Liberty & Responsibility
A Homeostatic Social Contract for Continuing the American Revolution
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Pattern Recognition
Pattern recognition: That is how our brain is structured, in terms of patterns. Our consciousness develops as we recognize those patterns and their relationships to who we are versus what objects and people lay outside of our being. That is what makes animals (and mammals in particular) so amazing — we recognize patterns and then learn to act on them, to predict them.
Music is made of sound patterns, common intervals which feel more or less familiar and comfortable to us, and we therefore feel more or less comfortable with it. As researchers have been demonstrating for 20 years now, musical patterns, brain structures, mathematics and computer programs all have some intriguing qualities in common. Like a familiar tune: it*s seems like we you knew it all along. It’s too much to cover in this space, but suffice to say that the hippocampus area of our brain is like an amplifier which fires off sequential patterns in response to “thoughts” and you therefore tend to create (and respond) to certain rhythms, certain patterns. Perhaps you have noticed this pattern: Every culture has music and dance. Do these facts make you wonder “why?” or to search for the larger pattern?
Magic is the art of deceiving the audience into believing they see patterns which are not really there. From a hall of mirrors to the slight-of-hand trickery of the con man, the brain’s own enthusiasm to find and believe in patterns sometimes traps us within the realm of fantasy. Sadly, unscrupulous salesmen are well-studied in the art of trapping our minds within such self-serving pseudo-patterns.
A Change of Focus
Did you ever notice that some patterns may be nearly impossible to discern until someone points them out, then the pattern is impossible to avoid: Every time you look back again the thing jumps right out at you. Consider the scattered dot patterns of those wild 3-D images printed on standard paper (or your computer screen, below). As usual, the trick which helps you to see the patterns is to change your focus slightly. Also, as usual, after some practice the patterns become much easier to see. So, do you see the point yet?
[Hint: Shift your focus until the two dots at the top merge to form a third dot in the middle, then watch the patterns appear]
History is a pattern of human interaction, of socialization, of many alternative structures, of countless individual actions leading to massive demographic forces. When we study history’s patterns, we become more self aware, more conscious. We are able to predict, and to act differently, based upon our new understanding. Certainly, random events occur, entropy and chance lend their hands, and good and evil battle forth, making it impossible to predict the specifics of future events. But our awareness of the patterns leads to better predictions, better choices.
Liberty & Responsibility
Consider the philosophy of Liberty & Responsibility. Experience has shown us that freedom (Liberty) motivates humans to excel. Responsibility is the deal (the “Social Contract”, as Rousseau called it) we make with each other to make our world safe, to cooperate more efficiently… it reflects our heart, holds us together, separates us from the jungle. These ideals could conjure thoughts of some impossible Nirvana, but the reality is that the civilizing values of these ideals have been well-known to philosophers for millennia. By now they should be the cornerstones of our reality, not just our rhetoric. But they are not. Do you wonder “why not?” Is there another pattern here?
The Alter-Nation Project is a continuation of the efforts to encourage a “New Party” by applying old ideas, asserting that a relatively strict adherence to the philosophy of “Liberty & Responsibility” is crucial to the continued progress of humanity (not technological progress, per se, but true human progress). Today, in fact, there are many groups pointing in this direction. They go by many names, each advocating some subset of similar topics, but they are part of a larger pattern, namely: When a human being is given the liberty to choose their own path, subject only to a minimal set of responsibilities necessary to ensure everyone else’s freedoms, then society naturally evolves toward a better condition. Stated more simply, if you are given the freedom to make your life better without diminishing someone else*s life, you will probably find a way to do so, therefore the world will get better and better.
The philosophy of “Liberty & Responsibility” should NOT be confused as a simple restatement of Adam Smith’s concepts in “The Wealth of Nations”. Smith’s economic and philosophical ideas (which are often cited as the basis for, and inevitable success of, capitalism) propose that relatively unrestricted freedom of commerce magically creates an “invisible hand of the market” which guides humanity toward progress, wealth and plenty. Unfortunately, this notion is only half right. While maximization of freedom DOES unleash the motivating power of individual self-interest (the reality of human biology), it ignores the problems created by those whose self-interest knows no bounds. The magic right hand of the market is missing its logically necessary partner: The left hand of human spirituality (compassion, altruism, mercy, honor, trustworthiness, et al) — which we have collectively labeled as Responsibility. Remember the old and wise kaon: What is the sound of one hand clapping?
A New Balance
This brings us to another pattern, one with which our humanity has more experience: When the rules are set-up in such a way that you are free to increase your position regardless of what that means to everyone else (i.e., even irresponsibly) then the world will devolve into a greedy, chaotic mess. Sound familiar?
The divide-and-conquer tactics of the powerful and wealthy have consistently pitted ‘Left’, ‘Right’, ‘Conservative’, ‘Liberal’, ‘Democrat’, ‘Republican’, ‘Man’, ‘Woman’, ‘Young’, ‘Old’, ‘Faithful’, ‘Skeptic’, etc., against each other for thousands of years. For the past 250 years these tactics have included praise of the one-handed market Liberty and scorn for those notions of Responsibility which should normally go hand-in-hand. Unfortunately, until we learn, en mass, to consciously transcend our selfish biological instincts as the responsible dues owed in respect of our freedoms, humanity shall remain stuck on its current plateau, so promoting only half of the equation will never yield the correct answer.
When we recognize that the same patterns of domination occur in so many societies, over so many generations, we then ask ourselves, “Is there a way to escape such horrors or must we accept that humans always behave like this?” Again, a homeostatic balance of Liberty & Responsibility offers a path beyond grim acceptance.
At first these two words might sound simplistic, but all manner of social, political and economic topics may be generously explored within such a framework, including: (1) Universal Standards of Education; (2) A More Equitable System of Justice; (3) Personal Vice; (4) Reasonable Limits to Individual Freedoms, (5) Special Responsibilities of Groups, (6) Equitable “Costing” of Production; (7) Labor, Wage Structures and World Competition; (8) Democratic Electoral Processes; (9) Equitable Taxation; (10) Fiscal and Budgetary Processes; (11) Management of Government and Bureaucracy; (12) Public Ownership and Control of Selected Industries; (13) Social Securities and Safety Nets; (14) Long Range Planning; (15) Maintaining Balance in Economic and Political Arenas; (16) Moral, Consistent and Effective Foreign Policy; (17) Spirituality (and it*s limits within political society); (18) Nationalism versus Ethnic Diversity; (19) Racism, Sexism, and Anthrocentricism; and many more (each of which The Alter-Nation Project shall explore in greater detail in the coming months). Just as scientists and systems analysts have discovered throughout nature: Proper health of any system requires a dynamic balance of two or more opposing forces which provide for homeostasis, each keeping the others in check while together providing the adaptive power and flexibility needed in the long run.
Summary & Conclusions:
[Here is what will appear in three dimensions when you acheive the proper focus]
If all this talk of such a balancing act has made your mind a bit hungry, here is some food for thought: Perhaps we need to change our focus! If we stop following the slick hands of the magicians, we can concentrate instead on their breast pockets. Keep an eye on their wallets and you will soon learn their tricks. The way out of the hall of mirrors then becomes simple: We live and demand a balance of Liberty & Responsibility!
Finally, consider how this fits within the patterns: The notions of Liberty & Responsibility ring true. Like a familiar tune, we have known it all along.
Thank you for your attention, interest and concern.