Note: Neo-socialism in this article refers to the type of socialism that corresponds to the SPEM model (see below). The term neo-socialism in the article is used only to distinguish it from the generally accepted concept of socialism and indicates a new formation to which humanity can come.
Introduction
The crisis of humanity in the modern era makes us think that despite the outstanding achievements of science, fundamental human problems remain unsolved. Society is constantly changing, so it is very important to understand what it can transform into. The so-called Social Patterns Evolution Model (SPEM) describes the various stages of the development of society and is able to show possible ways of development of society. The theses used in the article are based on scientific research, which can be found in the articles presented in the “Literature” section.
Industrial Era
The Industrial Era not only developed the technical power of mankind, but also led to a serious specialization of people’s thinking. The need for engineering professions has led to a survival advantage for people with developed cognitive intelligence, that is, the intelligence that is responsible for logic, cause-and-effect relationships and is measured by IQ. At the same time, people with other types of thinking, such as emotional thinking, found themselves at a loss, since their skill could not be applied in industry and was not assessed. As a result, this has led to the fact that in modern society quantity, facts, and logic are valued, but values such as feelings have been lost.
Information Era
Technological development has led to increased connectivity between people. Urbanization has led to population densification in cities. Social networks allow for more intensive communication. Connectedness of people requires developed emotional intelligence. After all, interaction with people at the level of feelings and emotions is much more effective than at the level of cognitive intelligence (logic). A person with developed emotional intelligence will always benefit from working in a team and from frequently changing teams, which is becoming more and more common nowadays.
The Crisis of Capitalism
According to Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, a closed system cannot be complete. In other words, in a closed system, insoluble contradictions arise. Capitalism, built on the principles of quantity and logic, in its growth has accumulated contradictions that threaten the collapse of society into chaos. A striking example is the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic, which capitalism could not cope with despite all its accumulated technical and scientific power. As a result, humanity descended from the Adaptive Society Pattern (see SPEM model) into the Primary Society Pattern, which is characterized by structure. It was in order not to fall into chaos and to remain at least at the level of the Primary Society Pattern through strict restrictions, the structure of society was strengthened. There are a large number of other obvious signs of the crisis of capitalism, such as wars, problems in the economy, growing public debt in many countries, etc. An analysis of these problems is beyond the scope of this article. However, it is still necessary to consider the underlying reasons for what is happening.
The fundamental problem of capitalism is the so-called Matthew effect. The Matthew effect is a phenomenon of uneven distribution of advantages, in which the party that already possesses them continues to accumulate and multiply them, while the other, initially limited, is deprived even more and, therefore, has less chance of further success. This effect is manifested not only in the fact that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, but also in the fact that whoever has a lot of responsibility is added to it and vice versa. Likewise, whoever has a lot of work gets more work, and vice versa. There are many similar examples of distortions.
Collapse of Society
The crisis of capitalism leads to the fact that society moves from the Adaptive Society Pattern, which is characterized by capitalism (see the SPEM model) to the lower Primary Society Pattern or to one of the dystopian patterns (in the SPEM model, dystopias are considered not as an artistic genre, but as a very real one phenomenon). The tightening of restrictions in the Primary Society Pattern was mentioned above. Patterns of dystopias into which a transition from capitalism is possible are, first of all:
- Pattern of Bureaucratic Control. One can observe how bureaucracy has developed under capitalism. All methods of dealing with it only lead to new problems. But this pattern is still better than the underlying Religious-Philosophical Control Pattern;
- Pattern of Religious-Philosophical Control. This pattern primarily includes various kinds of extremist organizations and religious sects. This pattern has only one advantage – it does not allow society to fall into chaos;
- Pattern of Corporate Control. Perhaps this is the most advanced pattern into which society can move from collapsed capitalism. However, we should not forget that this is a dystopian pattern that does not promise people a happy life. At the same time, observations show that many modern states function not as states, but as corporations. At the same time, transnational corporations are often more powerful than a number of poor nation states. Unfortunately, the study of this interesting issue is beyond the scope of this article.
The Illusion of Socialism in the Former USSR
The USSR claimed that it had achieved developed socialism and was moving towards communism. Consideration of what communism is in this article is of no value, since it was not achieved in reality. But what the USSR actually achieved and why it eventually collapsed is extremely interesting. The reason for the collapse of the USSR was hidden in its rejection of capitalism as a phenomenon contrary to the existence of the country itself. As a result, the country was not developed in the Adaptive Society Pattern. A change in an external factor (falling oil prices) led to the country being unable to adapt to this change and collapsing.
Socialism, which was built in the USSR, raises questions. Given the complete absence of the underlying Adaptive Society Pattern, its role was replaced by the Religious-Philosophical control of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and bureaucracy. That is, it can be argued that the country in its last years was in a state of dystopia. When the country is essentially in a state of dystopia (the philosophy of Marxism-Leninism permeated the entire society), it is impossible to say that the country has achieved socialism. Being in a dystopia led to the collapse of the country and to the fact that at this stage the issues of the structure of its territory are being resolved, since many territorial issues of the countries into which the USSR collapsed have not yet been resolved.
Globalization
Globalization processes are currently of particular interest and require consideration. The Information Society pattern that humanity has now entered is characterized by increased connectivity. This connectivity is the basis of globalization. At the same time, those negative manifestations attributed to globalization should be attributed to those degradation directions into which capitalism can be transformed (see “The Crisis of Capitalism” and “The Collapse of Society” above). That is, globalization should be considered, first of all, not as an independent phenomenon, but as a natural transformation of capitalism. And if we consider the Pattern of the Information Society and not globalization as such, then we can understand what is happening.
There is an opinion that globalization will lead to the disappearance of diversity – all countries will become similar, people will become uniform, etc. However, this can only correspond to destructive scenarios of the collapse of capitalism. As a matter of fact, all the collapse scenarios discussed above lead to the disappearance of diversity. But one of the principles underlying the Information Society Pattern is uniqueness among all. This can be seen in the example of social networks, where users have equal opportunities, but each of them creates unique posts. Therefore, it is the development in the Information Society Pattern that contributes to the development of uniqueness and diversity (people, countries, opportunities, etc.). And it in no way contradicts healthy globalization.
Neo-Socialism as the Only Direction of Evolution
So, as has been shown, the two main systems, capitalism and socialism, show their inconsistency from the point of view of the development of modern society. The problems of capitalism also affect those societies that are considered to have entered post-capitalism. There is also an opinion that having developed capitalism, the country enters the stage of development of socialism. The SPEM model confirms that having developed in the Pattern of the Adaptation Society corresponding to capitalism, it becomes possible to develop in the Pattern of the Information Society corresponding to socialism. However, there is one problem that needs to be taken into account.
Capitalism aims to increase wealth at the expense of resources. At the same time, natural resources and human resources were among the depleting resources. The depletion of natural resources has become threatening to life on Earth itself. The depletion of human resources lies primarily in the growth of diseases inherent in the modern way of life. The depletion of human resources can also include unemployment due to the market need for certain specialists. Here it is worth recalling the Matthew effect discussed above, which leads to an increase in imbalances in society. Perhaps here we should talk about the discrepancy between the quality and not the quantity of human resources with the requirements of our time.
To mitigate the problems of capitalism, associated primarily with human resources, it is increasingly necessary that people’s activities comply with the principles of ethics. However, accepted ethical standards are based on humanism and human-centeredness. These norms consider a person in rupture with the system in which he finds himself. The SPEM model in the Information Society Pattern (as well as in the Creative Society Pattern) considers human as a part of a system. That is, it refers to how a person interacts with the environment and how the environment interacts with him. Such consideration goes beyond classical ethics and corresponds to the emergence and development of neo-humanism. The emergence and development of neo-humanism is described in the scientific literature.
So, having accepted the fact of neo-humanism as the basis of the Information Society, we can talk about the emergence of neo-ethics. Perhaps this is just a new look at ethics, but without neo-humanism the construction of a developed Information Society will be impossible. Let us recall that the Information Society Pattern is characterized by high connectedness of people with each other and with the environment. And only neo-humanism allows us to eliminate destructive and pathological interactions in such a close environment.
Due to the fact that the Information Society Pattern corresponds to healthy socialism, in contrast to the collapsed socialism that the Soviet bloc countries tried to build, we can introduce the concept of neo-socialism. That is, neo-socialism is socialism based on neo-humanism. And neo-socialism is what modern capitalism can develop into. In contrast to the previously discussed scenarios of the collapse of capitalism, its development into neo-socialism is seen as the only healthy step in the development of humanity.
What to do
This article deals with complex issues and the solution to all the problems raised cannot be achieved in simple ways. However, general recommendations can and should be given:
1) By all means, introduce the principles of neo-humanism into practical application. Without these principles, it will not be possible to develop in the Information Society Pattern and only the paths of degradation into the Primary Society Pattern or into dystopia will remain;
2) Develop every member of society. Development can occur according to Human Motivation Theory 2.0, which structurally corresponds to the SPEM model;
3) Pay special attention to the education of young people;
4) Take advantage of the Information Society Pattern on economic, social and environmental issues.
Conclusion
This article proposes to consider neo-socialism as a goal to which it is necessary to strive in the current situation of the global crisis. Neo-socialism does not deny capitalism and includes only one feature – adherence to the principles of neo-humanism. This will create the opportunity for gradual evolutionary transformation and eliminate the threat of sudden revolutionary changes that threaten the degradation of society. Although neo-socialism and socialism have the same wording root, they are fundamentally different concepts. At the same time, neo-socialism may be close to understanding for representatives of socialist views due to the fact that it is capable of achieving the human goals set for socialism. Neo-socialism is also close to supporters of capitalism, since it simply represents capitalism reaching a fundamentally qualitative level. And the most important thing is not to confuse the concepts – neo-socialism has nothing in common with the well-known socialism, except perhaps the goals of improving people’s lives. Also, one should not think that neo-socialism is somehow opposed to capitalism, as it was under the socialism of the Soviet bloc. Neo-socialism is integrated with capitalism through the principles of neo-humanism.
Although the scope of this article does not imply a description of specific measures to achieve neo-socialism, the main methods can be considered:
- Following the principles of neo-humanism as the main force of transformation;
- Using the Theory of Human Motivation 2.0 for the development of society.
Literature
Gakh D. A Look to Model of Society and Teams Development Based on Initial Formation, Primary, Adaptable, Information, and Creative Society Patterns. International Journal of Management Research and Economics. 3(1), 36-56.
https://doi.org/10.51483/IJMRE.3.1.2023.36-56
Gakh, D. (2023c). Societal Patterns Evolution Model in Development of Economy, Society, and Environment, Journal of Research, Innovation and Technologies, Volume II, 2(4), 142-160. https://doi.org/10.57017/jorit.v2.2(4).03
Gakh D. The Conception of the Theory of Human Motivations 2.0 / Концепция Теории Мотиваций Человека 2.0. Communication Document. Research Gate. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.18975.84644
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