A Two-Tier Society Theory's Perspective on the New Economy Movement and its Humanistic Narrative (Part 2)

Li Yousheng (2015/06/30)

V. The Global Trend of Returning to Primitive Societies and Its Prospects

Studies show that since humanity entered the modern era, the rate of species extinction has exceeded any period in the Earth’s 4.5 billion-year history. In the last century, the rate of species extinction has been more than a hundred times faster than in previous years. Coupled with global warming and the rapid disappearance of primeval forests, this indicates that humanity’s economic boom has surpassed the carrying capacity of nature. Surveys of global subjective well-being, while influenced by modern secondary socio-cultural factors, also show that economic and social technological changes have exceeded humanity’s adaptability; however, people in secondary societies are still able to persevere. Furthermore, renowned scholars such as Stephen Hawking (1942–) have repeatedly predicted the destruction of the Earth and humanity. Today, humanity almost unanimously says: We need a new life; we need to usher in a completely new era.

The collection of essays on the American New Economy Movement, translated and edited by famous Chinese scholars[2], allows people to see the different perspectives and descriptions of this new era by Chinese and Western cultures. By comparing them, we can see the possible problems. By combining them, we can see a completely new way out and a completely new realm, which is closer to the concept of a two-tiered society: the basic human community level returns to the original society, while national management and corporate management evolve towards non-human pure logic and science, gradually moving towards a balanced feedback of large-scale computer-like operation according to certain principles, like the management of trillions of cells in the human body. This is a return to the old path of isolation between the original society and the two-tiered society in ancient China.

The biological world began billions of years ago with single-celled organisms in the ocean. These single cells aggregated into multicellular organisms, eventually developing into the complex, multi-organized human body we know today. Human cells do not leave their original society, tissues, to enter the secondary society of organs, nor are they responsible for the management of that level. The human body’s physiological and biochemical management system is merely a balancing feedback system. The author writes:

From the perspective of the two-tier society theory, Western democracy is nothing more than a struggle and self-adjustment of humanity falling into the gap between the original society and the second-tier society. The ultimate ideal society should be similar to the human body managing trillions of cells, divided into upper and lower isolated levels, with no management in any sense except for the balance feedback mechanism, which is the Taoist concept of non-action.

Now, doctors use computers to assist them in diagnosing and treating patients. The author has written that if well-trained national administrators used mainframe computers to manage the country and society, decision-making would be faster and cheaper. Citizens’ wishes could also be input into the computer and considered simultaneously. Such a system would be more like the human body’s management system for its cells, tissues, and physiological and biochemical processes. Initially, these specialized national administrators, like doctors, would use their professional knowledge to perform their national administrative duties. Once everything is in place, these personnel would only need to manage the national computer system. During this period, it is crucial to vigorously develop community diversity and establish numerous different cultural and value systems to reflect the multi-directional and multi-form nature of secondary society. Citizens would have the freedom to choose and move between these different communities. Data on citizens’ activities in these communities—including the number of participants in various social activities and data on citizens’ emotions and intentions analyzed through audio and video recordings—would be input into a unified national computer system for balancing and feedback. [25, 26]

David Korten’s theory of a living universe posits that the universe, like a human being, is conscious. If this conscious universe, over billions of years, has used Darwinian evolution to build a complex human body from a cluster of cells, then thousands of years of war and competition could potentially computerize human communities on Earth, with computers controlling the operations of communities and higher levels.

VI. Conclusion

Zhang Guotao believes that Mao Zedong launched the “Cultural Revolution” for two reasons: philosophical thinking and power considerations, but mainly the former. Zhang Guotao also believes that Mao Zedong was a peasant-style socialist with a desire for “equality”. Once he found that the regime he established did not provide these, or even tended to go in the opposite direction, he wanted to take drastic and unconventional actions to achieve his goal, which was an important reason for launching the “Cultural Revolution”. [27] If the Cultural Revolution is a microcosm of large-scale peasant uprisings and periodic turmoil in Chinese history, [28] today, in the 21st century, the new economic movement in the United States, the flag bearer of capitalism, has brought together Chinese and Western scholars. The combination of Chinese and Western ideas, and the integration of the human ideals of the original society with the technological development of the secondary society, may enable people facing a desperate situation to open up a new chapter and move towards a completely new realm.

In Canada, I bought a house from an elderly couple from Yugoslavia. After purchasing the house, they rented it to three families, while the couple themselves lived in a cramped boiler room, using the drainpipe next to the washing machine as a makeshift toilet and shower. Among their tenants was an unmarried couple. Living together without marriage avoided issues like having children. The man, in his thirties, told me, “My grandfather never worked, my father never worked, so I can’t possibly go to work.” This man lived a very carefree life: driving around the US and Canada, yet choosing Canada as his home—clearly, the semi-socialist Canada suited him better. I guessed he relied on government assistance but also did odd jobs from time to time. He worked without restraint, not caring about employers’ satisfaction or the small amount of money. His lifestyle was closer to the natural life advocated by Taoism than the deliberate pursuit of a specific value system by a person in a secondary social system.

Unlike You Xiaojian, Ju Xi, and Qian Hong, who studied Chinese science and humanities, Qin Hui represents scholars who analyze social issues using Western science and rationality. After making a convincing analysis of world capital and commodity circulation, he pointed out that “most Western scholars today, the left believes that only laissez-faire hinders their pursuit of a welfare state, while the right believes that only the welfare state hinders their pursuit of laissez-faire.” [29] Qin Hui, like me, sorts out the problem from the perspective of modern sociology, but he does not have the concept of a two-tiered society, and therefore has no connection with the original society and Chinese science and humanities.

Let’s temporarily consider the elderly couple who spend the night listening to boiler noise as embodying the spirit of laissez-faire capitalism, driven by profit, and the young man as representing the welfare state and communal democracy, enjoying their current lifestyle. If we then view all of the world’s problems today, including ecological and overpopulation issues, stem from the former, while the latter are innocent victims, including breathing industrially polluted air. If the next wave of civilization transforms into the Taoist lifestyle of that young man, where people live within local communities and large computers balance and respond to activities at higher social levels, it will be more like the human body’s management system for its cells and physiological and biochemical environment. At that time, we will also be like that young man, completely unconcerned about zero or negative GDP growth, because that’s a matter for another world. (Li Yousheng, June 2015, London, Canada)

literature

[1] Liang Shuming, The Essentials of Chinese Culture, Chapter 14: Conclusion. From: The Complete Works of Liang Shuming, Vol. 3, Shandong People’s Publishing House, 2005.

[2] Wen Tiejun and You Xiaojian (2015): New Economy: Social Innovation Based on Community Building and Economic Democracy.

[3] Ju Xi (2015): A Brief Review of the New Economy Movement and Its Theory in the United States. (From: http://cbssy.cn/News/20150515162955695.htm)

[4] You Xiaojian (2015): Taoist Literature Theory.

[5] Qian Hong (2012): Yuan De: The Philosophy of a Great Power. China Radio and Television Press.

[6] You-Sheng Li (2005): A New Interpretation of Chinese Taoist Philosophy. London, Canada: Taoist Recovery Centre.
[7] You-Sheng Li (2010): The Ancient Chinese Super State of Primary Societies: Taoist Philosophy for the 21st Century. Bloomington, USA: Author House.

[8] William Eckhardt (1995): A dialectical evolutionary theory of civilizations, empires, and wars. In: Civilizations world systems studying world-historical change, ed by SK Sanderson. Walnut Creek, USA: AltaMira Press. p75-108.
[9] Yousheng (2012): The difference between Eastern and Western war cultures as seen from the defeat of Song Xianggong in adhering to the rules of war. Xue Deng, Issue 24; http://www.confucius2000.com/writer/yousheng.htm.

[10] James Gustave Speth (2015): America the Possible: A Manifesto. See pages 31-48 of the above reference [1].

[11] Richard Robbins (2010): Capitalist Culture and Global Issues. China Renmin University Press, 2010. Translated by Yao Wei.

[12] Tong Dezhi (2015): The History and Logic of the Contradictory Structure of Property Rights and Citizenship Rights in the West. (From: http://www.aisixiang.com/data/88565.html)

[13] Zheng Yongnian (2015): Five Factors of the Decline of the United States. (Source: http://www.aisixiang.com/data/88322.html)

[14] Sun Tieqi (2013): A comparative study of Chinese and Western metaphysics.

(Source: http://www.confucius2000.com/admin/list.asp?id=5804)

[15] John Cavanagh and David Korten (2015): Jobs: Main Street’s fix for Wall Street’s failure. See above [1], pp. 146-174.

[16] David Korten (2015): New Economy, New Humanities: Seeking the Settlement of Man Under the Humanistic Narrative of Life and the Universe. See the above reference [1], pages 7-30.

[17] Julian Jaynes(1976): The origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.

[18] Karen Armstrong (1994): A History of God. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994, p5.

[19] Richard Dawkins (1976): The Selfish Gene. New York City: Oxford University Press. 1976.

[20] Lin Yutang (1937): The Importance of Living. Reynal & Hitchcock, Inc., (A John Day Book).

[21] Cao Changqing (2015): The Illusion of Happiness in Nepal and Bhutan. From: http://www.aisixiang.com/data/89370.html. (Originally published in Kan Magazine: www.21ccom.net/plus/wapview.php?aid=125771)

[22] Online article: A Study of the Two-Tier Society Theory Based on American Happiness and Party Voter Maps. http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_e93ea03b0102uy5y.html.

[23] Liu Jing (2011): Survey Report on the Happiness of Urban and Rural Residents, International Economics and Trade. (http://wenku.baidu.com/view/c3da0006de80d4d8d15a4f8b.html).

[24]David L. Hall & Roger T. Ames (1987): Thinking Through Confucius. New York: State University of New York Press.

[25] Li Yousheng (2014): Looking at Confucius from a different perspective. Suzhou University Press. pp. 14-15.

[26] Li Yousheng (2006): A New Interpretation of Chinese Taoism. London, Canada: Taoist Rehabilitation Centre. p. 335.

[27] Zhang Guotao on the Cultural Revolution: Some “successors” will become a burden. Source: Cultural and Historical Review, No. 2, 2010. (http://www.21ccom.net/articles/history/xiandai/20150615125764_all.html) [28] You Sheng (2006): Mao Zedong and Taoist thought. http://taoism21cen.com/Chinesechat/maoyudao.html.

[29] Qin Hui (2015): The Dilemma of Globalization in the 21st Century: Causes and Solutions; A Review of Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Leaders Magazine, Issue 63.