The New Narrative: Why the “Fair Society” is the Way Forward
In a recent op-ed column in The New York Times (11/18/17), David Brooks touched a deep nerve. He reminded us that nations thrive when they have a compelling narrative about who they are -- a collective vision that serves to unify their citizens and mobilize them to strive for common goals. However, as Brooks observed, America has lost its way. If “the American dream” was already on life-support after the Great Recession, the 2016 election pulled the plug. The deep partisan divisions and obstructionism that marked the Obama years have given way to a broad agenda of social destruction and political corruption. From tax cuts for the rich and benefit cuts for the poor to gutting the EPA, undermining our judicial system, and targeting immigrants, a dark energy is on the loose that is threatening to undermine and destroy our democracy. If this continues, it cannot end well.
If we want to mount a counter-revolution against this corrosive force, we must create a new vision of our national purpose, along with a set of positive values and goals that can catalyze and guide our actions. Resurrecting some older narrative – a “mandate from heaven,” or the “iron laws of history” (read communism), or even, alas, the American Dream -- will no longer do. We must create a new narrative that is grounded in the realities of America in the 21st century. And we must think outside the box, because our future lies outside the box. Indeed, the entire global community is at a major tipping point. The combination of global population growth, continuing economic growth, climate warming, and environmental destruction (the ultimate perfect storm) is becoming unsustainable and will force us to change course.
The overall challenge we face can be framed in terms of the fundamental purpose of a human society. All of us are fellow-participants in a multi-million-year-old “collective survival enterprise.” Whatever may be our aspirations (or our illusions), biological survival and reproduction remains the basic, continuing, inescapable problem for every living organism, and it is this biological imperative that defines the collective purpose, and priorities, for every human society. Furthermore, the survival enterprise entails no less than fourteen distinct categories of “basic needs” – absolute requisites for the survival and reproduction of each individual, and of society as a whole over time. (These fourteen needs categories are discussed in detail in my 2011 book, The Fair Society.)
Accordingly, the basic challenge for every human society is to provide for the survival and reproductive needs of its members. This is our prime directive. However, it is obvious that we are currently falling short, and the situation is likely to get much worse going forward unless we refocus our social values and actions so that they are more fully aligned with the basic purpose of the collective survival enterprise and our basic needs. We must develop a new “biosocial contract” that clearly defines the “common good” and spells out what must be our obligations to one another. I call it “The Fair Society” framework, and it consists of three complementary fairness and social justice principles. In a nutshell, these principles are (1) equality with respect to providing for our basic needs, (2) equity with respect to rewarding merit, and (3) reciprocity in order to balance the scale and to repay the benefits we receive from society.
Among the many implications of the “Fair Society” framework is that it is universal in scope; it provides a moral foundation not only for this country but for the larger global community as well. Equally important, it provides a set of guiding principles for the drastic changes that will be necessary if our nation, and indeed our species, is to continue to survive, and thrive going forward. There is no other consensually acceptable alternative. So, we must think, and act, outside the box. What does this mean?
First and foremost, we must commit ourselves to the goal of achieving a “basic needs guarantee” – so that no one would be seriously exploited, or deprived, or harmed. This has huge social, economic and political implications, of course, that go far beyond the scope of a blog item. (It will be the subject of my next book.) Among other things, a basic needs guarantee would entail massive expenditures for infrastructure and economic improvements, from fresh water supplies to sewer systems, affordable housing stock, and, of course, access to healthy food. Second, we must undertake an all-out war on climate change, ranging from obvious things like converting wherever possible to solar power and electric cars and trucks to investing in novel technologies (still on drawing boards) to extract CO2 from the atmosphere, replacing air travel wherever possible with virtual travel, and much more. Not least, we must become champions for global population control – mutual coercion mutually agreed upon. All this and more implies major changes in our social values, our economic systems, and our politics – a very tall order.
As a nation and as a species, we are at a major tipping point. If we do not guide this transition in a positive direction, we will pay a horrific price. It is an axiom of complexity science that complex systems collapse catastrophically. We have a collective choice to make.
Peter Corning is the author of the forthcoming book, SYNERGISTIC SELECTION: HOW COOPERATION HAS SHAPED EVOLUTION AND THE RISE OF HUMANKIND (World Scientific, 2018), and THE FAIR SOCIETY: THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN NATURE AND THE PURSUIT OF SOCIAL JUSTICE (University of Chicago Press, 2011). He is also the director of the Institute for the Study of Complex Systems, a one-time science writer for Newsweek and professor in Human Biology at Stanford University, and the author of several previous books. His website can be found at www.complexsystems.org.
From Seattle
The New Narrative: Why the “Fair Society” is the Way Forward
In a recent op-ed column in The New York Times (11/18/17), David Brooks touched a deep nerve. He reminded us that nations thrive when they have a compelling narrative about who they are -- a collective vision that serves to unify their citizens and mobilize them to strive for common goals. However, as Brooks observed, America has lost its way. If “the American dream” was already on life-support after the Great Recession, the 2016 election pulled the plug. The deep partisan divisions and obstructionism that marked the Obama years have given way to a broad agenda of social destruction and political corruption. From tax cuts for the rich and benefit cuts for the poor to gutting the EPA, undermining our judicial system, and targeting immigrants, a dark energy is on the loose that is threatening to undermine and destroy our democracy. If this continues, it cannot end well.
If we want to mount a counter-revolution against this corrosive force, we must create a new vision of our national purpose, along with a set of positive values and goals that can catalyze and guide our actions. Resurrecting some older narrative – a “mandate from heaven,” or the “iron laws of history” (read communism), or even, alas, the American Dream -- will no longer do. We must create a new narrative that is grounded in the realities of America in the 21st century. And we must think outside the box, because our future lies outside the box. Indeed, the entire global community is at a major tipping point. The combination of global population growth, continuing economic growth, climate warming, and environmental destruction (the ultimate perfect storm) is becoming unsustainable and will force us to change course.
The overall challenge we face can be framed in terms of the fundamental purpose of a human society. All of us are fellow-participants in a multi-million-year-old “collective survival enterprise.” Whatever may be our aspirations (or our illusions), biological survival and reproduction remains the basic, continuing, inescapable problem for every living organism, and it is this biological imperative that defines the collective purpose, and priorities, for every human society. Furthermore, the survival enterprise entails no less than fourteen distinct categories of “basic needs” – absolute requisites for the survival and reproduction of each individual, and of society as a whole over time. (These fourteen needs categories are discussed in detail in my 2011 book, The Fair Society.)
Accordingly, the basic challenge for every human society is to provide for the survival and reproductive needs of its members. This is our prime directive. However, it is obvious that we are currently falling short, and the situation is likely to get much worse going forward unless we refocus our social values and actions so that they are more fully aligned with the basic purpose of the collective survival enterprise and our basic needs. We must develop a new “biosocial contract” that clearly defines the “common good” and spells out what must be our obligations to one another. I call it “The Fair Society” framework, and it consists of three complementary fairness and social justice principles. In a nutshell, these principles are (1) equality with respect to providing for our basic needs, (2) equity with respect to rewarding merit, and (3) reciprocity in order to balance the scale and to repay the benefits we receive from society.
Among the many implications of the “Fair Society” framework is that it is universal in scope; it provides a moral foundation not only for this country but for the larger global community as well. Equally important, it provides a set of guiding principles for the drastic changes that will be necessary if our nation, and indeed our species, is to continue to survive, and thrive going forward. There is no other consensually acceptable alternative. So, we must think, and act, outside the box. What does this mean?
First and foremost, we must commit ourselves to the goal of achieving a “basic needs guarantee” – so that no one would be seriously exploited, or deprived, or harmed. This has huge social, economic and political implications, of course, that go far beyond the scope of a blog item. (It will be the subject of my next book.) Among other things, a basic needs guarantee would entail massive expenditures for infrastructure and economic improvements, from fresh water supplies to sewer systems, affordable housing stock, and, of course, access to healthy food. Second, we must undertake an all-out war on climate change, ranging from obvious things like converting wherever possible to solar power and electric cars and trucks to investing in novel technologies (still on drawing boards) to extract CO2 from the atmosphere, replacing air travel wherever possible with virtual travel, and much more. Not least, we must become champions for global population control – mutual coercion mutually agreed upon. All this and more implies major changes in our social values, our economic systems, and our politics – a very tall order.
As a nation and as a species, we are at a major tipping point. If we do not guide this transition in a positive direction, we will pay a horrific price. It is an axiom of complexity science that complex systems collapse catastrophically. We have a collective choice to make.
Peter Corning is the author of the forthcoming book, SYNERGISTIC SELECTION: HOW COOPERATION HAS SHAPED EVOLUTION AND THE RISE OF HUMANKIND (World Scientific, 2018), and THE FAIR SOCIETY: THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN NATURE AND THE PURSUIT OF SOCIAL JUSTICE (University of Chicago Press, 2011). He is also the director of the Institute for the Study of Complex Systems, a one-time science writer for Newsweek and professor in Human Biology at Stanford University, and the author of several previous books. His website can be found at www.complexsystems.org.
Peter Corning
Peter Corning is currently the Director of the Institute for the Study of Complex Systems in Seattle, Washington. He was also a one-time science writer at Newsweek and a professor for many years in the Human Biology Program at Stanford University, along with holding a research appointment in Stanford’s Behavior Genetics Laboratory.
