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Social Wisdomism

The question

"What does it take to make a flourishing world? A world where each person has a great life as they connect and give and take from others. A world with challenges to overcome that stretch us and a time and place for rest and healing and enjoyment."

Pantothalia

Thalia means blooming or flourishing and Pantothalia (or Panthalia) is the 'blooming of all' or the general flourishing of life. Pantothalia is both about individuals doing well and about the successful interaction or interplay of each individual with other individuals and the physical world as each helps create the reality of the others.

Arta Thalica

Arta means Order and Arta Thalica is the 'Flourishing Order'. It is the state of the world where the actions of each person are the right ones for the benefit of those around them and so support the pantothalia. Within Arta are the concepts of Truth and Righteousness. We get the Flourishing Order when our thoughts are aligned with reality so that we understand the world correctly and can take the right actions. The words we speak also need to be True ones so that we assist others in knowing what is the nature of reality so that they too can take right action.

Artalogos

The Artalogos is the principles or laws of the Arta Thalica. It is the explanation of how to achieve the Flourishing Order. It is what we need to understand to play our part in working for the common flourishing of Pantothalia.

Good Social Order

The Good Social Order is a sociopolitical constitution of the world which is in conformity to the Arta Thalica - i.e. it is the sociopolitical aspect of the Arta Thalica.

It is an order where the different sources of political power which constitute the whole are in proper balance with each other and where the different powers are of such nature that they can do the work that needs to be done.

Active Wisdom (Mazda)

To bring such an order into being and maintain it requires what we call Active Wisdom or Mazda. This is a power that understands every situation and knows how to produce good order. It is not just a passive knowledge but a wisdom-in-action. It doesn't reside solely in indviduals but can be seen in practices that involve many individuals.

Social Corruption and Rectification

Social Corruption is where the different parts of society no longer fulfil their right functions - for instance the medical service no longer acts to produce health or the government no longer strives effectively for the benefit of the general population. Maybe those involved can no longer think clearly or else they have seen ways to benefit themselves at the expense of everybody else.

Social Rectification is the process of bringing a society back into good order.

Thalia

Thalia is blooming or flourishing. Pantothalia is the general flourishing of human life - it is the blooming of all - as individuals and in our relationships with each other and our environment.

The Thalic Order is the order of things where there is Thalia or flourishing.

The Thalic Law is what needs to be done to produce and continually re-produce the Thalic Order.

Something is artalogical if it is in conformity with the Thalic Law.

Somebody is artaphilic if they love the Thalic Order and tend to work to produce it.

Our way of seeing

We must pay attention to the whole.

Holos

Holos is 'the Whole'. In order to properly understand and influence something we need to pay attention to the whole of it. If we focus on just one part as if the rest didn't exist then our attempts to make a change will be upset by unexpected counter-reaction from the parts that we have ignored.

Holons

A Holon is an organized thing which is in interaction with other organized things. It may also be composed of smaller holons and itself be a part of a larger organization. Nevertheless it has an integrity of its own and its character is not seen as completely determined from outside.

The overall arrangement and nesting of many Holons is sometimes called a Holarchy (a hierarchy of Holons) but we prefer the term Holotaxis (an arrangement of Holons).

We can imagine society as a Holotaxis. Individual people are holons, their bodies made up of smaller holons which are their different bodily organs, each made up of individual cells themselves composed of smaller parts. As people we interact with other holons on our level (other people) but we are also part of larger holons, maybe in a work team , maybe part of a larger department itself a part of a business organization.

Panarchy

Panarchy literally means 'Rule/Influence of All' - and is a situation where the social totality has an influence on its own life. In other words each holon has a degree of freedom and has an influence on the overall life of the Holos. A Panarchy then is a free society - a society of free people.

A Panarchy can be contrasted to Monocracy. This is a situation where one single authority decides the life of the whole and each person at lower levels of the pyramid of power is a mere instrument to fulfil the will of the one at the top. They are slaves with no freedom to pursue their own goals.

NB Panarchy does not strictly mean 'government by all' which would be Pantocracy (or ancient Greek-style Democracy). Panarchists recognise that not everybody is equally able or motivated or proficient at governing and that some people have to take on this role on behalf of the rest. However those that do should take into account the needs (KREIA) of everybody else as well as themselves. These governors should be of such nature that they are committed to the well-being of everybody. In other words everybody has a power of sorts to have their needs taken into account because the governors are of such a nature that they are unable to disregard them.

Human Attributes

This is an experimental scheme to help us understand human behaviour. Here we understand people as 'human holons' having seven attributes.

1. Noia is a person's way of thinking. It is the most important factor in how they choose to act.

Closely related to Noia and here considered a part of it is a person's Daena or way of seeing. It is their world-view, their beliefs and values. It is that part of their seeing of the world which most affects what they are motivated to do. Metanoia is a change in a person's thinking, especially a dramatic one from one set of beliefs and values to another.

2. Potentia is a person's potency or capability. It is what they could potentially do if the need arises. It is affected by their emotional strengths, their intellectual understanding, their physical abilities as well as the connections they have with others.

3. Hexis is a person's character and habits. It is the way they typically act in life and how they typically react to what happens around them.

4. Situs is a person's situation - particularly as they imagine it to be.

5. Agita are a person's drives and emotions. It is the energies within them that seek expression in action. Their agita arise from a combination of factors. This includes their basic human nature, their past experiences and the situation they are currently in.

6. Erga are a person's actions. More specifically we could say they are the work that a person does to transform the world around them. This can be everyday things like baking a cake, doing the washing up or explaining something to somebody. It can also be actions that have a wider social impact.

7. Archeia is a person's influence on other people and their actions. A person with a large archeia is a powerful person. Often this means they can get other people to assist them in doing what they want to do.

Political categories of person

The Polloi

The Polloi are 'the Many'. In a way we are all part of the Polloi, the many people who live on our planet.

The Hethanoi

The Hethanoi are 'the Free People'. They are people who have all their human faculties so that they are able to forge their own path in the particular environment they find themselves in.

The Aristoi

The Aristoi are 'the Best'. These are people who come out of the Hethanoi but are distinguished by their exceptional abilities. They are people who have achieved mastery of a particular field of human endeavour. There are many different kinds of Aristoi - they include the best scientists, the best sportsmen, the best public servants, the best politicians, the best doctors, the best cooks, the best teachers, the best lawyers, the best philosophers and the best leaders.

The Chrestoi

The Chrestoi are 'the Useful Ones'. They are those dedicated to serving the wider society and who have the capability to do so.

The Chrestoi overlap with the Aristoi in that a perfect Aristus will also be Chrestus and vice-versus. However a partial Aristus (somebody who excels in some ways but not others) may not be Chrestus, and a partial Chrestus (somebody who seeks to help others but has a limited ability to do so) may not be Aristus.

The Azidoi (or Oligoi)

The Oligoi are 'the Few'. The Azidoi are 'the power-hungry'. In practice these are the same group. These are people who come out of the Aristoi and are the best at achieving political power for themselves. They have climbed the hierarchy and reached the top of the pyramid. The Azidoi are the people with the single greatest influence over the world but they are in competition with the much larger number of Aristoi and ultimately with the individual wishes of the Polloi.

The individual Azidoi get to the top by being ruthless in putting down their rivals and scrupleless in obliging those above them in the hierarchy. Those with a cold-hearted intelligence and a burning lust for power do best. The Azidoi as a group are inclined to practice Devilism to undermine the Aristoi and Polloi so that they cannot challenge their authority.

The Douloi

The Douloi are 'the Servants'. These are people who have lost the full human capacities of the Hethanoi and who have become dependent on the Azidoi for their continued life and who act as their servants, working to fulfil their agenda rather than their own.

Two kinds of personality

A person may be Convergent or Divergent in their thinking.

Convergent thinkers are those how take their views on things from those around them. Their way of thinking tends to converge with that of the majority or the most powerful.

Divergent thinkers are independent-minded people who value their own opinions more than others. Their way of thinking tends to diverge from that of the majority.

Convergent thinkers are the vast majority of people. One account says that 95% of the population are convergent thinkers and 5% are divergent. In evolutionary history it is generally a better tactic to converge your thinking with the majority or the most powerful around you. This enables you to get along with them and co-operate in society. However sometimes the beliefs of the majority are so wrong-headed that the Divergent thinkers have the best way forward.

Two attitudes of one person to another

A person may be what we call 'connected' to another person or else 'disconnected'.

When a person is connected to another they have empathy with them, they see them as fellow persons and they tend to desire that they prosper.

When a person is what we call disconnected from another then they don't see them as persons like themselves. They are not likely to think about their feelings or well-being or be concerned about it. Instead they will likely see them as objects and judge them solely by their usefulness or otherwise to their own lives. They may use them as instruments for their own benefit, manipulate them to get them to do what is useful, or else get rid of them if they are not useful.

Two genetic kind of person

People are born as one of two kinds of people - either what we call Cardians or Anguins.

Cardians are in the majority and are the normal warm-hearted people who have a natural empathy to others. These are people whose default attitude is to be 'connected' to others with whom they have a relationship.

Anguins are in a minority and are by contrast cold-hearted people who lack the ability to have empathy with others. They are the people we might call born sociopaths or psychopaths. Anguins cannot form the sort of connection to others that Cardians do. Thus they are disconnected from them and will naturally treat them as instruments to be manipulated for their own benefit.

Moving between Connection and Disconnection

Even Cardians are not connected to everybody all the time. Three reasons a person might not be connected to another are Frenzy, Fear and Blindness.

With Frenzy the energy of a person's mind is heightened so much - perhaps out of anger, perhaps by other means - that they cannot slow down enough to connect to the minds of others.

With Fear a person shuts off connection to others who they see as a threat to them, or who are just irrelevant bystanders, in order to focus fully on saving themselves.

With Blindness a person is just unable to see other beings as persons - perhaps because they appear too different or too far away for any kind of meaningful relationship.

Two kinds of activity and two agendas

Spentism

Spenta means 'increase' and Spentism is the work of increasing life, of supporting the flourishing of life.

Devilism

Devilism is work to decrease or diminish life. The original Greek word meant something like 'to throw someone off-balance' or 'to throw a spanner in the works'. Devilism is the practice of interfering with the operation of things to throw them off-balance and cause them to fail. The practice of devilism requires that you are not empathically connected to those who are your target.

Social Spentism

Social Spentists are Cardians (people with normal human empathy) who have greater than average ability to connect to others they are not immediately involved with. They care about people in general and have a natural motivation to work for the general well-being.

To be effective Social Spentists need to develop the necessary knowledge about how the world works and how to change it for the better and they need to foster their own capabilities to take particular kinds of action which will support this change.

While Social Wisdomists primary motivation is to practice Spentism and increase life, they will also need to decrease some forms of life which are harmful. This is like a gardener who likes to see a garden full of lovely flowers in bloom but who must take action against weeds and pests for this to be achieved. We'd argue that this action of a gardener to decrease undesired forms of life is a form of devilism in our terminology. However action taken to decrease undesired behaviours in a person while remaining connected to them (respecting them and considering their welfare) is not classed as devilism.

Social Devilism

Social Devilists are typically Anguins who have a lust for power. However Cardians who have lost their natural default connection to others perhaps through a trauma that has stuck them in Fear, or through satanic practices that has stuck them in Blindness to the feelings of others, may also be involved.

Social Devilists will take all kinds of actions to weaken the people they are targetting so that they lose the ability to act for themselves according to their own wishes but instead become captive to the Devilist and can be used by them as instruments of their will.

"Social Devilists are against Truth, Freedom and Health - at least for other people. They are typically psychopaths on a power trip who want everyone else to be their obedient slaves. They use black magic to confuse people so they can’t see the truth but think their announcements are the truth. They won’t let people be free but make them follow strict rules and they attack their health to make them weak and to get rid of people who are a nuisance."
Original August 2021, Updated June 2022, April 2024