VOLUME IV, CHAPTER 13, SECTION 2
One Independent Claim, Output Greater Than Need and No Torment
The last sections compared the seven core claims with the great thinkers of five hundred years. This section opens out one claim this book puts forward independently, the highest goal of the whole book: the root problem humankind faces as a whole today is whether it can coexist in peace over the long run and keep developing, and the answer this book gives is output greater than need, plus no torment.
Having covered the comparison of the core claims, we open out a deeper question, what is the root problem humankind faces as a whole today? Not the merit of some one policy, not the rise or fall of some one country, not the win or loss of some one ideology, but a deeper problem, whether humankind as one whole can find a state in which it can coexist in peace over the long run and keep developing. This problem grows ever more prominent. Globalization is deeply unfolded, a problem anywhere possibly affecting the whole world. Climate change and ecological crisis are challenges common to all humankind. Technical change reshapes the way of human life. Geopolitical conflict affects every country. Economic interdependence, the crisis of any major economy reaching the whole globe. Humankind today can no longer, as in the past, have some one country think of its fate independently, and the common future of humankind has become a problem every researcher with a sense of responsibility must face. All the claims this book set firm earlier must in the end answer whether humankind, under the reasonable running of political institutions, can move toward a better common future.
In the past, human thinkers put forward several answers about the ultimate goal of humankind. Answer one, liberal democracy as humankind's ultimate institution, the core vision that the evolution of human political institutions ends in liberal democracy plus a market economy. But decades on, the world has not wholly moved to that step, deep crises appearing inside the democratic countries, non-democratic countries rising strongly, and the one who proposed it later made major adjustments to his early claim. Answer two, communism as humankind's ultimate, the core vision of moving through change toward each according to their ability, to each according to their need. But this vision needs a great many preconditions, an extreme abundance of productive force, the ending of classes, the ending of the state, a thorough change of human nature, a unified global coordination, each hard to realize, and the actual realization met many structural challenges. Answer three, the clash of civilizations as the root pattern of human history, this being a description rather than a vision, and the world's conflict today is far more complex than a clash of civilizations. Answer four, historical cycles, also a description, telling only how human history will repeat, not telling humankind what it should move toward. This book honestly sets firm one fact, that of the past answers about humankind's ultimate goal none has been widely accepted, all still thinking, all still exploring. Next, this book puts forward an independent answer.
The claim this book puts forward, humankind's ultimate goal equals output greater than need, plus no torment. This claim is put forward independently, not an amendment to an existing doctrine and not a negation of any great thinker. The first side, output greater than need. Its meaning is not the utopia of unlimited supply, not having whatever one wants, but output a little more than need, total output steadily greater than total need, not several times greater, but with a margin, a margin enough to secure that the basic living needs of most people are met and enough to meet a sudden crisis. The actual situation today, global grain output is already enough to meet the basic food need of the global population, actual hunger caused mainly by distribution problems, war, and inequality, not by an absolute shortage of output. Overcapacity is the norm in many fields of global industry. Many cities in developed countries have vacant housing. Free information is already within reach in most places in the world. The root problem today is not insufficient output, it is uneven distribution, plus the artificial shortage that torment makes.
The second side, no torment, is a deeper layer. Between country and country, no torment, not using sanctions, trade wars, and technical blockades to block another country's development, letting each country choose its own road by its own conditions and culture, letting it develop on its own so long as it does not violate others. Between person and person, no torment, not envying, obstructing, and suppressing another's development, letting each person spend their own gift, do what they wish to do, live the life they wish to live. The strong toward the weak, no torment, the able not bullying the weak, the wealthy country not bullying the poor country, the majority group not oppressing the minority group. Inside an organization, no torment, the superior not tormenting the subordinate, colleagues not tormenting each other, family members not tormenting each other. No torment is the lowest standard of civilization and also its highest reach. At the lowest, so long as one does not actively torment others it is already a mark of civilization. At the highest, to achieve a full no torment is already near the state of a sage. Humankind is still some distance from a full no torment today, but it is already near it in some respects, the development of international law bringing large-scale torment between country and country under some restraint, anti-discrimination legislation putting the torment of minority groups under legal limit. It is not that humankind has already reached no torment, it is that humankind is already moving slowly in this direction.
Why is output greater than need plus no torment more realizable than the past ultimate goals of humankind? Set it against the conditions for realizing communism and it becomes clear. Communism needs five conditions, an extreme abundance of productive force, the ending of classes, the ending of the state, a thorough change of human nature, a unified global coordination. The conditions output greater than need plus no torment needs, output a little more than need, not unlimited, only a margin, no torment between different groups, not the removal of all difference, only not actively doing evil, no torment between states, not the vanishing of the state, only not obstructing each other, a person able to achieve not actively doing evil, not becoming selfless, only not actively harming others, no torment of each other, not a unified governance, only coexisting in peace each on their own. Set the conditions of the two visions side by side and the difference is clear. At the material level, communism needs extreme abundance, this claim needs only a margin. At the class level, communism needs the ending of classes, this claim needs only no torment between different groups. At the state level, communism needs the ending of the state, this claim needs only no torment between states. At the level of human nature, communism needs a thorough change of human nature, this claim needs only not actively doing evil, holding the bottom line. At the global level, communism needs a unified global coordination, this claim needs only no torment of each other. In each, this claim's threshold is lower than communism's. This book is honest, this is not to say communism is wrong and not to replace it, it is to say that this claim as a human vision has a lower threshold, is nearer the actual capacity of humankind today, and is more likely to be neared within a reasonable time, and this is the real thing in a dream that can be realized.
Put this claim back into the framework of the whole book, and it is not the isolated claim of some one volume, it is the highest goal of the running of all the volumes together. The volume on cultural institutions sets firm no torment as a cultural character, the root quality of any civilization measurable by whether it tends toward torment. The volume on economic institutions sets firm output greater than need plus reasonable distribution as the economic base, output greater than need not enough, reasonable distribution also needed, letting the margin of output truly reach most people. This volume on political institutions provides the political structure that lets these two run, enfeoffment plus the examination plus centralized authority the skeleton, supporting the running of culture and economy, and without a reasonable political institution neither no torment nor output greater than need can be realized. The volume on legal institutions provides the guarantee of enforcing force, law securing that no torment becomes the social custom, securing that reasonable distribution has an institutional ground. The later volumes on saving people and on hope join the volumes together, coordination letting the different institutions work together, balance letting no side wholly dominate, letting all the real things join in the practice of governance to near this dream. The whole framework of this book is a framework of understanding serving this dream, not some one volume setting up an independent golden line, but all the volumes joining together to make up a complete thinking about the common future of humankind.
So here is the position this section lays down. This claim is not a utopia, not like communism needing almost impossible preconditions, its every threshold being one humankind has already partly realized in some respect, needing only continued effort to widen. It is not an amendment to any existing doctrine, it is an independently put-forward claim, communism, liberal democracy, and the clash of civilizations all important heritage of human thought, and this book respects all these thoughts while independently putting forward its own claim. Whether this claim can become a common goal of humankind depends on the relay of the reader generation after generation, not on the prediction of any researcher. The real thing for the reader is several questions to think through for themselves. The country you are in, has it achieved output greater than need? Which shortages are real material shortages, which are caused by distribution problems or artificial torment? The organization you are in, has it achieved no torment? If there is torment, can you begin from yourself and reduce it? Do you yourself not torment those around you? This claim can begin from yourself, begin from the small group you are in, and widen out one by one, without waiting for the ultimate human vision to be realized, without waiting for a unified global governance, beginning from yourself, beginning today, achieving it bit by bit, and this is the real feasibility of this claim. This book leaves this claim to the reader, reaching no verdict for the reader, not predicting that it will surely be realized, only presenting it in full, taking up the relay if willing, the handing down of a real thing being carried on by those who accept it, generation after generation. The next section covers a fresh understanding of democracy, putting democracy back inside the frame of enfeoffment.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.