Putting Our Citizens
to Work: The ‘Century’ Approach to Creating Jobs
By John Paul Maynard, Harvard University
In 1932, right in the middle of the depression, John Maynard
Keynes reminded us that “capitalism is so powerful that it can generate jobs
for everyone who wants one .” Forty five
years later, in the midst of another collapse, Mika’il Gorbachev stated “ every community in the world, no
matter how remote, has something to give to this emerging global economy.”
These statements I take as realistic challenges.
If it is theoretically possible to give a job to everyone
who wants one, then why cannot we realize it?
One reason is that we tend to think in a binary way: public
sector/private sector, Republican and Democrat, employer and employee, socialism
and capitalism. This is not accurate: a
third force is required, always.
I take the atom as proof: electron, proton and neutron. The
problem is that the 3rd neutralizing force is often invisible. To
make bread, one needs flour and water and heat. We don’t see the heat.
I have a book underway entitled Twelve Capitalisms.
It goes back into civilized history, to outline how capitalism evolved in the
Middle East, and the various ‘branches.’ First we have the early civilizations:
Sumer, Babylon/Akkad, Assyria, Hatti, Peru, Greece and Rome. Then there are the
great nomadic empires: the Persians, the Arabs, the Seljuks, the Mongols and
the Ottomans. A third group are the more
modern Euro-styled civilizations, the
various empires: British, French,
Austrian, German, et al.
Curiously, one element these empires all possessed, was a
way of organizing their populace separately from ethnic, tribal, political and
religious divisions. Indeed, there was a practice to organize the population
into groups of one hundred, in Assyria, in Hatti, amongst the Mongols. The Romans called these groups ‘centuries.’ Rome consisted of some 38
tribes, but some several thousand centuries.
Our ancestors organized their populations into such informal
groups, not for conscription or for corvee labor, or for taxes, but for
business development, and for mutual assistance, for medical purposes, and
natural disasters, including drought and famine, and war relief. (The military
had their own ‘centuries.’)
The great utility of the century organization is that it
brought together, brings together, highly diverse elements in a group not too
large or too small. The members of a century all get to know each other, not so
much personally, as professionally. Members state exactly what they want. The century may have a charter and even
admission requirements, but no membership fees. In order to find a good job, or to make one,
i.e., start a business, one needs about one hundred people, all alert to each
other’s aspirations and talents. Out of this come flexible, adaptive responses,
to change and to need: individuals gaining employment, or starting new
businesses, or developing new products, new technology, new medicine and new
art. Because the proposed organs’ financial needs are almost zero, organizing
our populations into ‘centuries’ is not difficult or far-fetched. Centuries
seem to organize themselves spontaneously, at least in some cases. Many already exist, though unnamed. Let me
simply list what a century organ can do
A century’s benefits.
It is…
-
a large, powerful job search and job prep organization, free of
charge.
-
an incubator for new technologies, businesses
and services
-
an easy way for businesses to tap into labor,
skilled and unskilled
-
a way for immigrants to meet a lot of Americans
-
a way for the isolated and the distressed to
find community (esp. the aged)
-
a political organization without ideological or
party affiliation, flexible
-
a frame for informal study groups – a thousand
different kinds.
-
medical monitoring and assessments, greatly
assisting medicine.
-
emergency responses, quick time, for fires,
tornados, flood.
-
a mass transfusion of all kinds of ideas,
between members
-
an alternative for individuals in low-grade church-captive
communities
-
help for troubled youth – “Hang with them, and
you’ll become like them.”
-
exercise:
supervised group walks all over the place
-
focused communication between groups and
individuals of other centuries.
-
a way of adjudicating local violations and
complaints, through mediation.
-
a way of sharing scientific truths and
questions, old and new.
-
a reduction of ethnic and class conflicts
-
an alternative to committing fraud and crime.
-
a way by which Republicans and Democrats can
find common ground.
-
assistance for ex-cons in finding a place in
society
It stands to reason that a correct solution would solve many
problems at once.
The idea is not new, and not far-fetched. It is not Utopian. Unless I am mistaken, this
informal way of mobilizing larger numbers, is the secret to survival and
economic survivability, not just to the various civilizations, but for towns,
villages, corporations and individuals, world wide. For many, such centuries
meant survival. Anthropologist say
that our common ancestors generally lived and functioned in groups of about one
hundred adults.
In my many travels in Eurasia, I sometimes ran into villages
organized as schools and study groups. They are genuine ‘smart towns.’ Curiously, the best ones are, or were, in
Afghanistan. They had no books and no
electricity, yet the village ran diverse businesses, like shipping their
produce in their own trucks across Pakistan to India. We, too, have so-called
‘smart towns’ (like Amherst) but they define themselves in terms of data
processing and energy tech. But to be really smart, requires much more.
The century has no ideological baggage. It may be compared
to Freemasonry. Yes, the Freemasons had
real answers: our beautiful big colonial houses here in New England, were built
by Freemasons using mathematical laws (ratios, proportions) taken from the
Middle East. That’s real wealth.
And of
course most of our founding fathers were…Freemasons.
How can
we possibly institute such a neutral, undefined organization of our many
societies?
From
the bottom up. Yes, the various levels of government might have roles to play:
publishing the idea, explaining the concept, in detail, and perhaps organizing
the centuries across regions and within regions. But the century grows from the
bottom up.
I’m
sure businesses will want to get in on this. Remember, a century is a mirror of
the local population. It includes people with jobs and without jobs, business
owners, professors, doctors, scientists and technicians, people who grow food
and fight fires, as well as housewives
and students and ex-cons, plus the disabled, the retired, the wise child – not just people looking for work.
Organizing ‘centuries’ is not hard simply because their
purpose has nothing to do with ideology, ethnic identity, conscription,
employment status, wealth, age, sex or
religion. A century does not need money
to get started, or outside supervision. It organizes itself from the grassroots
up. Humans can easily do that.
Our President is a community organizer, so he’s aware of
what can be done, bottom up.
Careful scrutiny of disaster response reveals hundreds of humans
organizing themselves, each with a specialty, in just a few minutes, and
without leaders.
An objective examination of most any thriving community,
reveals an inner group. They usually are not ‘business leaders,’ but socially-conscious
individuals, activists, teachers and even, on occasion, clergy.
The Century Concept is not a mechanism for state control.
The Japanese, for example, still maintain a neighborhood organization, for
police purposes. This is not what we
have in mind. A century might get involved in police work, not in controlling
it members, but in helping police prevent and solve crimes.
Look closely what the best police departments are doing.
Here, in Amherst, officers are being assigned to represent, cover, specific
neighborhoods, specific groups. The police and fire depts. organize courses for
citizens, go into the schools, hold picnics for the elderly, receive foreign
police groups for tours and seminars. They meet with ‘undefined centuries.’
No, it is not difficult to organize centuries. Hold a few
block parties, distribute literature, dedicate a computer. Get the libraries
involved: they have space and computers, and would be excited to help. They
already do this, offering courses for immigrants, computer-novices,
job-seekers, et al., freeing centuries to focus on their own role(s) in the
economy. Community Colleges can start a few centuries and would love to do so. So
also colleges, universities, even trade and professional schools. Some doctors
and scientists might like to enlist centuries in studies, as they are generally
mirrors of the population at large – a ‘control’ group which is not controlled.
Odd, perhaps, but I
have %100 confidence that people can organize more intelligently, more
efficiently, by themselves, while many ‘formerly-prosperous’ business men and
women, and clergy, say this could never happen. Governments don’t want to get entangled
in yet another new program. But the jokes
on them: organizing centuries doesn’t cost any money.
Our near-collapse in 2008-2010 would never happened if these
self-advertising ‘financial/business experts’ studied a little economic
history. Or read David Ricardo. We live in a culture of debility. So-called responsible ‘experts’ fail, or just don’t get it. Technology,
electronic devices, residential segregation, prescription drugs, adulterated
food, chemicals in the home - all conspire against us.
Take the idiot box. I’ve talked to young women who spend
their days watching soaps, and unemployed men playing very violent computer
games with toddlers at their feet; then watching violent TV all night. They all
hate themselves, secretly. All are, secretly, unsatisfied, desperate to get out
of their ugly boring prisons. The
children are trapped. If they follow their parents, they’ll be just like them.
They say: “Life is about entertaining me.” Of course real satisfaction cannot come this
way. Only conscious struggle, the pursuit of excellence, and/or a need to serve,
will satisfy the humans. Add to this
physical exercise. Not long ago,
Americans understood this. We were once a nation of hobbyists. Men and women,
kids and old people, all had their beloved hobbies. They spent many hours
working hard with no thought of financial gain. Some of them, artists,
musicians, activists, inventors, scientists, ended up worth more than their
weight in platinum, improving the lives of millions. This is the real wealth, and anybody can get
it, provided they can defer gratification,
hang out with disciplined, working folks, on occasion, and meet people
older and different from themselves. Or put it this way: the individual applying for work, must need
to develop some objectivity, free of personal desires and day-dreams, in order
to do any job well.
A Century Can Take
Many Forms –
Some centuries are already functioning, if not formed or
ever mentioned. Many centuries will need be formally established. Some grow out of neighborhoods, like an inner
city project, while others are not defined spatially: they cut across regions,
becoming more specialized. Some centuries might be associated with schools, or
even churches, if they “are humble men and women who have died to themselves,”
i.e., if they are real Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Wicca or shamans.
All kinds of institutions can help found century
organs. Many would love to participate.
A century might be organized in detail, with everybody
having a job. Or it might be more informal, allowing things to develop by
themselves. Start as a block party, or a monthly social. Then ask participants
to define what they need, what they want and how they would like to contribute.
Publicize these, so all members know all members. This is because humans have
the ability to care and think of each other, with no fuss or comment.
Take one of top leaders. Admiral Mike Mullin, or the later
Hilary Clinton, John Kerry, or the man with steepest learning curve of all,
President Obama. They all have developed minds resembling the US Aegis radar
platform – able to track 400 incoming missiles at once. We all have those
deeper possibilities. The brain is eminently malleable, like silly putty. It’s
what you make of it.
This is not new idea or far-fetched idea.
Century-organization is well within human capabilities. As I said, most
societies have them functioning already, or in emergencies. Even if the US
creates only 10,000 centuries, they’ll demonstrate all the above. By
themselves, with little direction from above, they will begin to specialize in
such a way to form, basically, new professional associations.
Some centuries may form around specific technologies, and/or
scientific domains – they provide a focused, level-headed understanding of
tools and devices and various scientific, medical and government programs. This is why businesses and scientists will want
in.
What about the Republicans? What about the Democrats? The
Republicans will get behind the century concept. I’ve already talked with a few
(smart) Republicans, and they like the concept. The Democrats – they’re a bit
hidebound. They think of improving life
for everybody in the country, but don’t know that somehow, we must trigger in
the ‘underclass,’ something more than ‘An American idol.’ Our minorities, Blacks, Hispanics, are being
eaten alive by pop electronic media.
Afro-Americans have generated five (5) world class musical
traditions: spirituals, the blues, jazz, Motown, Black folk music. But what is
taking over? Rap. My black friends hate it. Here is what they said: “In rap, you
don’t need to play an instrument.”
“There’s no melody, so it’s not music.”
“The beat is the simplest, the most boring, 4/4 or 2/2.” “The lyrics are threatening and
debased.” “We don’t like this culture of
macho violence and women-hating.” “BET
is racially targeting Black people.” Of
course the big record companies, Warner Records, Viacom, BET Corp., M-TV et al,
are all exploiting this ‘rush to the bottom.’
Who are these media masters? Can
they be shamed? We are creating people who think the purpose of life is to be entertained.
No government (s) can afford this new, huge, emerging
underclass. Many teenagers never have a chance to get a job – or will not
prepare for it – such a loss in incalculable. Our sedentary, very narrowly-defined
lives, is causing such high medical
costs, that the country will go bust.
The American people cannot afford not having century organs.
All successful societies seem to have them. If the underclass grows, if
discontent grows, yes, we will see action on the streets. Just yesterday, Texas
police almost gunned down non-violent demonstrators. How many demonstrators
need be shot dead before the United States breaks up? We’re already talking
about a ‘United States of Canada’, our northern tier, while the American south
can call itself ‘Jesus land’ (and, led by business interests, link up with
northern Mexico and assorted banana republics.)
No, realistically, we see the Quebecoise voting for
independence, cutting Canada in two, in which case we here in New England, will
extend an invitation to the Maritimes, who are culturally identical, almost.
These Canadian provinces are all in the
‘red’ and in need of economic help, which rich New England can provide, not for
glory, but just to survive. Very few native New Englanders think the purpose of
life is to be entertained.
With secessionist organizations in 38 states, no, it is not
hard to see the break-up of the big dinosaur, into the ten nations of North
America: New England (incl. the Maritimes), the Rust Belt, Quebec, the Bread
Basket (Mid West), Dixie, Miami and the Caribbean, the Empty Quarter (extending
up through Alberta, Mex-america, Ecotopeia (N. California up through Alaska).
The tenth is, of course, Nunavut and all the Indian reservations. They are
their own nation, for sure. Indeed, I see a time when native Americans, Inuit and
the First Peoples, will teach us again to live lightly on the land.
I am of course using Joel Garreau’s book The Nine Nations of North America
(1991).
One way to introduce century organizations is to start
with…Massachusetts. Where else? Who else always comes out on top in math,
English, science, and/or foreign languages every single year? Mass residents are second only to Colorado in
(low) body weights. We are number 4 in
health. We have the lowest rate of divorce in the country: one might argue that
Mass residents best enjoy social solidarity. But New England is a melting pot
that doesn’t melt: Massachusetts may be the most ethnically diverse state. One of our governors, a Republican, instituted
universal medical coverage, a first.
Massachusetts regularly fields presidential candidates. The
most Democratic or ‘blue’ of states, we don’t hesitate to elect a Republican if
it suits us.
I know my home town best, so let me conclude with concrete
experience. Many educated people,
worldwide, associate Amherst with E.D., the finest women poet in the entire
English-language tradition. Amherst was
also the home of the young Paul Nitze.
Of course, as a ‘smart’ town, we tried to incubate new
technologies, but alas, as soon as these companies got on their feet, they left
for Boston and Zurich. There are many small innovative proto-companies
associated with UMASS. But they contribute surprisingly little to us town folk.
Amherst has the smallest police department per capita of any
Massachusetts municipality. The main reason is that we are poor. Amherst can
only tax a third of its land and properties. We have two colleges and a large
state university . And 27 conservation lands, with trails, open to the public.
Plus 13 successful farms (because we don’t tax their land).
Another reason for the ‘mission impossible success’ of our
police ‘against superior numbers and firepower,’ is that about half our
officers are combat vets from Haiti, Afghanistan and Iraq. They have to be
tough as nails to deal with 34,000 students, half inebriated on the weekends.
All weekend the police respond aggressively to loud, drunken students. We only
have 48 officers. One out of ten are usually recovering from injuries sustained
in the line of duty. Many young men don’t hesitate to assault the police. Or
drive cars into them. Why? Alcohol is the main factor, but there are others. Let us just say, we are in decline…
My point is that our police departments will be big
supporters of Century Organizations – but not for surveillance. Japan still supports a neighborhood police
organization of its communities; though these organs serve several
purposes, surveillance seems to be the
top priority. Of course this kind of organization of society is very
un-American. Our police understand this.
Amherst also run its highly successful ‘leisure services’
i.e., a school with diverse classes and programs. It also has a very active
senior center, with additional classes. Its high school has long taught Russian
and Chinese. To top it off, Amherst has received a constant stream of
immigrants and minorities, the children of whom are educated at $20,000 a head.
So I ask you, how possibly can we possibly end up with a $2
million surplus? But we just did.
Tomorrow, Amherst is having its first town-wide block party.
The whole downtown will be closed to vehicles for 4 hours. Over 60 restaurants
and craftspeople will set up booths. Artists will display their paintings,
musicians will play. Hundreds of outsiders will try to crash it, so our
businesses are sure to make money. Some
of us are talking about instituting an annual ‘Venetian Carnival’, which is
different from Marde Gras, Trinidadian and Brazilian carnivals, being a
masquerade, with sartorial flourishes, in the manner and style of the Most Serene
Republic.
Many Americans societies are already participants in
centuries, though they don’t know it. Let us fine-tune the process that is
already underway. You might use Amherst (and other ‘smart’ towns) as a test
case. Every other year, Amherst residents elect 236 Town Members, each tied to
an undefined ‘century,’ be it a neighborhood or an interest.
People joke about the Town Members - they can be rowdy. The
real estate agents and the developers do not like them, generally, for reasons
relating to zoning. But the extraordinary
(if modest) economic success of Amherst, owes much to the ‘limited growth’ preferences
of leftist Town Members. Amherst preserves its forests, its farmland, its
historical heritage, keeping home values up, even during the recent
bubble-collapse. We often have more tourists than we can handle.
People come from all over the world to walk our streets and
study in our schools. Very high-quality individuals are drawn to us, like a
magnet. Over the years, I recall my many Chinese, Arab, and Indian friends, all
citizens of this town (when they were here). We came up with this precept:
“Real socialism cannot exist without real capitalism” (too
many folks marginalized). “And real capitalism cannot exist without real
socialism. “ (government needs money to fund its programs). In other words, the
two require each other. They go together.
The author
is a legal anthropologist specializing in the Middle East, the Balkans and
Central Asia. He is the moderator/instructor for the on-line discussion group
‘Islamic Civilization,’ hosted by the Graduate Alumni Office of the Faculty of
Arts and Sciences, Harvard University. He can be reached on-line at johnpaulmaynard@post.harvard.edu.
Or by telephone at: 413 549 7726
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