Profoundria Platform

I am seeking to develop a pluralist society. A beacon to the universities around the country and around the world, Profoundria  sparks the flame to beam across the guiding light of universities. To carry the torch of this beacon to an ever-growing network is my task. A network of free thinkers who strive for the ultimate human values of truth, wellbeing and freedom.

But how do we integrate the individual and a pluralist society? We do so by the principle of uncertainty or the principle of possibility. What Foucault would refer to as the “entrepreneur of the self” - the generation of a multiplicity of modes for entrepreneurs to relate to oneself and the market. This multiplication of individual entrepreneurs should be structured institutionally by Nozick’s “meta utopia.” This is when the blueprints for societies means a pluralism with a centripetal force. 

We are to envision a radical pluralist democracy. But what holds together the pluralism? The essence of democracy is its centripetal force. Yes every individual is to live a fulfilling life but we must bring the liberty principle in line with the equality principle and again in line with the democratic principle - an economic democracy.

Thus I view the world as a possibilist, as a supporter or advocate of policies aiming to bring about immediately practicable or feasible reforms. It is not the position of an optimist - that sounds naive. A “possibilist” is someone who neither hopes without reason, nor fears without reason, someone who constantly resists outlandish worldviews of either persuasion.

The future is not destined to be dark or bright, fallen or triumphant. Rather, the future is open. The new politics of possibility should have no utopia, no place, no end. A politics of possibility demands that we aspire to new beginnings.

The problem is not that people don’t see the nightmare, but rather that they do not allow themselves to dream. The crises we face demand not that we wake up to reality but that we dream differently. This is the aspiration to imagine new realities, create new values, and reach new heights of possibility.

How do we organize a radical pluralist democratic society? We aim to construct institutions that are possibilist. They should be constructed so that free and open exchange of ideas flourish. While also, attempts to threaten this open atmosphere are institutionally rebuffed. This is where the democratic principle comes in. If you have free agents interacting on the grounds of claims to liberty and equity than there are cascading intersections of autonomy and opportunities for equality.

The principle of ‘democracy’ is the principle of unlimited and unbounded advancement of equality in a matrix of rights advancing agents. As Tocqueville says “they will come to be equal on all points” as relations of domination are subverted and exercised horizontally. As an alternative I envision a decentralized, community-based world economy of self-sufficiency; economic democracy; small business; and entrepreneurial enterprise.

I claim that both capitalism and communism have been built on shaky foundations, and identify weaknesses to a point where a new market system is required. In my observations of the commons, I have observed aspects of market planning that help to create and sustain a healthy economy. In summary, my thought considers that planning allows the market to protect its stakeholders from the meanderings of classical economics where profit-motive speaks highest.

However, I emphasize that a planning committee at a regional level should only outline the broader aspects of economic development, leaving the details to be resolved by planning bodies at a local level where problems are best understood and more easily dealt with. Consequently, this kind of top-down planning will leave communities, enterprises and ultimately workers with a significant level of freedom to decide their own economic future in the form of decentralized planning.

In relation to democracy, I argue that political democracy is not enough to free society from exploitation and what is considered extreme income inequality. Unless we have deeper structural change – what we refer to as economic-systems change – we will never be able to solve such global and systemic problems as the environmental and inequality crises. History has demonstrated that political democracy is not enough. I therefore, advocate an economic democracy where the decision-making power for the economic future of a community is given to its inhabitants.

I advocate a measure of progress that encompasses the qualities of what could be termed a "fourth bottom line", characterized by the incorporation of a self-actualizing dimension of human life that focuses on the integrated development of the body, mind and spirit. This fourth bottom line will allow society in general and individuals in particular to develop an expanded sense of identity, allowing for a new humanist will of inclusion, creating a society where material gains are not the prime end of life and allowing space to be created for people to work together in a symbiotic movement that primes for individual and collective welfare through social, cultural, as well as technological development.

From a Maslowian perspective, this defends the need to meet physical and mental needs before being able to engage in a journey to find self-actualization. These principles stem from this idea that society needs to provide for the basic necessities of all human beings so that they can engage in this journey of self-discovery and achieve true progress. Fundamentally, progress in society is the effort through which communities engage in the fulfillment of human needs, with the goal of achieving a self-actualizing existence. As a goal, self-actualization will offer a fourth bottom line which ideally would propel human society into a more peaceful, inclusive and all-round more progressive existence.

How do we encourage, embolden and empower these entrepreneurs of a new human economy? We go into the world with this fourth bottom line ready to lead. One will lead so as to truly engage the flourishing of people, planet, and purpose. What better way to advance the fourth bottom line than to embark on creating such an institution? The entrepreneurial idea will be to curate a collection of Protopian books to be printed from the public domain. This will be the dispersion of knowledge for a new society of self-actualizing entrepreneurs.

Profoundria Platform