Thursday, 25 April 2013

Morality or Efficiency - The Values for a Free Society

In most (even to say all) political arguments there are inherent elements to the debate that are disguised or even ignored, that would simplify objectively the discussion. Since all we say, ultimately, has strong ideological content (in other words, all we express are ideologies), that is derived from principles/axioms/premises and through reason and evidence we integrate them into conclusions on the ways we must guide our action.
That said, and the radical question arises "What is the root of ideology?" - well… Ideas. And what is the root of ideas? - More and more ideas. The intelectual self will inexorably deconstruct the root of all his ideas to morality (by deduction from moral principles) or by efficiency (by inducting from the wanted results to the root axioms). This could be examplified by the following situation:
If you were asked, in a dichotomy sense question, what would you prefer as the guiding/primary "value" of your society, would it be efficiency or morality? In other words, would you sacrifice morality for the sake of effiency, or would you give away efficiency for the sake of morality? - This is the root question of all socio-political thought, the argument between Individualism or Collectivism. Obviously, you can and should consider the short/long run consequences derived from your choice above.
As an individualist, I can clearly see the efficiency coming in the long run by preserving a solid moral basis, and not the other way around. This can also be seen as the question between the means and the ends. Since efficiency is obviouly the ends, where does morality stand (morally, do the ends justify the means)?
If it wasn't for the constant presence of institucionalized coercion and violence, I wouldn't be writing this post. I'm inspired by what I call the biological argument for anarchy (i.e. a free, voluntary society) - in nature, if you compare a monoculture, like a corn field, (higher short term effiency and productivity and a very low resilience - great risk of a systemic crisis) with a diverse culture, like a garden, (great resilience but lesser efficiency in the short term) you will (hopefully) conclude that the high risk of systemic crisis is going to cause unintended, destructive and depressive consequences eventually (e.g. the constant resource to cultural, military and economic warfare, the boom and bust and fiat inflated currencies cycles that enpoverishes millions and are the price to pay for state sovereignty).
It will, sooner or later, be the collapse of efficiency without morality, Nature's spontaneous order will take care of it, since it is an antithesis to the natural order. Then, to idealize the free society, it's imperative to start with morality, in order to achieve peace, coexistence and prosperity. To build this morality, we need universal axioms, like non-agression and self-ownership in order that our own freedom ends where others start.

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