"The Klavian Enlightenment"The Klavian Enlightenment, as it has been called, is the rising status and productivity of Klavian intellectuals. The most signifiant political theory to be formed out of this movement is popular economics, or
popularibus oeconomica, which is an ideology based on the writings of Alexandros Economos. Economos's essay
Lucrum, is the basis of the ideology.
LucrumIn the essay, Economo's details what he describes as the societal "functions" of wealth. These functions are the basis of his theory.
The first function of wealth is it’s function of social ordering. Wealth is a mechanism of determining, organizing, and perpetuating social hierarchies across Terra. To start, wealth sorts nations into hierarchies. In order to prove this, a correlation must be proved between a nation’s wealth and it’s status or power. This can be seen in the Terran Economic and Military Power Lists produced by the Zardic Institute of International Relations, in which all the nations of Terra are ranked according to economic strength and military power. Of the four nations ranked highest in the economic rankings (Dorvik, Istalia, Kazulia, and Vanuku), three (Kazulia, Vanuku, and Istalia) are also ranked highest in the military power rankings. For a nation to be wealthy is not necessarily for it to be powerful, however in all but a few instances the two variables, wealth and power, coincide with one another. Next, wealth’s function of social ordering occurs individually. A person’s social status and membership in a particular social class is almost entirely determined by wealth. All of society from top to bottom, nation to individual, is ordered, ranked, and organized by wealth.
This would later become the basis of the first tenet of
popularibus oeconomica, which is the principle of
Greater Competition. This principle asserts that although all citizens in a society are competing for spots in the social hierarchy, nations are also constantly competing for spots in the international hierarchy, and the latter must be prioritized.
The second function of wealth is it’s ability to be both an individual and societal good. This quality intertwines the good of the many with the good of the one, and allows wealth to serve as an excellent device for concealing individuals from their own purposelessness. No man wants to be but a gear in the machine, but it is a fate that can be escaped only through paths of worse suffering. Therefore, wealth serves as bait, constantly providing small incentives for the individual to keep working toward a goal that is not his. That long strenuous hike toward nothingness, which goes by its ironically pleasant name, life, seems far less daunting when there are pleasurable and happy stops along the way, insignificant but achievable goals and false purposes, to sweeten the bitter taste of impermanence and irrelevance.
This function would later become the basis of the second tenet of
popularibus oeconomica, which is the principle of
Intertwined Interests. This principle asserts that working as a gear in the machine advances the interests of both entities, even if the gear has no actual purpose it still betters its situation by playing it's part.
The third, and most complex, function of wealth is its influence on human relationships. Wealth, particularly in a free market system, tends to divide society into various groups. The Metzists would argue that these two groups are the “haves” and the “have nots”, however this answer is to simple. Much more fitting is the categorization of society into three groups, the ambitious, the satisfied, and the indifferent... Although it may sound immensely virtuous, life outside the simultaneously confining and protective walls of the machine is cold and unforgiving. A machine without gears and gears without a machine are equally useless, and when one considers the wasted productivity caused by their separation, indifference becomes not only an unwise choice, but a harmful one.
This function also fits into the principle of intertwined interests. However, it also adds Economos' three economic groupings. The theory of
popularibus oeconomica argues that an ideal economy has the maximum amount of ambitious people, and the least amount of satisfied or indifferent people.
To Summarize the Essay:
To conclude, it is through these societal functions that wealth influences the world. Although the overt purposes of currency and wealth are important, it is necessary for policymakers to begin to consider these hidden functions when structuring economic policy. The only way for an individual to have purpose in this world is by serving as a gear in the greater socioeconomic machine. Therefore, it is necessary for economic policy to be inconsiderate of the interests of individuals or groups, and to be totally focused toward the advancement of a society as a whole. This strategy of popular economics is the pathway toward long term economic growth, and away from the closed mind economic policies of the present, which advance only the interests of particular individuals and groups and provide these small groups with merely temporary economic benefits.
“The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true.”