True state - political program for better tomorrow

Economy

Economy is always the foundation whether we set forward a plan to build a nation, reform the state or create a political program. Freedom Gates promotes the economical model with three components. The first and strongest component is the national sector organized into institutions. The second component is the communal sector represented by cooperatives and community-based not for profit organizations. The third component is the private sector. It is the job and self interest of the community to control the balance between the three sectors of economy under the community's jurisdiction.

Economical freedom is not possible without the balance of power in the job marketplace. In other words, economical freedom of a worker is only possible if the worker has enough choices in the marketplace and the power to successfully negotiate work agreements. That freedom can be secured by good laws and responsible community, which knows that economical prosperity and security happen when the predators are recognized and chased away, and economical vulnerabilities of the community removed.

Community has sovereign powers over its economy; it has the power to regulate but is not the subject of regulations. It would be absurd, under the laws of Freedom Gates, to "regulate" Credit Unions the way they are being regulated now in the United States. The assault on Credit Unions in the name of "fair competition" and under the not so subtle pressure from the banking industry is in fact an assault on community. It is assault on democracy if democracy still means anything.

The regulatory powers of community are primarely exercised in its licensing practices. The purpose of a license is not to raise revenue; the purpose of a license is to balance the supply and demand, and to optimize the value of the services to the community, which businesses provide. More competition is not necessarily better. If a city needs 100 taxi drivers then allowing 200 taxi drivers to compete will create more problems than it solves.

The big question is how a small community can be a match and successsful negotiator when pinned against big businesses representing private sector. National institutions are the answer. They provide the support and protection the community needs.

Institutions

In order to understand the concept of an institution as thaught in Freedom Gates we should think about certain characteristics of science as an approximate and idealized model of a perfect institutions.

• Institutions are driven by higher purpose such as advancement of humanity, or service to the nation.
• Institutions are elite organizations where the only personal qualities that matter are talent and objectively defined results.
• Institutions are self-regulated bodies with considerable merit-based authority.
• Institutions are antithesis of democracy as far as their governing structure is concerned; yet, they are the essence of democracy as far as the evaluation of one's work is concerned where the judgment is the collective judgment of peers.
• Institutions fulfill their purpose better than any other body created by humanity. Corporations and governements last for decades; institutions last for centuries.

The secret to the success of institutions is that only institutions employ the right selection process and advance people through their ranks using the right criteria. Corporations and governements fail because the selection process there is controlled by the drive for power. Ultimately, they fail in a spectacular way whether the goal is fairness, freedom and justice as promised by the governments or wealth and competency as promised by corporations. The second secret to the success of institutions is that they instill the specific ethical principles and create the culture. A student may enter school with cynical ideas regarding his career and role in society; but the same student as a professor grows into an idealist whose primary motivation for work is personal satisfaction and who not only understands the higher purpose of the institution but wholeheartedly endorses it. In governements and corporations the opposite takes place. It is called corruption.

Yet, Freedom Gates is more than a collection of institutions. One institution is like a tree. It can be beautiful but it is not going to change the fate of the nation. It can be powerful but it will eventually die. What the nation needs is a forest and not a few isolated trees. In Freedom Gates institutions are working together and are governed by the Supreme Council. The Supreme Council is a sovereign body made of representative of all of the institutions. It checks the health of member institutions and makes decisions whether it is time to terminate an institution, or create a new one. No institution is or ever be perfect. Every institution will eventually face a crisis and die. The forest, however, will live forever.

These days we are witnessing a very serious crisis in science. I am talking here about immanent crisis of science caused by the internal forces and not the obvious crisis caused by the corporate corruption. Science has become very fragmented and as a result draws more and more people into its ranks. There are, however, only so many people in a society who qualify to be scientists. More and more people who do not qualify nevertheless manage to make it through the selection process, earn their degrees and publish. The worst thing is not that the quality of an average publication goes down. It is not that more and more of what is being published does not contribute anything to our knowledge. The worst thing is that we have more and more scientists who will never get from science what matters the most - the true personal satisfaction, pride of what they accomplished, the opportunity to express themselves in the spiritually meaningful way.

Unfulfilled scientists harm the society in many ways. They are the first to open the door to corruption. They are also responsible for some of the ill conceived reforms in education. Unfulfilled scientists and unfulfilled mystics are similar in many ways. Unfulfilled mystics who failed to experience God go and terrorize society in the name of God, as unfulfilled scientists terrorize society in the name of science.

The remarks I made above are not meant to condemn anybody. Ultimately, it is not the individuals who are at fault. It is the system, which produced unfulfilled and misguided individuals. The simple truth is that not everyone can be a mystic and not everyone can be a scientist. Everyone, however, can find a personally fulfilling role in an enlightened society.

Institutions in Freedom Gates are like a forest. They are sovereign, they stand on their own, they provide countless benefits and they don't intrude into anybody's life. They don't dictate anything and they are not to be dictated.