Small is Better
Small is Better
A social model is the result of a cultural model, which stems from the knowledge acquired up to that moment by Civilization.
Our civilization is the result of over two thousand years of history but the last century has seen the most influential and meaningful philosophical, cultural, scientific and technical presence.
As a result of what I will explain, we could define these years as the last of the first half of History; like in a game of football or basketball or whichever sport we prefer, we are entering into the interval between the two halves and the second half will be what will determine the equilibrium of the mature history of Humanity.
But let’s go in order.
Why the end of the first half?
We can define this first part of History as that of man’s search for Truth. Until the advent of the Enlightenment, however, man searched for this Truth within the canons of a religious-philosophical tradition. After this advent, he searched for it within the canons of “reason.”
In this last period (our days), however, we are experimenting how the canons of “reason” have led us to a management of the world that has provoked so many breakdowns; not only from an energetic and environmental point of view, but also from one which is extremely political and managerial.
We are slowly realizing that this model, born and bred under the aegis of human “reason”, has not worked as we expected but, if we want to look at it from a certain point of view, it has allowed us to explore the World a little like a child when it experiments a toy through play.
At the point at which we have arrived, among the disorientation that we have achieved, the reflections that we make and the attempts to find other solutions, we can affirm that we have entered into an intermediary period (or interval) that, just like in sport, is tantamount to that phase in which the team reflects on what has happened and on what it could or should be.
It is not simple today to determine how long this interval will last, but what is certain is that the reflections and evaluations being made by our society induce us to think that we are truly entering into this interval.
The referee is whistling the end of the first half and the way to the changing rooms must see us already formulating a new thought and direction: toward the second half.
But what has not worked in the first half?
It is evident that in this article I am simulating actions that are yet to come, a little like in Fantasy Football.
It is certain that we have played the game of the use of resources imperfectly and we have played it badly because we had not placed ourselves in alignment with Ecological Reason, that is to say, with that reason which is synchronous to the same principles on which the World is based.
But what are the principles on which the World is based? If we understand these we will surely win the second half and certainly the whole game.
Let us immediately recall here the title of this contribution: Small is better (or if you want: Small is Beautiful). Why is Small better? Because our World System is based on a democracy of forms and substances that is the best possible to better perpetuate it.
This democracy is in turn based on the fact that there is the greatest possible diversity, together the maximum fragmentation, in the distribution (and burden) of energy tasks and of mass, which is assured not by a few forms but by an innumerable quantity of them (biodiversity and ecodiversity).
This principle has been applied badly, above all after the industrial revolution, and it is unfortunately still being applied badly today.
If we do not apply the same characteristics of Biological Systems to Human Systems we will lose the game, not only because we will enter into conflict with these, but because we will have applied the laws of thermodynamics and the distribution and diffusion of mass and energy badly.
These laws teach us that only by fragmenting the processes and the responsibility as much as possible will we have the maximum involvement of the whole system, which will no longer be based on the largest aggregations but on the smallest ones possible.
When today we want to centralize the responsibility of processes and of energy on great aggregations and we make policies aimed at stimulating this, we go against these principles and accordingly we make the world machine work badly.
The end result is that everything (knowledge, society, the ecosystem, resources, etc.) is impoverished and until we do not change tactics it is better that we do not return onto the pitch.
If we really want to find a winning game plan we have to favour Smallness, giving it the possibility to differentiate itself and make itself become the protagonist in the role of the production of all the Energies of Life.
Instead, when we favour Great Systems, Great Aggregations, Concentrations, Monopolies and so on, we break the Social Structure up and therefore we also break up the energy and ecological structure and we favour only one thing: the centralized accumulation of Great Structures at the expense of many.
The second half of the Game will begin only and exclusively when we will have clearly understood that the tactic that we will have to adopt is that of Absolute Democracy, where the absolute is to represent all the qualities that Societies will have to have in order to be able to guarantee a perfect representation of every small component in the construction of Dignity. First personal and then human.
But let’s go in order.
Why the end of the first half?
We can define this first part of History as that of man’s search for Truth. Until the advent of the Enlightenment, however, man searched for this Truth within the canons of a religious-philosophical tradition. After this advent, he searched for it within the canons of “reason.”
In this last period (our days), however, we are experimenting how the canons of “reason” have led us to a management of the world that has provoked so many breakdowns; not only from an energetic and environmental point of view, but also from one which is extremely political and managerial.
We are slowly realizing that this model, born and bred under the aegis of human “reason”, has not worked as we expected but, if we want to look at it from a certain point of view, it has allowed us to explore the World a little like a child when it experiments a toy through play.
At the point at which we have arrived, among the disorientation that we have achieved, the reflections that we make and the attempts to find other solutions, we can affirm that we have entered into an intermediary period (or interval) that, just like in sport, is tantamount to that phase in which the team reflects on what has happened and on what it could or should be.
It is not simple today to determine how long this interval will last, but what is certain is that the reflections and evaluations being made by our society induce us to think that we are truly entering into this interval.
The referee is whistling the end of the first half and the way to the changing rooms must see us already formulating a new thought and direction: toward the second half.
But what has not worked in the first half?
It is evident that in this article I am simulating actions that are yet to come, a little like in Fantasy Football.
It is certain that we have played the game of the use of resources imperfectly and we have played it badly because we had not placed ourselves in alignment with Ecological Reason, that is to say, with that reason which is synchronous to the same principles on which the World is based.
But what are the principles on which the World is based? If we understand these we will surely win the second half and certainly the whole game.
Let us immediately recall here the title of this contribution: Small is better (or if you want: Small is Beautiful). Why is Small better? Because our World System is based on a democracy of forms and substances that is the best possible to better perpetuate it.
This democracy is in turn based on the fact that there is the greatest possible diversity, together the maximum fragmentation, in the distribution (and burden) of energy tasks and of mass, which is assured not by a few forms but by an innumerable quantity of them (biodiversity and ecodiversity).
This principle has been applied badly, above all after the industrial revolution, and it is unfortunately still being applied badly today.
If we do not apply the same characteristics of Biological Systems to Human Systems we will lose the game, not only because we will enter into conflict with these, but because we will have applied the laws of thermodynamics and the distribution and diffusion of mass and energy badly.
These laws teach us that only by fragmenting the processes and the responsibility as much as possible will we have the maximum involvement of the whole system, which will no longer be based on the largest aggregations but on the smallest ones possible.
When today we want to centralize the responsibility of processes and of energy on great aggregations and we make policies aimed at stimulating this, we go against these principles and accordingly we make the world machine work badly.
The end result is that everything (knowledge, society, the ecosystem, resources, etc.) is impoverished and until we do not change tactics it is better that we do not return onto the pitch.
If we really want to find a winning game plan we have to favour Smallness, giving it the possibility to differentiate itself and make itself become the protagonist in the role of the production of all the Energies of Life.
Instead, when we favour Great Systems, Great Aggregations, Concentrations, Monopolies and so on, we break the Social Structure up and therefore we also break up the energy and ecological structure and we favour only one thing: the centralized accumulation of Great Structures at the expense of many.
The second half of the Game will begin only and exclusively when we will have clearly understood that the tactic that we will have to adopt is that of Absolute Democracy, where the absolute is to represent all the qualities that Societies will have to have in order to be able to guarantee a perfect representation of every small component in the construction of Dignity. First personal and then human.
Guido Bissanti