Toward a Unified Metaphysical Understanding - Category: Economics    
 Interaction, Economics and the Human Condition
2007-06-27

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Interaction, Economics and the Human Condition

Money is a medium of exchange to facilitate human interaction - it represents interaction energy. But what is interaction and what are its effects?

From the perspective of system theory systems don't just exist, they arise from the interactions of their sub-systems. Systems are emergent phenomena that depend upon interaction. If the interactions occur the higher level systems emerge and if the interactions don't occur then the higher level systems don't emerge. If the interactions are coherent and sufficient then the emergent systems are sane and 'healthy', and if the interactions are incoherent or insufficient then the emergent systems are insane or 'unhealthy'.

There are as many different interaction contexts and mediums of exchange as there are different kinds of systems. When considering just human social systems the mediums of exchange range from words, ideas, gestures, compassion, kudos, effort, time, ingenuity, objects, resources, and so on. But in the current system all values are ultimately expressed in terms of a single medium - money - which has become an abstract value in its own right that has become disassociated from its original values. Whether it is food, land, products, services, health, life, sanity and so on - these are all expressed in terms of money and are made subservient to money.

From system theory we see that the purpose of interaction is the creation and maintenance of systems and from economics we see that money is a medium of exchange to facilitate human interaction. So economics is about the creation and maintenance of social systems by facilitating human interactions - it is the metabolism of organisation. Where organisation is the cooperative integration of many people toward a common end and ultimately the common end is life, i.e. harmonious and effective living. But the economic system has largely become disassociated from this context and re-imagined within an abstract capitalist discourse (i.e. one that is capital-centric and not life-centric). It has become an abstract game that is geared toward healthy capitalist organisation and not toward healthy human interaction and social organisation.  More >

 Nationalist / Corporate Power Struggle in the Global Economic Ecosystem
2007-06-22

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Nationalist / Corporate Power Struggle in the Global Economic Ecosystem

This is a follow on from the article Economic Metabolism, this will make more sense if you read that first if you haven't already. In that article I comment at one point that:

"The spread of the common currencies, whether non-conserved or conserved delimits the range of collective integration. For example, the spread of American culture as the common non-conserved currency and the use of the American dollar as the common conserved currency throughout the world is effectively the assimilation of the planet into the American organism and over time these conditions will inevitably result in the Americanisation of the planet." [FR]

And I quote examples of "Fragmentation and Assimilation. "exclusive use of a competitive programmed currency in a community tends to be destructive for the community fabric. This isn't theory. We've seen this happen at the tribe level, with the collapses of traditional societies. I've seen one happen myself in Peru among the Chipibo in the Amazon. That tribe had been in existence for thousands of years. When they started using the national currency among themselves, the whole community fabric collapsed in five years' time. The same thing happened here during the 19th century in the Northwestern United States and Canada, in the traditional indigenous societies. The moment they started using white man's currency among themselves, the community collapsed, the traditional fabric broke down." " [FR]

"Consider a small organism (analogous to an isolated tribe) that has its own coherent and healthy metabolic processes (systems of exchange) that are central to its healthy functioning and continued integration. Then this organism is swallowed by a larger organism and it is surrounded by the metabolic process of the larger organism. This foreign system of exchange invades and permeates the smaller system of exchange. There are now different biochemical messengers flowing around that swamp the smaller metabolic processes. The cells can no longer exchange meaningful signals in their own symbolic language and the flow of these signals diminishes (reduced interaction energy) whilst at the same time they must all adapt to the new symbolic messages which are in high concentration (high interaction energy) so new meanings are transferred between the cells thus changing the nature of their communications and interactions so the previously healthy organism is torn apart and assimilated into the larger organism." [FR]

First I'll comment on the metabolic power play between nations and then discuss the subtler interplay of corporations.

The metabolic effect of assimilation and integration most likely explains the recent rise of U.S. aggression against Iran. One of the primary metabolic fluids of the industrial complex is oil and at present it is inextricably linked to the U.S. dollar through "petrodollars", this is a mainstay of the supremacy of the U.S. dollar as the primary medium of exchange throughout the world and thereby secures America's metabolic supremacy over all other nationalist organisms.

Iran is threatening the supremacy of the U.S. dollar by accepting euros as payment for its oil, just as Iraq attempted to do in 2000 but the U.S. responded with devastating force and now controls Iraq's oil supply. But Iran's threat is even greater than Iraq's because it plans to open an international oil exchange (a bourse) whereby many nations can buy and sell oil in euros rather than U.S. dollars. This is an effective method of resistance to the American metabolic assimilation of the rest of the world. Also due to the instability of the U.S. economy it also poses a serious and potentially fatal threat to the internal metabolic stability of the American economy as a whole.  More >

 Economic Metabolism
2007-06-21

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Economic Metabolism

This article is inspired by the article Money, Community & Social Change  (on complimentary currency systems by Astrid Ware) and is also a follow on from my own article Systems Analysis of Economic Social Engineering.

The excellent Interview with Bernard Lietaer reproduced in Astrid's article discusses a VERY important piece of the puzzle of how to bring harmony back into this world. I will comment on it here from the perspective of economics as a social metabolic process within a collective organism. This homology (meaningful parallel) brings out some interesting implications and explains just why complimentary currency systems can be such a revolutionary change.

I first discuss some general principles and then comment on the interview within that context...

Lietaer defines "money, or currency, as an agreement within a community to use something as a medium of exchange... And most of the time, it's done unconsciously... We're living in this money world like fish in water, taking it completely for granted." This role of money as a "medium of exchange" is the basis of the parallels between economics and biochemistry.  More >

 Systems Analysis of Economic Social Engineering
2007-06-21

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This is a follow on article to the discussion on The International Banking System in the subject Economics, Financing, Banking.

All of the key flaws in the economic system are well known to any who look beyond the web of deception that permeates mass culture - the discussion here at NCN is similar to discussions happening all over the globe, discussions that have been occurring throughout the last century but to little avail. What do all these phenomena point to? Is there some overarching paradigm in which they can all be made sense of? Is it a matter of an elite wielding control or is it something deeper? Is there something practical that can be done about it?

Economics plays an important role in all of the key changes happening in the world but aside from our traditional rationalisations, what purpose does it really serve and what do the many changes signify? From the perspective of system theory, cybernetics and complexity theory the answers are startling!!!!  More >