Decoupling Nation and Economy from the State

Integral Society Posted on by
Definitions of State and Nation

Territorial and Cultural Entities

A state is a territorial unit, but a nation is a cultural identity unit. The coupling of the nation-with state is a holdover from feudalism, in which the cultural and economic values of the king or prince were imposed on everyone residing in a territory by its ruler. This caused a common “national” identity to develop. However, national identity, while formed on a territory, can be separated from that territory. German-Americans, Chinese-Americans, and Iranian-Americans retain cultural and economic values that shaped their identities in other territories, even though they move to a different territory.

Should immigrants from one nation-state be forced to drop their previous national identity and adopt a new one? Should they have the right to impose their national values on their new country and demand all the previous residents follow them? Or, should the cultural and economic values of a “nation” be decoupled from the domain of the state where pluralism exists on a territory?

Is the achievement of “e pluribis unum,” from many one, the motto of the United States, possible using the traditional definition of a nation-state? Or, is it only possible if many of the cultural and economic activities associated with a traditional nation-state are decoupled from the state? Under conditions of pluralism, the only viable national (territorial) values undergirding a state have to respect a plurality of identities.

Continue reading →

Patents: Incentive to Invent or Means to Exploitation?

Integral Society Posted on by

A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of years in exchange for publishing disclosure of the invention.1The article includes material that I published on Patent in New World Encyclopedia, some of which was imported from Wikipedia with history document by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution.. This gives the patent holder a monopoly on a product. The patent holder can choose whether to produce the product and, if it is produced, set any price on the product.

The primary purpose of granting a patent is to enhance social good by encouraging the invention of new products beneficial to members of society. This is accomplished by providing legal protection that enables the inventor to profit from selling the invention without market competition. Patents have greatly served this purpose and are responsible for the creation of many industries and jobs that produce desirable products.

Patents were originally assigned to natural persons and later also assigned to corporations. The compounded the complexity of patent law and also the opportunities for abuse and corruption by the patent holder. Inventors may be required to assign inventions to their employers under an employment contract if they produce the invention while working for pay. The ability to assign ownership rights increases the liquidity of a patent as property. Third parties then own the patents and have the same rights as if they had originally invented the product.

Continue reading →

Elites and the Masses: Legislative Bodies for a Functional Society

Integral Society Posted on by

The Importance of Balancing Elites and Masses in Two Legislative Bodies

Feudal Masters forced serfs to work for them

Sustainable societies need to both be intelligently led and serve the needs of all people, “the masses,” without creating second-class citizens. Only a small percentage of the population makes up the political class. But, without proper checks and balances, this political class will inevitably use its power to become lords and masters and treat the masses as second-class citizens, exploiting them as slaves, serfs, and expendables. This includes racial and ethnic cleansing.

Traditionally this was true of kings, princes, and feudal lords. Today, in more complex institutional and bureaucratic societies, this elitism is characterized by political parties, administrative officials, and those with enough wealth to buy political influence. This problem should be constitutionally fixed with the upper house of government representing elite expertise and a lower house representing the rights and will of the population. With each house having the power to veto one another. This allows only legislation that is deemed functional by the elites and deemed just and unoppressive to the populace.

Despite the efforts of the US founders to create a system of governance in which the wider population directed elites through their representatives, today’s legislation is crafted in omnibus bills by government officials, party elites, and special interest organizations. The majority of the population has been paying the bills these elites pass and slipping from independent middle-class citizens to lower-class voters who are becoming serfs in an industrial society. This is analogous to the agrarian serfs of the feudal societies that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Continue reading →

Why State Schools Destroy Democracy

Integral Society Posted on by

The idea of a state school educating children is inimical to the idea of democracy. At the base is a conflict of interest between a government’s natural inclination to control or manage the citizens, and the democratic idea that citizens should control the government. The sphere of government is rooted in power and physical force, whereas education is in the cultural sphere, which is rooted in knowledge and love. When a state educates with power, the result is indoctrination. Whereas culture has the ability to teach the science of governance and equip its citizens to rule the government.

The founders of the United States recognized this principle. Ben Franklin is quoted as saying, “We gave you a republic if you can keep it.”1https://constitutioncenter.org/learn/educational-resources/historical-documents/perspectives-on-the-constitution-a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it President Thomas Jefferson argued that “a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth.”2https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-12-02-0454 President John Adams stated that “our democracy is only for a moral and religious people,”3https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3102 indicating that the cultural sphere had to hold the government in check. George Washington advocated training all youth in the science of government.4https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/december-7-1796-eighth-annual-message-congress

Early Americans Taught Citizenship

Many early Americans understood the need to educate citizens in democratic governance. They had either experienced government tyranny in the colonies or later fled government tyrannies in other countries. In one-room schoolhouses run by local communities, students learned the Constitution, the way the American government was set up, and George Washington’s analysis of its strengths and weaknesses in his Farewell Address. In this address he warned

Continue reading →

Integral Society

Integral Society Posted on by

Integral society is a principled relationship between culture, governance, and economy. These are the three primary social spheres and are rooted in the principles of love, law, and ownership respectively. Integral society has evolved from hunter-gatherer societies to large complex states with many social institutions in each sphere.

The improper relationships of these spheres can lead to oppression, poverty, environmental destruction, and other harms. Social institutions in each sphere should contribute to the whole society according to their function while being checked from asserting themselves in other spheres. Failed states, poverty, and human rights violations are symptoms of an improperly integrated society