MODULAR SOCIAL CHANGE If I look through Michels diagrams, I often see mention of modularity. Modularity is a great principle of design. It means you can improve each piece at a time, and swap a new improved bit without redesigning the whole. Software is modular. Computer peripherals are modular. Most cars these days are modular, though you wouldnt know it: its all under the skin. Houses are modular: the windows are independent of the doors are independent of the kitchen sink. Modularity is one of the profound bases of the industrial revolution. However, I find many proposals for social change these days are not modular, they are holistic. In other words, they will only work if everything changes at the same time. The problems with holism are: - high risk: you have to have faith in revolution - no immediate reward: you have to slave away for decades before you (maybe) get the result you want - its disabling: there is no place to start, because its one big tangled ball of string. - it doesnt allow for the modular replacement and piecemeal improvement of flawed components. Capitalism, on the other hand, is modular. Do you want to try it out? Easy: you too can start a small business, and play with capitalism, and see if it works for you. Families can move from being wage slaves to being free agents to being petit bourgeoisie… without requiring the world to change with them. They can even do so piecemeal, one partner remaining in wage slavery while the other experiments with other modalities. The first electric cars were modular. People simply took a car with an internal combustion engine, and modified it. They did not redesign the car from the ground up: that came much much later. So here is my specification for a MODULE of social change: 1. Small enough that families and small groups can try it out, without 100% commitment of time or resources. 2. At least some short-term benefits: experimenters will get some reward: say within a year. 3. Benefits are semi-independent of context: works under a variety of systems, just as a car can drive on a highway, a gravel lane, off-road. If you design modular social change, then social change becomes more doable. In fact you enable runaway social change. You do not need to ask people to have faith in the revolution. You do not have to ask people to commit their entire lives. You can offer families dozens of starting points, over which they can have relative control, and thus moderate the risk to themselves and their children, and work in way that suits their current circumstances and constraints. Thoughts?
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 03:19:52 +0000
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