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Religious Auxiliary System |
The name religion has up to now been reasonably appropriate but now becomes confusing. The various steps within this system are (1) the socialist revolutionary, (2) the communist party in power, (3) the voters acceptance of socialism, (4) the voter's acceptance of optimalism. None of these are religious in terms of the supernatural but each, except possibly the last step, acceptance of optimalism, involves unverified knowledge.
This is not a criticism by any means. The belief that the total welfare of man would be increased by redistributing income more equally, in the absence of incentive effects, involves assumptions about the relative value of income to the rich and the poor. There is no scientific way to prove that a dollar magically spirited away from a rich man and given to a poor man, without either knowing about it, will raise the utility of the poor man more than it lowers the utility of the rich. But that does not mean that it is not a good assumption and it also does not mean that the rich man who ignores the fate of the poor is not unethical. But the belief in the importance of everyone's welfare to the individual which underlies the philosophy of the Bolshevik, the communist party in power, the acceptance of socialism by the general population is an unverified belief and therefore is put under the heading of religion even though the traditional use of the term does not apply. List of Steps in Religious Auxiliary System -theoretical Auxiliary Step Categories 1. The Socialist Revolutionary - Specialist 2. The Communist Party in Power - Educational Institution 3. The Voters Acceptance of Socialism - Partially Dependent Specialist 4. The Voters Acceptance of Optimalism - Institution Establishing Dependence 1. The Socialist Revolutionary - Specialist The socialist revolutionaries, which includes the Bolsheviks as the most relevant examples, are the first specialists in this group. They exercise much of their control through speaking and writing. In many respects these activities are reminiscent of the independent thinker and teacher and the proselytizing supporter. Therefore like the feudal aristocrat of the medieval period these are competitive specialists. 2. The Communist Party in Power – Educational Institution Once the revolutionaries have taken over the state and the economy they must ration the privileged positions. Of course the relatively egalitarian nature of Soviet society makes this less of a problem. Nevertheless, the Soviet educational system, and the organized youth groups train and select many of the new members of the party. Those that are selected enjoy the benefits produced by the monopoly position of the single party. Monopoly benefits distributed among a special group selected largely through an educational system are the criterion of an educational institution. Even though some members of the Communist party do not enter through education, the Communist Party in the Soviet Union is an excellent example of an educational institution. The value of the Soviet Communist Party is that it establishes a tradition that the goals of socialism are to be respected and valued. It also provides a haven for socialism before it is able to sustain itself at the ballot box. 3. The Voters Acceptance of Socialism – Partially Dependent Specialist When the network changes the mode of management, as well as many other aspects of society, then Socialism will become clearly the most effective form of economic organization. After socialism is proved to be an effective method of providing for the needs of the people it will probably receive the electorates' approval. The voters will learn to accept the validity of the social utility function and consider it their duty to support it, at least at the ballot box. Thus single party socialism will become outmoded and be replaced by democratic civil libertarian socialism. The voters acceptance of socialism will be a despecialization of the activity. Where now an elite is trained and pampered to gain their loyalty, then the loyalty will come easily from the broad masses. This is because the new socialism will be more solidly founded on science and a verified record of benefits. Thus the despecialization of the activity is based on verified scientific fact to some degree replacing unverified belief. This is why this stage is described as partially dependent specialist. 4. The Voters Acceptance of Optimalism - Institution Establishing Dependence Presently talk about utility is largely in the arena of unverified fact, but this paper assumes that eventually the various structures of the brain will be replicated artificially. When technology becomes advanced enough that it is able to replicate the brain, of course this may take a long time, science will no doubt have a far more clear idea of the nature of human emotions. What is presently in the realm of unverified fact may well become part of science. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that the question of objectives can ever be scientifically answered even if it is known how to perfectly satisfy a human being. What it does mean is that the area of the unknown and therefore personal discretion in reasonable thought on public policy will shrink. Eventually the people will accept the optimal policies and associated discoveries of the artificial intelligence as their world view thus establishing the dominance of science over religion. Chapter 13 Heroes through history. Tell me what you think in my guest book. |