This is a new political blog...
Do we really need another political blog, you might be asking?
Well perhaps this one is different.
This blog aims not to examine the minutiae of daily democracy in the UK. This blog aims to examine "society". It will examine the thesis that "society" is a "machine". Not a dumb unthinking machine but a thinking, emotional machine. It will discuss the component parts of this machine and how they interact. It will consider political revolutions and why they have failed. It will consider war and poverty and how they arise. It will consider the failings of capitalism and democracy, and how they might be repaired.
The name Deus Ex Machina derives from the Greek "God from the machine". In Greek theatre it refers to the practice of lowering to the stage an actor, representing a god, who would then magically resolve the situation occurring in the drama . I intend to use the term in its most literal sense - a "god" that is derived from the biological machine we know of as "society". It is a metaphor, but nevertheless should help us to understand how complex systems like societies work. It will help us to understand why society does not work the way we would like it to, and it will do so without resorting to class-warfare theory or conspiracy theory.
I am a senior engineer that works with the marketing department of a large European multinational corporation. I have a fascination for "how things work" - including a fascination with how large corporations work and how society works. Many large corporations are the size of towns and even cities. The way they work (or indeed, fail to work) is the way a complete society works in microcosm, especially capitalist society. The psychology and sociology of corporations holds the key to the inner workings of Western society.
Why such a blog and why now? Because the indications are that the society we live in now may be about to undergo seismic change. We will investigate the reasons for this. It may be that the changes that society will undergo are of a similar magnitude to those experienced in the 1930's as a result of the Great Depression. This monumental change resulted in war, and paradigm shifts in the manner in which societies were operated. Is the same about to happen again? Some mainstream commentators such as Matthew Parris and Matthew D'Ancona are becoming uneasy. But there is no-one in a position of influence today that is able to remember the 1930's from first-hand experience.
"Those who do not read and understand history are doomed to repeat it." - Harry Truman
Reading history is the easy part. Understanding it is considerably more difficult. In this blog we will see that "society" deliberately fails to understand history and therefore must inevitably repeat it. And therefore we are very likely to repeat the mistakes of the 1930's, and then the 1940's. "Society" has a mind of its own, beyond the control of the citizens that are its component parts.... but society has a very short memory.
I do not have all the answers, or even all the right questions, but I hope those that read this blog will contribute much of their own experience and knowledge. Hopefully, together we will learn something about our society, and how it controls each and every one of us. We might even understand how it can be changed for the better.
Well perhaps this one is different.
This blog aims not to examine the minutiae of daily democracy in the UK. This blog aims to examine "society". It will examine the thesis that "society" is a "machine". Not a dumb unthinking machine but a thinking, emotional machine. It will discuss the component parts of this machine and how they interact. It will consider political revolutions and why they have failed. It will consider war and poverty and how they arise. It will consider the failings of capitalism and democracy, and how they might be repaired.
The name Deus Ex Machina derives from the Greek "God from the machine". In Greek theatre it refers to the practice of lowering to the stage an actor, representing a god, who would then magically resolve the situation occurring in the drama . I intend to use the term in its most literal sense - a "god" that is derived from the biological machine we know of as "society". It is a metaphor, but nevertheless should help us to understand how complex systems like societies work. It will help us to understand why society does not work the way we would like it to, and it will do so without resorting to class-warfare theory or conspiracy theory.
I am a senior engineer that works with the marketing department of a large European multinational corporation. I have a fascination for "how things work" - including a fascination with how large corporations work and how society works. Many large corporations are the size of towns and even cities. The way they work (or indeed, fail to work) is the way a complete society works in microcosm, especially capitalist society. The psychology and sociology of corporations holds the key to the inner workings of Western society.
Why such a blog and why now? Because the indications are that the society we live in now may be about to undergo seismic change. We will investigate the reasons for this. It may be that the changes that society will undergo are of a similar magnitude to those experienced in the 1930's as a result of the Great Depression. This monumental change resulted in war, and paradigm shifts in the manner in which societies were operated. Is the same about to happen again? Some mainstream commentators such as Matthew Parris and Matthew D'Ancona are becoming uneasy. But there is no-one in a position of influence today that is able to remember the 1930's from first-hand experience.
"Those who do not read and understand history are doomed to repeat it." - Harry Truman
Reading history is the easy part. Understanding it is considerably more difficult. In this blog we will see that "society" deliberately fails to understand history and therefore must inevitably repeat it. And therefore we are very likely to repeat the mistakes of the 1930's, and then the 1940's. "Society" has a mind of its own, beyond the control of the citizens that are its component parts.... but society has a very short memory.
I do not have all the answers, or even all the right questions, but I hope those that read this blog will contribute much of their own experience and knowledge. Hopefully, together we will learn something about our society, and how it controls each and every one of us. We might even understand how it can be changed for the better.
Labels: democracy, deus ex machina, introduction, psychology, society, sociology
posted by Schadenfreude at
14:03
8 Comments:
May I be the first ...?
good luck, RS
I found your comments on City Unslicker very interesting and enjoyable. I'm glad you have started this and look forward to seeing how it develops. Best wishes
Hello!
Are you also a Morse fan?
Congratulations on your blog .. And so many targets today.
Zimbabwe
Another 'feral gang' murder.
China slowdown and inflation hike
Speaker Martin
the stab proof vest.
you have a whole weeks worth of articles already...
ND, cjman: thanks!
edland: As in Inspector Morse? I'm a fan of the TV series but never read the books. Tend to prefer the Adam Dalgleish TV series though.
bill: I don't know if I will make the blog that topical, but perhaps it would be better if I did. I want to ask "what happened to Zimbabwe, why was it all so inevitable, why doesn't anyone ever learn from the past, will South Africa go the same way?". It's the remorseless inevitability of it all that fascinates me. How many times has this happened, in Africa and beyond? Its like a car that goes more and more out of control, but it was inevitable it would go out of control right from the start. On the subject of "feral gangs" I will be asking "why do governments always tell us they will be tough on crime, but never actually do anything?". I will suggest a thesis whereby democracy is shown to have a tendency to inaction (and therefore tends to be replaced by men of action when action is found to be necessary). Inflation? I will be discussing the creation of money as opposed to wealth and how debt sucks up wealth to deliver it to the asset rich. Speaker Martin? I will be considering organised groups and how they tend to corruption, group think, and social isolation.
...and the whole lot based on how big corporations work!
That should keep me going for a while....
Congratulations on starting your own blog. I am sure we will all find it very interesting and will happily jump in with comments on your thoughts.
May I kick off on "What happened to Zimbabwe"? I was living there at the time and the writing was clearly on the wall for those able to see it; and many farmers did, but were reluctant to believe what was to befall them.
Democratic elections, which were generally free and fair and supervised by the international monitoring teams (one of which I had been dragooned into being a member), had been taking place in all the surrounding countries - South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia - and in a number of cases had led to a peaceful (to many people's surprise) change from the old entrenched post-colonial regimes. Mugabe could see that he was very unpopular and would be likely to suffer the same fate. Hence he declared the war on third and fourth generation white farmers who were the backbone of the country, but provided an easy target for the regime and the thugs they employed. The rest as they say is history. Many of those evicted went to Mozambique and (as a brutal war had just ended there) were welcomed by the new government with open arms and given land to set up their own new farms. They mostly continue to do well, despite some awful weather conditions which have given them a bit of a mauling in recent years.
The South Africans have also suffered from years of inept black leadership, and not much progress has been mde in clearing the shanty towns, but as their population is rather better educated than the Zims, and I do not think the government have such repressive tendencies, I would hope that the country would not descend to the Zim depths. Much will depend on Mbeki's successor and the team he/she chooses.
Thanks nomad: What particularly interests me here is the inevitability of what happened in Zimbabwe. Power vacuum, "strongman" takes over, followers demand a greater share of wealth, "strongman" forced to deliver, experience driven out of the economy, economy collapses, "strongman" fails to blame his own policy to blames opponents, oppression of opponents, famine, violence, crime etc etc etc. There was an inevitability about all this in Zimbabwe and I would expect that it might well repeat in South Africa. So far the South Africans have not selected a Mugabe as leader, but when black South Africans don't get the share in the wealth they expect they are quite liable to select a "strongman" leader to force the issue. The current South African government is already pushing white experience out of the economy with predictable results. Wiser heads are being sidelined. I feel they may have already started on the path towards a second Zimbabwe.
The 2nd point you make that interests me greatly is this:-
"the writing was clearly on the wall for those able to see it; and many farmers did, but were reluctant to believe what was to befall them."
I have seen this kind of thing so many times in so many situations. Given a choice between the possibility of disaster and the certainty of difficulties, people tend to choose the former. In this case, do they leave their farms behind and escape to an unknown future, or stay and see if things really turn out as bad as they fear or not. Often, as events unfold, they become increasingly demoralised and in the end are incapable of taking any action at all. Once again it is interesting how the psychology of groups of individuals takes over and has a net impact on society as a whole.
S: Thanks for your response.
Mugabe started as he meant to carry on by sending the notorious, North Korean trained 5th Brigade into Matabeleland and doing serious damage to the tribes there - something from which to this day they have not really recovered. He thus removed a major opposition force in one fell swoop. Ensuring that his military and police forces and thuggish party cadres ("war veterans") were well looked after did the rest to ensure his repressive regime prospered for him and his clique. But it looks like the end may be in sight for them; the next few weeks will tell. The position taken by other African leaders to the elction results will also be interesting to watch as they usually support each other unquestioningly. The sad thing about all this is that had Mugabe not messed about with his ludicrous land reform programme, the country would still be the bread basket of Africa and he would still have retained a relative popularity and an honest workable majority in the polls.
I really do hope you are being too pessimistic with your prognostications for RSA. My only thought would be that, having seen what happened to the whites in Zim, the Afrikaaners will prove to be a much more stubborn nut to crack if the govt try to steal their farms and livelihoods. The area north of Jo'burg up to the Zim border and right across to the Eastern Highlands/Mozambique border could quite easily be made into a no-go area for blacks if those very tough white folks decide they need to defend their "homeland", something I suspect they would do quite ruthlessly. I see no inevitability in the collapse of the white elements in the country.
Interesting times ahead - and I look forward to reading your thoughts in due course when you get down to tackling this subject in a self-contained post.
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