CHAPTER XXXI.
A NEW SOCIETY.
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We cannot deal here with all the details of a new society. These are the concern of every individual person or group of people, They will have to decide for themselves what these details will be. These depend on many factors which are pertinent to different situations, environment, Cultures, etc. that have evolved in different parts of the world.
I do not have in mind a monolithic and regimented society. This would not be possible nor, in my opinion, desirable.
Here we will try to deal with the general basic principles that can be accepted by the majority of Human beings all over the Planet because these principles are obvious, and because they have been the underlaying aspiration of Humanity for a very long time.
These simple principles could form the guiding line for a new world wide and multiform society. While the practical details are the concern of every individual and of every different group of people, and, therefore, they may assume many different forms, there should be no compromise on the few simple but essential guiding principles.
The starting point is the present situation of Human relations and understanding, the situation of the productive forces, and the general aspirations of most Human beings.
From this point we should try to see which principles could be practical and could be accepted by the majority of people.
We should keep in mind that, at this stage in our history, we do not have much choice or time to argue about sophisms and secondary issues.
It is evident that we must adopt a new way of thinking and a new way of living if we want to improve our chances of survival.
We must remember that Human beings have not always thought in the same way. Over the centuries, as our perceptions have changed, we have altered our way of thinking and our attitudes. With Capitalism we have adopted the mentality of the merchant, and today it is the mentality of the merchant of the worst kind the merchant of money. If we want to survive, it is essential that we endeavour to shed this mentality.
The first prerequisite for a new society should be that we should drastically reduce the power of the `Merchants and Businessmen' who now directly and indirectly rule our world and have subjected our future development to the particular vested interest of their class and to the uncertainty of their gambles.
Free enterprise should not be eliminated, but it should be allowed only within a worldwide framework with guidelines and standards formulated by all sections of the socioeconomic organism.
This plan of production and development should be devised with the long term Human advancement in mind: Human considerations should be paramount, science and technology must have a supporting role. Free enterprise and competition could be allowed within these limits: the tasks and activities of production could be tendered out as long as the entrepreneurs could perform these tasks to the specifications and within the social conditions laid out; otherwise the tasks would be performed by the society through Public Utilities.
Private property of the means of production, production for the personal gain of a minority, and selfish competition are the main features in capitalist economy. Within this system most people, to earn a living, must compete against one another to be able to work for a minority of people who own capital. This form of social organism is obsolete, today it cannot fulfill the needs and aspirations of the majority of Human beings, and it is promoting the worst features of Human nature.
A new economy cannot be based on production for individual personal profit, destructive consumerism. We cannot allow exploitation of man by man, and the antagonism of capitalist unlimited competition.
On our small planet production must be rationally planned for the need of the whole society in harmony with the environment. We must produce by cooperating with each other, and priorities should not be determined by what is profitable to a minority, but by the real needs of the society.
Farming and food production should be the first priority, then housing, education and health, and then, in order of importance, everything that makes life worth living.
We should promote those principles that favour the development of a most efficient economy based on cooperation, at the service of, and compatible with, a free multiform and progressive society an economy serving the liberty of all the people, not just that of capitalist businessmen.