Prologue

In 2000, before Americans ever even dreamed of 9/11 a computer game was released. Deus Ex was acclaimed for it's engaging well written story, open ended game play, and (most importantly for our purposes) philosophical content. It's story is a mashing of every single cliche you might here a street nut job utter in the throws of insanity. A short summation would be that a plague is spreading throughout the United States, creating unrest and fueling terrorism worldwide. The United Nations is tasked with providing security and combating the plague. As it turns out the United Nations is a puppet controlled by Majestic 12, a rouge splinter faction of the Illuminati, in a bid to gain control of the world by creating the plague and controlling the company which has created the antidote.

At this point you might be wondering why I'm wasting your time with the plot of a video game, particularly one so outlandish as this. Relax, we're getting to that.

The game actively encourages you to explore. One of the settings is in Hong Kong, the last non UN (and by extension MJ12) controlled nation in this story. There is a nightclub setting called the Lucky Dragon. There the protagonist can have a scripted conversation with the bartender. I have provided it here. JC Denton is the protagonist while Isaac is the bartender.

JC Denton vs Isaac

(Text Provided from Wikiquote.)

"JC Denton: "Despite all I’ve read about the Triads, I wasn’t prepared to see them operating in the open, on the streets, and wearing uniforms. Doesn’t the Chinese government care?"

Isaac: "The Chinese leave Hong Kong alone. They barricade the roads to control trade to the mainland, but they know how business is done."

JC Denton: "I would think the secret smuggling operations of the Triads would disturb the Chinese government."

Isaac: "Maybe the Luminous Path, but China knows that the Red Arrow are business owners, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and that they protect the city from outside influences."

JC Denton: "You said 'outside influences.' What does China fear?"

Isaac: "China is the last sovereign country in the world. Authoritarian but willing - unlike U.N.-governed countries - to give its people the freedom to do what they want.

JC Denton: "As long as they don’t break the law."

Isaac: "Listen to me. This is real freedom, freedom to own property, make a profit, make your life. The West, so afraid of strong government, now has no government. Only financial power."

JC Denton: "Our governments have limited power by design."

Isaac: "Rhetoric--and you believe it! Don’t you know where those slogans come from?"

JC Denton: "I give up."

Isaac: "Well-paid researchers - how do you say it? - 'think tanks,' funded by big businesses. What is that? A 'think tank'?"

JC Denton: "Hardly as sinister as a dictator, like China’s Premier."

Isaac: "It’s privately-funded propaganda. The Trilateral Commission in the United States for instance."

JC Denton: "The separation of powers acknowledges the petty ambitions of individuals; that’s its strength."

Isaac: "A system organized around the weakest qualities of individuals will produce these same qualities in its leaders."

JC Denton: "Perhaps certain qualities are an inseparable part of human nature.

Isaac: "The mark of the educated man is the suppression of these qualities in favor of better ones. The same is true of civilization.""

Within this conversation are several important points that we might take away as we begin to look at our world. Setting aside that this is an exaggerated work of fiction (though to be fair this conversation is not that exaggerated.) I would point you to "The West, so afraid of strong government, now has no government. Only financial power." Our society teeters ever closer to this becoming a reality. It is a popular conservative past-time to rail against the government. It is a seductive delusion, for many reasons, not least of which is that it absolves the system of it's failures. For 60 years we have been so desperately afraid of "The Red Menace" that concepts like socialism and communism have lost all meaning in our zeitgeist. You can be one of two things in this binary reality, a capitalist or a communist. And you don't want to be a poor communist, do you?

The two ideas, the dominance of capitalism and the ineptness of government are closely connected in the mind of these "Libertarians". Money must be good, and government should avoid choosing "winners and losers". Curiously no one who I have ever heard rant about "winners and losers" has ever been in a position where they find themselves able to lose. The entitled love to pretend that their station in life was entirely earned and isn't made up of any of a great number of factors. They advocate total freedom of the corporate at any cost. They rant about government regulations, as barriers to entry into business, blaming the government for what they call corporatism. All of this ignoring that often these regulations are created by corporate lobbyists who have bought and paid for members of Congress. The ultimate irony of the manner in which the Libertarian philosophy is structured is that by ignoring the real cause of the problem they would set up the circumstances by which the fuel the problem.

This brings me to my first point. A brave new world requires that we remove corporateinfluence from politics. A government can never represent the people if it is a purchasablecommodity. We have created a system in which the people's representation is beholden to organizations which, because of the blind faith capitalism has in turning a profit, are not capable of making choices in anyone's long term best interests.

Returning to the dialogue from Deus Ex Isaac talks about a weakness of the concept of separation of powers.

Isaac: "A system organized around the weakest qualities of individuals will produce these same qualities in its leaders."

JC Denton: "Perhaps certain qualities are an inseparable part of human nature.

Isaac: "The mark of the educated man is the suppression of these qualities in favor of better ones. The same is true of civilization."

This is not to say that Separation of Powers is a bad idea, quite the contrary in fact. But it is very true that if you base your system of governance off the weakest qualities of people you will breed a weak society. Democratic government demands the participation of the governed. We should not simply accept the follies of our leaders, we should strive to do better. Government has not failed us, only the most hopelessly arrogant person would think so. We have failed ourselves. The nature of government is the responsibility of the governed in a representative system, and if we slack off and pretend that we will be attended to in due time we deserve whatever ruin our piss poor leaders visit upon us.

It will not be an easy task. There is much to repair and rebuild. No society is built without sacrifice, but a new world demands nothing less than our greatest effort. From this point out we will be exploring how we got here, for in understanding the path already traveled you can see ways forward. We will explore other societies of ages past, because the past illuminates the future. Most importantly of all we will look at and strive to construct a philosophy built on fairness and moral courage to use as a blueprint for Our Brave New World.

Our New World

It's a strange world we live in. A date might change but a time and again we see the same thing happening. Even if the theme stays the same the players change, new faces playing old tunes.

There is a bit of fortune cookie wisdom that states that in order to perceive one state you must understand the opposite state. This would apply to our theme here. In order to understand what is happening now, we must understand what happened. In order to understand our present world I will look at it through the lens of history.

The title of this blog is "Our Brave New World". This refers to the world that we build. The difficulties of the last few years have begun to illuminate the deficiencies of the present system. We can either move forward and build a more fair society or we can stay the course and watch as we grow more divided and eventually watch our society crumble. Societies change over time, the key to this is to see how they change, and it how it can beneficial to all.

I won't lie, I have a plethora of opinions. If you choose to read this blog you will be subjected to them. I arrive at my ideas after long and careful observation of the world around me. As a reader you're free to disagree, all I ask is that it is a measured and reasoned response to what I say. My previous endeavors have often gotten bogged down by people who refuse to address issues.

And finally I'll be looking for other writers who wish to contribute ideas from time to time. For as many pointless discussions I've had recently I've found several people with truly interesting points of view.