Politics: the choice that determines humanity's fate
by William D
Originally posted at The First Creation.
Politics is the branch of philosophy that explores the interaction between members of society. Society is a group of individuals that choose to trade with each other. Society is not the undefinable “public” or “them” or “everyone”; delving deeper into this mystical definition, one sees that the “they” referred to is truly, “everyone but the self,” and the wishes of “them” are arbitrary and self-debasing. Interaction between two (or groups of) individuals can take only two forms. The first is force, the second is choice.
Force is a gun. It is physical compulsion, the ultimate threat of one's life. It can be literally a gun or a fist, poison, steel handcuffs, prison bars, a knife, or an ultimatum. The ultimatum is “do as I say, or I will take your life (break your arm, shoot you, lock you in a cell, etc.).” Force is not limited to the few examples stated, but it's end is always physical. For example, “endorse this legislative bill, or I will publish the pictures I took of your affair” is not force. It is possible that the pictures were taken forcibly (by breaking and entering or physically destructing someone's property—planting a camera), but the actual of blackmail is not force. It is not in one's interest, but here we are concerned solely with the use of force. Force compels, it nullifies choice, it destroys reason, it kills man. The interaction between two individuals based on force is very simple. The man with more force receives exactly what his whims dictate, else the destruction of his foe.
If force dominated, society would grow smaller. Men would be killed, both by the stopping of hearts and the stopping of brains. With a gun to someone's head, he cannot think (the impossibility of justice from an American jury). Society's alternative (the sum of the choices made by its individuals), then, is free trade. Trading of time, money, services, products, love, sex, respect, knowledge. For a trade to take place, both parties agree on the terms, and sometimes make it explicit in writing. The process of choosing the terms of trade is negotiation.
Successful negotiation requires two character traits from each party involved: consideration and courage1. Consideration is the identification and evaluation of facts. This is understanding the self, knowing what one wants from the other party. Consideration includes sympathizing with the other party: understanding what motivates him, what he desires from the trade. This may include understanding his situation better than he does. [I skip a few logical steps for the next sentence, and they are defined in the following paragraphs] Consideration determines what is in one's best interest. Courage is acting on it.
Individuals trade things of value. A brief list of valuable things was previously provided. Summing all of the value in the world, the representative pie would be very large. The beauty of free trade (laissez-faire capitalism) as opposed to force (dictatorship, communism) is that it allows the pie to expand. To explore the expansion of the pie, let us take the negotiation between entrepreneur and investor. The entrepreneur has an idea and a plan to bring a product into reality and thinks it will be valuable, but he needs capital to actualize his plan. The investor desires the significant growth of his capital and wishes to buy equity in the entrepreneur's venture. The investor's money and the entrepreneur's personal pie (the percentage breakdown of equity for the company) are on the table at the beginning of the negotiation. If it were to remain like this, the negotiation would be very simple, determining the price per percentage point and percent to be bought. If this were decided on, the overall pie of value in the world would grow, as the trade allowed each individual to specialize in his respective field of expertise (determining value and investing money in the case of the investor; creating a product for a consumer in the case of the entrepreneur). However, the pie can grow in a much more significant way: through synergy1.
Synergy is the productive collaboration of willing individuals. It is the reason “the team is greater than the sum of its parts.” By building on the ideas of others and making connections between various fields of study, greater value is produced than by lone experts. At the negotiation table, it is possible that instead of merely agreeing on a price, the two parties decide that they will work together to grow the pie of the company. That is to say, the investor will bring in advisors—experts in the given sector—that will provide experience, guidance, and contacts for the entrepreneur. The synergistic approach increases the intrinsic value of the company.
Every being reading this has the capacity of free will: choice. It is the sum of our choices that will determine the world we live in—whether it is dominated by force or allows for uninhibited production of value. I know that the survival of man depends on this choice.
1Terms proposed in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
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