The Politics of the Three Peoples

In my reductive Three Peoples theory I propose that humans come in three flavors. First there are the People of the Subordinate Self, workers and peasants, that understand life as subordination to some lord or patron. Then there are the People of the Responsible Self that first emerged in the cities of the Fertile Crescent some 3,000 years ago. Cities require their inhabitants to be independent and responsible rather than waiting around for instructions, and so they are. Then we have the People of the Creative Self, that believe in creating something new in the world. I first developed this notion in "The Dance of the Three Peoples."

Obviously each of these three peoples have different ideas of politics.

Let us begin with the political agenda of the People of the Responsible Self. These people obviously want a minimal state that will provide a law-based framework for them to work and trade in the market economy. So the political program is what developed in the late 18th century during the rise of the bourgeoisie: constitutions, limited powers, defense of trading networks, sound money, government limited to defense and infrastructure and defense of property rights. But this political regime started to break up when the working class obtained political power after the industrial revolution; the working class did not experience themselves as responsible individuals but as a subordinate class of victims. They wanted education for their children, and social insurance for themselves, and they wanted somebody else to organize it for them.

The People of the Subordinate Self experience themselves as victims. They are looking to powerful leaders to protect them from the vicissitudes of the world, both natural and man-made. During the feudal era these people were serfs and peasants, living on land "owned" by some warrior lord. This lord protected his serfs from predators, but the price of this protection was that the lord got to predate on his serfs. In addition, the serfs were expected to serve in their lord's army. Between lord and serf there grew up a culture of expectation. The lord expected the serfs to loyally serve him, work his land, and fight his wars, and in return, with his "grace," he looked after his loyal retainers. It is obvious that this culture has been reborn in the western world in the neo-feudal welfare state, where the people expect benefits because of their status as supporters of their political liege lords. Rather than responsibly provide for their own welfare against a rainy day they submit to a system of welfare organized and administered by their betters.

The People of the Creative Self experience themselves as creators. They might be artist and writer creators; they might be business entrepreneurs creating a tech startup. Or they might be "activists" that want to create a just society through the process of "change" or revolution. These creators in their different realms all want to be the agent of change, with a world-changing book, a world-changing business, or a world-changing political system. 

There is nothing problematic in wanting to make a great movie; you can recruit tons of people willing to finance and work on it, and after it is finished the creative team will disband and coalesce again on another creative project. There is nothing problematic in wanting to creative a great business; the great business creators of the last 200 years have assembled teams of people to help them make great products. When the business was a success, the investors and employees shared in the success; when the business failed they used their experience and their skills to help them in a new venture. But political creativity is problematic. That's because government is force, politics is the art of division, and administrative system is domination. When you create a new political project, by election or revolution, your supporters expect to benefit forever, and rebel and mutiny if their checks fail to arrive. Plus, despite the vision of "change" in the service of justice, the fact is that there no such thing as justice, only injustice. So if your vision of change imagines anything more than the reduction of a few egregious injustices, you are probably changing old injustices for new ones.

So the great problem of the modern age is creative political elites thinking they can design and implement some perfect plan to change society from a state of injustice to a new regime of justice -- for the workers, for women, for minorities, etc. All the great creative political projects of the last century have been disasters: communism, which turns out to be a sort of holy war against the bourgeoisie; the welfare state, which is really a neo-feudalism with the creative class strutting around as modern squires and barons of the bureaucracy;  fascism, which is a desperate populism against the previous failure of the creative class to provide a stable and prosperous society; globalism, which is a kind of monarchical absolutism, with a global elite perpetuating itself in power like a high-class crime family.

You can see that there is no easy solution to the problem of the competing political agendas of the Three Peoples. The People of the Subordinate Self are condemned to disappointment, because they cannot live forever as the serfs, the "little darlings" of some lord. Eventually the lord will discard them. The People of the Responsible Self cannot have their minimal state, because the People of the Subordinate Self want more protection than the minimal state affords. And the People of the Creative Self desperately want a starring role for themselves, forgetting that almost all creative projects end in failure, which is a big problem when the lives of millions of people are at stake.

There is a solution, of course: it is my Perfect Plan. Part One is that we should encourage the People of the Subordinate Self to become responsible, and reward them when they do. Part Two is for the People of the Creative Self to practice compassion and tolerance when it comes to the People of the Responsible Self. 

OK, my Perfect Plan is not really a perfect plan. It is just a couple of really sensible ideas that could help us move forward without descending further into a brawl of all against all.