Intelligent Socialism
The findings of the scientific dualism would, of course, have also in the economic aspect a significant impact on a rationally (re)organized society. First and foremost, it would become obvious that each human is predominantly a spiritual being, with almost exclusively mental and immaterial necessities, and only its body is in need of physical pampering and material indulgence. The proof of the reincarnation would also make clear that there is no real point in the personal wealth formation and aggregation, since the individual will surely lose this accumulated richness at the end of its current life, and in its next incarnation it will (most probably) start in a completely new existential situation; whereas the knowledge and wisdom it acquired in its present and earlier lives (by potentially neglecting the material needs), will remain accessible by him/her and will enrich spiritually this person forever. It could become evident eventually for everybody (with only a minimal amount of common sense), that the economical production should play barely a subordinate and supplementary role in the life of the society, with the sole purpose of creating the material conditions for the particularly (or rather exclusively) important human activities: thinking, conversing, contemplating, discussing, learning and teaching, each other's mutual and perpetual developing and cultivating.
Let's recognize that this spirituality is fundamentally different from the Jewish and Christian (especially Protestant) asceticism (which try (and fail) to reach the individual salvation through practicing an irrational and unhealthy self-denial), and is much closer to the (mentally) hedonistic life style of the ancient Greeks, who did accept the matter as a potential source of enjoyment, but were (mostly) wise and intelligent enough to realize that also in these cases the real pleasure is of spiritual, mental nature, and without the medium of the material body, in a purely metaphysical way the experienced happiness and satisfaction could be increased significantly, almost to a divine level. This approach is a much more human, more rational and healthier method to overcome the difficulties caused by a primitive materialism and an excessive economical production, than the (usually completely ineffectual) advocacy of an ascetical life style contrary to the capitalistic production and consumption. The liberalism and capitalism are entirely right, when they propagate a hedonistic way of life; and the problem with this (Jewish-Protestant) world view is not its hedonism but its primitive materialism, which is unable to recognize that the real pleasures and delights of the human existence is of spiritual, immaterial nature, and that the "pursuit of happiness" should mean to every intelligent person and to each true hedonist the continuous search for cultural and social enjoyment, for greater and greater, eventually almost divine metaphysical satisfaction. We, the Western societies should become more hedonistic (and not ascetical), more Catholics or (preferably) more ancient Romans and Greeks, to be able to overcome finally the problems caused by the Jewish-Protestant primitive materialism and barbaric puritanism, and to replace at last the irrational and unreasonable capitalism with an intelligent and wise (spiritually hedonistic) socialism.
Many seem to believe (and also hope, especially in Western Europe and the USA) that the socialism is already a discredited and exploded idea after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the communist block, and now there is no real alternative to the American capitalism anymore. However, they should recognize that the issues of the capitalism were not resolved at all during the 20th century, and the monopoly of this world view and economical system after the revolutions in 1989 actually renders these problems even more apparent and oppressive, because the capitalists are becoming more and more immodest and literally shameless, feeling themselves invulnerable and their system indestructible. Of course, a Bolshevistic socialism was and would be in many aspects even worse than a "Wild West" capitalism (although it did have undeniable advantages (obvious to everybody having lived in it earlier and being able to compare it to the capitalism empirically), like e.g. a much greater care and protection for the persons, advocacy of the intelligence and education (contrary to richness), promotion of community spirit (instead of individualism), the elimination of the inborn aristocracy, etc.), but it was only one unsuccessful modern attempt to realize a social ideal almost as ancient as the mankind itself (see e.g. Plato's and Aristotle's society models or the "established" socialism in Athens under Pericles), and the fact, that this materialistic, barbaric and primitive translation of the socialistic conception (which had committed virtually every possible fault and misinterpretation) could remain in place for decades, shows evidently that many of the ideas behind it did and do have their validity, and could urge us to try again realizing these, this time in a European, civilized and cultivated manner, intelligently, idealistically, scientifically and with the help of the new technological and communicational tools.
But exactly (or at least approximately) how would this intelligent socialism look like? First, it would interpret the idea of (material) equality in a much more dynamic way, than the primitive socialists tend(ed) to do. In fact, it would advocate an even greater inequality in the various life styles, than it is usual in the Western societies of today, but these inequalities would be (re)allocated dynamically, in order to appreciate (or to punish) the individual accomplishments (or their absence), to motivate the members of the society to carry out cultural, educational and economical activities, and to make their lives more interesting, entertaining and stimulating. E.g., if someone performs exceptionally well in an important project, then he/she would receive an opportunity to spend some months with his/her partner in a luxurious hotel; while somebody, who underperforms constantly, would be necessitated by the community to live in the next months in a ramshackle country farmhouse without any comforts, to make him more motivated for the projects afterwards. Nobody would possess a house or flat as private property, instead, these (and all the other assets) would be only temporarily assigned to the individuals, with the possibility to reallocate them at any time (very similarly to the system, which the companies use for their inner organization and allocation). Of course, the current ownership of any object would be documented and could be followed in real time with the help of the computer systems, and the persons could declare their present requirements and evaluate those of the others through the Internet, and could also give their feedbacks and indicate their satisfaction level about their current possession. The reallocations would occur continuously on the basis of the achievements in the recent past, or simply by random algorithms in order to reshuffle the cards and to make new deals repeatedly in the community. The main idea behind this solution would be that even the most comfortable life style becomes inconvenient after a short time, and the individuals constantly need new experiences and changes in their lives to remain fresh mentally and psychologically. Furthermore, since it is completely hopeless to realize a full (or an approximate) material equality, in an intelligent socialism this should not even be a goal to reach, and instead the inevitable (and also useful) inequalities should be managed dynamically in the manner, that everybody would be satisfied and stimulated most of the time.
Instead of the small families of the Jewish-Protestant societies, much larger communities would be formed, and the people would spend their days (and nights) in these communities, where the educational, productional and recreational activities would be carried out inseparably from each other. The workplaces would also be homes, schools and entertainment centers in one, and there would not be necessary to separate these functions artificially in this solution. The children and the adults (especially the women) would spend their days together, giving the children the opportunity to acquire the required knowledges playfully (similarly to the traditional communities). The adults would be urged to try out other professions over and over again, and to change their communities repeatedly, in order to learn new experiences, and to remain lively intellectually. Each (economical and other) activity would be documented thoroughly, and everybody would live his/her life in an almost complete publicity (similarly to the traditional societies and the families). The people would be motivated and controlled by the attention and awareness of the others, and as well their works and activities as their consumptions and entertainments would be regulated in a horizontal manner by the opinions and feedbacks of the other community members.
Ideally, no money at all would be needed in the society, because all the economical requirements and activities could and should be registered in natural units, with the help of the computational technologies (similarly, as the productional companies do this already today in their inner accounting), and there would not be necessary to aggregate these quantities artificially, since the reallocations would be carried out continuously at the levels of the individuals and the actual products, not by central governments through assigning hypothetical money amounts to general and abstract categories. As the economical demands and activities must be balanced out only at the very top level (at the level of the entire society), below this the individual works and consumptions could drift away considerably from each other, and they also should, in order to be able to manage the differences dynamically, and to make the people indebted and thankful to each other repeatedly (as it happens inside the families or e.g. in the fraternities). The intelligent socialism should not even try to determine a just price or a fair allocation for the activities and the products, as it would be impossible to deduce it theoretically, and even if it succeeded, the persons would not accept it, as each of them would be sure that his/her own requirements are completely justifiable, while those of the others are utterly unacceptable. Instead, the intelligent socialism should exploit exactly this psychological factor, and provide the community with a sophisticated documentational, monitoring and feedback system, which could be used by the individuals to register their own requirements, to follow and evaluate the demands of the others, and to restrict mutually the consumptions by approving them only in reasonable cases. Of course, this level of accounting exclusively in natural units cannot be achieved overnight, and some kind of money would be needed for a while; until its complete elimination, the money should be transformed entirely into electronic form (i.e. the banknotes and the coins should be derecognized), and the cash flows should be documented and made public to the community in order to analyze and verify the individual incomes and spending.
The innovational and productional systems should be significantly simplified and unified in the intelligent socialism, and not the end products should compete with each other, but instead the ideas and conceptions themselves. Ideally, for each use case only one product or service would exist, and the innovation would be motivated by the constant feedbacks of the users, who (could) become innovators and engineers themselves by taking part in the product development and improvement process. All product ideas should remain in the possession of the community, and the inventors' work should be acknowledged by social mechanisms and community prizes (e.g. status, fame, the opportunity to spend an evening with a beautiful actress, etc.), not by material profit. There should not exist long-term competition in the intelligent socialism (especially not vertically), and each difference should be resolved in a horizontal step (or a new use case should be created, if it is not possible). To illustrate the procedure, let's suppose that somebody has a great idea for a new product. Today, in the capitalism, he must find a way to actually create this product and to bring it to the market, and then he and his idea might prove successful; if it happens, some other producers will start to produce similar products, and the consumers will choose among these end products based on their preferences (and other factors). There are several problems with this approach: 1. it is difficult (especially financially) to actually realize a concept, and many great ideas simply do not receive this opportunity; 2. the end consumers have too little information and knowledge to be able to form a reasonable opinion about the quality of a product, and they are highly prone to become biased by marketing influences; 3. the various production technologies are patented by different producers, and the consumers do not have the opportunity to possess one single product with all the advantageous trait combined; 4. if a consumer is dissatisfied with a product, he/she cannot express it directly, only by depriving him/herself of this product's usage (and also this method is effective only, if he/she has not yet bought that product); 5. the descendants of the inventor will (potentially) live a completely useless life economically, because the patent will assure them significant incomes for decades or even centuries. In the intelligent socialism another innovational approach could be used: If somebody has an idea, he publicizes it on the system, and the whole community can evaluate it already at this phase. If it is accepted for the next stage, then the innovator is awarded immediately by social means, and the next step begins by the designing of this product (or by integrating the idea into an already existing one). For the design a competition is initiated, where every designer can suggest his/her idea for the product, which will be then evaluated again by the community, and the best ideas combined into one final product design. At the next phase the engineers compete with each other to find the best way to realize this design, and their works are also directly evaluated by the community, and their achievements acclaimed by social methods. The ideas and solutions will be combined again into one design, and this process continues until the idea is completely production ready. After this, the product will become available to the entire community, and anybody can order it through the Internet-based system, and receive it, if his/her demand is approved by the community. If somebody has a new idea to improve this product, then he can publicize it on the system, and the whole process starts again. As we can see, there are no vertical competitions (i.e. between the end products) in this solution, instead at all phases horizontal competitions are carried out, and then the results are combined with each other to form an (almost) perfect product. Actually, this innovation model is very similar to that used by the production companies inside, with the very important difference, that here the production technologies remain in the possession of the community, and there is no need for a competition among the end products on a market, because the users can express their opinions about the product directly through the feedback system, and can award (or punish) socially the producers of high (or low) quality products straightforwardly without requiring the market and the money as a medium.
Concerning the possibilities of realizing this intelligent socialism, it obviously cannot and also should not be introduced overnight and right away at the level of the entire society. Instead, at first the intelligentsia, the performers of intellectual works should form virtual communities with the help of the Internet and the communicational technologies, in order to unify and to mutually control their consumption and labor activities and to supervise each other's life styles culturally (similarly to the monasteries, only of course on a much higher intelligence and technological level). For the management of these virtual communities the invention and application of sophisticated psychological and sociological algorithms (together with the clarification of their scientific background) would be needed, and the intelligentsia would experiment, explore and test the necessary technologies on itself, until they are improved and stabile enough to be able to manage the lives of the masses too. Following the intelligentsia, the life and activities of the politicians and the economic leaders should be made public, especially their incomes, properties and their (private) life style, by compelling them to use the invented and perfected documentational and supervision methods during their activities. Afterwards, the incomes, taxes and assets of all individuals should be made public, and the community should get the opportunity to follow these in almost real time, and to give feedbacks about them with the help of the system. Then, the larger acquisitions (house, car, household appliances, etc.) should be made (dis)approvable by the community, and the finance system should be extended to become able to integrate these informations into the accounting procedure (i.e. only for the approved acquisitions should be made money available). Later, the entire accounting system should be put on a natural basis, and the accounts should register and reflect also the actual objects behind the aggregated amounts, while the financial transactions should be registered and accounted in natural units too. Parallel to these reforms, the public sphere, particularly the governmental bureaucracy should be reorganized in a way, that the schools (including the kindergarten) could be integrated into the everyday work of the offices, and the children could spend their time together with their mothers and the colleagues of them in the workplaces (first only in the summer vacations, later through the whole year). Then, after extending this organization to the private companies, the families could be completely dissolved in larger communities, and the artificial separation of the homes, schools and workplaces could be eventually eliminated. In the end, if the idea of the intelligent socialism indeed turns out to be viable during the completion of the subsequent steps, it could at last become reality, and the current capitalistic production system, together with the Jewish-Protestant bourgeois life style, could finally be replaced by a much more rational, humanistic and philanthropical economics and society organization.