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| The Social Sphere |
In the Spherical Model, we talk about how the three spheres—political, economic, and social—interrelate. But we talk a lot about social issues. There’s a reason for that. Or maybe several reasons.
One: It’s the sphere in which the individual has the most
ability to effect change for the better.
Two: Lack of civilization (savagery) leads to lack of
freedom and prosperity. So the social sphere seems to be a larger contributor
in the interrelated spheres.
Three: It’s essential to have enough individuals and
families living civilized lives in order to make the self-governance necessary
for freedom and prosperity possible. Alternatively, limited freedom and prosperity
can hinder civilization, but they don’t necessarily lead to savagery. It’s
harder for the basic unit of civilization—families—to live civilized lives when
they live under tyranny and/or the poverty of a controlled economy. But within
the family, it’s still possible.
Four: The social sphere is where the principles of
civilization, as well as the principles leading to freedom and prosperity, get
passed on from generation to generation.
I said it this way at the beginning of the Civilization
section of the Spherical Model:
The Civilization Zone is more important than either the
Free-Enterprise [economic sphere prosperity zone] or political Freedom Zones;
it is essential for the others. A civilized people (people who choose to be
honest and caring with one another) are essential in order for free enterprise
to function. No amount of regulation and manipulation by law enforcement can
compensate for people unlawfully and unethically taking advantage of one
another or refusing to care for the less fortunate. And if regulation and
manipulation are used to control the greed, then it’s not a free market anyway.
Likewise, it takes a civilized people in order for a free society to work. No
amount of government control can force out corruption among a people in power
who choose to grant favors according to bribes and special interest pressures.
The public behavior will mirror the private behavior of the people. But with a
truly civilized society (people choosing to be moral), free enterprise and
political freedom can and will thrive.
What does it mean to be civilized? What are the necessary
elements of civilization? And how do they contribute to the other spheres?
By way of review, here are the main rules for civilization—the
northern hemisphere of the social sphere:
1. Not
all religious societies are civilized, but every civilized society is a
religious society. This absolutely does not mean state-sponsored religion or
lack of religious freedom; in fact, the opposite is true. Freedom of religion
is essential, and the flourishing of religion in general must be encouraged.
2. The
family is the basic unit of civilized society. Whatever threatens the family
threatens civilization. So preserving and protecting the family is paramount in
laws and social expectations in a civilized society.
These are big ideas—and not without their controversies in
today’s world, so let’s take them piece by piece.
A Religious People
It is in the social sphere that we understand and honor the
idea that life is precious, a divine gift from God. Races and types of people
are not lesser humans; all human beings are created equally valuable, with
equal standing before the law. So, without God, there is no concept that life
is divine and worth protecting. And without God, there are no God-given rights.
Nor do individuals feel obligated to live according to standards they either
set for themselves or have imposed on them externally. Belief in facing God
beyond this life obligates humans to live better lives than they would if
goodness were meaningless.
Without a religious people—a critical mass of believers—who
feel obligated to live their lives in the way God commands, you don’t get a people
who are good enough to live freely, self-governing.
What does God command? Take a look at the Ten Commandments.
The first four cover honoring God—and no other entity—as supreme, as the very
definer of Good. Then we honor family: honor thy father and thy mother; and
thou shalt not commit adultery. Then we honor life: thou shalt no murder. Then
we honor truth: thou shalt not bear false witness (lie). Then we honor property
rights: thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not covet.
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| The Ten Commandments at the Texas State Capitol |
So the religion required of a religious people needs to
include, for the sake of civilization, believing in and honoring God, family,
life, truth, and property rights.
Think about how honoring life affects the political sphere. If
you want unalienable rights, they have to come from God. Otherwise, they’re
just privileges granted or taken away by the ruling power. Without God, there
are no God-given, or inherent, rights that you have by virtue of being human.
Having them interfered with or taken away by government doesn’t mean you are
not, as a human being, entitled to them; it just means that some tyrannical
force is wrongly attempting to deprive you of them.
If you want freedom—to pursue your life and livelihood as
you see fit, to be free from servitude—you need to value life. And you need to
have others in society value life as well, or you might end up beaten, dead, or
enslaved.
If you want justice, you need to have a system that both
honors each individual equally before the law, and that values truth. Imagine
trying to get justice when wrong is done to you, if there’s no respect for
telling the truth.
Similarly, if society doesn’t value property rights, people
lack incentive to care for things. And they can’t keep the things they value,
or what they have earned. And if you can’t enjoy the fruits of your labors, because
someone else lays claim to them, then your life—the hours, days, or years you
spent laboring—is really someone else’s belonging.
Every society improves by placing higher and higher value on
those things we’re commanded by God to honor.
Strong Families
And what good would it do to have a civilized people who
honored these things as commanded, if they didn’t pass them on to their
posterity?
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| The Spherical Model family, when we were young and cute |
Family is the basic unit of civilized society. That’s not
simply a platitude. A civilization—the society of people living together in
peace and harmony and goodness—can be as small as a single family. The more
families there are in a society who are living the principles necessary for
civilization, the larger the civilization can be. It can grow to the size of a
neighborhood, and a community, a town, a county, a state, and eventually a
nation.
If a critical mass of people around the world were living
the principles necessary for civilization, that’s how we would get world peace.
Some problems are simple, just not easy.
Family is a particular thing. A family is a married couple
and the children that come from their union. A certain number of single-parent
households, resulting from a death or divorce, can be accommodated, but only if
there is a critical mass of intact families.
That means marriage is a particular thing: the permanent
covenant between a man and a woman, to be exclusive, and to care for their
offspring. It is simply not, as redefined by fiat in the courts, “a temporary
declaration of connection to a sexual partner.” That leaves out permanence,
exclusivity, and the biological possibility of procreation.
People can make whatever social arrangements they like, but
only families make the essential contribution to civilization.
All this means it isn’t really possible to be a “fiscal
conservative” but a “social liberal,” meaning you believe in free-enterprise
principles but you favor things like abortion and same-sex “marriage,” or any
other sexual revolutionary idea. To make that claim simply means you do not
understand the philosophical basis for believing what you do. Maybe you think,
yes, it’s right that the person who earns the money should decide how to spend
it, because you’ve seen how well that works, and it seems right. But you haven’t
connected that to the religious values of life, liberty, and property.
But the spheres are interrelated. You can’t choose
prosperity while also choosing savagery. Because if you choose savagery, you’ll
also get tyranny and poverty. Maybe not immediately in your personal
experience. But soon enough. Decay can be significant within a decade—or even
one or two terms of a presidency. And catastrophic results are likely, or maybe
inevitable, by a third generation.[i]
Trying to pass along the underlying philosophies that lead
to freedom instead of tyranny in the political sphere, prosperity instead of
poverty in the economic sphere, and civilization instead of savagery in the
social sphere—that’s what we do here at the Spherical Model. And that’s why we spend a lot of time on
the social sphere.
[i]
The length of collapse from socialism is about 70 years (mentioned in this post). The social data
provide by Daniel Unwin on societies that move away from strict monogamy show collapse
by the third generation, which is probably 75-100 years (mentioned in this post). Reference:
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