Howdy all,
We agreed as a group to move a bit quicker through the chapters. Rather than reading through the chapters together, we will cover the introductory chapter text that Harrison provides before each chapter and when needed, cover specific details in the translated chapters themselves.
The Am-EU group finishes
Chapter 15 and makes headway in
Chapter 16 of Dr. Andrew's Łobaczewski's
Logocracy: A Concept of the State System (translation by Harrison). We stopped at this part of the chapter regarding social goods:
Social goods: With state control of goods and industry comes difficulty and failure: inefficiency, waste, poor management (often built on political affiliation or other non-merit-based forms of privilege). Post-communist privatization was a disaster, with factories and farms brought to ruin after being sold for next to nothing; even continued state control would have been better, if only the incompetent managers had been replaced.
Logocracy - Chapter 15: Head of State
Lobaczewski provides a description (and pitfalls) of current and historical heads of state. In America, he states that the president's responsibilities and duties are too large of a workload to manage efficiently. Attention is split, leaving certain paths of thinking untraversed. Uncovering crucial details within a wide breadth of issues requires precision, knowledge, and effort. In a position where the president is under a time-crunch and must be decisive, errors in the decision-making process are more likely to occur.
“It is … preposterous in terms of human capabilities,” and constitutes “a workload that will exhaust the capacity of a man of full physical and mental fitness.”
Contrast that to other systems, such as those found in the UK and Israel, where the heads of state (presidents and kings) are largely relegated to a more symbolic, ceremonial role. These historical positions have been deprecated, moving power to the bigger cheeses—the prime ministers.
In a Logocracy, Lobaczewski is in favor of splitting the power between a head of state and the head of government—each having different psychological requirements. The head of state would have an inquiring mind with knowledge on history, politics, science, and a deep understanding of psychology. On the other hand, the head of government would be “a younger man with a good memory and efficiency of mind, capable of acting energetically and prudently at the same time”. His areas of expertise would be in law, administration, economics, technology, and defense.
Logocracy - Chapter 16: Five Independent Powers
Lobaczewski considers adding on to the renowned tripartite system (separation of powers between executive, legislative, and judicial) with two additional powers: one that manages education, and the other social goods. The idea is to prevent the coalescing of powers, creating an imbalance. By introducing these additions, they provide defenders for these important pillars of society by preventing easy avenues for conflicts of interest and other special interests from using their power for self-serving goals.
The current tripartite system in the USA is fallible in the sense that the three powers constantly in competition with one another, creating an increasing mound of disputes. Self-serving power-grabbing and a focus on trivial matters increases the inefficiency of the system, which creates decision-making errors, and ultimately creating suffering among the population.
Lobaczewski describes the intraelite infighting:
Social energy is wasted and the country loses its authority in the eyes of other nations. This has the character of permanent competition, mainly between the legislature and the president and his cabinet. It is also a consequence of the fact that in the U.S. the president is first and foremost the head of the executive power and as a result the country lacks the moderating and political culture-creating role of the head of state.
From this vantage, it's clearer to see the ambition-ridden and service-to-self mentality that these current powers have (though there's always pockets of good folks in there too), and the need to expand the tripartite system, and create boundaries that protect education and social goods.
With regard to education, it is far too easy in current systems (and communism) to subordinate the educational system and infuse their own, oftentimes corrupted, ideologies. Bluefyre and Turgon notices that even with the historical, canton-like approach that adds a layer of protection against a full-on totalitarian government by consolidating power within them, they were still able to enact these degenerate liberal ideologies. They reasoned that instead of implementing these ideologies using mainly a top-down approach, they had to have found weakness to corrupt individuals at the school & school-board level.
An independent institution that is able to provide direction, specialized criteria, scientific research, and resources would go a long ways in creating a more efficient, and robust education system.
For Next Meeting - January 14th, 2024
We will continue with
Logocracy - Chapter 16: Five Independent Powers for the next meeting.
See y'alls then!
Extras - List of Next Books We Can Read
- (Daniel): The Master and his Emissary - Iain McGilchrist
- (Luis): Life & Afterlife - Michael Prescott
Feel free to suggest others—we can keep a running list here.
