By Bill Allison, on December 26th, 2014
Of all the Anglo-American “Fourth Turning”s only one occurred concurrently with a major societal change. The “Fourth Turning” that occurred around the transition/evolution from the Agricultural organization of society to the Industrial organization of society (Industrial evolution) saw a major break with the predominate power structure of its time. Our entire American “Fourth Turning”s occurred under the Industrial organization of society which can be broadly characterized by large/economy of scale/mass (printing, education, democracy, employment, media, production, corporations, firms, government, one size fits all etc) and magnitude (more with more, predominate force, might over mind, Sumo over lean). Our current “Fourth Turning” appears to be concurrent with a transition/evolution/graduation out of the industrial organization of society and into a new or becoming Information organization of society which might be broadly characterized by miniaturization/micro (the opposite of large scale/mass,) and efficiency (more with less, mind over might).
Around the time when the earth was discovered to be spherical (finite) vice flat (infinite), trading and mercantilism (government private partnership) picked up (late 1400s to early 1600s). This activity was predominately accomplished via the sea with deep belly ships due to their cargo carrying advantage over land caravanning but because you couldn’t enforce your laws at sea outside of the shore based artillery range; predominant sea force was required to capture/protect the sea line of supply for your team. Sovereigns and Monarchies had the means, power, command, resources, finances, etc to embark on such a large and complex endeavor and thus was the beginning of scaled industrialization of ships and national navies. Of course you needed mass production of wood planks chain plates, chain, sheets, rope, etc. which brought about the large scale/mass, geographically fixed, Port city. This was where the action was, the early industrial center of mass, the blue print, DNA, the basin of attraction or the dynamic stability of the early industrial origination of society. Eventually Britain achieved Sea Power dominance in the early 1800s and controlled the world line-of-supply/sea-lanes.
“The Wealth of Nations” showed the leverage/advantage gain (the invisible hand) over a one person production process completing all the work from start to finish (craftsman) to a multi-person production process (collectively and cooperatively) completing small portions of the whole in a scientific order/assembly line fashion (industrialization). Industrialization produced more tonnage (mass) of nails per unit time at ever decreasing cost the longer the production line ran.
The measuring stick or gauge of production strength back then was the tonnage/mass of product produced (replaced in the 20th century by electrical capacity). As energy inputs (goods and services) to the system grew in the 18th and 19th century, the early industrial centers of mass categories bifurcated many times over as knowledge and science increased (at first) linearly. Mass production centers of textile, steel, food, etc. (industries) appeared all alone the east coast of North America and were later characterized as robber baron based (individual/personality) centers of industrial mass.
The political mass of the day (Representation) was geographical and primarily mass people and state based. Corporations are abstract people with similar rights. Corporations/abstract people are a centralizedcollective of people, other organizations and other aligned interest. The corporate/abstract person has more political mass than the individual person; the abstract person called Boeing Inc has a collective of subsidiaries, suppliers, trade unions, city, region, state, and federal interest and is a collective member of airplane manufacturing and the military industrial complex ….. it collectively wields more political mass than Mr. Jones, a city, state or federal government representative. This is in part how good people in a collective can inadvertently support military consumption through conflict/war, police militarization, etc.
Mass production needs a mass consumption outlet. Mass production of steel (and other industries) in the mid-1800s needed mass consumption of steel to balance the equation which might have translated to a mass expansion (growth) of America West which needed a massive federal government to partner with (magnitude/might) thus requiring a shift of political mass from the state to the federal level to get things done. The Civil war was very financially beneficial to northern based industry and railroads which grew rapidly during and after the war. With the states political mass weaken, Mass Democracy enters the scene.
As one of the benefactors of science and technology’s slow but becoming exponential rise, industrialization grew and achieved a major milestone with its massive productive capacity/mobilization for WWI. It achieved major league status a bit later in WWII. Industries and organizations grew rapidly in size and number which coincided with a major shift of the population from independent rural farming to city and factory towns; more completely organizing ourselves into the industrial collective whereby increasing its mass. Think about the Borg collective from Star Trek.
The number of organizational (AARP, CFR, etc) and industrial (large firms) centers multiplied along with its political mass to shape the country. Mass consumption (both militarily and individually) needs mass advertizing and marketing. It needs mass media to get the mass marketing/message out. It needs mass transportation to get the mass production to the source of mass consumption. It needs mass education to train the masses to tend to the mass production machinery. It needs mass transit, mass thought, mass welfare (both corporate and public), mass surveys, mass communications, mass sacrifices, mass drugs, mass surveillance etc.
From all these centers of mass and their associated weighted political mass we have our current (elder hood) stage of Mass Democracy and from this narrow prespective it becomes comprehendible as to why the political system doesn’t seem to operate, respond logically, or is dysfunctional at all levels. The mechanisms of Mass Democracy, separately and collectively, contort government and its institutions to polices/decisions/laws/funding that serve the mechanism’s best interest. With interlocking corporate directorships and government/private sector revolving doors weaved into Mass Democracy, we see formations of cooperation/coordination between many senior centers of masses and of increasing complexity.
With each American “Fourth Turning” our Mass Democracy has became more centralized, planned, managed, command and controlled, and technocratic. This builds magnitude and might. This might make pathological sense (fear- Motivated) if industrialism was subverted to be the master and not the servant of humanity, The Pilfering Hand, selfishly maximizing only one side of equation so that mass consumption must conform/be subservient/compulsory to the dictates of mass production. Mass production waste streams become new mass production industries (fluoride in water) for compulsory mass consumption (health insurance).
Example: The music industry essentially evolved to control or eliminate, to a high degree, all the inputs/variables to the mass production process (performers included), culminating in the vinyl record. With a long enough production line the material price per record is ridiculously small (the invisible hand) but consumer prices are fixed at high margins regardless of actual cost. To maximize mass production returns it drives mass consumption through mass advertising, media, etc. When its business model is threaten (cash flow) by new technology (cassette tapes, CDs) it reacts not by passing on the lower cost but persists in maintaining its high margins by virtue of its corporate mass in our Mass Democracy (unlike the flat screen TV industry). It selfishly wants the benefit of lower production costs through technology but not for you (the pilfering hand). What is the material production cost of the digital version of the vinyl record today? If the average album is 36MB then 1777 copies can fit on a 64GB thumb drive that cost $29, then the cost/album is 1.6 cents. Continue to scale this up and the material cost tends to zero. The industry seeks to control its environment by conforming/forcing/tricking/influencing/etc consumer to fit/adapt to its business model through Mass Democracy (with force) if necessary (CISPA).
In our development with major evolutions (agriculture, industrialism) and the minor ones (health), it seems that we exit the main highway and go down these side roads/detours and somehow turn the discovered tool backwards onto ourselves (fear-Motivated). The sum total of human experiences through out written history and from our own experiences reveals an accelerating trend of doing ever more with ever less. Total wealth consists of the physical and metaphysical (mind, know-how). Physical wealth is large and finite but the metaphysical wealth is, as yet, infinite. We’ve learned, developed, and continue to prefect the science and art of Agriculture and Industrialism individually and when they were combined tremendous results were achieved. As we’ve been transitioning, for at least 30 years or so, into the Information organization of society the evolution of the science and art of Information systems, microprocessor, material, etc is developing individually at an exponential rate. We are in the early stages of combining the science and art of the not yet mature Information systems with the mature Agriculture and Industrial systems. The results can only be SYNERGETIC but as to how long the Lawyers of mass democracy will hold humanities collective inheritance in probate is anyone’s guess.
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