Psychoeconomics: globalization, markets, crisis - Страница 16
History teaches us that if the government and the elite cannot attain a social order that would bring the social and sociopsychological structure of the society into harmony (stronger, smarter, more capable individuals occupy higher places in the social hierarchy), they are swept away and replaced by others. There’s no other choice.
Either mass executions and mass repression with obligatory excommunication of the strongest, most ambitious of their immediate social environment were needed, or else the social environment will react to those signs of power that provide evidence of who the actual leader is. This is an innate system of reactions and reflexes. It is analogous to similar reflexes in a herd of animals that acknowledge the right to leadership of the strongest. This reflex cannot be reformed. It is either necessary to step forth and hand over part of the power to the stronger and more capable, the more assertive, or else be dethroned.
After the privatization of the 1990s, in the absence of an effective mechanism of accumulation that naturally would reconcile, in a period of capitalism, the social and sociopsychological structure of the society with the replenishment of the elite by around at least 1% per year, measures are desperately needed for creating social elevators, for creating the means of elevating stronger and more capable individuals through their natural escalation on the social ladder.
Importantly, in history such means were connected to the separation of strong, active individuals capable of warlike actions from the milieu they inhabited – sending them to war in other countries (while preserving the values of that culture that they offered) engaging them in active, creative, commercial or military activity at long distances, etc. Thus, now such measures might be those at governmental scale such as conquering the North, constructing roads, massive involvement in developing water resources or facilities of utmost government importance, service in the army ( and giving those who served a land allotment or cottage in a place where the government deems necessary), participation in construction works far from one’s hometown, etc. The facilities built can and must be secured for the best of those who participated in the construction works. It is just those people who administer property, especially that created by their own labor, who are most active in social, sociopsychological and military affairs. History attests to this. Having a large number of people in the society’s structure who are situated at levels that are lower than their sociopsychological features, their strength of personality, and their aptitudes, is potentially explosive.
But the number of such people grows cumulatively, gradually, unnoticeably. At first the explosive nature of such a situation may simply not be seen. But then the measures performed by the government to maintain order start to falter. It seems like only yesterday they were effective, but today they lead to contrary, negative results. The number of emotionally negatively inclined people in the society has crossed the critical line and these protests begin to be seen tangibly.
In a period when resonators are dominant, such protest moods are diffused, and people’s energy is directed toward self-affirmation in business. In a period of transfer of leadership to postresonators, these moods begin to accumulate little by little, cumulatively, unnoticeably. In a period of transfer of social initiative to post-postresonators, the accumulation of social emotions begins to coincide with their active external manifestation – with strikes, walkouts or armed uprisings.
When the rate of GNP growth is declining, in periods of downward mobility of not only the large number of unemployed, but also strong, capable and distinguished individuals who are able to unite in protest, it is no longer possible to restrain the society within accepted social boundaries and norms without targeted work with such people.
In this regard, the experience of the Middle Ages is instructive. Why? At that time, competition between specific individuals had not yet led to a natural attainment of balance between the social and social-psychological structures of the society, as this began to happen in capitalist society at the moment of its origin. But today the competition between individual people no longer allows the strong and capable to occupy higher places in the social structure. Still such competition remains and will remain for a long time, if not forever, an important factor in the struggle between individual corporations, groups of people, social strata, and between indivduals where it is effective and can differentiate them according to their abilities.
The causes for the decline in the role and significance of competition between individuals given their economic and social mobility in a period of globalization are multifactorial. Some of them are:
– The financial sector was “victorious” over the manufacturing sector. Profit margins in the financial sphere are much higher than in the manufacturing arena. It is almost impossible to find an area of production where it is possible to take out a loan for development with hope of returning it. However strong, smart or active the individual is, the probability of setting up successful new manufacturing in the current environment is minimal. One may try to speculate in the financial markets. But when they fall, even this possibility dies.
– For organizing new, more effective production, more and more financial resources are needed. The volume and level of minimal capital for starting one’s own business become even greater when there is an increase in the economic disparity between people. Therefore, with each year it becomes more difficult to start a business.
– The middle class is being ruined, and this was the traditional source of managers, leaders, and effective owners of big business. But only the strong, capable and smart are able to compete successfully with each other for the country.
– In a period of crisis and high unemployment, it is increasingly difficult for individuals to look forward to success in providing for their families. Businesses, especially small and medium-sized ones, are disappearing faster than they are being created. Unemployment has become chronic. And this means the quality of population and of workers will fall, and this quality is critical for creating a modern business “from scratch”.
– Given the high cost of a quality education, far from everyone will be able to acquire one.
These factors limit the ability of people from families with low incomes to compete against those with higher incomes, but they do not always temper their desire to elevate their status. Hence the discrepancy between social and sociopsychological structure becomes more and more pronounced.
Given the above, it is critical to understand the cyclical nature of the process by which the conflict between the social and sociopsychological structures of the society is exacerbated, and the remedy from this situation when there are no natural mechanisms for solving them. We even find examples of these measures in the pre-capitalism past of Europe. In the Middle Ages law formally limited the power of the strong and capable people without property, but in reality they could achieve whatever they wished. And they banded together for this cyclically. Today, law theoretically provides the opportunity to reach any heights in the socioeconomic structure of the society, but in actuality, this can be done by the very few, although millions wish to do so. And the cyclical nature of the growth of these wishes in the large mass of people is not annulled by contemporary mass media and other factors of the contemporary world order. Both in the Middle Ages and now, bringing the social and sociopsychological structures of the society into concordance by means of conflict-free means and measures was or became impossible. And the proneness to conflict is currently increasing. Because of globalization this is happening frequently in different countries with amazing synchronicity. For now this sociopsychological synchronicity is happening without the political unification of the “masses”. But this process will start very soon.