A New Currency of Peace

We have been seeing the wishes for a happy Memorial Day since before it became an official holiday in 1971. It grew out of the more localized traditions of “Decoration Day” which started after the Civil War ended in 1865, when the first national cemeteries were instituted.

The comfort configuration of the nation, and humankind, seems to function as “there will be wars” and “there will be peace” in-between. And while we all say we do not want war, and that we want peace, we seem to have resigned ourselves to calling it a fact that it’s unavoidable, an essential ingredient of immutable human nature.

Enter philosophic technology. War is essentially the breakdown of discourse into destruction. The human minds in power short circuit and resort to destroying the source of the problem rather than solving the actual problem. All of these problems are philosophical, because all of them are about the discrepancy in values and ownership of things of value to human beings, including human beings themselves. War is an auto-immune disease of the citizen body. This doesn’t mean that every war is not the lesser of two evils, this means that as philosophic technology advances, we should be less and less likely to come to the point in which war is the only option.

When we do zoom back and take the alien perspective, over the earth and over time, we see less death in vain when considering the advance of this technology. If we apply this technology and learn the correct lessons, it might be the most valuable and honorable memorial we could give to our wartime fallen members of the citizen body.

Consider an equation that X Deaths = Freedom. Those X Deaths being the price of having a level of peace aka “homeostasis” (of which freedom is an essential part) in the citizen body. Each one of those deaths are a unit of sacrifice – one human life. Each injury is a unit of sacrifice – one human limb, one ability to walk, one ability to see. In philosophic technology we can measure the cost and efficiency of maintaining homeostasis in lives and injuries.

So how does this technology help us? Well, we can start to see that currency in “losses” of war can start to be altered, and changed into a different form of sacrifice. That currency can be changed to smaller units of sacrifice paid before one catastrophic event of death and injuries. We have to have the strength of wisdom and imagination to stop believing human death is the only form of payment to attain homeostasis.

Since the continuum of the currency starts with death, then descends in denominations by severity of injury, then the psychological suffering of the participants and their families and friends, we can start to see that war is paid in more than just death. So, if the price of homeostasis can be paid in psychological suffering as well, then we can look at how this currency can be diffused and paid in small instalments, so there is no lump sum event disproportionately placed on relatively few. We would diffuse the sacrifice of 1.5 million military deaths in our history into smaller and smaller units, that still pay the price, but don’t require death, dismemberment or even great psychological suffering.

Consider the scenario that our oligarchy continues to concentrate power in corporations and the government and eventually the masses are so poor they cannot tolerate the imbalance anymore and revolt. Let’s say hypothetically that happens in 2030 and goes on for 3 years and 500,000 lives are lost.

Now let’s take that sacrifice of 500,000 lives to regain homeostasis and divide it by 10 years (before the event) and 330,000,000 people. That means that each person would have to sacrifice 0.15% of their life over 10 years, or 0.015% of their life each year. Well, we can’t cut off 0.015% of our bodies each year, can we? Of course not, but remember that the cost of war includes psychological suffering as well. What we can do is dilute and diffuse this suffering proactively before we have to “pay the price” for homeostasis as a large balloon payment.

So, what tiny sacrifices can be an acceptable payment for homeostasis in lieu of death? This is the beauty of philosophic technology. See, war is about power imbalance. The cells in the body that are dying slowly due to poverty and misery decide that the revolution is the hill to die on because the current life is not much better. So, the risk reward ratio becomes worth it. The revolution itself is a dramatic event to correct this imbalance. But how did it get so imbalanced? You might recall our micro lesson on the power concentration obstacle to True Center, which explains that power in human beings, regardless of economic system or political system tends to concentrate. It is because of our current level of philosophic technology that we haven’t figured out how to stop this.

The OptEvo philosophic system proposes that we can keep power in balance with (4) activities that require a miniscule personal sacrifice, but when done en masse accomplish the payment for homeostasis. Those (4) activities that we can all do:

1. Shop Small – to limit economic power to local, intracommunity small businesses and prevent it from creating economically and politically domineering monopolies
2. Vote Small – to limit political power to local, intracommunity independent representatives rather than creating a monopolistic government and political parties
3. News Small – to limit the power of information and perception, by choosing smaller neutral and accurate fact-based news sources over large, opinion-based news sources
4. Art Small – to limit the commoditization of art and influence of a singular artist, by choosing small, local and accessible artists and art

In the functioning of the citizen body, these choices, these activities, diffuse power and work against power concentration, and thus war. They are themselves the processes of homeostasis, also known as peace. The current philosophic technology tends to promote the growth of monopolies by taking the path of most immediate popularity, convenience, comfort and lowest cost. But the real cost is coming as that balloon payment, it always has, eventually … unless we adopt the new technology which ironically feels a lot like old philosophic technology, of getting to know our neighbors, our local businesses, turning out to vote, and supporting local artists. Yes, it can be, at times, less convenient, less popular, and slightly more expensive, but not always. And when it is, THIS is the 0.015% sacrifice WE ALL CAN MAKE to keep homeostasis. And when we do realize our power and act en masse accordingly, the heartfelt Memorial Day holiday will become a day not only to honor the fallen in military service, but to also commemorate, finally, our graduation out of the barbarism of the war.