FROM DISSATISFACTION TO POLITICAL CHANGE: HOW TO REVERSE SOCIETAL DECLINE

A majority does not automatically imply truthfulness. Especially in contemporary democracies, where media manipulation has become so sophisticated that the desired public opinion is often perceived by the population itself as if it were its own unique thought. However, at some points, political calculation reaches its limits, and at that point, the majority response moves closer to the truth as an organic, almost biological, response. In this article, we are examining a phenomenon that probably many people in the world feel, yet cannot describe, fathom or even less so, solve: Dissatisfaction with politics. On average, satisfaction with the national political system is below 50% in every continent, except Asia, with a slightly more satisfied population, according to the Asian Barometer Survey and Pew Research Center. Of course, there are outliers on both ends of the spectrum, but nonetheless, the trend is clear: We are not satisfied with how things are going.

Various reasons can be named here, and their weight in the overall picture changes from nation to nation. Generally, one of the most prominent drivers is economic and security-related concerns at a baseline. But people know that these things can be overcome. We saw economic and military crises in nearly every national context, and all were resolved. What is driving dissatisfaction even more is something that we all know cannot be reversed easily. It is the perceived decline of cultural values and, accordingly, of the societal order. In some contexts, it is the demographic change where cultures mix and the own culture is under threat. Then, in other contexts, we can see that consumerist behaviour and drivers are breaking normative structures. In a more psychological context, we can observe that media consumption has blurred the lines between acceptable and unacceptable, desirable and undesirable, and, even worse, good and bad. Finally, these dynamics led to a world in which political response from populations is weak and pathetic. Genocides are fought with profile picture changes on social media, crimes against humanity are pushed to the sidelines of popular discourse by waging wars against other nations and industrial decline is tackled with a surge in individual consumerist enterprises. In short, we are in a downward spiral of society that we intensify by behaving in amplifying ways.

In this article, we are looking at the solution. What can we do to reverse this? What is it that a healthy society really needs? What are the challenges that we face with the necessary measures? And how can we overcome those? So, in short, there is a set of things that we need to do to get back to the path of progress, but because this is hard and uncomfortable, there will be resistance, like a tooth that needs to be pulled: We know that it is necessary, but we stall it because we fear the pain. Here, we provide the solution to the main problem and to the problem of resistance against the necessary change. So, how can we get from current political dissatisfaction to real political change?

A Chain Of Problems

To best understand the main problem of political dissatisfaction due to societal decline, one must apply reverse process tracing. We are dissatisfied with our political systems because they mostly no longer fulfil their core duties. Mainly, they fail to provide cultural, moral and economic safety. Then the question is, why is that?

Cultural Decline

Cultural safety is no longer given in most contexts because the need for cultural guidance has been eliminated. With increasing financialisation, the base level of material needs is covered, but to maintain and expand it, more time and energy are required. The woman can no longer stay at home to cultivate customs, live traditions and educate the next generation. Because women needed and were convinced to enter the workforce, both parents played a certain role model to their children, where constant work to survive is the main mode of living, whereas earlier generations had the privilege to learn societal rules, customs and traditions at home through the mother and work ethic, strength and justice through the father. As the line between male and female and norms and material became blurred, culture became a less important measure of success in life. Further, normative enterprises no longer provide even the base level of material existence, making them structurally less attractive. Archaeologists, authors and craftsmen are no longer the drivers of culture, as their professions do not produce the material value that many seek. Finally, language and cultural artefacts have come under pressure, due to the proliferation of social media, which has led to the anglicisation of many languages. In our landmark works Politics Through Language and The Power of Language: Essydo’s Hierarchy of Language, we demonstrated how far-reaching effects of language can be in societal terms. Summarising the causes of cultural decline, we see one thing very clearly: It is the lack of monetary value that caused the decline of cultural values. It is no longer profitable to be virtuous, noble, traditional and value-oriented.

Moral Decline

That seamlessly connects to the second part, moral decline. As cultural norms are no longer profitable, investing in the cultivation and application of them has a perceived lower return on investment. In simple terms, why should somebody not post explicit content on social media if it brings good money? This can be found in many situations. Restrictive, noble and mature behaviour may still be perceived as high quality, but the lack of monetary return makes large-scale application of it unattractive. Fast food burgers from certain chains are still consumed, although all moral standards are disregarded in the production of those supposedly edible products. Next to economic reasons, there is another reason that causes consumers to make such consumption decisions, which is the instinctive component. Yes, on the one hand of moral decline, we have the factor that it brings no monetary advantage anymore to behave morally (anecdotally, we can think about the production philosophy of Henry Ford, Nikola Tesla’s wish to provide free energy for all, Volvo’s free patent for security belts or Metehan’s deliberate retreat after the siege of Baideng). On the other hand, there is the factor that our increasingly economic-oriented behaviour is also highly instinctive. Because cultural norms are weakened, our biological desires can be lived more freely. Consumerist structures allow us today to do whatever we please whenever we want to. This is the ease of material access that allows us to do so. The lack of cultural norms takes away the guilty conscience, because there is no longer right and wrong in the strict sense that society would punish someone for doing wrongs. That way, we can look away when genocides happen, consume products of immorally producing companies or engage in immoral activities. The more we do so, the more our species loses its glory. Virtue is not only becoming superfluent, but laughable under the theme “why bother?”

Economic Decline

Again, this leads us to the next stream of decline, which is economic decline. This is the most counterintuitive aspect in the chain of factors that will gradually lead us to the core solution to all the problems in our reverse process-tracing approach. We observed that consumption has become the main mode and direction for people and that the subsistence level has been secured in most nations. Even more clearly can this be seen if we look at the people living in extreme poverty in 1900, which was around 70% of the global population, whereas today this number is around 10%. What economic decline is there? It is the dependency intensity of economic conduct that is creating structural pressures. On the one hand, there is ease of access to the labour market, while there is a simultaneous need for nearly all adults to work full-time to remain above the subsistence level, due to inflationary pressures. Inflation is an important part of growth, but if inflation is the primary determinant of growth, the necessary work input must be above inflation levels (in abstracted terms) to sustain growth.

To return to the example of Henry Ford, the structure of Ford Motors was designed in a way that the company created value for and through the workers for the customers. This leads to quality and value that exceeded the sum of the parts of a produced car, as the families of the workers were able to reproduce in terms of education and culture, while the customer received a car that would last long, reducing future transaction costs. Today, a typical corporation is designed to extract rents from customers and workers for the sake of growth. Wages are “optimised” towards the ideal ratio to retain workers without giving up margins. The customer receives an “optimised” product that falls apart at a time at which he is more or less ready to replace the product. Recently surging “rent-but-do-not-own” business models are even clearer examples of rent extraction for the sake of growth. In addition to that, we also observe that the cultural and moral decline of societies adds to economic decline. Cultural goods are not as profitable (cultural decline) as goods and products that create immediate satisfaction (moral decline). Accordingly, economic production is geared towards easy-access and emotionally satisfying products, goods and services. This can be as easy as an expensive dinner or branded clothes.

Finally, this also has implications for the mode of production. Work has become merely a vehicle for achieving the necessary funds for consumption. In the end, nobody is passionate about producing smartphone cases, but if that brings in the necessary capital to satisfy emotional purchase decisions, that is the enterprise that is going to draw capital and workers. An archaeologist, if he finds employment, will navigate in a space where the institution is mostly concerned with finding funding partners that also often pursue some sort of interest to fund such endeavours.

Bringing the three dynamics of decline together, we can better understand why the populations of the world are so dissatisfied with the political systems of their respective society. Not only has the structure of the system led to a situation in which personal freedoms are in chains due to the invisible dynamics of markets and media, but these very developments have also led to a reduction in psychological capacities to overcome one's own instincts and enter a mode of genuine knowledge production. When someone else makes a mistake, that is bad, but if we make mistakes ourselves, we get even angrier. This is also applicable here. Surely, we are dissatisfied with how politicians run things, but we are even more dissatisfied with our inability to overcome our weaknesses ourselves.

What Is The Solution?

As we have seen above, there is a variety of problems. They are mutually supportive and interconnected, which means that a few solution approaches are enough to solve them, but their application needs to be intense. Vice versa, if the problems were less interlocking, more solution approaches would have been needed, but in less depth. Basically, there are two things that need to be done: 1. Strict enforcement of cultural norms through socio-political structures and disciplined example-setting, 2. Redirecting capital flows through alteration of consumption behaviours. The first solution is directed at intrinsically overcoming cultural and moral decline, so that economic behaviour can follow, while the second solution approaches the problems from the economic side, so that cultural and moral decline are reversed. Applied simultaneously, a political system can exponentially counteract the detrimental effects, heading towards a quicker restoration of civilised societal progress.

The enforcement of cultural norms through socio-political structures and disciplined example-setting is mainly dependent on institutional systems design; a field in which we also offer high-end policy solutions for political decisionmakers. Mainly, but not exclusively, states can achieve some good effects by revisiting budget allocation schemes, redirecting more capital into innovative enterprises that are purely transactional production. As capital flows into fields where special talent is developed, for example, archaeology, craftmanship, engineering, literature and the like, talent within a society is reactivated. By supporting these enterprises in domestic and international sales, self-sufficiency is established, increasing flexibility for further creativity. In a sense, the government creates a niche and promotes it with funds. The selection of those enterprises will organically fall within an area of national interest and leniency. This has the effect that culture is strengthened by visible support for culturally relevant goods, products and services while enabling people to work in this field, who will carry the intrinsic fabric of the cultural relevance further. Moreover, regulations on media content need to be introduced to stop the ongoing deterioration of values. The biggest leverage, however, is education. Here, propagandist elements need to be removed, and self-sufficient and independent thinking needs to be promoted. It is important that education is free from political and ideological influences, because true education is a socio-biological process and not a simple transfer of information. Advanced education methods enable precise and advanced thinking, and in a society like this, these people will naturally find the way to truth, which is the development of culture and moral values and moderate economic conduct as a supportive means and not the end itself. Further, the application of the rule of law needs to reflect cultural righteousness instead of economic feasibility. In every case, politicians need to adhere to the moral and cultural standards more than anyone else. There cannot be any exceptions. A politician must always embody the ideal of the perfect citizen.

Regarding the redirection of capital flows through alteration of consumption behaviours, we can follow two simple rules: Drain what is harmful, while supporting what is useful, and alter the perception of the desirable. In the first segment of this solution, again, budget allocation to progressive enterprises is key in achieving that something is produced at all, which would counteract current detrimental dynamics. Simultaneously, harmful enterprises should not receive any funds. They should also not be forbidden, because that makes it then more attractive to people, and it is a point of attack for the population that would claim paternalism. Second, the media should be comprehensively restructured to alter the perception of what is desirable. People in movies should be shown reading books, instead of texting on the phone. Musicians should record in health-advancing frequencies and avoid choruses with negative or degenerate messages and information channels, such as social media, radio and television, should promote science, art, literature and tradition, instead of degenerate material.

Why This Solution Brings New Problems

Basically, the solutions to our problems are not that difficult, nor do they sound bad. However, they will bring problems. When enforcing these rules and regulations, current interest groups will act against them. Not because they do not want their own children to live that way (they do), but because they are receiving too much material gain from the current situation that they cannot simply restructure; often, there are also ideological components involved. Recent politicians who have tried to empower their people were attacked with fierce force through material and immaterial dimensions. Mainly, the counterpowers engaged in propagandist activities to create the perception that a politician who enforces the necessary rules is limiting personal freedoms. Regardless of its cognitive level, humans always tend to believe that they are acting in their own best interest, which is seldom true. The human organism reacts mostly to external stimuli but completely rejects them once it feels that these stimuli were consciously directed at it. Knowing that, interest groups will try to convince the public that political cadres that enforce what is good for the people are trying to take away freedoms and independence. Then, all measures will be viewed as an attack. Just like a father, who punishes his son for misconduct, is perceived as a tyrant until the son becomes 30 years old and understands that this is what made him successful, the human who is forced to act for his real own good, and not his perceived own good, will view the politician as a tyrant. But we started from a different point of dissatisfaction with the political system, namely the exaggerated exploitation of the citizen and their manipulation into a normless consumer. And here lies our problem.

There is no problem if people behave morally intrinsically. There would not be a problem if people adhered to a morally sound system’s rules. There would also not be a problem if people followed the orders of a moral leader. The problem is that people want morality and normative guidance, but with the feeling of that behaviour being their own choice. Naturally, this is impossible because what is right/wrong, moral/immoral and true/false is enshrined in the fabric of the universe and constitutes the fundamental core of the objective truth. But the moment this is communicated to the people, they feel in chains. Humans have the arrogance to believe they can be deterministic about nature. People are dissatisfied with the lack of morality, cultural guidance and an exhaustive economic mode, but they are not willing to promote and follow a political leadership that can reverse that.

Accordingly, the biggest challenge is not to find out what needs to be done to bring societies back on track of progressive development, but to structure change in a way that it appears to be bottom-up rather than top-down. Surely, if bottom-up change emerges organically, the better for the speed and effectiveness of change. However, due to our reactive cognitive structure, this is quite unrealistic to happen (yet, not impossible). More reliably, political leadership can apply a broad set of measures with indirect effects on societal behaviour. We need to highlight the word “indirect” here, as too blatant tries to optimise human behaviour will, again, be perceived as negative. For example, television shows where immoral behaviour is shown should never be forbidden. It is enough to increase their broadcasting barriers in minor ways while overfunding television shows that promote moral values, performed by intrinsically driven talent. The television consumer will subconsciously feel the difference in quality and naturally reduce their demand for the immoral shows. This can and should be applied everywhere. In urban planning, building and designing cheap living areas must become unfeasible through regulation, so that construction companies and urban planners naturally aim to design positive and high-quality living spaces. In production, the cost of producing cheap products must be unfeasible so that producers naturally increase the quality of their products. Labour laws need to be structured in such a way as to increase research and development spending, limit margins and foster better allocation among employees. There are many more regulative measures that can restore morality by making it the desirable standard, rather than an enforced measure. In simple terms, behaving virtuously needs to be rewarding and attractive, while immoral and culturally unacceptable behaviour must result in a degradation of social status. If immoral and culturally unacceptable behaviour is forbidden, people will feel like their freedoms are limited, but then people have also nothing to which they can compare virtue. Of course, virtue does not need comparison, as it is the behavioural embodiment of the objective truth, and it would be better if people behaved virtuously intrinsically. However, to work with the natural limitations of the human mind, immoral and culturally unacceptable behaviour needs to be the existing negative counterpart for people to feel motivated to become virtuous. To give a comparative example: Everybody is against poverty, but it continues to exist because, otherwise, wealth and the perception of it would not exist.

Concluding Remarks

We have established why people are dissatisfied with current political systems and what we would actually need to overcome this dissatisfaction. Applied directly, however, the solution of strict discipline and redirection of capital flows will likely only change the nature of problems, not resolve them. Even worse, politicians have tried this direct approach, believing that doing the right thing is sufficient for people to see what is good for them and sustainably act that way. Unfortunately, their noble attempts were overruled; some earlier, some later. The art in achieving lasting societal progress, especially when starting from where we are today, lies in making the changes invisible to the reactive eye of the general population. It needs to be an incremental and structural path, so people have the feeling that a new normal emerges that they created through their silent consent. This is also how we got to the point we are today, with the only difference that this change was led by immoral and uncultivated people. One could say that similar strategies need to be applied by good leaders to bring society back on the path of progress and advancement. Or we could simply discipline ourselves to live the reality we really want. Because if we do not do so, we will always be dependent on whether the good or the bad are more powerful, and in neither case will we be able to determine our destiny.