The second route involves the setting up of entirely new living spaces on tribal lands that were previously seized by colonising governments that espoused and followed Taker philosophies. This route has greater credibility, in the sense of secession rights, where clear historical ownership of the land can be shown.
Living spaces on tribal lands
New Sunrise Industries Are Inherently Free [100]
Davidson and Rees-Mogg make an important observation about the new technological elites of the post-industrial age. They describe them as "specialists in production". The elites of nation states are, by their Taker ethos and historical events, characterised as "specialists in violence".
In the new industries such as nanofacture, technologists will use abundant energy to fashion any manner of tangible products from the inside out, from invisible and ubiquitous atoms rather than bulk traded commodities such as iron and steel. It is fundamentally impossible to tax the use of atoms and invisible technologies, or to hold the manufacturers to ransom within the borders of a nation state. In The Sovereign Individual the authors foresee that, "The defection of the information elite from citizenship will have a stimulus much like that which led millions of Europeans five hundred years earlier to renounce the infallibility of the pope."
They posit not only a shift from governed citizenship to individual sovereignty but also a new enlightenment that totally rejects centralised power and the threat of violent oppression. The new industries that spearhead the transition from the economics of scarcity to the economics of abundance will be inherently free. This will be so because the people that lead and work in them will be sovereign individuals, instead of lifelong tax slaves or available cannon fodder to fight in regular armed conflicts driven by takerism and nationalism.
A Time Favourable to Secession [101]
To many people it seems improbable that secessions could take place within the present constructs of federalism and nationalism. Australia can be taken as an example. Most people think that it is inconceivable that the central government would permit one or more cities or regions to opt out of the federation.
Besides the various legal and nationalistic arguments that could be mounted against any secessionist proposals, there would be options of military force and economic sanctions available to the central government. It might seem that specialists in violence and disinformation could always prevent any part of the federation from breaking away. But such thinking is pre-1980s and it ignores new realities that are driving the 2nd Renaissance.
The main difference between the practicality of secessions from federal systems in the early 21st century and that of past eras, comes down to the impact of new technologies on wealth creation and self sufficiency. Throughout the first and second industrial revolutions, it was practical for nation states to hold the processes of wealth creation to ransom. During some two hundred years of European settlement in Australia governments at various levels; local, state, and federal, were able to stringently control and tax wealth production and commercial transactions. Any attempts to break away from the rule of violence, that was dressed up as the rule of law, could be readily prevented.
This situation pertained while manufacture by fabrication was the norm, and while transactions and money flows could be reliably monitored and traced. Once invisible technologies produce limitless quantities of nanofactured goods that are built from the atomic level using abundant energy, it becomes impractical to hold the production processes to ransom. The control of the state is weakened and its power is diminished. It is five hundred years since a similar shift in the socio-political climate arose as a result of a fundamental advance in information technology - moveable type printing presses.
Two Ways To Leave A Federation [102]
In Australia, and in many other so-called countries that are really aggregations of traditional tribal territories, there are two potential routes to secession. The first route is via a process of established cities or regions breaking away and establishing themselves as centres of new technology and new ideas. That is what happened in Italy and other parts of Europe during the first Renaissance.
The second route involves the setting up of entirely new living spaces on tribal lands that were previously seized by colonising governments that espoused and followed Taker philosophies. This route has greater credibility, in the sense of secession rights, where clear historical ownership of the land can be shown.
In the case of Australia there were never any treaties signed between the colonising takers and the original inhabitants. A treaty was signed in New Zealand but it was later broken by the British, so there is little basis from which to argue that earlier generations signed away their rights irretrievably.
It is quite conceivable that the present descendants of tribal peoples, in Australia, New Zealand, and other places, could find it attractive to secede and establish places where the new talent collectives of an emerging age of magic technologies might choose to live and operate as leaver-givers.
Leaving Existing Cities and Settling The Deserts [103]
There would be no need for leaver-givers to claim the developed cities that exist around the Australian coast, plenty of unutilised land exists. There is so much empty space that it would not even be necessary to dispute existing pastoral areas with Taker governments. Much of the Australian continent is uninhabited desert. Many areas of what were once prime agricultural land are now subject to serious salination problems. The land there is almost worthless to those who lack the technology to regenerate its fertility.
There would be strong moral and legal arguments to support the right of the original Australians to form alliances and pacts with new technology collectives to establish free cities and regions that operate outside and beyond the constraints of the old federation.
Doubters will point to the inhospitable nature of true desert regions, but they will generally do so from the perspective of industrial age models. The new age, of magic and often invisible technologies, will be nothing like the old Level 3 Civilization that is now being dissolved by the 2nd Renaissance. New tribal cultures and new centres of population will be quite capable of flourishing in habitats that were previously too harsh to dwell in.
Australia is a huge land. Leaving aside such practical issues as the suitability of local terrain, the continent could accommodate every one of the six billion humans now living on this planet. Moreover, they could each have a quarter acre block of land to themselves, and there would still be one fifth of Australia left over. That is without taking into account the vast territory that Australia claims in Antarctica.
The American state of Texas would fit into Australia eleven times over. If denser housing were used more people could fit into a smaller space. Davidson and Rees-Mogg calculate that all the people in the world could fit into Texas if families lived in detached housing with a small yard each. Once living spaces become predominantly apartment-style and high-rise, hardly any of the land on the surface of the earth might need be inhabited on a daily basis. Most of the land could then be returned to nature and the many species of plants and animals that are presently threatened by rampant takerism.
Land Rights Struggles Lose Economic Relevance [104]
Because traditional factors of economic production and wealth creation are being superseded, the ownership and control of land for economic reasons is becoming less important. There will continue to be spiritual and ancestral reasons for the land rights struggles that are going on in many parts of the world. But the days in which access to rich farming and grazing lands was a sure path to economic prosperity are past. As this fact sinks in, it will become easier for the original owners of land to regain the vast tracts previously lost to colonial powers and other invaders. However, farming the regained land is likely to have only subsistence value. Land won back from past occupiers will not become a significant source of wealth creation in the 21st century.
Farmland Secessions In The Developed World [105]
Agriculture in the developed world is already in an oversupply condition. Western governments presently operate substantial subsidies for their agricultural sectors, so as to preserve large voting blocks and stabilise their political power. As federal and state governments lose economic control in a globalised world, and as they struggle to maintain tax and other revenues, their ability to maintain and justify farm subsidies will erode. In these circumstances the farming regions of countries such as Australia, the USA and parts of Europe are likely to become prone to secession from the old federations of the past.
People in such regions will possibly reason that since the central government is losing relevance and having to reduce or eliminate agricultural subsidies, it might be wise to break away from their traditional "protection" and operate independently in the new uncontrolled economy. At first there might be a need to sell farm produce beyond the new and independent regions. In time it should be possible to attract talent collectives to raise the economic competitiveness of the independent areas, and eventually to give rise to levels of abundance that enable these regions to become true leaver-giver societies.
High Potential For Secessions [106]
Contrary to the prevailing wisdom, federations such as Australia will have a significant potential to fragment during the early stages of the 2nd Renaissance. The main forms of secession are likely to be:
*Concentration of like-minded sovereign individuals and technologists in existing cities or towns, and formation of specialised talent collectives centred on such locations.
*Secession of predominantly farming regions that are unable to compete in global markets without subsidies. These regions might also attract knowledge collectives and sunrise industries to their midst.
*Reclaiming of tribal lands in desert and other regions and the formation of economic pacts between new talent collectives and indigenous land owners.
It is unlikely that existing Australian states will secede from the federation, as there would be too few gains in individual sovereignty involved in continuing to operate under state governments. If the Australian federation fragments it will be more likely to form twenty or thirty free cities or regions than six or seven states that follow the old boundaries set at the time of European colonisation.
Because the original tribal people are generally tolerant and naturally predisposed to leaver philosophies and ways of living, Australia could be a very suitable place for emerging talent collectives and new sunrise industries to locate themselves. The non-indigenous people of rural communities in the Australian bush are also likely to be very amenable and compatible with 2nd Renaissance culture and freedoms.
The major cities could be a different matter, because they have large populations of corporate employees and professionals who will be likely to perceive the collapse of capitalism and nationalism as a threat to their "right" to a high standard of living and social status. The fact that everyone should be better off once the 2nd Renaissance begins to leverage technologies that produce abundance, might well be lost on many Australian city dwellers.
Landlocked Cities and Regions Can Thrive [107]
There will be no need for free cities and regions to have access to a seaport. Sunrise industries capable of supporting a leaver-giver ethos will only require an airport and some satellite links. Given these basic facilities the invisible technologies of the 2nd Renaissance will be able to distribute near costless goods and services to the world at large, particularly to those people in most need of them. There will be other facilities and conditions that play a part in attracting and holding talent collectives and new knowledge industries, but the traditional requirement of trading ports will not exist.
Why Technology Elites Will Choose To Give [108]
Davidson and Rees-Mogg recognise that specialists in new 21st century production are very different to the specialists in violence of capitalist-nationalist times. However, they argue that technological elites will develop, and that the gap between the richest and poorest people on earth will inevitably widen. But, there are several factors that should cause us to be more optimistic about the prospect of leaver-giver centres and societies forming the basis of a Level 4 Civilization. These factors include:
Abundance
The key premise of The Sovereign Individual is a looming privatisation of the economic power and social freedom previously expropriated by national governments. Because this change is assumed to occur under conditions of scarcity and the need to compete to survive, it is considered that an entrepreneurial and technological elite will benefit from such privatisation, at the expense of the rest of us. However, in the conditions of abundance arising from the 2nd Renaissance, there is no reason to presume that the necessities of life, and many of its luxuries, will not flow to the billions of poor and needy on this planet.
Giving and Getting
It is an observable fact that once people amass sufficient wealth they begin to give some of it away to others. This behaviour occurs within the present capitalist system and is known to have been evidenced by some of the most ruthless of entrepreneurs. Outside the commercial arena, there are other examples of individuals who have chosen to devote their skills and much of their time to helping less fortunate people. The work of the late Fred Hollows in setting up programs to treat curable blindness among Australian aborigines, and other people in many parts of the world, is an example of the latter form of altruism.
One of the great secrets of life is that, "The more you give the more you get". Once technologists have magic new technologies that are able to deliver all manner of near costless goods and services there will be no further need to compete for survival. Many of the new technological wizards can then be expected to discover the secret of giving and getting.
Collapsing Capitalism
In the past it has been possible for well off people in developed economies to ignore the plight of the multitudes in the so-called third world who are existing on less than two dollars a day. As the 2nd Renaissance progresses there will be pressing reasons to help the less fortunate within first world economies.
Davidson and Rees-Mogg quote the results of a US Education Department survey that indicated that some 90 million Americans, or one third of the total population, are "woefully incompetent" and unprepared to join the electronic information world.
In Australia, measures of the relevance and modernity of the work being done in typical firms indicate that around two thirds of the present workforce is engaged in activities that will be made redundant by new technology, most probably before 2010.
Emerging technological elites will find it preferable to freely distribute costless goods and services than to wall themselves off in gated communities, living in fear of an increasingly angry and disillusioned underclass.
Opportunities Everywhere! [109]
In the early days of European occupation of Australia, many exploratory expeditions, many shipwrecked mariners and lost aviators, perished from starvation. These unfortunates simply ran out of supplies and then starved to death in remote country that contained abundant sources of both food and water, but in unfamiliar forms and locations. Today, the Australian army has a manual that identifies every edible source of nourishment in the outback. The manual contains all the knowledge required to maintain patrols indefinitely in the same areas in which many early explorers perished.
While it is destroying old forms of production and commerce the 2nd Renaissance is simultaneously creating new opportunities in almost every field of human endeavour. But these new opportunities are as yet, largely unrecognised by people who are still thinking and acting according to old paradigms and misleading teachings. Secession from failing federations and the establishment of new tribal communities suited to survival and success in a Level 4 Civilization is one such opportunity. It escapes current attention because secession from strong, easily controlled and governed federations has previously been difficult and fraught with coercion and conflict. The fact that this situation is changing has not yet registered on the consciousness of most citizens of the outgoing civilization.
They are in sight of freedom but they cannot see it.
A Sunset and A Dawn [110]
The signs that the sun is going down on the old Level 3 Civilization are everywhere. The sun is going down on nationalism, militarism and capitalism. It is going down on federalism as surely as it long ago went down on feudalism. Most importantly, the sun is going down on scarcity, poverty, ignorance and blind dogma.
While the industrial age sun was full it was difficult to break free of the above forces, but in the darkening hours of the 20th century it began to be easier. The old structures and institutions of the industrial age are growing weaker by the day, and escape is becoming a real possibility for ordinary people all over the world. Now is the time to assemble the ideas and formulate the strategies that will take humanity forward at the arrival of a new dawn.
During the night the forces of darkness, in the form of the covert agencies of nation states, will do what they can to disrupt and suppress the process. But the military-industrial complexes of the old civilization are not fighting against a revolution which they can readily put down, but the abandonment of a failing model by former citizens of federal and state regimes. As Daniel Quinn points out, there are few defences against abandonment, and the operatives and leaders of most materialist regimes can not even comprehend the possibility that the masses they "serve" and "protect" will simply decide to leave them behind, and combine to build new societies based on new opportunities that flow from the 2nd Renaissance.
Microjurisdictions - The New Model [111]
In the view of Davidson and Rees-Mogg national governments and international relations won't survive the coming privatisation of citizenship. They say, "If "international" were a stock, now would be the time to sell." The concept is likely to be supplanted in the new millennium, or at least narrowed to its original meaning for the compelling reason that the whole world will no longer be dominated by the system of interrelating sovereign nations.
Relations will take on the novel "extranational" forms dictated by the growing importance of microjurisdictions and Sovereign Individuals." In a Level 4 Civilization the jurisdiction of service-only governments will usually be limited to the equivalent of a town or city. Their purpose will be to provide the type of services that municipal councils now look after, roads, building standards, sanitation, garbage recycling, and so on.
Many existing services might well be unnecessary in an age of magic technologies. For example, nanoconstructors in the home or in communal production centres might reuse the atoms in household waste and garbage as feed matter for the creation of new nanofactured items. There will certainly be no need for electricity and gas utilities in the event of universally available free energy. Nor might mass transport systems such as rail and road networks be required. Whatever services requirements are left will probably be provided by some form of microgovernment. These administrations will genuinely serve the people, rather than control and exploit them.
As Davidson and Rees-Mogg put it, "The idea that humans must naturally place themselves in an "invented" community called a nation will come to be seen by the cosmopolitan elite as eccentric and unreasonable in the next century."
Getting Things Done Without Government Programs [112]
Daniel Quinn is justly contemptuous of politicians who promise to "fix" the ills of modern society with programs. In The Story of B, the central character says, "If the world is saved, it will not be by old minds with new programs but by new minds with no programs at all." In Beyond Civilization, Quinn writes, "Programs are sticks planted in the mud of a river to impede its flow. The sticks do impede the flow. A little. But they never stop the flow, and they never turn the river aside. .... Programs never stop the things they're launched to stop. No program has ever stopped poverty, drug abuse, or crime, and no program ever will stop them."
Yet programs are the stock of trade of politicians the world over. In Australia, and in many other places, political parties offer citizens a range of new programs or upgrades before every election. The need or probable efficacy of the programs are seldom challenged. Political opponents and tame journalists always ask the question, "Where's the money coming from?" but they don't ask, "Why should we believe that the program will fix the problem?" No one in politics, the media or big business ever asks the latter question, because they fear the obvious answer.
The layers of government in Australia are justified on the basis that they provide protection and solutions to problems through the collection of taxes and the allocation of public funds to a range of programs. If Daniel Quinn is right, and the multitude of programs will never solve the problems facing the Australian public, the whole of government and public administration in the country is a vast misrepresentation of purpose and value. Big government is simply unjustifiable and unnecessary.
Davidson and Rees-Mogg argue exactly this point. They assert that in an age of nearly instant global communications the whole idea of representative democracy is outmoded, and that problems should be addressed on an interest basis rather than a territorial one. Thus they say, "In the new age to come, communities and allegiances will not be territorially bounded. Identification will be more precisely targeted to genuine affinities, shared beliefs, shared interests, and shared genes, rather than the bogus affinities so prominent in the attention of nationalists."
The new minds that tackle a wide range of issues and problems in the world will often come from new talent collectives, and from people who live and work in free cities and communicate globally with like-minded individuals. The focus and motivation of the people who combine to save the world in this way will be directed at the problems and their solutions, rather than gaining re-election in order to progress a career in politics.
Democracy For Dummies [113]
The democracy we have now delegates power to elected representatives. It is a form of democracy in which a majority of individuals cede power to a minority group that they elect to represent their interests. Representative democracy arose in an age of primitive communications and a consequent remoteness of citizens from the seat of government where decisions were made. Additionally, many of the people of the time were either ill equipped educationally or simply disinclined to participate in the detail of national policy formulation, debate, and implementation.
Representative democracy is a system for the apathetic and the politically challenged. It is a system for dummies. It is also a system developed to deal with the allocation of resources in conditions of ever-prevailing scarcity.
Both these characteristics suggest that representative democracy will be an inappropriate approach for a Level 4 Civilization. The scientific and technological elites that emerge during the 2nd Renaissance will definitely not be dummies, and there will be an abundance, rather than a scarcity, of near costless goods and services to distribute. The times are changing and political systems must change too.
Democracy For Sovereign Individuals [114]
Free cities and independent regions will need to adopt a different approach from the outset. It will be a mistake to accept "reforms" to the old order of things, and hope to gradually evolve a new and freer system. The motto must be "Start free and stay free".
Some doubters will argue that it is impossible to resolve a myriad of differences in opinion and interests at the level of the individual. They will consider that achieving unanimity and consensus is impractical and that representative democracy is the only workable basis for political rule. But the goal is not to find a workable basis for political rule, it is to establish a basis for cooperative self-government in new Leaver-Giver societies.
If the term democracy continues to be used in a Level 4 Civilization it will not mean what it has in the past. The days when the many were ruled by the few will come to an end as the 2nd Renaissance progresses. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, writing in the 18th century, argued against the creation of laws by representatives of the citizenry rather than the people themselves. He argued that, "Any law which was not directly created by the citizens is not valid, and if those laws are imposed on people, that is equivalent to the people being enslaved."
As the magic technologies of the 2nd Renaissance banish scarcity and dissolve centralised power structures, it will become practical to involve sovereign individuals in the creation of the local laws they live under. This will require the abandonment of many of the adversarial, win-lose, concepts of present-day laws and a return to the more conciliatory and remedial approaches of law making and administration in tribal societies.
A National Enslavement Model [115]
Although it is never described as such, representative democracy has often become a national enslavement model. It is not always so, but in many cases political systems in both developed and developing countries have begun benignly and later become totalitarian. The adjacent diagram shows the nature of a national model.
Click on the pic
Each individual citizen has ceded power to an elected representative who then forms part of a legislative, or parliamentary arm of government. One of the powers that national governments write into law is taxation. An executive arm of government then sees to the collection of tax revenues and their application to a range of programs. Additionally, a third arm of government interprets the law made by the legislature, in an independent manner. This separation of powers is characteristic of the Westminster system of government that many nation states have emulated. The Presidential system of government is another form that has similar functions, although it seems to decay into totalitarianism more readily than the parliamentary model.
In the nation state the voice of an individual citizen is faint indeed. Within an electorate a citizen's voice is but one in tens, if not hundreds, of thousands. Even if all citizens vote, as they are bound to do by law in Australia, there might be few policy alternatives between a small number of dominant political parties.
As we enter the 21st century, a common cry from many people in representative democracies is, "None of the parties are worth voting for!" That is so because the dominant parties, and the bureaucrats that serve them in office, are pursuing agendas that are unrelated to the interests of the majority of citizens they purport to represent.
A Neo-Tribal Model [116]
The diagram indicates some key characteristics of a neo-tribal model. It borrows from Daniel Quinn's observations. Reading the relevant pages in his book, Beyond Civilization, can provide further understanding and insights. We are not considering clans or ethnic tribes here, but the tribal model in modern and post-modern settings.
Click on the pic
Quinn cites the small travelling circus as an example of a modern tribal model. In a looser sense, people collaborating in the development of open source software, such as Linux, might be said to have a tribal, rather than a commercial culture.
In Quinn's terms, "A tribe is a coalition of people working together as equals to make a living." However, he notes that making money is a means of surviving in order to do what the tribe does.
Making money is not the primary purpose of forming or belonging to a tribe.
He points out that members of a circus want it to make money so that it can continue, but they don't join it because it is an enterprise. They join because it is a circus, and because it has a close knit culture that they can relate to.
In the 21st Century neo-tribes will play a major role in creating conditions of abundance. They will gradually achieve a state of self-sufficiency that does not depend on making money. The performances of the Circus can then be free. Neo-tribalism is a model for a Leaver-Giver society within a new, Level 4, civilization. It has no similarities with Taker philosophies or the failed models of nationalism and capitalism that have dominated the outgoing civilization.
Equality And Unanimity [117]
Unlike the average citizen of a nation state, each member of a neo-tribe has equality with other members, hence the large smiling face in the diagram. There is a leader of each tribe, and usually a council of leaders for a coalition of tribes. But, as Daniel Quinn points out, "...leadership carries little or nothing in the way of special benefits that are denied to other members of the tribe." There is no ruling elite, no hierarchy, and nothing to overthrow. The purpose of the various endeavours of a neo-tribe is clear, and activities are undertaken in a collaborative, often selfless manner.
This contrasts starkly with the competitive, win-lose nature of representative democracies and corporatism. As Quinn writes, "Kids of all ages run off to join the circus. No one runs off to join Disney World."
Neo Tribalism Is Not A Utopian Vision - It Just Works Best [118]
Neither Daniel Quinn or the other proponents of new tribal models claim that such societies are perfect. Quinn says, "The tribal life doesn't turn people into saints." He argues, however, that because tribes exist for all their members, who are all involved in the work of the tribe, the model enables people to live and work together with minimal stress and conflict.
Quinn contends that tribalism is the natural form of social organisation for humans, just as the hive is for bees and the flock is for birds. All the models that have survived through the ages are successful for their members. Unsuccessful models also evolved, but they did not last. Tribal societies are not perfect, but:
"..tribalism is not only the preeminently human social organisation, it's also the only unequivocally successful social organisation in human history."
The Rule of Law In Nation States [119]
Prevailing political dogma says that in return for the benefits of a civilized society citizens must accept the rule of law. However, when the nature and basis of the rule of law is examined, it becomes clear that several important qualifications should apply to such a dictum.
One such reservation concerns bad laws. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935, that legalised discrimination against Jews and led to Hitler's "final solution," are an example of laws that did not deserve to be respected by citizens of the state that passed them. As Henry Thoreau put it, "I think that we should be men first and subjects afterwards. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right."
A second reservation about the rule of law within states and federations is due to the inapplicability of broad, national, laws to local circumstances and cultures. As jurisdictions extend across diverse geographic and cultural areas the relevance of broad laws can be lessened. What suits one location or socio-economic group does not necessarily suit others in the federation. The inapplicability of "one size fits all" laws becomes more evident as the world globalises. What constitutes free speech in one society does not necessarily fit within the ambit of broader laws enacted by remote legislatures of often totalitarian regimes.
However, the major reservation about the rule of law in an age of rapid technological developments lies in one of its greatest perceived strengths, its stability and certainty.
Evolving and Inventing Laws In Fast Times [120]
In The Story of B, Daniel Quinn makes a somewhat startling claim, via his character, B. The claim is that tribal laws were superior because they always evolved rather than being invented by committees. While proponents of the common law and the development of precedent by courts will argue that the 20th century process was also evolutionary, there is an important distinction between what has been possible in the past and what might be practical in the future. Existing laws were formed, or as Quinn would say, invented, in a relatively stable world in which legislators and the judiciary could understand the issues involved and know the likely consequences of their work. This situation is rapidly changing, and both law makers and interpreters of the law are losing the ability to deal with all the consequences of new technologies, for society, for justice, and even for the survival of the human race.
Related:
2nd Renaissance -5
Quinn contends that while governments can imagine a revolution they can't imagine abandonment. As he puts it, "..even if it could imagine abandonment , it couldn't defend against it, because abandonment isn't an attack, it's just a discontinuance of support."
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/106136.php
2nd Renaissance -4
In due course, there is one achievement of overriding significance that Caral might well provide. One great contribution or lesson that can be applied to the 2nd Renaissance. How to live in peace, with spiritual meaning, and without warfare, for a thousand years.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105935.php
The New Renaissance
Daniel Quinn*
http://www.mnforsustain.org/quinn_d_new_renaissance.htm
2nd Renaissance -3
Plichta writes of this model as follows. "There was a time I used to make fun of the Apocalypse of St John and believed it to be a totally unreliable historical source. Today I am filled with deep humility, perhaps because I am now able to give a concrete description of the foundation of the world as seen by St John with my mathematical discoveries, and thus possibly open a new way to all of humanity which has now reached a dead end."
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105799.php
2nd Renaissance -2
Georg Cantor (1845-1918), by his origination of modern set theory and his studies of the nature of infinity, left science a valuable legacy. Cantor was regularly admitted to a psychiatric clinic within the University of Halle, in Germany, where he lectured and worked as a Professor of Mathematics. On each occasion that he became ill he had been thinking about infinity and the continuum hypothesis. Such intense thought, at the boundaries of his comprehension, caused Cantor to suffer repeated mental breakdowns. Infinity drove him mad.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105634.php
2nd Renaissance
This story was published in September 2004 and it was a big secret. I received it on disk but I think it should be public by now anyway. It is interesting to look back at it and in terms of today's world some two years on. I will link each chapter as I go along over the coming weeks.- The Old World Order - Happy reading!
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105519.php
Fight Iemma - Debnam
All they can say is 'lock em up'
It seems we are in the thick of it again - the stupid, heartless "Law & Order" auction.
Premier Morris Iemma and Opposition leader Peter Debnam are trying to outdo each other with idiotic "tough on crime" policies.
Feature
http://sydney.indymedia.org/archive/features/current#10384
Article
http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=64701&group=webcast
Davidson and Rees-Mogg make an important observation about the new technological elites of the post-industrial age. They describe them as "specialists in production". The elites of nation states are, by their Taker ethos and historical events, characterised as "specialists in violence".
In the new industries such as nanofacture, technologists will use abundant energy to fashion any manner of tangible products from the inside out, from invisible and ubiquitous atoms rather than bulk traded commodities such as iron and steel. It is fundamentally impossible to tax the use of atoms and invisible technologies, or to hold the manufacturers to ransom within the borders of a nation state. In The Sovereign Individual the authors foresee that, "The defection of the information elite from citizenship will have a stimulus much like that which led millions of Europeans five hundred years earlier to renounce the infallibility of the pope."
They posit not only a shift from governed citizenship to individual sovereignty but also a new enlightenment that totally rejects centralised power and the threat of violent oppression. The new industries that spearhead the transition from the economics of scarcity to the economics of abundance will be inherently free. This will be so because the people that lead and work in them will be sovereign individuals, instead of lifelong tax slaves or available cannon fodder to fight in regular armed conflicts driven by takerism and nationalism.
A Time Favourable to Secession [101]
To many people it seems improbable that secessions could take place within the present constructs of federalism and nationalism. Australia can be taken as an example. Most people think that it is inconceivable that the central government would permit one or more cities or regions to opt out of the federation.
Besides the various legal and nationalistic arguments that could be mounted against any secessionist proposals, there would be options of military force and economic sanctions available to the central government. It might seem that specialists in violence and disinformation could always prevent any part of the federation from breaking away. But such thinking is pre-1980s and it ignores new realities that are driving the 2nd Renaissance.
The main difference between the practicality of secessions from federal systems in the early 21st century and that of past eras, comes down to the impact of new technologies on wealth creation and self sufficiency. Throughout the first and second industrial revolutions, it was practical for nation states to hold the processes of wealth creation to ransom. During some two hundred years of European settlement in Australia governments at various levels; local, state, and federal, were able to stringently control and tax wealth production and commercial transactions. Any attempts to break away from the rule of violence, that was dressed up as the rule of law, could be readily prevented.
This situation pertained while manufacture by fabrication was the norm, and while transactions and money flows could be reliably monitored and traced. Once invisible technologies produce limitless quantities of nanofactured goods that are built from the atomic level using abundant energy, it becomes impractical to hold the production processes to ransom. The control of the state is weakened and its power is diminished. It is five hundred years since a similar shift in the socio-political climate arose as a result of a fundamental advance in information technology - moveable type printing presses.
Two Ways To Leave A Federation [102]
In Australia, and in many other so-called countries that are really aggregations of traditional tribal territories, there are two potential routes to secession. The first route is via a process of established cities or regions breaking away and establishing themselves as centres of new technology and new ideas. That is what happened in Italy and other parts of Europe during the first Renaissance.
The second route involves the setting up of entirely new living spaces on tribal lands that were previously seized by colonising governments that espoused and followed Taker philosophies. This route has greater credibility, in the sense of secession rights, where clear historical ownership of the land can be shown.
In the case of Australia there were never any treaties signed between the colonising takers and the original inhabitants. A treaty was signed in New Zealand but it was later broken by the British, so there is little basis from which to argue that earlier generations signed away their rights irretrievably.
It is quite conceivable that the present descendants of tribal peoples, in Australia, New Zealand, and other places, could find it attractive to secede and establish places where the new talent collectives of an emerging age of magic technologies might choose to live and operate as leaver-givers.
Leaving Existing Cities and Settling The Deserts [103]
There would be no need for leaver-givers to claim the developed cities that exist around the Australian coast, plenty of unutilised land exists. There is so much empty space that it would not even be necessary to dispute existing pastoral areas with Taker governments. Much of the Australian continent is uninhabited desert. Many areas of what were once prime agricultural land are now subject to serious salination problems. The land there is almost worthless to those who lack the technology to regenerate its fertility.
There would be strong moral and legal arguments to support the right of the original Australians to form alliances and pacts with new technology collectives to establish free cities and regions that operate outside and beyond the constraints of the old federation.
Doubters will point to the inhospitable nature of true desert regions, but they will generally do so from the perspective of industrial age models. The new age, of magic and often invisible technologies, will be nothing like the old Level 3 Civilization that is now being dissolved by the 2nd Renaissance. New tribal cultures and new centres of population will be quite capable of flourishing in habitats that were previously too harsh to dwell in.
Australia is a huge land. Leaving aside such practical issues as the suitability of local terrain, the continent could accommodate every one of the six billion humans now living on this planet. Moreover, they could each have a quarter acre block of land to themselves, and there would still be one fifth of Australia left over. That is without taking into account the vast territory that Australia claims in Antarctica.
The American state of Texas would fit into Australia eleven times over. If denser housing were used more people could fit into a smaller space. Davidson and Rees-Mogg calculate that all the people in the world could fit into Texas if families lived in detached housing with a small yard each. Once living spaces become predominantly apartment-style and high-rise, hardly any of the land on the surface of the earth might need be inhabited on a daily basis. Most of the land could then be returned to nature and the many species of plants and animals that are presently threatened by rampant takerism.
Land Rights Struggles Lose Economic Relevance [104]
Because traditional factors of economic production and wealth creation are being superseded, the ownership and control of land for economic reasons is becoming less important. There will continue to be spiritual and ancestral reasons for the land rights struggles that are going on in many parts of the world. But the days in which access to rich farming and grazing lands was a sure path to economic prosperity are past. As this fact sinks in, it will become easier for the original owners of land to regain the vast tracts previously lost to colonial powers and other invaders. However, farming the regained land is likely to have only subsistence value. Land won back from past occupiers will not become a significant source of wealth creation in the 21st century.
Farmland Secessions In The Developed World [105]
Agriculture in the developed world is already in an oversupply condition. Western governments presently operate substantial subsidies for their agricultural sectors, so as to preserve large voting blocks and stabilise their political power. As federal and state governments lose economic control in a globalised world, and as they struggle to maintain tax and other revenues, their ability to maintain and justify farm subsidies will erode. In these circumstances the farming regions of countries such as Australia, the USA and parts of Europe are likely to become prone to secession from the old federations of the past.
People in such regions will possibly reason that since the central government is losing relevance and having to reduce or eliminate agricultural subsidies, it might be wise to break away from their traditional "protection" and operate independently in the new uncontrolled economy. At first there might be a need to sell farm produce beyond the new and independent regions. In time it should be possible to attract talent collectives to raise the economic competitiveness of the independent areas, and eventually to give rise to levels of abundance that enable these regions to become true leaver-giver societies.
High Potential For Secessions [106]
Contrary to the prevailing wisdom, federations such as Australia will have a significant potential to fragment during the early stages of the 2nd Renaissance. The main forms of secession are likely to be:
*Concentration of like-minded sovereign individuals and technologists in existing cities or towns, and formation of specialised talent collectives centred on such locations.
*Secession of predominantly farming regions that are unable to compete in global markets without subsidies. These regions might also attract knowledge collectives and sunrise industries to their midst.
*Reclaiming of tribal lands in desert and other regions and the formation of economic pacts between new talent collectives and indigenous land owners.
It is unlikely that existing Australian states will secede from the federation, as there would be too few gains in individual sovereignty involved in continuing to operate under state governments. If the Australian federation fragments it will be more likely to form twenty or thirty free cities or regions than six or seven states that follow the old boundaries set at the time of European colonisation.
Because the original tribal people are generally tolerant and naturally predisposed to leaver philosophies and ways of living, Australia could be a very suitable place for emerging talent collectives and new sunrise industries to locate themselves. The non-indigenous people of rural communities in the Australian bush are also likely to be very amenable and compatible with 2nd Renaissance culture and freedoms.
The major cities could be a different matter, because they have large populations of corporate employees and professionals who will be likely to perceive the collapse of capitalism and nationalism as a threat to their "right" to a high standard of living and social status. The fact that everyone should be better off once the 2nd Renaissance begins to leverage technologies that produce abundance, might well be lost on many Australian city dwellers.
Landlocked Cities and Regions Can Thrive [107]
There will be no need for free cities and regions to have access to a seaport. Sunrise industries capable of supporting a leaver-giver ethos will only require an airport and some satellite links. Given these basic facilities the invisible technologies of the 2nd Renaissance will be able to distribute near costless goods and services to the world at large, particularly to those people in most need of them. There will be other facilities and conditions that play a part in attracting and holding talent collectives and new knowledge industries, but the traditional requirement of trading ports will not exist.
Why Technology Elites Will Choose To Give [108]
Davidson and Rees-Mogg recognise that specialists in new 21st century production are very different to the specialists in violence of capitalist-nationalist times. However, they argue that technological elites will develop, and that the gap between the richest and poorest people on earth will inevitably widen. But, there are several factors that should cause us to be more optimistic about the prospect of leaver-giver centres and societies forming the basis of a Level 4 Civilization. These factors include:
Abundance
The key premise of The Sovereign Individual is a looming privatisation of the economic power and social freedom previously expropriated by national governments. Because this change is assumed to occur under conditions of scarcity and the need to compete to survive, it is considered that an entrepreneurial and technological elite will benefit from such privatisation, at the expense of the rest of us. However, in the conditions of abundance arising from the 2nd Renaissance, there is no reason to presume that the necessities of life, and many of its luxuries, will not flow to the billions of poor and needy on this planet.
Giving and Getting
It is an observable fact that once people amass sufficient wealth they begin to give some of it away to others. This behaviour occurs within the present capitalist system and is known to have been evidenced by some of the most ruthless of entrepreneurs. Outside the commercial arena, there are other examples of individuals who have chosen to devote their skills and much of their time to helping less fortunate people. The work of the late Fred Hollows in setting up programs to treat curable blindness among Australian aborigines, and other people in many parts of the world, is an example of the latter form of altruism.
One of the great secrets of life is that, "The more you give the more you get". Once technologists have magic new technologies that are able to deliver all manner of near costless goods and services there will be no further need to compete for survival. Many of the new technological wizards can then be expected to discover the secret of giving and getting.
Collapsing Capitalism
In the past it has been possible for well off people in developed economies to ignore the plight of the multitudes in the so-called third world who are existing on less than two dollars a day. As the 2nd Renaissance progresses there will be pressing reasons to help the less fortunate within first world economies.
Davidson and Rees-Mogg quote the results of a US Education Department survey that indicated that some 90 million Americans, or one third of the total population, are "woefully incompetent" and unprepared to join the electronic information world.
In Australia, measures of the relevance and modernity of the work being done in typical firms indicate that around two thirds of the present workforce is engaged in activities that will be made redundant by new technology, most probably before 2010.
Emerging technological elites will find it preferable to freely distribute costless goods and services than to wall themselves off in gated communities, living in fear of an increasingly angry and disillusioned underclass.
Opportunities Everywhere! [109]
In the early days of European occupation of Australia, many exploratory expeditions, many shipwrecked mariners and lost aviators, perished from starvation. These unfortunates simply ran out of supplies and then starved to death in remote country that contained abundant sources of both food and water, but in unfamiliar forms and locations. Today, the Australian army has a manual that identifies every edible source of nourishment in the outback. The manual contains all the knowledge required to maintain patrols indefinitely in the same areas in which many early explorers perished.
While it is destroying old forms of production and commerce the 2nd Renaissance is simultaneously creating new opportunities in almost every field of human endeavour. But these new opportunities are as yet, largely unrecognised by people who are still thinking and acting according to old paradigms and misleading teachings. Secession from failing federations and the establishment of new tribal communities suited to survival and success in a Level 4 Civilization is one such opportunity. It escapes current attention because secession from strong, easily controlled and governed federations has previously been difficult and fraught with coercion and conflict. The fact that this situation is changing has not yet registered on the consciousness of most citizens of the outgoing civilization.
They are in sight of freedom but they cannot see it.
A Sunset and A Dawn [110]
The signs that the sun is going down on the old Level 3 Civilization are everywhere. The sun is going down on nationalism, militarism and capitalism. It is going down on federalism as surely as it long ago went down on feudalism. Most importantly, the sun is going down on scarcity, poverty, ignorance and blind dogma.
While the industrial age sun was full it was difficult to break free of the above forces, but in the darkening hours of the 20th century it began to be easier. The old structures and institutions of the industrial age are growing weaker by the day, and escape is becoming a real possibility for ordinary people all over the world. Now is the time to assemble the ideas and formulate the strategies that will take humanity forward at the arrival of a new dawn.
During the night the forces of darkness, in the form of the covert agencies of nation states, will do what they can to disrupt and suppress the process. But the military-industrial complexes of the old civilization are not fighting against a revolution which they can readily put down, but the abandonment of a failing model by former citizens of federal and state regimes. As Daniel Quinn points out, there are few defences against abandonment, and the operatives and leaders of most materialist regimes can not even comprehend the possibility that the masses they "serve" and "protect" will simply decide to leave them behind, and combine to build new societies based on new opportunities that flow from the 2nd Renaissance.
Microjurisdictions - The New Model [111]
In the view of Davidson and Rees-Mogg national governments and international relations won't survive the coming privatisation of citizenship. They say, "If "international" were a stock, now would be the time to sell." The concept is likely to be supplanted in the new millennium, or at least narrowed to its original meaning for the compelling reason that the whole world will no longer be dominated by the system of interrelating sovereign nations.
Relations will take on the novel "extranational" forms dictated by the growing importance of microjurisdictions and Sovereign Individuals." In a Level 4 Civilization the jurisdiction of service-only governments will usually be limited to the equivalent of a town or city. Their purpose will be to provide the type of services that municipal councils now look after, roads, building standards, sanitation, garbage recycling, and so on.
Many existing services might well be unnecessary in an age of magic technologies. For example, nanoconstructors in the home or in communal production centres might reuse the atoms in household waste and garbage as feed matter for the creation of new nanofactured items. There will certainly be no need for electricity and gas utilities in the event of universally available free energy. Nor might mass transport systems such as rail and road networks be required. Whatever services requirements are left will probably be provided by some form of microgovernment. These administrations will genuinely serve the people, rather than control and exploit them.
As Davidson and Rees-Mogg put it, "The idea that humans must naturally place themselves in an "invented" community called a nation will come to be seen by the cosmopolitan elite as eccentric and unreasonable in the next century."
Getting Things Done Without Government Programs [112]
Daniel Quinn is justly contemptuous of politicians who promise to "fix" the ills of modern society with programs. In The Story of B, the central character says, "If the world is saved, it will not be by old minds with new programs but by new minds with no programs at all." In Beyond Civilization, Quinn writes, "Programs are sticks planted in the mud of a river to impede its flow. The sticks do impede the flow. A little. But they never stop the flow, and they never turn the river aside. .... Programs never stop the things they're launched to stop. No program has ever stopped poverty, drug abuse, or crime, and no program ever will stop them."
Yet programs are the stock of trade of politicians the world over. In Australia, and in many other places, political parties offer citizens a range of new programs or upgrades before every election. The need or probable efficacy of the programs are seldom challenged. Political opponents and tame journalists always ask the question, "Where's the money coming from?" but they don't ask, "Why should we believe that the program will fix the problem?" No one in politics, the media or big business ever asks the latter question, because they fear the obvious answer.
The layers of government in Australia are justified on the basis that they provide protection and solutions to problems through the collection of taxes and the allocation of public funds to a range of programs. If Daniel Quinn is right, and the multitude of programs will never solve the problems facing the Australian public, the whole of government and public administration in the country is a vast misrepresentation of purpose and value. Big government is simply unjustifiable and unnecessary.
Davidson and Rees-Mogg argue exactly this point. They assert that in an age of nearly instant global communications the whole idea of representative democracy is outmoded, and that problems should be addressed on an interest basis rather than a territorial one. Thus they say, "In the new age to come, communities and allegiances will not be territorially bounded. Identification will be more precisely targeted to genuine affinities, shared beliefs, shared interests, and shared genes, rather than the bogus affinities so prominent in the attention of nationalists."
The new minds that tackle a wide range of issues and problems in the world will often come from new talent collectives, and from people who live and work in free cities and communicate globally with like-minded individuals. The focus and motivation of the people who combine to save the world in this way will be directed at the problems and their solutions, rather than gaining re-election in order to progress a career in politics.
Democracy For Dummies [113]
The democracy we have now delegates power to elected representatives. It is a form of democracy in which a majority of individuals cede power to a minority group that they elect to represent their interests. Representative democracy arose in an age of primitive communications and a consequent remoteness of citizens from the seat of government where decisions were made. Additionally, many of the people of the time were either ill equipped educationally or simply disinclined to participate in the detail of national policy formulation, debate, and implementation.
Representative democracy is a system for the apathetic and the politically challenged. It is a system for dummies. It is also a system developed to deal with the allocation of resources in conditions of ever-prevailing scarcity.
Both these characteristics suggest that representative democracy will be an inappropriate approach for a Level 4 Civilization. The scientific and technological elites that emerge during the 2nd Renaissance will definitely not be dummies, and there will be an abundance, rather than a scarcity, of near costless goods and services to distribute. The times are changing and political systems must change too.
Democracy For Sovereign Individuals [114]
Free cities and independent regions will need to adopt a different approach from the outset. It will be a mistake to accept "reforms" to the old order of things, and hope to gradually evolve a new and freer system. The motto must be "Start free and stay free".
Some doubters will argue that it is impossible to resolve a myriad of differences in opinion and interests at the level of the individual. They will consider that achieving unanimity and consensus is impractical and that representative democracy is the only workable basis for political rule. But the goal is not to find a workable basis for political rule, it is to establish a basis for cooperative self-government in new Leaver-Giver societies.
If the term democracy continues to be used in a Level 4 Civilization it will not mean what it has in the past. The days when the many were ruled by the few will come to an end as the 2nd Renaissance progresses. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, writing in the 18th century, argued against the creation of laws by representatives of the citizenry rather than the people themselves. He argued that, "Any law which was not directly created by the citizens is not valid, and if those laws are imposed on people, that is equivalent to the people being enslaved."
As the magic technologies of the 2nd Renaissance banish scarcity and dissolve centralised power structures, it will become practical to involve sovereign individuals in the creation of the local laws they live under. This will require the abandonment of many of the adversarial, win-lose, concepts of present-day laws and a return to the more conciliatory and remedial approaches of law making and administration in tribal societies.
A National Enslavement Model [115]
Although it is never described as such, representative democracy has often become a national enslavement model. It is not always so, but in many cases political systems in both developed and developing countries have begun benignly and later become totalitarian. The adjacent diagram shows the nature of a national model.
Click on the pic
Each individual citizen has ceded power to an elected representative who then forms part of a legislative, or parliamentary arm of government. One of the powers that national governments write into law is taxation. An executive arm of government then sees to the collection of tax revenues and their application to a range of programs. Additionally, a third arm of government interprets the law made by the legislature, in an independent manner. This separation of powers is characteristic of the Westminster system of government that many nation states have emulated. The Presidential system of government is another form that has similar functions, although it seems to decay into totalitarianism more readily than the parliamentary model.
In the nation state the voice of an individual citizen is faint indeed. Within an electorate a citizen's voice is but one in tens, if not hundreds, of thousands. Even if all citizens vote, as they are bound to do by law in Australia, there might be few policy alternatives between a small number of dominant political parties.
As we enter the 21st century, a common cry from many people in representative democracies is, "None of the parties are worth voting for!" That is so because the dominant parties, and the bureaucrats that serve them in office, are pursuing agendas that are unrelated to the interests of the majority of citizens they purport to represent.
A Neo-Tribal Model [116]
The diagram indicates some key characteristics of a neo-tribal model. It borrows from Daniel Quinn's observations. Reading the relevant pages in his book, Beyond Civilization, can provide further understanding and insights. We are not considering clans or ethnic tribes here, but the tribal model in modern and post-modern settings.
Click on the pic
Quinn cites the small travelling circus as an example of a modern tribal model. In a looser sense, people collaborating in the development of open source software, such as Linux, might be said to have a tribal, rather than a commercial culture.
In Quinn's terms, "A tribe is a coalition of people working together as equals to make a living." However, he notes that making money is a means of surviving in order to do what the tribe does.
Making money is not the primary purpose of forming or belonging to a tribe.
He points out that members of a circus want it to make money so that it can continue, but they don't join it because it is an enterprise. They join because it is a circus, and because it has a close knit culture that they can relate to.
In the 21st Century neo-tribes will play a major role in creating conditions of abundance. They will gradually achieve a state of self-sufficiency that does not depend on making money. The performances of the Circus can then be free. Neo-tribalism is a model for a Leaver-Giver society within a new, Level 4, civilization. It has no similarities with Taker philosophies or the failed models of nationalism and capitalism that have dominated the outgoing civilization.
Equality And Unanimity [117]
Unlike the average citizen of a nation state, each member of a neo-tribe has equality with other members, hence the large smiling face in the diagram. There is a leader of each tribe, and usually a council of leaders for a coalition of tribes. But, as Daniel Quinn points out, "...leadership carries little or nothing in the way of special benefits that are denied to other members of the tribe." There is no ruling elite, no hierarchy, and nothing to overthrow. The purpose of the various endeavours of a neo-tribe is clear, and activities are undertaken in a collaborative, often selfless manner.
This contrasts starkly with the competitive, win-lose nature of representative democracies and corporatism. As Quinn writes, "Kids of all ages run off to join the circus. No one runs off to join Disney World."
Neo Tribalism Is Not A Utopian Vision - It Just Works Best [118]
Neither Daniel Quinn or the other proponents of new tribal models claim that such societies are perfect. Quinn says, "The tribal life doesn't turn people into saints." He argues, however, that because tribes exist for all their members, who are all involved in the work of the tribe, the model enables people to live and work together with minimal stress and conflict.
Quinn contends that tribalism is the natural form of social organisation for humans, just as the hive is for bees and the flock is for birds. All the models that have survived through the ages are successful for their members. Unsuccessful models also evolved, but they did not last. Tribal societies are not perfect, but:
"..tribalism is not only the preeminently human social organisation, it's also the only unequivocally successful social organisation in human history."
The Rule of Law In Nation States [119]
Prevailing political dogma says that in return for the benefits of a civilized society citizens must accept the rule of law. However, when the nature and basis of the rule of law is examined, it becomes clear that several important qualifications should apply to such a dictum.
One such reservation concerns bad laws. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935, that legalised discrimination against Jews and led to Hitler's "final solution," are an example of laws that did not deserve to be respected by citizens of the state that passed them. As Henry Thoreau put it, "I think that we should be men first and subjects afterwards. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right."
A second reservation about the rule of law within states and federations is due to the inapplicability of broad, national, laws to local circumstances and cultures. As jurisdictions extend across diverse geographic and cultural areas the relevance of broad laws can be lessened. What suits one location or socio-economic group does not necessarily suit others in the federation. The inapplicability of "one size fits all" laws becomes more evident as the world globalises. What constitutes free speech in one society does not necessarily fit within the ambit of broader laws enacted by remote legislatures of often totalitarian regimes.
However, the major reservation about the rule of law in an age of rapid technological developments lies in one of its greatest perceived strengths, its stability and certainty.
Evolving and Inventing Laws In Fast Times [120]
In The Story of B, Daniel Quinn makes a somewhat startling claim, via his character, B. The claim is that tribal laws were superior because they always evolved rather than being invented by committees. While proponents of the common law and the development of precedent by courts will argue that the 20th century process was also evolutionary, there is an important distinction between what has been possible in the past and what might be practical in the future. Existing laws were formed, or as Quinn would say, invented, in a relatively stable world in which legislators and the judiciary could understand the issues involved and know the likely consequences of their work. This situation is rapidly changing, and both law makers and interpreters of the law are losing the ability to deal with all the consequences of new technologies, for society, for justice, and even for the survival of the human race.
Related:
2nd Renaissance -5
Quinn contends that while governments can imagine a revolution they can't imagine abandonment. As he puts it, "..even if it could imagine abandonment , it couldn't defend against it, because abandonment isn't an attack, it's just a discontinuance of support."
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/106136.php 2nd Renaissance -4
In due course, there is one achievement of overriding significance that Caral might well provide. One great contribution or lesson that can be applied to the 2nd Renaissance. How to live in peace, with spiritual meaning, and without warfare, for a thousand years.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105935.php The New Renaissance
Daniel Quinn*
http://www.mnforsustain.org/quinn_d_new_renaissance.htm 2nd Renaissance -3
Plichta writes of this model as follows. "There was a time I used to make fun of the Apocalypse of St John and believed it to be a totally unreliable historical source. Today I am filled with deep humility, perhaps because I am now able to give a concrete description of the foundation of the world as seen by St John with my mathematical discoveries, and thus possibly open a new way to all of humanity which has now reached a dead end."
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105799.php 2nd Renaissance -2
Georg Cantor (1845-1918), by his origination of modern set theory and his studies of the nature of infinity, left science a valuable legacy. Cantor was regularly admitted to a psychiatric clinic within the University of Halle, in Germany, where he lectured and worked as a Professor of Mathematics. On each occasion that he became ill he had been thinking about infinity and the continuum hypothesis. Such intense thought, at the boundaries of his comprehension, caused Cantor to suffer repeated mental breakdowns. Infinity drove him mad.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105634.php 2nd Renaissance
This story was published in September 2004 and it was a big secret. I received it on disk but I think it should be public by now anyway. It is interesting to look back at it and in terms of today's world some two years on. I will link each chapter as I go along over the coming weeks.- The Old World Order - Happy reading!
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/105519.php Fight Iemma - Debnam
All they can say is 'lock em up'
It seems we are in the thick of it again - the stupid, heartless "Law & Order" auction.
Premier Morris Iemma and Opposition leader Peter Debnam are trying to outdo each other with idiotic "tough on crime" policies.
Feature
http://sydney.indymedia.org/archive/features/current#10384 Article
http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=64701&group=webcast 
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