Article by – Srinidhi Boray
Anti- Thesis to John Galt from Atlas Shrugged. Was John Galt part of Wall Street meltdown? Nope. Could he work towards Health for All through Collective efforts. Nope. He, then can be Apple, that which has no real systemic benefit to mankind’s alleviation, although is the wealthiest (2012). Nope, maybe …probably…in such hesitation….men….mind….and machine..of what higher cause can they ever serve. Many such perplexing questions has been pondered timeles !!!
Also, much misunderstood and much flouted are habeas corpus and one’s prerogatives in the context of an individual, enterprise (collection of individuals) and sovereignity.
An enterprise presumes that it has a behavior. Meaning there is an input of resources, it is processed and then there is an output. All these works against the competition for a commercial company and for the government against the shrinking budget. Overall the behavior of the enterprise is measured by outcome, which is a cumulative and analytical result of the input, the process and the output. All these together perform under the system. Lets call it Sovereignty. It is the sovereignty which introduces the policy and the logic for the system to behave in a certain way. Mostly guided by the socioeconomic criteria.
In the past century there have been two starkly different Sovereignty Systems. One was based on Keynesian Economics developed by British economist John Maynard Keynes – The general Theory of Employment, Interest and Money . Thiswas very popular post world war for nearing three decades. In the Keynesian theory, the sovereignty played a dominant role by constantly regulating the market diminishing the role of individual businesses. Meaning macroeconomics preceded microeconomics. During this time there also existed another theory proposed by Friedrich August von Hayek. The economics theory lead by Hayek contrasted that with Keynesian by arguing for lesser intervention by the sovereignty and unleashing the creative individuals in the market place and allowing for market to correct by itself by process of self-regulation. In contrast to Keynesian economics Hayek laid more emphasis on microeconomics & de-regulation rather than sovereignty determined macroeconomics. As an anti-thesis to Keynesian economics, Hayek published ‘Road to Serfdom’. This publication iconoclastically argued that the Keynesian economics inevitably would lead into serfdom (cartoon representation). Hayek’s economics influenced the era beginning with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. It was based on Hayek’s theory that globalization was fiercely sought.
For any Enterprising Professional, it is difficult not to acknowledge that in either of the economic theories, Fiefdom was thriving at its hilt. In Hayek era the intrusive state of the Keynesian was replaced by domineering Oligarchy business houses in which domineering and Machiavellian managers manipulated and schemed non-existing business market to advance their own careers . The effect of both the state and oligarchy on the enterprising and ethical individual was to stifle. Although in the Hayek, the individuals certainly did thrive, but then the ‘economy of scale’ lead the small businesses subsequently to become behemoths and introduce hegemony into the system where creative individual went into oblivion.
Coming back to Enterprise behavior, it can be concluded that the dysfunctional behavior in either of the economics era, was introduced by the chicaneries that underpins fiefdom. This led to eventual doom in the Wall Street. Today we have both the systems intermingled as evident by the bail out plan and one should wonder with a shudder about the amok run that is to compound, should fiefdom be allowed un-arrested.
Also, it is but evident that pluralistic framework is emerging where both Keynesian’s sovereign led macroeconomics and the Hayek’s free enterprise microeconomics are blending to form a heterogenous system The sovereignty provides the macrocosm while the individual ingenuity provides impetus to the dynamic microcosm. This means as an Enterprising Individual, one needs to incorporate inclusive perspectives where both the macro and micro coexists, as not being disjointed, rather both being deterministic of each others behavior. ‘Implicate Order’ provides basis for such a scheme of things. And, ‘Syndication’ as a mechanism will prevail providing the needed impetus to the grass root level.
Few years later after writing the above article, came across this soul searching documentary by Jamie Johnson, lineage of Johnson and Johnson family. He talks about 1 Percent who control pretty much everything in America. Very well made and well intioned documentary. In the documentary After hearing President Bush pay tribute “To a hero of freedom – Milton Friedman, he has used a a brilliant mind to advance a moral vision”, Only thing that is left to said is this, now an individual is a soul lost forever in the concrete wilderness of capitalistic corporate that democratic government we create protects. Continue to remain in a straight jacket, at least for now, autonomy for an individual is cause lost forever.
Generative Transformation 
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