1 00:00:00,570 --> 00:00:04,000 Improbable Democracy The New Human Rights Movement, Sept 9, 2017 Peter Joseph 2 00:00:04,300 --> 00:00:06,080 I'm Peter Joseph and I founded a 3 00:00:06,200 --> 00:00:09,120 non-profit a long time ago called The Zeitgeist Movement 4 00:00:09,821 --> 00:00:12,258 and it's an organization that still has numerous chapters, 5 00:00:12,369 --> 00:00:14,393 hundreds of chapters in 60 countries and we've done about a 6 00:00:14,504 --> 00:00:17,526 thousand public awareness events since its inception. 7 00:00:18,781 --> 00:00:21,218 And beyond that social experiments working in the hope 8 00:00:21,323 --> 00:00:23,427 to unify the world in a common direction, 9 00:00:24,270 --> 00:00:27,446 desperately needed of course due to the ecological crisis and 10 00:00:27,556 --> 00:00:29,760 the social instability that we're seeing emerge. 11 00:00:30,320 --> 00:00:33,932 I also produce educational and socially conscious activist media 12 00:00:34,356 --> 00:00:35,612 including these two books. 13 00:00:36,043 --> 00:00:37,956 I wish I'd brought some books actually but I couldn't 14 00:00:38,073 --> 00:00:40,646 get the weight in my luggage or I would have given you all some. 15 00:00:42,756 --> 00:00:44,560 The 'Zeitgeist Movement Defined' was the original text, 16 00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:48,055 kind of a joint effort but mostly written by myself, produced in 2013. 17 00:00:48,160 --> 00:00:49,913 It's the root thesis of The Zeitgeist Movement 18 00:00:50,578 --> 00:00:53,378 and it advocates in pretty extended technical detail what 19 00:00:53,723 --> 00:00:55,790 we do and what we promote. 20 00:00:56,240 --> 00:00:57,846 The second book, 'The New Human Rights Movement', 21 00:00:57,950 --> 00:01:00,356 was published by BenBella earlier this year 22 00:01:00,460 --> 00:01:02,621 and it takes a more social justice approach 23 00:01:03,273 --> 00:01:05,200 and a public health approach if you will, 24 00:01:05,569 --> 00:01:09,661 focusing on what really underscores a stable, healthy and peaceful society 25 00:01:10,196 --> 00:01:13,286 including the active reduction of intergroup conflict, 26 00:01:13,470 --> 00:01:16,381 oppression, bigotry, racism, xenophobia and so on, 27 00:01:16,627 --> 00:01:19,040 something that this country and the world is 28 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:21,347 starting to see a resurgence of. 29 00:01:22,935 --> 00:01:25,360 Today's talk will be more or less a derivative of this book, 30 00:01:25,476 --> 00:01:30,018 specifically in regard to the history, structure and nature of modern political economy. 31 00:01:30,600 --> 00:01:32,603 Again since I refuse to repeat my talks, 32 00:01:32,713 --> 00:01:36,220 and you can go on and see about 20 or 30 hours of my lectures online, 33 00:01:36,870 --> 00:01:39,193 I apologize if this moves quickly for those that are new. 34 00:01:40,695 --> 00:01:43,790 But if anything is unclear - this will be about 45 minutes or so 35 00:01:44,424 --> 00:01:47,698 and I'm definitely always into questions - so make some notes 36 00:01:47,809 --> 00:01:49,181 if anything jumps out at you. 37 00:01:51,003 --> 00:01:54,390 So to jump to the work's conclusion for the sake of clarity 38 00:01:55,107 --> 00:01:58,676 the bottom line is that without the removal 39 00:01:58,787 --> 00:02:01,003 of socioeconomic inequality - 40 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:04,732 meaning the various levels of inequity we see both domestically 41 00:02:05,003 --> 00:02:08,640 and internationally as linked to economic roots - 42 00:02:09,064 --> 00:02:11,833 there's a serious need for concern about what the future holds. 43 00:02:13,587 --> 00:02:17,489 Unannounced to most, there's a strong public health argument 44 00:02:17,686 --> 00:02:20,806 against the existence of economic stratification and class. 45 00:02:21,507 --> 00:02:24,873 And by extension this means that there is a strong public health argument 46 00:02:25,138 --> 00:02:27,852 against the mechanisms of our society that create 47 00:02:28,215 --> 00:02:29,850 this destructive imbalance, 48 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:32,836 namely the market system of economics: 49 00:02:34,436 --> 00:02:37,729 a system that is also leading to the destruction of our habitat 50 00:02:38,129 --> 00:02:41,981 due to its archaic basis in cyclical consumption, 51 00:02:42,584 --> 00:02:45,981 perpetuating a built-in incentive to create waste, 52 00:02:46,516 --> 00:02:49,218 inspire more purchases to create more jobs ... 53 00:02:49,643 --> 00:02:51,889 And when you step back and take all this in, 54 00:02:52,184 --> 00:02:55,255 you realize that an economy powered by consumerism, 55 00:02:55,458 --> 00:02:58,658 which is what it is, is in fact not an economy at all. 56 00:03:00,073 --> 00:03:02,086 A real economy by definition is about 57 00:03:02,190 --> 00:03:06,560 the strategic and efficient use of materials and means to preserve sustainability 58 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:09,267 in the process of meeting human needs. 59 00:03:09,993 --> 00:03:11,624 Yet our system does the opposite: 60 00:03:11,990 --> 00:03:14,603 not only inspiring vast wealth imbalance, 61 00:03:14,947 --> 00:03:19,864 limiting in fact the well-being of 60% of the human population today, 62 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:22,683 in the context of relative and absolute poverty, 63 00:03:23,181 --> 00:03:26,252 but also in the sense that the entire system is really backwards 64 00:03:26,381 --> 00:03:31,938 in terms of extended sustainability and effectively earthly economic goals; 65 00:03:32,130 --> 00:03:35,149 a complete omission from all economic textbooks. 66 00:03:37,550 --> 00:03:41,212 And it's worth pointing out that this seed of unsustainability really wasn't 67 00:03:41,378 --> 00:03:43,458 easily to recognize centuries ago, 68 00:03:43,950 --> 00:03:47,612 as the process and means of production was quite manual and arduous. 69 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:49,710 But since the Industrial Revolution 70 00:03:49,870 --> 00:03:53,160 and the introduction of mechanization and increased efficiency - 71 00:03:53,821 --> 00:03:57,372 increased production I should say because it's not really efficient, it's just 72 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:00,160 the more of production that we're able to increase - 73 00:04:00,670 --> 00:04:01,810 the tables have turned. 74 00:04:02,510 --> 00:04:04,603 What was once an agrarian economy that worked to meet 75 00:04:04,738 --> 00:04:08,529 core needs of a scarce society, generating jobs to facilitate those needs, 76 00:04:08,830 --> 00:04:12,461 has transformed into an economy that has become so productive 77 00:04:12,836 --> 00:04:14,941 that our sense of social inclusion 78 00:04:15,107 --> 00:04:16,940 must now be manipulated 79 00:04:17,421 --> 00:04:18,940 by marketing and advertising, 80 00:04:19,820 --> 00:04:23,175 producing a neurotic, insatiable and materialistic culture 81 00:04:23,286 --> 00:04:25,261 seeking to buy, own and accumulate 82 00:04:25,606 --> 00:04:28,393 simply for the sake of buying, owning and accumulating. 83 00:04:28,570 --> 00:04:31,789 And without that value system, the economy wouldn't work today. 84 00:04:32,664 --> 00:04:34,596 So coming back to my broad point here, 85 00:04:35,323 --> 00:04:37,501 the current state of evolution of the market economy 86 00:04:37,895 --> 00:04:41,963 not only requires an insecure, immature and selfish population, 87 00:04:42,283 --> 00:04:45,784 it also requires that nothing really work too well, for too long: 88 00:04:46,381 --> 00:04:47,780 planned obsolescence. 89 00:04:48,203 --> 00:04:51,132 For true preservation, efficiency and sustainability 90 00:04:51,372 --> 00:04:54,073 is really the enemy of market economics. 91 00:04:54,295 --> 00:04:57,163 It's the enemy of the foundation of our society 92 00:04:57,640 --> 00:04:59,040 and the result as we see 93 00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:02,652 is enormous amounts of waste, pollution and resource overshoot. 94 00:05:04,812 --> 00:05:07,655 And it's interesting today with all the talk 95 00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:12,147 about ecological degradation, climate change, biodiversity loss and so on, 96 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:16,596 very rarely do people speak of the most important consequence of this: 97 00:05:17,138 --> 00:05:18,615 we're not destroying the earth, 98 00:05:18,861 --> 00:05:22,603 we're destroying our future capacity to coexist peacefully 99 00:05:22,886 --> 00:05:24,935 and productively as a growing species. 100 00:05:25,870 --> 00:05:30,627 We're setting the stage for new forms of unnecessary scarcity and limitation. 101 00:05:32,867 --> 00:05:35,249 And this is and will continue to translate 102 00:05:35,772 --> 00:05:39,944 into more extreme degrees of socioeconomic inequality, 103 00:05:40,330 --> 00:05:41,790 reducing public health, 104 00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:46,734 and this increased socioeconomic inequality as social science has long confirmed, 105 00:05:47,316 --> 00:05:49,741 will fuel further social fragmentation, 106 00:05:50,067 --> 00:05:53,323 conflict and disorder, both domestically and internationally. 107 00:05:55,680 --> 00:05:58,018 I apologize if this idea is new to some of you here 108 00:05:58,332 --> 00:06:01,138 as it is something I have written and talked about a great deal in the past, 109 00:06:01,329 --> 00:06:04,061 linking socioeconomic inequality and economics 110 00:06:04,467 --> 00:06:07,889 to increased violence, heart disease, mental health disorders, 111 00:06:07,993 --> 00:06:11,089 child abuse, loss of lifespan and so on. 112 00:06:11,489 --> 00:06:15,193 But I encourage you to look into this largely ignored public health issue 113 00:06:15,304 --> 00:06:17,926 because it's the most critical one, and no one's really talking about it. 114 00:06:19,329 --> 00:06:21,076 The central message of this talk - 115 00:06:21,341 --> 00:06:25,526 as rambley as it's going to be due to the limitations I had in creating it - 116 00:06:26,781 --> 00:06:30,430 is that our economy poses many serious problems, 117 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:34,830 not only as an instrument of human manipulation in terms of politics that we see, 118 00:06:35,501 --> 00:06:37,993 but as a structural phenomenon 119 00:06:38,344 --> 00:06:41,267 in its root core foundational logic. 120 00:06:43,230 --> 00:06:46,012 Or more bluntly, the real problem - 121 00:06:46,326 --> 00:06:49,015 in stark contradiction to our prevailing 122 00:06:49,126 --> 00:06:53,236 entrepreneurial romanticism and free-market mythology - 123 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:57,058 is the very nature of business itself: 124 00:06:57,901 --> 00:07:00,849 the inherent dynamics and incentives that are immutable 125 00:07:01,144 --> 00:07:04,886 to the logic of engaging and winning in competitive trade 126 00:07:05,501 --> 00:07:08,455 is the binding destructive force 127 00:07:08,978 --> 00:07:13,760 that while creating the world we see, with some material positives of course, 128 00:07:14,092 --> 00:07:16,621 is also simultaneously destroying it 129 00:07:17,027 --> 00:07:21,230 at a far more rapid rate, in the context of sustainability 130 00:07:21,421 --> 00:07:24,553 and a loss of democracy, as I will discuss. 131 00:07:27,273 --> 00:07:31,710 And with all the debate today about party systems and corruption and 132 00:07:31,846 --> 00:07:35,292 lobbying and war and so on, you will notice, 133 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:39,716 with the exception of say conversations about democratic socialism 134 00:07:39,830 --> 00:07:42,756 or other more - more or less - passive 135 00:07:43,015 --> 00:07:46,541 still ultimately pro-market socioeconomic adjustments 136 00:07:47,532 --> 00:07:51,033 the political landscape shows very little real reflection 137 00:07:51,396 --> 00:07:54,523 on what the structure of our economy is actually doing. 138 00:07:55,661 --> 00:07:56,775 Even worse, 139 00:07:57,113 --> 00:08:00,695 those rare few who do approach in a critical and thoughtful way 140 00:08:00,806 --> 00:08:05,618 are quickly dismissed by myopic and emotional impulsive reactions 141 00:08:05,907 --> 00:08:07,901 and symbolic irrationality. 142 00:08:08,830 --> 00:08:11,680 In fact I would have to argue that the greatest failure in the world today 143 00:08:11,796 --> 00:08:16,698 is that of creativity, and an expanded sense of possibility. 144 00:08:17,340 --> 00:08:19,680 People are afraid of things they can't see of course 145 00:08:19,790 --> 00:08:21,610 or don't understand or haven't learned about - 146 00:08:22,036 --> 00:08:25,563 a kind of indoctrination and laziness continues to limit the debate 147 00:08:25,901 --> 00:08:27,809 of what our future could be, 148 00:08:28,220 --> 00:08:32,640 locked into bogus identity politics, isms, 149 00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:37,095 unnuanced childish distractions of left and right, 150 00:08:37,286 --> 00:08:39,267 alt right, centric, 151 00:08:39,384 --> 00:08:41,495 capitalist, socialist, communist, 152 00:08:42,990 --> 00:08:45,550 and a host of other unnuanced labels 153 00:08:45,956 --> 00:08:49,089 that serve only to keep people thinking categorically, 154 00:08:49,876 --> 00:08:53,200 ignorant, polarized, and easily manipulated. 155 00:08:54,350 --> 00:08:57,864 The power of language and the associative symbolic myopic nature 156 00:08:57,975 --> 00:09:00,440 of political discourse now blinds us, 157 00:09:00,756 --> 00:09:02,184 and it's time we snap out of it 158 00:09:02,443 --> 00:09:04,344 and expand our sense of possibility. 159 00:09:06,180 --> 00:09:09,987 Brings me to part one - Structuralism: Culture and Biology. 160 00:09:11,575 --> 00:09:15,138 Again I've spoken a great deal about things like structuralism in the past 161 00:09:15,280 --> 00:09:17,686 and this will be more of an overview of it. 162 00:09:18,067 --> 00:09:20,904 And if you want to look into this concept as I will go through a bit, 163 00:09:21,089 --> 00:09:22,129 I encourage it. 164 00:09:22,381 --> 00:09:25,704 But the details by which I'm gonna go through this will be relatively advanced. 165 00:09:27,353 --> 00:09:29,784 I'm going to expand the context of structuralism 166 00:09:29,963 --> 00:09:33,138 from the influence of culture, environment and social system 167 00:09:33,612 --> 00:09:37,255 to include how those inputs interact with our biology, 168 00:09:37,809 --> 00:09:42,326 given the biopsychosocial nature of the organisms that we are. 169 00:09:44,178 --> 00:09:48,301 While there is ongoing debate about time scales of biological evolution, 170 00:09:48,412 --> 00:09:52,104 specifically with respect to the human brain and behavioral variability, 171 00:09:52,652 --> 00:09:57,107 it's safe to say that if you took a newborn child from say 25,000 years ago, 172 00:09:57,427 --> 00:09:58,867 and raised him or her today, 173 00:09:59,132 --> 00:10:02,707 the characteristics of that child, and eventually adult, 174 00:10:03,206 --> 00:10:06,621 would be indiscernible from the average person born in the present day. 175 00:10:07,655 --> 00:10:11,341 Likewise it is a fact that we modern humans can trace our genetic lineage 176 00:10:11,452 --> 00:10:14,861 to a woman from East Africa commonly termed 'Mitochondrial Eve' 177 00:10:15,130 --> 00:10:17,267 who lived roughly 150,000 years ago. 178 00:10:17,747 --> 00:10:21,329 Hence we are all African, we have all been set in motion so to speak, 179 00:10:21,593 --> 00:10:23,520 with the same basic genetic makeup. 180 00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:27,760 And while there have certainly been selective genetic changes in groups 181 00:10:27,876 --> 00:10:30,707 such as the development of different skin colors and 182 00:10:30,812 --> 00:10:34,264 physical features due to exposure to different areas of the planet, 183 00:10:34,726 --> 00:10:39,580 the idea that any groups of humans on this planet are genetically superior or inferior, 184 00:10:39,966 --> 00:10:44,380 or perhaps having developed novel cultural behaviors driven by genetics 185 00:10:44,640 --> 00:10:45,813 is completely unfounded. 186 00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:48,206 And what this means 187 00:10:48,406 --> 00:10:52,626 is that the vast array of human behavior we have seen historically on the cultural level, 188 00:10:53,193 --> 00:10:56,566 from the routine human sacrifice of the Aztecs 189 00:10:56,746 --> 00:10:58,560 to the polygamy of Mormonism 190 00:10:59,026 --> 00:11:03,180 to the end of cannibalism of the Amazonian Yanomami tribe, 191 00:11:03,626 --> 00:11:06,440 to many other examples, can only be 192 00:11:06,686 --> 00:11:08,966 linked to the influence of environment 193 00:11:09,153 --> 00:11:11,380 and the social institutions and traditions 194 00:11:11,693 --> 00:11:13,560 of a given society and period. 195 00:11:15,206 --> 00:11:18,066 This is not to discount the role of biology, 196 00:11:18,293 --> 00:11:20,953 evolutionary psychology, or in effect what is, 197 00:11:21,166 --> 00:11:24,753 again the biopsychosocial synergy of our existence. 198 00:11:25,053 --> 00:11:28,633 This isn't about behaviorism, in lieu of say BF Skinner. 199 00:11:29,593 --> 00:11:32,566 The nature of our brains and our genetics have an integral role 200 00:11:32,673 --> 00:11:34,873 in all outcomes of behavior on some level. 201 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:37,833 But they are not actively deterministic influences 202 00:11:37,953 --> 00:11:39,833 when it comes to the phenomenon of culture. 203 00:11:40,446 --> 00:11:41,533 Sorry to drill this in: 204 00:11:41,646 --> 00:11:44,440 pop society loves to separate nature, nurture, 205 00:11:44,700 --> 00:11:47,060 or more accurately genetics and environment. 206 00:11:47,630 --> 00:11:50,706 Yet biological evolution is also a kind of molding 207 00:11:50,846 --> 00:11:53,080 of our genetic makeup through natural selection, 208 00:11:53,653 --> 00:11:57,920 which basically started with a single-cell organism some 3.5 billion years ago. 209 00:11:58,173 --> 00:12:00,820 The complexity of your form, who you are physically, 210 00:12:01,033 --> 00:12:03,213 is really an environmental outcome, 211 00:12:04,320 --> 00:12:07,693 and with this kind of genetic play-doh that's 212 00:12:07,800 --> 00:12:09,913 been utilized since the single-celled organism. 213 00:12:10,500 --> 00:12:12,930 And it's evolved through environmental interactions 214 00:12:13,047 --> 00:12:16,410 into the complex organisms we are today, driven by environment. 215 00:12:17,126 --> 00:12:19,220 Now the reason I bring all this up is because 216 00:12:19,373 --> 00:12:22,993 one outstanding myth that leads to a set of other myths 217 00:12:23,720 --> 00:12:26,133 we have in support of the way the world is, 218 00:12:26,426 --> 00:12:29,653 is that "society reflects our immutable human nature," 219 00:12:30,253 --> 00:12:33,580 as if in the long term our nature can be called "fixed." 220 00:12:33,953 --> 00:12:37,326 It's a legitimizing establishment-preserving myth, 221 00:12:38,006 --> 00:12:41,680 for if society is a reflection of our immutable human nature, well guess what - 222 00:12:41,966 --> 00:12:44,600 there's no reason to attempt to change society. 223 00:12:46,040 --> 00:12:48,740 We see this worldview throughout recorded history 224 00:12:48,900 --> 00:12:52,980 to one degree or another especially in the realm of political economy and philosophy. 225 00:12:53,553 --> 00:12:58,786 In fact I am unaware of any historically recognized political or economic theorist 226 00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:01,630 that didn't propagate the false notion that humanity's 227 00:13:01,747 --> 00:13:04,307 apparent brute, selfish and competitive nature 228 00:13:04,640 --> 00:13:07,780 was simply an immutable law of our existence 229 00:13:08,073 --> 00:13:09,486 and something to be dealt with. 230 00:13:10,070 --> 00:13:13,766 For example Thomas Hobbes, considered the father of political philosophy, 231 00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:17,120 famously proposed that humanity's state was one "of war," 232 00:13:17,846 --> 00:13:19,380 therefore he implied in fact 233 00:13:19,626 --> 00:13:23,106 that a dictatorial sovereign power and hierarchy was actually needed 234 00:13:23,453 --> 00:13:25,613 to oversee and control society. 235 00:13:26,610 --> 00:13:29,213 When Charles Darwin came along with his theory of evolution 236 00:13:29,320 --> 00:13:32,386 his 'survival of the fittest' notion was quickly bastardized, 237 00:13:32,680 --> 00:13:36,406 distorted to support elitism, oppression and dominant power. 238 00:13:36,893 --> 00:13:41,506 This misconception further added fuel to yet another highly influential economist, 239 00:13:41,713 --> 00:13:45,233 someone of particular despotism: Thomas Malthus. 240 00:13:46,633 --> 00:13:51,406 While Malthus' fatalism is different from general human nature myths, 241 00:13:51,966 --> 00:13:54,546 his theory of population, if you're familiar, 242 00:13:54,660 --> 00:13:58,953 is still generally accepted today, albeit rarely verbalized, 243 00:13:59,390 --> 00:14:02,726 as it is very politically inconvenient to talk about something like this, 244 00:14:03,213 --> 00:14:06,440 with the basic idea that the poor of the world cannot be helped 245 00:14:06,940 --> 00:14:10,526 since nature will always be in deficiency to some degree 246 00:14:10,730 --> 00:14:13,716 in meeting an inevitable growing population. 247 00:14:14,826 --> 00:14:19,346 Malthus even went so far in his time to criticize Europe's Poor Laws as they were called 248 00:14:19,550 --> 00:14:22,676 and rejected the idea of social compassion when it came to poverty. 249 00:14:23,453 --> 00:14:27,620 He stated "To act consistently therefore we should facilitate, 250 00:14:27,746 --> 00:14:30,793 instead of foolishly and vainly endeavoring to impede, 251 00:14:31,073 --> 00:14:33,940 the operations of nature in producing this mortality. 252 00:14:34,293 --> 00:14:37,326 Instead of recommending cleanliness to the poor we should encourage 253 00:14:37,433 --> 00:14:40,653 contrary habits. In our towns we should make the streets narrower, 254 00:14:40,793 --> 00:14:43,973 crowd more people into the houses and court the return of the plague. 255 00:14:44,893 --> 00:14:47,840 In the country, we should build our villages near stagnant pools, 256 00:14:47,953 --> 00:14:51,493 and particularly encourage settlements in all marshy and unwholesome situations. 257 00:14:51,686 --> 00:14:55,720 But above all, we should reprobate specific remedies 258 00:14:55,833 --> 00:15:00,326 for ravaging diseases, and those benevolent but much mistaken men, 259 00:15:00,533 --> 00:15:03,626 who have thought they were doing a service to mankind 260 00:15:03,806 --> 00:15:08,500 by projecting schemes for the total extirpation of particular disorders." 261 00:15:13,446 --> 00:15:15,193 As an aside I wish to point out 262 00:15:15,730 --> 00:15:17,666 that much of the world as it exists today 263 00:15:17,770 --> 00:15:20,113 begins to make a whole lot of sense 264 00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:23,680 when you consider the influence of Malthus, who is 265 00:15:24,206 --> 00:15:27,820 probably one of the first world economists of the British East India Company, 266 00:15:28,613 --> 00:15:31,840 coupled with the haphazard conception of social Darwinism. 267 00:15:32,740 --> 00:15:35,433 Whether noted in public policy or not, 268 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:40,180 this overall worldview is clearly in the general philosophy, 269 00:15:40,410 --> 00:15:43,740 [in] the back pockets of big business and world governance, 270 00:15:44,153 --> 00:15:48,066 justifying continued inequality, social dominance, oppression, 271 00:15:48,266 --> 00:15:52,806 rampant poverty, and the vast, direct and structural violence 272 00:15:53,020 --> 00:15:55,033 inherent to our economic system. 273 00:15:56,933 --> 00:16:00,613 ... once again from the inherent dynamics incentives 274 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:06,253 of an economy based on scarcity and trade-strategizing dominance, 275 00:16:06,433 --> 00:16:08,506 which I'm going to expand upon in the next section. 276 00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:10,800 Trade strategizing dominance: 277 00:16:10,910 --> 00:16:12,727 I want that phrase to stick with you guys. 278 00:16:13,500 --> 00:16:16,440 This Malthusian, socially Darwinistic perspective 279 00:16:16,553 --> 00:16:21,273 is a significant reason why we have seen very little real progress 280 00:16:21,533 --> 00:16:25,346 in the developing poverty-stricken and disease-laden nations today, 281 00:16:26,173 --> 00:16:29,600 or even in the relative poverty and homeless crisis 282 00:16:29,740 --> 00:16:31,766 we see in the affluent nations. 283 00:16:33,586 --> 00:16:37,666 I'm sorry to say it is an unspoken yet ever-present value system and mindset 284 00:16:38,666 --> 00:16:42,713 that the poor should suffer and die, and the rich should live and prosper. 285 00:16:43,860 --> 00:16:47,273 And it is this manifest structural violence that kills more people 286 00:16:47,380 --> 00:16:50,493 than all the wars, dictators and plagues combined. 287 00:16:51,193 --> 00:16:54,773 Estimates put this death toll at about 18 million a year 288 00:16:54,966 --> 00:16:57,573 due to socioeconomic inequality. 289 00:16:58,930 --> 00:17:01,506 That's numerous holocausts a year. 290 00:17:03,006 --> 00:17:06,120 That's more than communism claimed to kill in a century, 291 00:17:06,366 --> 00:17:08,120 in 6 years, 292 00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:10,840 due to socioeconomic inequality and poverty. 293 00:17:11,150 --> 00:17:15,985 Meanwhile, 5 people today have more wealth in the entire 50% of the world. 294 00:17:17,793 --> 00:17:19,166 So tangent aside, 295 00:17:19,780 --> 00:17:22,813 and returning to my central point regarding biological determinism, 296 00:17:23,490 --> 00:17:27,660 culture and the various naturalist myth's "appeal to nature" fallacies 297 00:17:27,806 --> 00:17:30,313 we find that preserve the status quo, 298 00:17:30,493 --> 00:17:34,046 show through cognitive neuroscience and other studies, 299 00:17:34,506 --> 00:17:36,866 prove, and there's no reason to assume, 300 00:17:37,140 --> 00:17:40,440 that there's any kind of predominant, competitive, acquisitive 301 00:17:40,550 --> 00:17:44,746 narrow self-interest in-group out-group biased society propensity 302 00:17:44,973 --> 00:17:46,526 which is some "law of nature." 303 00:17:46,820 --> 00:17:50,933 In the same way there is no reason to conclude poverty is a social inevitability. 304 00:17:51,326 --> 00:17:54,286 The human mind is an extremely powerful and flexible system 305 00:17:54,666 --> 00:17:56,013 when it comes to behavior. 306 00:17:56,313 --> 00:17:58,140 It can be an organ of thoughtfulness, 307 00:17:58,413 --> 00:18:01,080 compassion, extensionality and collaborative incentive, 308 00:18:01,433 --> 00:18:04,806 as evidenced by the later stage development of our frontal cortex, 309 00:18:05,013 --> 00:18:08,786 or it can be an organ of fear, hate, selfishness and domination 310 00:18:09,060 --> 00:18:12,873 as evidenced by our older, lower so-called reptilian areas 311 00:18:13,020 --> 00:18:15,046 such as the amygdala and limbic system. 312 00:18:16,266 --> 00:18:18,133 And when you combine the power of culture - 313 00:18:18,786 --> 00:18:22,200 the fact every word I'm saying has been taught to me, 314 00:18:22,460 --> 00:18:25,586 the fact that I'm an amalgamation of everything that I've been born into, 315 00:18:25,706 --> 00:18:28,326 the fact that I'm not wearing a Victorian gown right now - 316 00:18:29,286 --> 00:18:33,006 is because I've learned through this society the way I should be 317 00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:35,653 or in the sense of the feedback system, 318 00:18:35,940 --> 00:18:38,280 the way I will end up invariably being 319 00:18:38,433 --> 00:18:40,280 because of my exposures to the environment. 320 00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:44,540 And you combine this force with the variability you see in our mind and biology 321 00:18:44,653 --> 00:18:46,540 as proven by cognitive neuroscience, 322 00:18:47,020 --> 00:18:51,546 and this is my point, we realize a kind of dynamic structuralism 323 00:18:51,873 --> 00:18:54,346 that very much underscores and controls 324 00:18:54,526 --> 00:18:57,266 what we call our consciousness or free will. 325 00:18:58,733 --> 00:19:02,806 And we can't expect to change our society or civilization 326 00:19:03,133 --> 00:19:05,026 without understanding ourselves; 327 00:19:05,700 --> 00:19:09,246 what influences us and our shared biological reactions. 328 00:19:09,686 --> 00:19:13,820 This mythology that we are strong, individual, rational human beings 329 00:19:13,963 --> 00:19:18,030 walking the earth with complete conscious control, is a myth, 330 00:19:18,380 --> 00:19:22,420 as paradoxical and complex as that is to say to yourself 331 00:19:22,533 --> 00:19:25,530 because your brain is telling you something different all the time. 332 00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:30,273 Now, stepping back, I first heard the term "structuralism" 333 00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:32,966 used by Johan Galtung of the Gandhi Institute, 334 00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:36,266 As a scholar of Gandhi he had this to say, 335 00:19:36,373 --> 00:19:39,373 which I think is an insightful qualification. 336 00:19:40,246 --> 00:19:42,820 "Gandhi saw conflict in the deeper sense 337 00:19:42,933 --> 00:19:45,880 as something that was built into social structures, 338 00:19:46,193 --> 00:19:47,746 not into the persons 339 00:19:48,333 --> 00:19:51,846 Colonialism was a structure and caste was a structure; 340 00:19:52,653 --> 00:19:57,166 both of them filled with persons performing their duties according to their roles or statuses. 341 00:19:57,473 --> 00:20:01,806 The evil was in the structure, not in the person who carried out his obligations. 342 00:20:02,126 --> 00:20:03,740 Exploitation is violence, 343 00:20:03,926 --> 00:20:07,653 but it is quite clear Gandhi sees it as a structural relationship 344 00:20:07,993 --> 00:20:12,900 more than the intended evil inflicted upon innocent victims by evil men. 345 00:20:13,860 --> 00:20:17,952 It's a deeply thoughtful and compassionate and systemic type of perspective, 346 00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:21,100 that's dramatically limited in the modern world. 347 00:20:21,932 --> 00:20:23,243 The profoundness of this, 348 00:20:23,593 --> 00:20:27,316 that we humans can become subservient to social institutions and systems, 349 00:20:27,987 --> 00:20:29,101 takes a while to sink in. 350 00:20:30,073 --> 00:20:32,055 To believe this is to admit to yourself 351 00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:35,655 that depending on the nuances of your biology and social condition, 352 00:20:35,876 --> 00:20:37,870 you can effectively be manipulated 353 00:20:37,987 --> 00:20:40,627 by larger order forces beyond your control. 354 00:20:41,587 --> 00:20:45,347 And most people's egos once again have a very difficult time with this idea, 355 00:20:45,532 --> 00:20:49,033 as it contradicts again everything that your experience is telling you. 356 00:20:49,710 --> 00:20:52,886 But the truth is, the social condition or culture you find yourself [in], 357 00:20:53,027 --> 00:20:55,138 how society is organized and incentivized, 358 00:20:55,415 --> 00:20:57,698 plays a profound role in your sense of identity 359 00:20:57,907 --> 00:20:59,778 while pinging or exciting 360 00:21:00,012 --> 00:21:02,695 parts of your brain that amplify the probability 361 00:21:02,843 --> 00:21:05,329 of certain behaviors to occur, or not. 362 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:10,116 If you generate a social structure that creates 363 00:21:10,252 --> 00:21:13,556 a culture of insecurity and fear like we have today, 364 00:21:13,766 --> 00:21:15,784 you're going to excite older parts of the brain: 365 00:21:16,012 --> 00:21:17,735 the limbic system that compound, 366 00:21:18,018 --> 00:21:21,076 but are in effect primitive, old primate reactions 367 00:21:21,304 --> 00:21:24,652 such as competition and violence, apathy. 368 00:21:25,187 --> 00:21:28,196 In contrast if you have a structure that creates a sense of safety, 369 00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:30,338 fairness, justice, security, 370 00:21:30,787 --> 00:21:32,843 you will bypass primitive brain reactions 371 00:21:33,003 --> 00:21:36,332 and excite areas of the mind related to higher order intellectual functions, 372 00:21:36,763 --> 00:21:38,547 leading to a strong sense of trust, 373 00:21:38,730 --> 00:21:42,392 social capital, collaboration, empathy and so on. 374 00:21:43,704 --> 00:21:47,033 In fact, this structuralist perspective forces us 375 00:21:47,169 --> 00:21:50,529 to rethink our ideas of morality and ethics. 376 00:21:51,470 --> 00:21:55,181 The conclusion is that morality and ethics can really only follow 377 00:21:55,513 --> 00:21:57,692 from the social or environmental condition 378 00:21:58,141 --> 00:22:02,467 and are in fact painfully subjective from the standpoint of history. 379 00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:06,178 And if you need evidence of that think of the countless soldiers raised 380 00:22:06,289 --> 00:22:09,510 by wonderful church-going families who never had a violent bone in their bodies 381 00:22:09,630 --> 00:22:11,175 who, sanctioned by their government, 382 00:22:11,698 --> 00:22:14,356 are incentivized by some abstract external threat 383 00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:16,981 and are willing to murder other human beings 384 00:22:17,110 --> 00:22:18,858 that they have never met, in the military. 385 00:22:19,565 --> 00:22:22,080 Or perhaps consider the numerous studies done by people 386 00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:26,022 who have been tested for their sense of responsibility or lack thereof, 387 00:22:26,220 --> 00:22:28,378 such as the Milgram experiment, 388 00:22:28,538 --> 00:22:30,741 the shock experiment I suspect some of you have heard of. 389 00:22:31,085 --> 00:22:34,942 They're incentivized to hurt others under the protection that it isn't really their fault 390 00:22:35,148 --> 00:22:37,011 because they're just following orders. 391 00:22:37,520 --> 00:22:41,594 Or perhaps the Rwandan genocide of 800,000 Tutsis in a 4-month period, 392 00:22:42,028 --> 00:22:45,394 all sanctioned by government and propagandized media 393 00:22:45,891 --> 00:22:49,714 creating a vicious period of mass hypnosis in effect 394 00:22:50,260 --> 00:22:54,880 that was based on a kind of distorted class war that didn't actually even exist. 395 00:22:55,914 --> 00:22:57,280 So I hope my point is clear. 396 00:22:57,930 --> 00:22:59,868 You're not an individual in any technical sense. 397 00:22:59,970 --> 00:23:02,480 We are all deeply vulnerable to the social structures, 398 00:23:02,594 --> 00:23:04,108 dominant institutions and culture 399 00:23:04,262 --> 00:23:06,765 that invariably guide our perception, 400 00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:09,594 and accentuate and attenuate, 401 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:12,683 attenuate aspects of our brain chemistry. 402 00:23:13,977 --> 00:23:17,857 And since we can't change our brains in biology, at least in the short term, 403 00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:20,171 at least not now to any relevant degree 404 00:23:20,571 --> 00:23:23,171 (someone could debate transhumanism and things like that) 405 00:23:24,540 --> 00:23:26,494 this means that we're left with one real option. 406 00:23:27,450 --> 00:23:31,040 If you want to change human behavioral patterns and the institutions 407 00:23:31,150 --> 00:23:33,747 that are political, economic and philosophical, 408 00:23:34,030 --> 00:23:36,923 you have to change the structure we find ourselves, 409 00:23:37,347 --> 00:23:39,286 or better yet to use a medical term, 410 00:23:39,636 --> 00:23:42,326 you have to change the social precondition. 411 00:23:43,366 --> 00:23:47,101 And the most powerful precondition ever-present in our lives 412 00:23:47,624 --> 00:23:50,221 will be found to be the economic structure 413 00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:52,247 as I'll explain in the next section. 414 00:23:53,778 --> 00:23:57,212 Part 2 Origins: Power, Class and Inequality 415 00:23:58,387 --> 00:24:00,787 In this section I'm going to go through the history of our economy: 416 00:24:01,224 --> 00:24:04,338 where it came from and the core attributes that define it. 417 00:24:04,972 --> 00:24:08,332 If I was to frame the academic context of this analysis 418 00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:11,120 it would be one of cultural anthropology, 419 00:24:11,501 --> 00:24:13,680 a subject I hope people will look into, 420 00:24:14,200 --> 00:24:18,018 with the theme being how the logic of our existence today, 421 00:24:18,283 --> 00:24:19,852 especially that of our economy, 422 00:24:20,073 --> 00:24:23,433 has been carved out over time by external forces 423 00:24:23,821 --> 00:24:26,886 which could be termed geographical determinism, 424 00:24:27,329 --> 00:24:30,486 like sand and wind that erode mountains over time. 425 00:24:32,073 --> 00:24:35,236 Roughly 12,000 years ago the human species transitioned 426 00:24:35,341 --> 00:24:37,532 from nomadic hunter-gatherer societies, 427 00:24:37,803 --> 00:24:40,953 tribes foraging and hunting with no agricultural skills, 428 00:24:41,292 --> 00:24:43,483 to farm-cultivating settled societies. 429 00:24:43,944 --> 00:24:45,766 This was termed the Neolithic Revolution. 430 00:24:47,003 --> 00:24:50,713 In form this change marked a kind of technological shift. 431 00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:54,510 Like the advent of mechanization and the Industrial Revolution, 432 00:24:54,990 --> 00:24:58,523 this development of agriculture was basically the application of new 433 00:24:58,670 --> 00:25:00,769 technology, as primitive as it seems. 434 00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:03,330 I point this out because it's worth noting 435 00:25:03,440 --> 00:25:06,385 that the most influential characteristic of a civilization 436 00:25:06,858 --> 00:25:10,510 is the kind of technological means it has, and how its applied. 437 00:25:11,015 --> 00:25:14,166 When very large-scale changes in applied technology occurs, 438 00:25:14,590 --> 00:25:16,930 human culture and behavior tend to change as well. 439 00:25:18,036 --> 00:25:19,600 Before the Neolithic Revolution, 440 00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:22,203 as corroborated by numerous anthropologists 441 00:25:22,313 --> 00:25:25,876 studying both existing and historical hunter-gatherer societies, 442 00:25:26,135 --> 00:25:29,316 small bands and tribes operated without money or markets: 443 00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:30,836 they were egalitarian. 444 00:25:30,984 --> 00:25:33,686 In fact 99% of human history had no money or markets by the way, 445 00:25:34,258 --> 00:25:36,449 with no economic dominance hierarchy. 446 00:25:37,236 --> 00:25:39,858 It's also well established that they had much less violence 447 00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:41,869 and certainly no large-scale warfare. 448 00:25:43,347 --> 00:25:47,784 And while modern culture would gawk at the seemingly crude and minimalistic 449 00:25:48,150 --> 00:25:52,486 reality of hunter-gatherer life today, it's thoughtfully argued 450 00:25:52,633 --> 00:25:55,809 that there really existed a kind of minimalistic affluence, 451 00:25:55,950 --> 00:25:58,609 a simplicity that was accepted and made people happy, 452 00:25:59,138 --> 00:26:01,901 a unique distinction because it really challenges 453 00:26:02,049 --> 00:26:05,200 what we think of today as progress in social success, 454 00:26:05,396 --> 00:26:08,720 which unfortunately is so deeply tied to material progress. 455 00:26:09,975 --> 00:26:14,006 To highlight this contrast here is a quote by anthropologist Marshall Sahlins. 456 00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:19,132 "To accept that hunter-gatherers are affluent is therefore to recognize 457 00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:23,421 that the present human condition of man's slaving to bridge the gap 458 00:26:23,538 --> 00:26:26,289 between his unlimited wants and his insufficient means 459 00:26:26,683 --> 00:26:28,541 is a tragedy of modern times. 460 00:26:29,058 --> 00:26:31,840 Modern capitalist societies, however richly endowed, 461 00:26:32,086 --> 00:26:35,033 dedicate themselves to the proposition of scarcity. 462 00:26:35,698 --> 00:26:39,040 Inadequacy of economic means is the first principle 463 00:26:39,267 --> 00:26:41,353 of the world's wealthiest peoples." 464 00:26:42,713 --> 00:26:46,990 "The market-industrial system institutes scarcity in a manner completely without parallel. 465 00:26:47,470 --> 00:26:50,953 Where production and distribution are arranged through the behavior of prices, 466 00:26:51,427 --> 00:26:54,326 and all livelihoods depend on getting and spending, 467 00:26:54,860 --> 00:26:58,030 insufficiency of material means becomes the explicit 468 00:26:58,350 --> 00:27:01,852 calculable starting point of all economic activity." 469 00:27:03,187 --> 00:27:08,387 I'd like to highlight this notion of a society based upon scarcity 470 00:27:08,516 --> 00:27:10,744 because I'll be returning to that in a moment; 471 00:27:11,150 --> 00:27:12,436 it's a very critical theme. 472 00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:16,006 In modern terms, 473 00:27:16,283 --> 00:27:19,926 hunter-gatherers basically had a gift economy as we'd call it today, 474 00:27:20,486 --> 00:27:23,643 where they shared with no direct expectation of reciprocation. 475 00:27:24,670 --> 00:27:28,221 There are even modern stories of outsiders being given handicrafts 476 00:27:28,338 --> 00:27:30,246 from existing hunter-gatherer tribes 477 00:27:30,529 --> 00:27:32,547 only to feel the need to give something in return, 478 00:27:32,683 --> 00:27:36,713 as many in our market, effectively agrarian-based cultures do. 479 00:27:37,636 --> 00:27:40,960 This reciprocal behavior was considered offensive by the tribe, 480 00:27:41,329 --> 00:27:43,920 as they felt the exchange was a refusal of friendship. 481 00:27:45,864 --> 00:27:50,750 British anthropologist Tim Ingold highlights that the difference between giving and exchange 482 00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:53,665 has to do with a social perception based around 483 00:27:53,932 --> 00:27:58,707 autonomous companionship versus involuntary obligation. 484 00:27:59,673 --> 00:28:04,252 He states: "Clearly, both hunter-gatherers and agricultural cultivators 485 00:28:04,646 --> 00:28:06,250 depend on their environments. 486 00:28:06,610 --> 00:28:09,470 But whereas for cultivators this dependency is framed 487 00:28:09,593 --> 00:28:12,170 within a structure of reciprocal obligation, 488 00:28:12,990 --> 00:28:17,009 for hunter-gatherers it rests on the recognition of personal autonomy. 489 00:28:17,636 --> 00:28:21,760 The contrast is between relationships based on trust 490 00:28:22,190 --> 00:28:24,553 and those based on domination." 491 00:28:25,058 --> 00:28:26,550 I'm going to read that final part again. 492 00:28:27,163 --> 00:28:30,350 "The contrast is between relationships based on trust 493 00:28:30,646 --> 00:28:32,750 and those based on domination." 494 00:28:33,575 --> 00:28:35,858 This is a subtle but powerful distinction. 495 00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:37,858 Cultivator society, 496 00:28:38,184 --> 00:28:41,046 which almost always is a market society, 497 00:28:41,347 --> 00:28:43,329 generates a social perception 498 00:28:43,735 --> 00:28:45,704 NOT based upon mutual concern, 499 00:28:46,246 --> 00:28:49,556 but rather trade-strategizing dominance: 500 00:28:49,993 --> 00:28:51,550 gaming for survival. 501 00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:55,507 So in short the Neolithic Revolution set in motion 502 00:28:55,610 --> 00:28:57,427 the core framework of the modern world: 503 00:28:57,686 --> 00:28:59,833 settlement, property, protection, 504 00:29:00,055 --> 00:29:04,252 labor specialization, trade, governance, capacities for war, and so on. 505 00:29:04,806 --> 00:29:08,880 Each one of these characteristics was born out of the natural logic 506 00:29:09,384 --> 00:29:12,652 based upon the new settled, and producing paradigm, 507 00:29:13,052 --> 00:29:15,138 hence the geographical determinism, 508 00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:19,476 translating survival requisites into eventual tradition. 509 00:29:21,255 --> 00:29:23,427 We also get the formation of a culture 510 00:29:23,563 --> 00:29:28,135 that learns to perceive life through this scarcity-and-protectionist worldview. 511 00:29:28,923 --> 00:29:32,104 And given disproportionate labor skills, means, 512 00:29:32,393 --> 00:29:36,141 and the unequal benefits of certain geographical features (capital), 513 00:29:36,658 --> 00:29:40,092 the outcomes of inequality, competition and mass conflict 514 00:29:40,467 --> 00:29:43,347 were simply inevitable as this evolution continued. 515 00:29:44,646 --> 00:29:48,960 In turn, ever-hardening values around competitive self-interest manifest, 516 00:29:49,286 --> 00:29:54,086 with these psychological gravitations extending into sociological ones, 517 00:29:54,412 --> 00:29:58,043 forming social structures, institutions and customs 518 00:29:58,221 --> 00:30:02,898 derived from the scarcity, competitive and protectionist worldview once again. 519 00:30:03,421 --> 00:30:06,966 Again all this was set in motion by the geographical determinism 520 00:30:07,101 --> 00:30:08,553 of the Neolithic Revolution. 521 00:30:09,403 --> 00:30:12,627 Now, some may ask "Why couldn't it have gone another way?" 522 00:30:13,403 --> 00:30:15,963 In this book 'Man's Rise to Civilization' by Peter Farb, 523 00:30:16,070 --> 00:30:18,886 he describes numerous cultures that were in fact agrarian 524 00:30:18,996 --> 00:30:21,255 that lived very very differently and very egalitarianly. 525 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:24,615 So why couldn't it have gone another another way on a large scale? 526 00:30:25,347 --> 00:30:28,978 If people realized they have disproportionate skills in different regions of different qualities, 527 00:30:29,163 --> 00:30:32,640 why didn't just a larger, more communal connected society form 528 00:30:32,750 --> 00:30:36,836 based upon the original hunter-gatherer value system and principles? 529 00:30:37,156 --> 00:30:41,710 Because hunter-gatherers didn't just have a natural sense of egalitarianism per se, 530 00:30:41,944 --> 00:30:44,646 they actually actively preserved their egalitarianism. 531 00:30:45,107 --> 00:30:47,458 It was called reverse-dominance hierarchy by some theories 532 00:30:47,563 --> 00:30:49,083 and they worked against anyone 533 00:30:49,193 --> 00:30:51,913 that did rise up and start to pollute the community 534 00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:53,630 with overt self-interest. 535 00:30:53,870 --> 00:30:56,504 It was an active recognition in hunter-gatherer society. 536 00:30:58,203 --> 00:31:01,667 Well, as I said historically it did go the other way in rare cases. 537 00:31:02,024 --> 00:31:05,833 We have knowledge of agrarian First Nations people - indigenous populations - that 538 00:31:05,950 --> 00:31:09,360 due to the small size of community and the benefits of their region 539 00:31:09,470 --> 00:31:12,246 - effectively surplus - they did not fully succumb 540 00:31:12,670 --> 00:31:15,969 to this overt competitive scarcity-based dominance outcome. 541 00:31:16,738 --> 00:31:18,916 But those are exceptions to the rule, 542 00:31:19,187 --> 00:31:22,516 and the very fact that most of those cultures are now extinct today 543 00:31:23,206 --> 00:31:25,501 shows the power of the underlying framework 544 00:31:26,010 --> 00:31:28,683 of the survival mechanism set in motion. 545 00:31:29,895 --> 00:31:32,160 In the words of neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky: 546 00:31:33,378 --> 00:31:36,800 "Hunter-gatherers had thousands of wild sources of food to subsist on. 547 00:31:37,236 --> 00:31:40,701 Agriculture changed all that, generating an overwhelming reliance 548 00:31:40,818 --> 00:31:42,492 on a few dozen food sources. 549 00:31:42,836 --> 00:31:46,215 Agriculture allowed for the stockpiling of surplus resources 550 00:31:46,516 --> 00:31:48,910 and thus inevitably the unequal stockpiling of them - 551 00:31:49,378 --> 00:31:52,369 stratification of society and the invention of classes. 552 00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:55,720 Thus it has allowed for the invention of poverty." 553 00:31:58,387 --> 00:31:59,821 So to summarize for clarity: 554 00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:02,080 "Since the Neolithic Revolution, 555 00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:06,640 we've had a process of economically-driven cultural adaptation 556 00:32:07,243 --> 00:32:10,916 built around the survival requisites of the relatively new, 557 00:32:11,230 --> 00:32:12,910 settled agrarian paradigm. 558 00:32:13,575 --> 00:32:16,929 The evolution of post-Neolithic culture was self-guided 559 00:32:17,366 --> 00:32:19,907 by systemic environmental pressures 560 00:32:20,135 --> 00:32:23,901 and survival inferences - geographical determinism - 561 00:32:24,356 --> 00:32:27,255 common to the natural dynamics of the new mode of production. 562 00:32:28,086 --> 00:32:32,455 This gave birth the dominance-oriented incentives, values, and protections, 563 00:32:32,664 --> 00:32:35,661 evolving patterns of conflict, hierarchy, elitism 564 00:32:35,827 --> 00:32:39,673 and disproportional allocation of physical and social resources." 565 00:32:40,935 --> 00:32:44,356 To translate in terms of modern political economy as we know it, 566 00:32:44,609 --> 00:32:47,501 "You thus have the basis of property (ownership), 567 00:32:47,827 --> 00:32:49,612 capital (means of production), 568 00:32:49,969 --> 00:32:53,723 labor specialization (jobs), regulation (government), 569 00:32:53,938 --> 00:32:57,113 and protection (law/police/military). 570 00:32:57,735 --> 00:33:01,403 In other words you have grounds for what is now the ultimate mechanism of survival - 571 00:33:01,870 --> 00:33:03,716 the market system of economics." 572 00:33:04,250 --> 00:33:08,098 To which all of these aspects are actually intrinsic and immutable 573 00:33:08,541 --> 00:33:13,083 despite the utopian ideals and abstractions of libertarians 574 00:33:13,384 --> 00:33:18,283 and those effectively basking in the sociopathic free-market delusions of Ayn Rand. 575 00:33:20,775 --> 00:33:23,236 Pick up any introductory textbook on market theory 576 00:33:23,340 --> 00:33:25,570 and you'll notice the rationale of the market's very existence 577 00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:27,549 starts with one fundamental premise: 578 00:33:27,833 --> 00:33:29,852 "Resources and means are scarce." 579 00:33:30,535 --> 00:33:32,264 There's no qualification other than that. 580 00:33:32,553 --> 00:33:33,963 It doesn't matter if you're a billionaire, 581 00:33:34,221 --> 00:33:37,747 these people still have the mindset of operating as though they're poor, 582 00:33:38,707 --> 00:33:42,006 at least in terms of how they work and engage trade with others. 583 00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:46,073 Their little compassion is shown in the act of competitive trade from billionaires. 584 00:33:46,180 --> 00:33:49,212 In fact as social studies have shown, psychological studies have shown, 585 00:33:49,396 --> 00:33:51,452 it actually gets worse the more money they get. 586 00:33:52,104 --> 00:33:54,990 And from this premise - resources and means are scarce - 587 00:33:55,230 --> 00:33:58,727 the architecture of not only the economy but of society itself has been derived. 588 00:34:01,316 --> 00:34:04,947 I call it the root socioeconomic orientation of our world. 589 00:34:05,286 --> 00:34:07,076 Root Socioeconomic Orientation. 590 00:34:07,766 --> 00:34:10,135 It justifies brute competition, narrow self-interest, 591 00:34:10,240 --> 00:34:12,338 elitist hierarchy, inequality, and oppression. 592 00:34:13,501 --> 00:34:15,538 And the central mechanism of this system - 593 00:34:15,790 --> 00:34:20,172 what keeps society divided and accentuates the endless abuse we see, 594 00:34:20,393 --> 00:34:23,316 whether individual or by whatever elite minority - 595 00:34:23,643 --> 00:34:26,701 is again trade-strategizing dominance: 596 00:34:27,163 --> 00:34:31,020 the kernel incentive rational process. 597 00:34:31,926 --> 00:34:33,950 It has been the root logic of trade 598 00:34:34,603 --> 00:34:37,618 despite material progress we have seen over time, 599 00:34:37,796 --> 00:34:40,012 since especially the Industrial Revolution 600 00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:44,264 that ruins humanity's capacity to function 601 00:34:44,375 --> 00:34:46,443 in a socially just and sustainable way. 602 00:34:46,953 --> 00:34:48,596 This gaming mentality, 603 00:34:48,873 --> 00:34:53,021 which is also a core prerequisite for racism, bigotry, and xenophobia, 604 00:34:53,526 --> 00:34:56,572 rooted deep in the cultural norm that we live, 605 00:34:57,095 --> 00:35:00,067 and this dysfunctional scarce idea 606 00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:03,323 where any surplus that happens, any abundance, 607 00:35:03,476 --> 00:35:04,836 can only appear to be transient. 608 00:35:05,070 --> 00:35:08,529 You can't rationalize a world where there's actually enough to go around 609 00:35:08,658 --> 00:35:10,806 even if it was mathematically possible, 610 00:35:11,169 --> 00:35:12,566 which it actually is. 611 00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:16,621 And again if you dig deep into the worldview of some of the most dominant and revered 612 00:35:16,730 --> 00:35:19,803 Western political and economic philosophers from Adam Smith 613 00:35:19,963 --> 00:35:23,624 to John Locke, to again Malthus, to John Stuart Mill and many others, 614 00:35:23,741 --> 00:35:26,818 you find little deviation of this social preconception: 615 00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:31,569 one that says it is natural for us to fight, because that's just the way it is. 616 00:35:31,704 --> 00:35:33,218 In the words of John McMurtry, 617 00:35:33,581 --> 00:35:36,996 "This tendency prevails from the Continental Rationalists on. 618 00:35:37,489 --> 00:35:42,153 Leibniz, Spinoza, Descartes, Berkeley, Kant, Hegel, for example, 619 00:35:42,264 --> 00:35:46,461 more or less entirely presuppose the social regime of their day 620 00:35:46,713 --> 00:35:48,326 and its constituent forms 621 00:35:48,443 --> 00:35:51,901 as in some way the expression of a divine Mind, 622 00:35:52,116 --> 00:35:55,076 which they see it as their rational duty 623 00:35:55,243 --> 00:35:57,735 only to accept or to justify." 624 00:35:58,073 --> 00:35:59,932 It's the climate of opinion. 625 00:36:02,055 --> 00:36:05,630 Part 3 The State, Democracy and Fascism 626 00:36:07,130 --> 00:36:07,883 So. 627 00:36:08,701 --> 00:36:10,313 If global society as we know it 628 00:36:10,430 --> 00:36:13,950 has undergone a systemic unfolding from the Neolithic Revolution, 629 00:36:14,603 --> 00:36:16,596 what can we learn about the nature of government 630 00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:20,916 within this unfolding and climate? Well first, 631 00:36:21,021 --> 00:36:25,080 we see that government actually proceeds from the economic premise of a society 632 00:36:25,396 --> 00:36:26,720 and not the other way around. 633 00:36:27,569 --> 00:36:31,101 It is the preordained economic mode of society 634 00:36:31,236 --> 00:36:33,692 that decides what government is, 635 00:36:33,993 --> 00:36:36,861 what it does and where its loyalties reside. 636 00:36:37,815 --> 00:36:41,046 If you examine historical variations of social systems, 637 00:36:41,427 --> 00:36:44,516 historical capitalism, communism, socialism, 638 00:36:44,621 --> 00:36:46,461 feudalism, mercantilism and so on 639 00:36:46,867 --> 00:36:49,452 - and you'll notice I said historical and not theoretical - 640 00:36:50,170 --> 00:36:52,990 you realize that the governing architecture of those systems 641 00:36:53,101 --> 00:36:57,673 served to protect and perpetuate the prevailing economic and class structures 642 00:36:57,960 --> 00:36:59,272 that ultimately define them. 643 00:37:00,504 --> 00:37:03,753 Feudalism for example was a structure based upon land ownership, 644 00:37:03,901 --> 00:37:07,618 the means of production, labor, and class interdependence 645 00:37:07,815 --> 00:37:10,086 going from the peasant up to the king. 646 00:37:10,836 --> 00:37:15,261 Capitalism in contrast is based upon dynamics of private property, 647 00:37:15,476 --> 00:37:17,083 buying and selling and ownership, 648 00:37:17,433 --> 00:37:20,067 and the mechanism of ownership and wealth translating 649 00:37:20,258 --> 00:37:22,338 into power and control. 650 00:37:23,433 --> 00:37:26,603 Here is a quote by Australian economist John C. Wood, 651 00:37:27,009 --> 00:37:29,618 who was a scholar of a sociologist that I 652 00:37:30,098 --> 00:37:32,123 often recommend named Thorstein Veblen. 653 00:37:32,660 --> 00:37:34,356 And I think this summation of Veblen - 654 00:37:34,465 --> 00:37:37,660 who is extremely verbose and rather complicated to read - 655 00:37:38,209 --> 00:37:40,880 gets to the heart of what we're facing in terms of 656 00:37:40,990 --> 00:37:42,880 the structure of government within capitalism. 657 00:37:43,932 --> 00:37:46,916 He states "Veblen wrote extensively and insightfully 658 00:37:47,021 --> 00:37:50,726 on the relationship between capitalist government and the class struggle. 659 00:37:50,953 --> 00:37:53,630 For Veblen, the ultimate power in the capitalist system 660 00:37:53,809 --> 00:37:57,120 is in the hands of the owners because they control the government. 661 00:37:57,710 --> 00:38:00,763 The government is the institutionally legitimizing means of 662 00:38:00,870 --> 00:38:03,403 physical coercion in any society. 663 00:38:04,030 --> 00:38:08,610 As such, it exists to protect the existing social order and class structure. 664 00:38:09,101 --> 00:38:13,840 This means that the primary duty of government is to enforce private property laws 665 00:38:14,067 --> 00:38:16,910 and protect the privileges associated with ownership." 666 00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:22,356 "Veblen repeatedly insisted that 'modern politics is business politics.' 667 00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:26,775 The first principle of a capitalist government is that - to quote Veblen - 668 00:38:26,970 --> 00:38:28,830 'The natural freedom of the individual 669 00:38:28,940 --> 00:38:31,992 must not transverse the prescriptive rights of property. 670 00:38:32,460 --> 00:38:37,476 Property rights have the indefeasibilty which attached to natural rights.' 671 00:38:37,901 --> 00:38:42,486 The principle freedom of capitalism is the freedom to buy and sell." 672 00:38:43,507 --> 00:38:47,181 "The laissez-faire philosophy dictates that - to quote Veblen - 673 00:38:47,372 --> 00:38:50,160 'So long as there is no overt attempt on life ... 674 00:38:50,449 --> 00:38:53,704 or liberty to buy and sell, the law cannot intervene, 675 00:38:53,932 --> 00:38:56,030 unless it be in a precautionary way 676 00:38:56,289 --> 00:38:59,113 to prevent prospective violation of property rights.' 677 00:38:59,630 --> 00:39:02,424 Thus above all else, to quote Veblen again, 678 00:39:02,633 --> 00:39:06,461 a 'constitutional government is a business government.'" 679 00:39:08,061 --> 00:39:11,138 In a detailed 2014 study conducted by professors 680 00:39:11,243 --> 00:39:14,849 Martin Gilens of Princeton and Benjamin Page of Northwestern University, 681 00:39:15,526 --> 00:39:19,347 concluded in their extensive study which I recommend you read, 682 00:39:19,790 --> 00:39:23,323 "the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, 683 00:39:23,433 --> 00:39:27,286 near-zero, statistically nonsignificant impact upon public policy." 684 00:39:28,196 --> 00:39:30,596 The researchers concluded that lawmaker's 685 00:39:30,972 --> 00:39:34,461 policy actions tend to support the interests of guess what- 686 00:39:34,572 --> 00:39:37,070 the wealthy Wall Street and big corporations. 687 00:39:38,750 --> 00:39:42,098 And what stuns me is that many in America 688 00:39:42,375 --> 00:39:44,332 act like this is some anomaly, 689 00:39:45,723 --> 00:39:49,360 as though the US government, and in effect the governments of the world 690 00:39:49,476 --> 00:39:51,501 (because this system is just existing on 691 00:39:52,036 --> 00:39:55,193 different stages and levels of incorporation in every country) 692 00:39:55,926 --> 00:40:00,947 haven't always been driven by financial business interests since inception. 693 00:40:01,550 --> 00:40:04,000 As though society wasn't set 694 00:40:04,990 --> 00:40:09,384 to favor the wealthy minority and business elite freedom to begin with! 695 00:40:10,289 --> 00:40:14,172 James Madison, the father of the US Constitution as he's referred, 696 00:40:14,516 --> 00:40:18,055 made it very clear in the Federal Convention of 1787 697 00:40:18,276 --> 00:40:21,390 as to why the Senate was to be created. 698 00:40:22,141 --> 00:40:25,156 He stated "There ought to be so constituted 699 00:40:25,280 --> 00:40:28,326 as to protect the minority of the opulent 700 00:40:28,578 --> 00:40:30,080 against the majority. 701 00:40:31,083 --> 00:40:35,089 The Senate therefore ought to be this body and to answer these purposes, 702 00:40:35,390 --> 00:40:37,956 they ought to have permanency and stability." 703 00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:42,166 Madison had a unique perspective on what he considered majority 704 00:40:42,276 --> 00:40:45,130 and minority interests, and if you read his work 705 00:40:46,067 --> 00:40:50,320 in the Federalist Papers, it's very unique to see how the language is used, 706 00:40:50,627 --> 00:40:53,230 because ultimately there is a fundamental elitism, 707 00:40:53,421 --> 00:40:57,144 which is often interpreted as against special interest minorities 708 00:40:57,470 --> 00:40:58,972 but actually goes the other way. 709 00:40:59,593 --> 00:41:02,326 And I hope people understand that when you really look at the foundation 710 00:41:02,436 --> 00:41:04,086 of America with all of its plusses, 711 00:41:04,406 --> 00:41:07,593 it really had no interest in the resolution of class differences, 712 00:41:07,932 --> 00:41:11,587 and ensured, as it remains today, the disproportionate support and power 713 00:41:11,772 --> 00:41:14,196 is given to the opulent rich minority. 714 00:41:14,670 --> 00:41:18,529 They knew that a true democracy would force a vast redistribution of wealth 715 00:41:18,633 --> 00:41:23,156 since of course, the vast majority historically have always been poor. 716 00:41:23,704 --> 00:41:27,858 In fact it should be a fairly obvious feature of all national governments 717 00:41:28,381 --> 00:41:31,600 that this kind of protection of the rich is structurally secured 718 00:41:31,741 --> 00:41:32,984 through government policy. 719 00:41:33,815 --> 00:41:37,926 And if there is any catchphrase that I am so tired of hearing, 720 00:41:38,260 --> 00:41:43,250 it's this thing that people say about getting money out of politics. What?! 721 00:41:44,448 --> 00:41:46,683 First, while it may seem morally sound, 722 00:41:46,858 --> 00:41:50,465 it's extremely idiotic in principle given how the world operates. 723 00:41:50,821 --> 00:41:52,460 In a world where everything is for sale, 724 00:41:52,850 --> 00:41:55,469 in a world where gaming through trade and trade-strategizing 725 00:41:56,014 --> 00:41:57,680 dominance is the prevailing ethos, 726 00:41:58,458 --> 00:42:02,800 it's the most dominant mode and in fact communication in the process of our society. 727 00:42:03,214 --> 00:42:07,520 Why should government be off-limits? Why not buy legislation? 728 00:42:08,501 --> 00:42:11,301 In fact if we're to be consistent as a society, 729 00:42:11,912 --> 00:42:15,840 it's actually poor form to object at all to this reality 730 00:42:16,029 --> 00:42:19,287 of lobbying and political special interests. 731 00:42:19,590 --> 00:42:23,345 We should LET the Koch brothers buy and run America! Why not? 732 00:42:23,578 --> 00:42:27,440 It's the purest and most natural outcome suggested by this system: 733 00:42:28,080 --> 00:42:32,880 for the billionaires to run everything, which is what this system assumes, 734 00:42:33,032 --> 00:42:36,101 its natural gravitation, and you're never going to stop the force 735 00:42:36,210 --> 00:42:40,916 of financial and business power as long as our society is grounded in the way it is. 736 00:42:41,476 --> 00:42:45,098 And by the way, the election of Trump is not an anomaly. 737 00:42:45,687 --> 00:42:49,076 It's just another step toward the natural gravitation 738 00:42:49,230 --> 00:42:54,021 that our system generates: a world again run by rich monarchs. 739 00:42:54,683 --> 00:42:57,578 And to some degree or another it has always been this way 740 00:42:57,847 --> 00:42:59,701 since again the Neolithic Revolution. 741 00:43:00,785 --> 00:43:04,007 So needless to say when it comes to the true nature of our system, 742 00:43:04,312 --> 00:43:08,945 the very idea of any kind of effective democracy becomes increasingly illusory. 743 00:43:09,430 --> 00:43:12,167 The system simply isn't designed to cater 744 00:43:12,385 --> 00:43:15,789 to the well-being and democratic control of the general majority. 745 00:43:16,232 --> 00:43:18,887 Rather it is designed to facilitate the affairs of business 746 00:43:19,090 --> 00:43:21,040 and most of all the protection of big business, 747 00:43:21,280 --> 00:43:25,338 which are naturally the dominant interests in the revolving door of government. 748 00:43:26,538 --> 00:43:30,145 Put another way, the system is fundamentally fascist. 749 00:43:30,974 --> 00:43:32,880 This is a book by Robert Brady 750 00:43:32,996 --> 00:43:34,880 called 'Business as a System of Power.' 751 00:43:35,018 --> 00:43:38,705 It was written in 1943 in the heat of the 2nd World War. 752 00:43:39,105 --> 00:43:41,549 It is a comparative study of a number of nations 753 00:43:41,658 --> 00:43:44,603 including fascist Germany, Japan, Italy and others, 754 00:43:44,996 --> 00:43:48,298 and it links the root structure and incentive of business - 755 00:43:48,443 --> 00:43:52,487 businesses by the way which loved the fascist institutions of this time - 756 00:43:53,185 --> 00:43:55,701 to the rise of fascist controls historically, 757 00:43:56,072 --> 00:43:59,163 specifically in that period which is very unique in terms of history. 758 00:43:59,738 --> 00:44:03,672 And it's frightening. Because when you really read this book from 1943 759 00:44:03,900 --> 00:44:07,323 and you start to dissect the structures of these economies, 760 00:44:08,116 --> 00:44:11,556 it becomes euphemistic to see how they've actually changed, because they haven't. 761 00:44:11,847 --> 00:44:14,814 Things really haven't changed, they've just become more politically correct 762 00:44:14,920 --> 00:44:17,323 in the way the world is perceiving 763 00:44:17,629 --> 00:44:20,283 the structures of totalitarianism that are actually in play. 764 00:44:21,236 --> 00:44:24,370 The forward of this text was written by Robert Lynd 765 00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:28,312 and I think he states the issue very well with respect to America. 766 00:44:29,287 --> 00:44:33,192 "Thus political equality under the ballot was granted 767 00:44:33,396 --> 00:44:37,861 on the unstated but factually double-locked assumption 768 00:44:38,130 --> 00:44:42,334 that the people must refrain from seeking the extension of that equality 769 00:44:42,930 --> 00:44:44,363 to the economic sphere. 770 00:44:45,163 --> 00:44:49,389 In short, the attempted harmonious marriage of democracy to capitalism 771 00:44:49,869 --> 00:44:53,854 doomed genuinely popular control from the start. 772 00:44:54,330 --> 00:44:58,029 And all down through our national life the continuance of the Union 773 00:44:58,240 --> 00:45:00,683 has depended upon the unstated condition 774 00:45:01,105 --> 00:45:03,672 that the dominant member, capital, 775 00:45:04,050 --> 00:45:07,709 continue to provide returns to all elements in democratic society 776 00:45:07,810 --> 00:45:13,454 sufficient to disguise the underlying conflict in interests." 777 00:45:13,818 --> 00:45:18,072 Sufficient to disguise the underlying conflict in interests! 778 00:45:18,280 --> 00:45:21,949 "The crisis within the economic relations of capitalism was bound 779 00:45:22,058 --> 00:45:25,825 to precipitate a crisis in the democratic political system." 780 00:45:27,410 --> 00:45:30,821 Part 4 The New Human Rights Movement 781 00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:36,334 The solution to a world at war with itself and at war with the environment 782 00:45:36,552 --> 00:45:38,821 is to change again the social precondition 783 00:45:39,083 --> 00:45:42,923 from one that emphasizes scarcity, competition and hierarchical dominance 784 00:45:43,163 --> 00:45:46,669 to one that emphasizes and incentivizes effectively the exact opposite. 785 00:45:47,490 --> 00:45:50,698 Since the Industrial Revolution humanity has been handed a gift 786 00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:53,840 to change course in a completely different direction, 787 00:45:54,720 --> 00:45:58,916 with the option to create in fact a strategic and sustainable abundance 788 00:45:59,192 --> 00:46:00,625 to meet the world's needs: 789 00:46:00,829 --> 00:46:04,043 a phenomenon Buckminster Fuller called ephemeralization, 790 00:46:04,516 --> 00:46:08,363 or what Jeremy Rifkin refers to more technically as a "more-with-less" phenomenon. 791 00:46:08,778 --> 00:46:10,014 As time moves forward 792 00:46:10,160 --> 00:46:13,418 we're able to do more and more and more with less and less and less. 793 00:46:13,527 --> 00:46:16,436 That means that we can create an increased abundance 794 00:46:16,690 --> 00:46:19,396 without heavy impact on society; 795 00:46:19,716 --> 00:46:23,061 they move in contrary patterns now, 796 00:46:23,425 --> 00:46:26,276 as abstract and odd as that is to realize. 797 00:46:26,770 --> 00:46:28,407 If strategically utilized 798 00:46:28,829 --> 00:46:32,945 this pattern, if we adjust our society - adjust our economy - 799 00:46:33,090 --> 00:46:35,796 will put to rest the dysfunctional social system 800 00:46:36,043 --> 00:46:39,956 that is based on the exploitation of scarcity and other human beings. 801 00:46:41,309 --> 00:46:44,610 Now due to a lack of time in the preparation of this as I mentioned, 802 00:46:44,778 --> 00:46:47,978 it's not the scope of this talk to delve into the subject 803 00:46:48,080 --> 00:46:51,301 of what a new economic precondition [is], or how to get there. 804 00:46:51,803 --> 00:46:53,500 That's detailed in my book 805 00:46:54,560 --> 00:46:56,494 and this slide right here, this figure 806 00:46:57,240 --> 00:46:59,869 is a brief summation of the types of transitions 807 00:46:59,970 --> 00:47:02,901 that the world needs to see, all of which are actually happening now. 808 00:47:03,300 --> 00:47:04,349 And I'm not here to plug a book 809 00:47:04,458 --> 00:47:06,640 but I do encourage anyone that wants to think about 810 00:47:07,080 --> 00:47:09,512 this particular subject to read that section of it. 811 00:47:10,043 --> 00:47:12,261 So in conclusion, I do want to state 812 00:47:12,596 --> 00:47:14,509 that the New Human Rights Movement 813 00:47:15,170 --> 00:47:19,214 has the following four realizations before anything can actually change. 814 00:47:20,123 --> 00:47:21,156 Number one. 815 00:47:22,123 --> 00:47:27,025 The structuralist realization that the most detrimental social patterns existing today 816 00:47:27,490 --> 00:47:31,120 are sourced to a flawed economic orientation. 817 00:47:32,029 --> 00:47:33,032 Number 2. 818 00:47:33,621 --> 00:47:36,567 These resulting detrimental social patterns include 819 00:47:36,676 --> 00:47:40,734 socioeconomic inequality as the core public health threat. 820 00:47:41,410 --> 00:47:46,261 Socioeconomic inequality is the precondition for a spectrum of other problems, 821 00:47:46,581 --> 00:47:49,832 also linking to unsustainable negative externalities 822 00:47:50,094 --> 00:47:51,578 produced by the market: 823 00:47:51,780 --> 00:47:55,352 resource overshoot, diversity loss, climate change, 824 00:47:55,620 --> 00:47:58,341 endless pollution, destruction of the oceans, and so on. 825 00:48:00,312 --> 00:48:04,181 Number 3. Adjusting away from this flawed economic orientation 826 00:48:04,443 --> 00:48:07,156 and seeking to reduce socioeconomic inequality 827 00:48:07,265 --> 00:48:09,687 and generate environmental sustainability 828 00:48:10,145 --> 00:48:13,810 means shifting focus to maximize economic efficiency 829 00:48:14,123 --> 00:48:17,527 through strategic, systems-based, technical design. 830 00:48:17,760 --> 00:48:19,825 (something I haven't had a chance to get into 831 00:48:20,087 --> 00:48:25,200 but that is what the secret of economic efficiency is: its design.) 832 00:48:26,065 --> 00:48:30,814 This will reduce scarcity, reduce inequality, and reduce the environmental footprint. 833 00:48:31,185 --> 00:48:34,625 It will also better harness ephemeralization as I mentioned, 834 00:48:34,872 --> 00:48:38,632 moving us closer to what could be called a "post-scarcity" abundance 835 00:48:38,741 --> 00:48:40,443 or post-scarcity society. 836 00:48:40,785 --> 00:48:43,010 That's not a society where there's an infinite amount of everything. 837 00:48:43,338 --> 00:48:45,629 It's a society where people are actually focused 838 00:48:45,796 --> 00:48:47,745 on creating enough for everyone 839 00:48:47,970 --> 00:48:51,098 as opposed to exploiting the fact that people don't have things. 840 00:48:52,370 --> 00:48:57,018 Number 4. Accomplishing this transition will require creative initiative 841 00:48:57,229 --> 00:48:58,901 and activist initiative. 842 00:48:59,330 --> 00:49:03,629 The creative initiative has to do with developing the efficiency-enhancing systems 843 00:49:03,869 --> 00:49:06,203 that will compose the new economic mode. 844 00:49:06,770 --> 00:49:10,269 The activist initiative has to do with strategic pressure and demands 845 00:49:10,370 --> 00:49:12,610 placed upon the existing power structure, 846 00:49:12,792 --> 00:49:15,716 effectively coercing change from the bottom up. 847 00:49:16,109 --> 00:49:19,905 Because none of this is going to come naturally. 848 00:49:20,407 --> 00:49:22,269 It is antithetical 849 00:49:22,654 --> 00:49:26,174 to the culture that's been created in the dominant class, 850 00:49:26,603 --> 00:49:31,956 and it's going to take a kind of galvanization that the world probably hasn't seen, 851 00:49:32,356 --> 00:49:35,883 even though all these paths are actually being suggested right now, 852 00:49:36,160 --> 00:49:39,112 and these trends are really not surprising in terms of the 853 00:49:39,258 --> 00:49:42,327 vast positive potential we can have in the future: 854 00:49:42,610 --> 00:49:45,520 an equitable society where people's needs are met, 855 00:49:45,876 --> 00:49:51,381 derailing all the social distortions and intergroup conflicts and bigoted patterns 856 00:49:51,563 --> 00:49:53,541 that will continue to be amplified, 857 00:49:53,750 --> 00:49:56,407 as long as this system continues as it does. 858 00:49:57,418 --> 00:49:58,254 Thank you. 859 00:49:58,661 --> 00:50:01,498 [Applause]