In the experience of Western Civilization, society is only as moral and humane as disposable income affords. The beauty of soft money is that, as essentially an accounting device, it can fuel a general prosperity, which is the Classical Liberal test of a successful political economy, and make possible the complex calculations that can decide how much morality and humanity a society can afford in sophisticated analysis. It is both the economic and social currency that empowers behavioral hypotheses serving benign social existence. However, one must have venal sensibilities for it to have purchase. Therefore, declaring a person venal and debauched is a fine discrimination in a complex monetized society. These blogs are an attempt to find a way to make that necessary discrimination.
Western Civilization, the milieu of the rational actor fiction and a useful fiction it is too, is intent upon the neutralization of the undue influence of any altered state, greed, addiction, etc., as violating contract validity and the identification of citizens amenable to such influence as questionably legal persons. That is the Regulation Duty of any civilization based on contract performance. There is a necessary tension between the Regulation Duty and benign social existence. As innovation changes the conditions of existence and moves the bar to socio-economic participation up and down, people become disoriented and subject to undue influence. Is that condition a weak mind or a temporary insanity? Wisdom, knowledge, and caring are required to answer that question with respect to any person and it must be addressed. That is the nature of civilized social existence.
Do Well and Be Well.
The argument I am making, an unusual combination of probusiness and proBasicIncome, is based on an unusual view of money and an unusual view of what constitutes a healthy economy. It is therefore novel and, although derivative of iconic thought, fairly original. If the reader doesn't 'get' what I am saying, feel free to post your questions in this comment space.
ReplyDelete