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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 26/01/2023 17:21, Richard Lung
wrote:<br>
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cite="mid:ddacca01-7614-2e5e-388a-bb61ad537071@ukscientists.com">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold"">Sorokin on liberty compared to keep values</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold"">The masterpiece of the worlds most cited
sociologist, Pitirim Sorokin, Social and Cultural Dynamics
views the span of recorded history as a sacred and secular
cultural cycle, he calls ideational and sensate. A
transitional period he calls idealistic. I refer to his 1941
popularisation, The Crisis Of Our Age.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold"">Thus, Sorokin, on liberty, distinguishes sensate
liberty and ideational liberty. Both are described according
to a simple ratio: Sum of means divided by sum of wishes. If
ones wishes do not exceed ones means, this defines personal
freedom. Consequently, a ratio of one wish for one means
defines liberty, at a threshold of unity. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold"">This liberty ratio compares to the ratio: one
person one vote, which is usually regarded as an equality
principle. From the Sorokin perspective, however, this
universal suffrage is also a liberty principle. The literal
meaning, of the word, vote, is a wish. And what Sorokin calls
the means are the fulfilment of the wish in a count.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold"">Sensate liberty seeks to maximise the fulfilment
of ones wishes by maximising ones means. As long as the wishes
do not out-number the means, a person may still be considered
free.</span><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold""> According to Sorokin, ideational liberty follows
the opposite course of pursuing freedom. Instead, it seeks to
minimise ones wishes, so that one is free, with few means.</span>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold"">I would argue that representative democracy
belongs to the compromise idealistic culture, because
representation is a compromise between egoism and altruism.
The sensate culture is egoist because it seeks personal
sensory enjoyment. The ideational culture is altruist for
godlike impartiality. Representation involves the sacrifice of
self-representation, by many voters, in order to be
represented by another.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold"">This transfered liberty of the representative may
be given by another simple ratio, the keep value, which is the
quota (or elective proportion of the total vote) divided by
the sum of a candidates votes. If the ratio is unity, the
representative is just elected, freely by the voters, to
freely represent them.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold"">The keep value may be considered a transfered
version of the Sorokin liberty ratio, or a transfered liberty
ratio.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold"">Representative democracy is an example of what
Sorokin calls a culture of contractual relations. Western
statesmen sometimes uphold it, as the rules-based order, in
contrast to the rule of force.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold"">However, Sorokin thought that the contractual
culture was no longer viable, and would pretty well have to be
rebuilt on a new more ideational basis. It had achieved much,
as the voluntary agreements of a free people. But there was
generally a bias, in those contracts, such that they were not
entirely free, in practise. And this has gradually built up a
resistance to their acceptance, till a contractual culture is
simply not enough. The reluctance of non-Western society to
align with Western foreign policy, because of perceived
hypocrisy, is only one of innumerable examples thru-out
society. Politics and economics, in general, were viewed by
Sorokin, as a rivalry between state bureaucracy and corporate
bureaucracy, over-riding personal freedom.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold"">A case in point is the world anarchy of election
systems. Anachronistic and dysfunctional voting methods,
kept-on by safe-seat politicians, the epitome of the sensate
culture, give way to demonstrations, strikes, riots <span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"></span>and repression.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold""> Regards,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold"">Richard Lung.<br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold""> </span></p>
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style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial Rounded MT
Bold""> </span></p>
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