Civism vs Statism
Contextual Quote
1.
"I argue that the age of coherent civilizations has passed and that their component subsystems have established autonomy from the birthing institutions. This development has been generated by purposive human action with roots in two knowledge-acquisition forms — organic and rational."
2.
"The vertically integrated state now dominates society and demarcated territory. The horizontally integrated global economy and global science/technology society have become worldwide in scope. State domination is reinforced by autonomous global science and international capital. The remaining subsystem of Moral Knowledge occupies present non-material civilization and is characterized by organic knowledge and embracing the unprovable, which includes religion, art, morality, literature, and philosophy. Reflecting this bifurcation, two global political persuasions are emerging — Statism includes communists, socialists, and progressives; Civism (Civilizationists) embraces non-material humanism and regards the three rational autonomous systems as helpful tools but not ends in themselves."
- Robert Bedeski [1]
Discussion
Robert Bedeski:
"Two global parties are likely to emerge in the future — the Statists and the Civists (Civilizationists).
Statists will include Communists, Socialists and Progressives as the party of greater state involvement and supervision of society. The state embodies competence, science, economic equity, and rationality. In other words, its vertical integration has made an encompassing organization from the government subsystem with a performance record of accomplishment, if we examine mortality rates and population growth as measures of effectiveness. Wars seem less likely than in the previous century and to this may be attributed greater mutual interdependence of states, more stress on maintenance of the status quo and ease of communication.
Civists on the other hand, remain skeptical of states and tend to view them as antagonistic to freedom.
They also do not welcome the intrusion of international capital into all aspects of national economies.
There is suspicion of science and technology exhausting natural resources, replacing humans with machines and increasing the killing ability of new weapons. Civists oppose the overwhelming secularization of global society and embrace the unprovable ideas, especially religion, that have formed the human condition. Does Civism Become the Enemy of Statism? Civists recognize past and present contributions by state, science/technology, and market commerce to mankind’s vastly improved condition.
...
Jesus Christ was the first Civist and more importantly, His words indicate a future accommodation between Statists and Civists. Civilizations already play a severely diminished role in states, and the alliance of states, Global SciTech Society and international economy could threaten that which makes us human — embracing the unprovable. The new systems have lengthened and improved our material lives — a fact tacitly accepted by current Civists.
The material subsystems have broken away from two major civilizations, leaving the mass of humanity vulnerable to the vagaries of progress and those who seek to command additional powers over society, climate, economy, education, communications, biology and even sexual identity. The vital task of Civists is to preserve the humanism of past civilizations and not to succumb to exclusive rationality — which has no guarantee of consistently coming up with the right answers to questions of existence and meaning."
(https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/ccr/vol87/iss87/7)
More information
* Article: Bedeski,, Robert Ph.D. (2022) "The Future of Civilization: A Systems Approach," Comparative Civilizations Review: Vol. 87: No. 87, Article 7.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/ccr/vol87/iss87/7
See: A Systems Approach To the Future of Civilization
"Civilization is one of several stages of human evolution and forms a system of interaction. Its past dominance is now challenged by growth of three subsystems — state, economy, and science/technology. These three subsystems have matured through application of rational knowledge. The vertically integrated state now dominates society and demarcated territory. The horizontally integrated global economy and global science/technology society have become worldwide in scope. State domination is reinforced by autonomous global science and international capital. The remaining subsystem of Moral Knowledge occupies present non-material civilization and is characterized by organic knowledge and embracing the unprovable, which includes religion, art, morality, literature, and philosophy. Reflecting this bifurcation, two global political persuasions are emerging — Statism includes communists, socialists, and progressives; Civism (Civilizationists) embraces non-material humanism and regards the three rational autonomous systems as helpful tools but not ends in themselves."