Order of the Samurai



Utopia is described by H.G. Wells narrator in A Modern Utopia, “I have no thought that my tenure of Utopia is a thing of the imagination that becomes more fragile with every added circumstance, that, like a soap-bubble, it is most brilliantly and variously colored at the very instant of its dissolution.” The recognition of the fragility of utopian visions is to the point of using imagination wisely. What then is there to look forward to in view of government by Samurai? Wells believed that the modern world required a ruling class of professional technocrats, economists, and intellectuals. This group would wisely advance our imaginations. 


The novel “A Modern Utopia” is best known for its notion that a voluntary order of nobility known as the Order of the Samurai could effectively rule a "kinetic and not static" World State so as to solve the problem of combining progress with political stability. The Utopian system of economics entails that the world shares the same language, coinage, customs, and laws, and freedom of movement in general. Units of currency are based on units of energy, so that employment would constantly shift into the areas where energy was cheap. Furthermore, humanity has been almost entirely liberated from the need for physical labor. 


Membership of the the Order of the Samurai is open to any intelligent, healthy, and efficient adult - “provided he follows the Rule.” For a real world samurai class, the Possibilists will follow the Possibility Principle. The Possibilists are a voluntary order of technocrats that do not impose order but rather cultivate freedom. In the future, the Possibilists will lead with progressive science based policy. But open to permissionless innovation in the interest of economic dynamism. The challenge is for the techno-elite to draw blueprints that do not interfere with spontaneous worker organization on a bottom-up level. The working class will organize itself for eco-socialism independent of that state apparatus controlled by the samurai class. This is what a progressive future looks like. Let’s not let the bubble burst too soon. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Energy Democracy

Image
How can we envision the merger of energy democracy, direct technocracy, cybernetics, and crypto?   We start with an analysis of Allende’s Chile and Stafford Beer’s Project Cybersyn. Stafford Beer’s perspective of cybernetics was instead of the abstract dichotomy of centralization versus decentralization, he asked: What is the maximum degree of decentralization that still permits the system to flourish?  Paul Cockshott who has written extensively on the possibility of post-capitalist planning aided by contemporary processing power, is a big admirer of Cybersyn: “The big advance with Stafford Beer’s experiments with Cybersyn was that it was designed to be a real-time system.” Allende pushed Beer further to expand Cybersyn’s “decentralizing, worker-participative, and anti-bureaucratic” possibilities.  Public sector operations that were near to each other work together are “cordónes industriales” - literally “industrial belts” - in order to coordinate the flow of raw materials and manufact
Read more

New Age Prognostication

Image
What symbols do we receive from the upcoming Pluto transit in Aquarius? Last this astrological arrangement occurred during the American Revolution, the ratification of the Bill of Rights, and the French Revolution. Ultimately we launch the New Age with a fundamental rebuke of the old obsolete machine age, while instead encouraging real and alive organic democracy.   Technological Revolution  Aquarius is electricity, light, inventions, electronics, telephones, televisions, etc. While pluto can be change as response to deep search! Perhaps we will see a major shift in energy sourcing boosted by technological findings of AI.  Last time pluto was in aquarius the cotton gin was invented; which aided in quicker production of goods and higher demand for American cotton. This is a general indicator that AI is going to become an even bigger part of day to day life. So it could be AI or it could be some technological advance that is only just a dream in the back of someone's mind or awaiting
Read more

Strength and the Star

Image
Images that may be associated with Leo-Aquarius include a bright Sun shining in a clear Arctic sky, a king facing his restive subjects, a dancer encircled by a ring of people, and a group of people banding together to save a child. There are some references to elements associated with the Age of Aquarius in Ayn Rand’s life and works.  Perhaps it is all just a coincidence - a very uncanny one though. Perhaps she unconsciously picked up something of the spirit of the coming new age. Perhaps she was an unwitting avatar for some of the subtle forces and unseen influences that affect humankind. But there is also the influence of Aquarian opposite sign Leo at play.  Ayn Rand was born under the sign of Aquarius; she was very logical and rational, which is a major feature of the sign. Her ideology was like a religion for her; we would expect a new religion for the new age to be idea-based rather than feeling-based as in the Age of Pisces. In Ayn’s 1937 novella  Anthem , two of
Read more