ALT.SF4M

  New Systems of Government?

   • j********o@***.com
     19/10/1996 00:00:000 UTC

     Something that's interested me for some time is the question of new
     forms

     of government/social organization for futuristic societies (not

     necessarily dystopias). I tend to assume that all of the good ideas have

     been had already, and most of the bad ones. This raises several

     positions. 1) That I'm not a visionary or prophet, and speculation has

     its limits. 2) That any future systems will be variations on known ones.

     3) That even relatively recent ones, like Communism, Fascism

     (sufficiently distinct variations to justify different terms in this

     case), are merely variations on previous systems, like tribal communes,

     inter-tribal predation, monster gods... A thought that occurs to me is

     that perhaps a social system is notable for its nuances, rather than its

     theme? (hence the distinction just made) Or the historical facts of its

     existence? Or it's mistakes, or relative lack thereof? I've thought up a

     few things, but they aren't really innovative: perhaps the great bad

     ideas of Marx and his imitators merely seem notable by the fact of their

     execution or their stupidity. Now that's a clue! A system that seems

     good enough to try, but is a nightmare in reality? I'm not really

     interested in responses to changing technology, as that's a gimmick, but

     in genuine innovations in social organization, that might have been

     discovered but haven't been. After all, people in the Future don't know

     it's the future and that all the interesting ideas have been had
     already.

     Of course, for this purpose, I assume an unchanging and human nature:

     genetically engineered humanoids or space aliens might have sufficiently

     different psyches that their politics might need to be different (in

     extremum, the Kafers of Traveller 2300, the Kzinti, or New Trek Klingons

     (yuck!)). Maybe Communism or Fascism would work for them (I don't relish

     the idea by any means, but it might be conceivable... as a matter of
     fact,

     if Hitler hadn't been such a moron, Fascism/Syndicalism would haver
     lasted

     much longer, if not indefinitely). Yet another reason why we should keep

     our lasers handy and hope them slags think exactly like us. ("Xaxtor, my

     analysis of the natives indicates that they kill and eat animals and rip

     their own young from their wombs!" "Monsters! Weapons-master, energize

     all war tools!" - "Captain Kelly! Interception of the alien transmission

     indicates that they oppress their women and sexual minorities, and

     mutilate the genitals of their children!" "Ifni! Ready a volley of trade

     sanctions!")

     Gorno