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Obrázek autorajosefzboril

The view through the "Social glasses"

Aktualizováno: 22. 11. 2020

The article describes a possible new method of orientation in the political-economic-social spectrum (compass). The first part is mainly a compilation of texts from various disciplines, which served as inspiration for the text of the second part, describing the method and main ideas for defining the view through the "Social glasses" and a final confrontation with the quotations of famous personalities.

SCAMPER It is the method used during the creation of this article, which is designed for creative thinking and simple instructions on how to come up with new ideas or how to change the current way of thinking. The method name is an acronym of used operations and opens new possibilities for developing new services or products.

SOCIOBIOLOGY

Sociobiology is the systematic study of the biological bases of social behavior. It says that the genetic influence on social behavior has got higher than zero value but not decisive. Our genes are replicated by minor way in our relatives, which "can be sacrifice" only in that case when it will prevents the loss of our genes in the next generation (e.g. simple logic of rivals triangle - individuals A, B and C are all together rivals and from the view of A is not advantageous to remove B, because this can make stronger position of C, ie. rival withdrawal from the scene is not necessarily beneficial, because it can serve more to other rivals - this can lead to altruism). There is the notion of "evolutionarily stable behavior", ie. behavior which, if is adopted by a majority of the population can not be overtaken by any other strategies. Position of the deviant is in the terms of reproduction always worse. The lie can be an evolutionary advantage. Mutant of the liar between birds, using a warning signal in predators danger is in an advantage: false alarm gets out the other birds from the source. To be a liar between honests is advantageous. With this advantage the mutant begins grow. With the high representation of liars in the population, the warning signal stops its function and population will be reduce by the actions of predators, which again favors for survival the mutant of honest. Between honests will be again advantage to be a lier, etc. These oscillations will be fixed at the ratio, which is not optimal, but stable. Another example is when there are two "character" mutants in an imaginary population (hawks and doves). If meet the hawk with hawk, they fight. If a hawk meets a dove, she always runs away. If a dove meets a dove, they waste their time by posturing, until both will finally give up. When we will put the convertible imaginary points to every situation in the value of the gene growing in the population, we can get for example:

50 points for the winner,

0 points for the loser,

-100 points for severely injured,

10 points for wasting of the time by long fight.


In a population of doves is the average value +15 (winner has 40 points, loser -10 points). In this situation, the mutant of the hawk (which has always 50 points) unstopably grows. In a population of hawks is the average value of -25 (the winner has 50 points, defeated -100 points). In this situation grows the mutant of dove (which always has 0 points). Under these conditions the evolutionarily stable strategy is one, which not oscillate, is in a population where are 5/12 of doves and 7/12 of hawks. Population average is 6,25 points, which is less than 15 (if all were doves). The group with evolutionarily stable strategy is not optimal, but steady. The population can not live better than it is, it would be unstable. The world is not the best of all possible worlds, as Leibniz says, but the most stable, as Dawkins says.


If is this two-parameter model example (doves/hawks) applied to human society, we can substitute doves for people which promote slogans like "One for all and all for one" and the hawks for people which promote "Dog eat dog". Because there are about 7 billion people in the world and a man, because of his evolution, is able to perceive social interaction within the group with 150-200 members (ie the size of the former tribe, from which modern man evolved and that is reflected in present time when this size of group can be effectively managed under a single leader (in military, economic or industrial field). Mutations in character or preferred ideology of everyone can be affected not only by congenital nature, but also of the structure of the group in which at that time and space is located.



VALUES RANKING

This two-parameter distribution is very simplistic and "character" mutants can be divided for individuals who prefer: communism / capitalism, idealism / realism, collectivism / individualism, modernism / traditionalism, formalism / functionalism, rationality / religiosity or r-strategy / K-strategies, etc. Each of these approaches has its own value and its direction, which is for every person different and original. Society during its time of existence runs into problems that can be better handle by various ways. Example of distribution of value directions and preferences of which can consist values ranking is shown below.



IRON LAW OF OLIGARCHY

According to the Theory of elites can be principles for the creation of the elite (ie group at the top of the society) found in every field of human activity. Power elite in society is a specific type of elite and society can distinguish different groups of the ruling elite, non-ruling elite and non-elite.


Iron law of oligarchy expresses the idea that in all societies, groups or organizations (eg political parties or trade unions) operating mechanisms and tendencies that inevitably leads to oligarchy as a power structure. Because during the leadership comes sooner or later situation where the ruling individuals become more interested in preserving their acquired power than in filling the original dreams or goals of the organization. For prevention against these tendencies, which leads to oligarchy, authoritarianism and bureaucracy, must organization ensures:


- Changes in leadership in that way, that nobody will not be able to consolidate own position to be un-removeable (eg elections every 4 years),


- That individuals in leadership may not have absolute control over the centralized administration,


- That there will not be deep unhumanization during the process in which bureaucracy power substitute power of individuals.

It should be noted that in a society or political parties are always people who seek to dominate through undemocratic way and that democracy degenerates into an oligarchy.



ATLAS OF IDEOLOGIES

Ideology is a sophisticated system of opinions, attitudes, values and ideas. The political and social practice is that the ruling ideology of the group is manifested in the forms of philosophy, law and morality. Currently, humankind carries on its shoulders about 270 political ideologies constituting about 39 economic systems with about 67 types of government.


Atlas was in ancient Greek legendary titan, who held on his neck the whole world. The concept of Atlas became known for the title of the book with a set of maps, because the maps show the world and are held by its spine. According to the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand from 1957 (the second most influenceable book in the U.S. after the Bible) is Atlas a symbol of human effort, tenacity and ingenuity, eventually symbolizes those people who hold the whole weight of the world on their shoulders.



POLITICAL-ECONOMIC SPECTRUM FROM ABOVE

There are several ways how to define political right and left. If we imagine that the most commonly used right-left axis in defining the political right or left can come from the perspective or view V according to the following figure, we can change the view for better understanding and from above describe the location of various ideologies far better and more precisely on two circular diagrams, separately for political and economic ideologies.



VIEW AT THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM

The scheme consists of four directions (left-wing socialism, right-wing conservatism, center liberalism based on rationality and center alternative ideologies based on the faith. The center of the diagram is totalitarianism or tyranny to which is the same distance from all directions. With the growing of distance from tyranny there is increasing of the the volume of the knowleadge and tolerance for other ideologies on the same orbit. No direction is better than another, each has its advantages in dealing with events with which is society faced and also depend on the characters of the individuals in sociaty. For every society are better different ideals or effective ways in various political and social arrangements.



Ideology professing tolerance and democratic order and ideals are on the outside "orbit" and due to the simplification of the scheme are reduced to 5% representation of the total, ie.20 ideologies which describes of the whole spectrum of different opinions, which could be represented at the present time in the Chamber of Deputies. For some individuals is more important to hold the direction and are able to make a concession on their ideals toward totalitarianism, ie.reduction of the "orbit" and for others is more important to stay on the "orbit" than to remain in narrow direction of thinking.


The following figure and table describes the four-parameter way for defining the ideology based on selected or preferred characteristics of the individual's value ranking. Of course, when there will be used eg 20 instead of 4 values (and using more than selected 36 ideologies) is possible to get a clearer and more accurate results, but the goal of article is to demonstrate an alternative way of view and orientation in the political spectrum.





VIEW AT THE ECONOMIC SPECTRUM

The scheme is made like the political-social spectrum and consists of four directions (left-wing socialism, right-wing conservatism, center liberalism and center alternative ideologies or economic systems. The center of the diagram is economic freedom, from which we can move away in any direction, ie. reverse logic, as in the political-social spectrum.



Basic description and logic of economic systems positions is shown in the following table.




QUOTATIONS OF FAMOUS PERSONALITIES



Prof. Dr. Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850-1937):

- Feeling defines our ideals, from feeling comes motives of our aspirations, but the right way must be determine by reason and only reason.


- The people are the only source of all state power. Yes, but the individual person does not have to hide behind the people and mass.


- If our democracy has mistakes, we have to change these mistakes and not change democracy.


Mahátma Móhandás Karamčand Gándhí (1869-1948):

- We must be the change we want to see in the world.


John Winston Ono Lennon (1940-1980):

- Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try, no hell below us, above us only sky, imagine all the people, living for today. Imagine there's no countries, It isn't hard to do, nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too, imagine all the people, living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one, I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one, imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can, no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man, Imagine all the people, Sharing all the world, you may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one, I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one.


Dalajláma Džampal Ngawang Lozang Ješe Tändzin Gjamccho (1935-present time):

- I am convinced that everyone can develop a good heart and a sense of universal responsibility with or without religion.


- Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.


- Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each one of us individually.


prof. Ing. Václav Klaus, Csc, dr. h. c. mult. (1941- present time):

- We need an active and authentic citizenship of each of us.


- In general, I think this is another attempt to install to our standard democratic political system non-standard element - and in this sense, anti-systematic element that is known for years like apolitical politics (about Green Party).


- This or another institutional arrangement of the European Union is not goal itself, but the way how to achieve the real goals. These goals are human freedom and that economic system that brings prosperity. We must say openly that the present economic system of the EU is not the system of free market and it is system with permanently strengthening of centrally controlled economy. I say all of this from the sense of responsibility for the democratic and prosperous future of Europe.



CONCLUSION

The aim of this paper is to present a different view on society and the political-economic spectrum, which can be gain by using the SCAMPER method with selected texts from various fields and with quotations of famous personalities. The general conclusion is, that although everyone has a different values ranking and focus more on political and social issues and events than on economic issues or more on economic issues and social impacts are for him invisible is advantageus, during looking and judging the political-economic situation, to...


"... still keep on eyes, if

there is no falling into

totalitarianism or getting far

away from economic freedom."



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