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June 16, 2002

Posessing Utopia

I haven't written in a while I know. Super busy packing and working. The move is coming up quick. Sarah and I are leaving tommorrow for SF for her board exams. Scary times. I can't wait for a time when Sarah and I can be like a married couple again, as opposed to just roomies. But more on that later.

For some reason I was thinking today about how each generation appears to be more liberal overall than the previous. Especially as it relates to the freedom to do what you want for education and occupation (among other things). You can also lump equality in there as well. Anytime I see a trend thats been going on as long as I can look back and doesn't appear to be stopping, I get suspicious (or at least curious). In my mind, the move towards a more liberal way of thinking as far as parents encouraging their children to do what they want and things like that is a positive move. So does that mean each generation has been improving in this way? Has this trend ALWAYS been happening? So I started thinking about through history to where there may have been a coultural shift in this direction. What I see is a shift around the turn of the century, becoming way more predominant post-WWII (post depression). Prior to the baby boomer generation, there was a practical reason to force your kids into specific fields and force them to work in specific ways. Namely, the need to provide the basic essentials (food, shelter, etc...). Prior to the industrial revolution, one had to work to get food and shelter period. There just weren't as many options for education and occupation. Post WWII that all changed. Our country was prospering and suddenly there were an infinite number of ways to provide yourself with the basic essentials (and then some).

But then I thought of one anomoly (among what I'm sure were many). John Muir. He didn't work hard or need money to survive. He just went out in the woods for months at a time and took care of himself. Suddenly my mind jumped to an ongoing conversation I've had with Kasei about the prospects for a true utopian society. Also in a flash I realized the NEED for classes in our current system. (classes in the cast sense). I don't use NEED in a positive way either. What I realized was that our current society relies on at least 3 classes, lower, middle and upper. A non-manufacturing society only requires 2 and only a system with no money at all could have 1. First lets deal with 2 class societies. In this case, there are the professionals and the workers. The workers do the menial stuff like build the cars, tend the fields, clean the houses, etc... The middle class does the taxes, writes the programs, practices medicine (though they are borderline upperclass). The lower class is needed to do the things mentioned about (unless those things where needed, OR... well'll get to the OR later). Societies that rely on LARGE scale manufacturing (such as any society that needs computers), relies on 3 classes. The upper class, in this case, is the only group that can bring together enough money to fund the initial development of the car, chip, material factories (that the lower class works at.) This would be the case even in a barter system (since bartering is just another form of tender), because the amount needed to barter to build a chip fab plant, for example, would be astronomical. It costs around 2B to build a chip fab plant. Now you can argue that there are really 4 classes, the 4th being an upper upper ruling class, but I'm just generalizing to 3. Middle class has SOME disposible income, but not a lot. Lower has no disposable income, and upper class has unlimited disposable income.

Now I've jumped around a bit here. Let me try and summarize my thoughts. Each generation is more liberal than the last, but it doesn't really matter because it doesn't bring us any closer to our utopian society. Most peoples definition of a utopian society is one without classes. Some people's definition is one without money. I believe you can't have a classless system without money unless all lower class work is automated by machines, and even then the economics of the system might not support it. Further more, you can not eliminate an upper class unless you eliminate the need for large scale manufacturing, such as computers and technology require. Final conclusion, you can't have a classless utopia without eliminating computers and high technology. Which brings us back to Muir. Theoretically, we could all live like Muir (theoretically). In that system, we do not need classes or money.

Lets summarize a differen way... through dialogue. *Liberal - Classes are evil. Why do we need an upper, middle and lower class.

*Socrates - But why do we need classes. What would happen if we all were equally paid for example.

*Liberal - Who would build the cars, houses, and computers? Who would man the fresh water plants and fast food chains?

*Socrates - You're assuming we need cars, houses, computers, and fast food.

*Liberal - But we need a governing inteligencia to create laws that protect whats mine and yours? To make sure the food you buy is packaged correctly and people do not steal your possetions.

*Socrates - You are assuming we need possesions and need to buy our food from super markets.

My little dialogue's conclusion is that posessions themselves require money, require classes and require governace.

Of course, this whole argument makes an even larger assumption (which I've always held). Mankind is unable to deal with posessions without greed. Its our nature to want what we don't have, some more than others. And any system without laws requires EVERY citizen to be a true citizen. Basically and small group can create their own goverment on the idea of 'protection' (ie. the mob). Maybe it wouldn't happen right away, but it would happen. It always does. There are ALWAYS evil people, that will never change. But perhaps there is a way, by removing the need for possessions? In reality, the cats sorta out of the bag. Technology is here to stay. Going back to what I said earlier. Only catastrophe will show us the error of our ways.

Posted by wonko at June 16, 2002 03:17 PM

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