Dobilas Kirvelis
Steponas KAIRYS Foundation,Vilnius, Lithuania
The attitudes of the political left lose popularity in Europe.Seemingly, the traditional left-wing ideas are no longer sufficient for the changing European society. It is clearly demonstrated by the results of European Parliament election 2009 and in particular the summarized dynamics of PES election results (Fig.1.). About 150 years ago, the working class and the political left party (Socialists, Social Democrats, Labour) emerged as the workers’ defenders in Europe as a result of the transformation of the feudal society which was based on the change from agrarian technology to the industrial capitalism. Leftists took up their leading role and significantly the formation of the European Union in Europe, after the World War II. The traditional left-wing political attitudes were based on solid scientific foundation: Karl Marx's theory of socio-economic and Immanuel Kantian ethical imperative. But Europe today has changed and the traditional leftists’ ideas are in decline.
Fig.1. The chart of PES evolution
Revision of the left-wing ideas and the development of a new-left political concept is needed.The new left policy mustbe based on today's scientific theories that will prognosticate the society next trends in society and societal needs. In 1999, in the XXI SI Congress an attempt was made to formulate the Paris Declaraition as the challenge of globalization:
Fig.2. Five Kondratieff social-economic waves or cycles and Schumpeter creative destructions emerge due to the specially implemented technologies. Latter, a new sixth social growth cycle arises caused by a new set of NBICE technologies
“1. Humankind is witnessing a new change of era marked by the phenomenon of globalisation. The transformation of an industrial society into one dominated by information and knowledge is taking place at a pace and extent hitherto unknown in history.
2. The technological revolution including biotechnology and information is the driving force in this historic process.The globalisation of information, the economy, commerce and capital movements brings, completely new opportunities with far reaching implications, … So far, however, the more visible results have been extreme increases in inequality, within nations and throughout the different regions of the world.” The Declaration of Paris was a prelude to the Lisbon Strategy, which, regrettably, is being fully implemented only in some Nordic EU Member States (Sweden and Finland). The new scientific living and organized systems theories focus on the new features of social development and forces to see the newly emerging social layers or classes that predetermine the future.
Creativesocial layer (class) of science-technology and its formation as the guarantor for the future of Europe and mankind. The scientific theories of Kondratieff socio-economic development “waves” or “cycles” and Schumpeter concept of “Creative destructions” clearly demonstrate that social evolution is driven by new technology and their implementation (Fig.2). European society already lives in the fifth Kondratiff’s cycle or ratherat its end and has lived through four socio-economics rises of industrial society and the same number of periods Schumpeter’s “creative destruction”. It’s seems that today we are living in the initial phase of the sixth technological development wave that, acording Schumpeter, causes the present global crisis (“creative destruction”). According to the theory, the today’s economic crisis is not tactic but strategic. The solution to the crisis represents rapid and efficientdevelopment of new technologies and their implementation. This requires the development of special social science-technology creative layer (the creative-class, after R. Florida) of social science-technology focused on converging NBICE (Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno-Eco) technologies to by developed and implemented.
The creative social layer (creative class) of science-technology as the new political focus of the Next Left and the future path of innovations. The working class as the traditional left social layer in the developed Western European countries is losing relevance. Workers are sufficiently well protected by law and by instilled attitudes of social ethics. In addition, the traditional workers compose only 20% of the population in industrially developed countries of and this group is shrinking, as was the cases with the agrarian social layer some time ago. Workers are being replaced by by machines and robots in the fields of industry. The problems of the workers, especially prominent under present crisis, remain unsolved in Eastern European countries. But, looking at social development, it is evident that the traditional workers' jobs solutions of their problems lie only in the development of new and high technologies and their implementation. The new NBIC technologies and their implementation is a strategic way for the left-wing Socialists and Greens to address the problems. The converging science-technology concept require substituting the hazardous physical-chemical technologies with synthetic biology and bio-technology which harmoniausly converge with the natural life as they are regarded as technologies by their nature. This also related to the issues of psychological technologies of human self-discovery and self-realization in society.
Creation of new science based technologies the true human life and the guarantor of human well-being. The traditional workers of the industrial society is not free, because in order to earn their daily bread for themselves and their families, workers have to do the work of a machine: the work that is inhumane, often hard, monotonous and exhausting. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs demonstrates that there are five levels of human needs with physiological needs being in lowest. In order to liberate workers as humans, it is not enough to satisfy their physiological needs. The satisfaction of these needs leads to higher levels needs, such as security, positive social environment, universal respect and highest level of self-discovery. One can acknowledge that Western European, particularly Scandinavian countries have achieved the level of human life that satisfies the needs of the four lowest levels in the hierarchy of needs. However, the fifth highest level of human self-discovery and self-actualization is hardly achieved. This is a specific activity of human life – the generation of information, that is the formulation of problems, the generation of the projects and programs in creative decision-making. This is field of action for the creative class, for the special creative social layer which life entails finding solutions to problems rather than only struggling for earning a living and material comfort. A person who has reached the fifth level of the needs of the Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and who enjoys public recognition can be happy even in poverty. The social creative class which consist of such creative personalities that have conditions to seek solutions for societal problems is a public good and reliable guarantor for survival.
Isthe creativelayer of science-technologysociallyinsured? One can unambiguously state that the creative layer of science-technology in the Baltic and Eastern European countries is left for its own survival. The scientific-technological work of individuals is not seen as a guarantor for the future society but as the way to meet the goals of these individuals in science and arts. The situation is better in Western European countries; however majority of workers from the social service layer enjoy higher wages and benefits as compared to scientists. This demonstrates that even the European Left still does not see the emerging creative society. European leftists as the “Next Left” is faced with a problem: to assess the importance of creative class of science-technology for the future of the world and make policy decisions regarding the future of this social stratum. This could be the flagship program of the Next Left. Scandinavian countries, Sweden and Finland in particular, are the best prepared for implementation of such strategic ideas in the European Union. The Baltic countries need to regard them as models.
The future of the EU and Baltic countries lies in the creative Baltoscandic Region of science-technology. In 2009-2010, the following studies were carried out on the prosperity different countries: Legatum ranked 110 countries according to eight life quality indicators and NewsWeek ranked 100 countries out of 200 existing and sufficiently well-known to 5 indicators. The findings demonstrated that the Scandinavian countries and Finland were in the first top ten. Finland and Sweden stood out In particular. The Baltic countries were in the fourth or even fifth dozen. By the Global Inovative Index, the Baltic countries are ranked 24th – 44th places. The Scandinavian countries and Finland are distinguished with the highest ratings for innovations. Finland is the best model to the Baltic States as it is a small country with the most severe nature conditions out of all the Baltic countries. Finland as well as the Baltic countries suffled from World War II and today is one of the most prosperous countries characterized by high and increasing innovation - a new high-tech creativity. The scholar and author of the creative class concept R. Florida states in his research (2004) conclusions that "The creative class drives the Nordic-Europe's new leading nations." Scientific-technological creativity of these countries turned them into welfare states not only economically but also socially and psychologically. It is necsessary, for instance, the Baltic countries to co-operate with them in view of creative science-technological Baltoscandic Region in the European Union. It could be a model for the continental European Union countries as the new Next Left values of universal welfare would be encrypted in such modern regional development.
Are the values such as universalism, still possible to implement? The theory of scientific evolution of living and social systems suggests that the emergence of new technologies of public life results in the change in the form of social co-existence, as well as the order of dominance of certain forms of co-existence. The classical theory of the bio-social populations suggests that social formation is determined by three different extreme modes of interactions: competition, cooperation, and predation (predator-prey coexistence). Feudal society, wich in economic terms (productionof material resources) is based on agrotechnologies, apparently represents an era of pillage (war). According to the domination of the forms of coexistence, feudal society has the folloing universal valuesin the order of importance:
Predation> Competition> Cooperation, or Predation> Cooperation> Competition.
Capitalist societies, where the economy is based on the material production of goods and commerce in kind, prevails the competition and the following ranking of universal values of co-existence:
Competition> Predation> Cooperation, or Competition> Cooperation> Predation.
The future creative science-technology societies, where social life is founded on production of information (creations and modeling of the problems solving projects), cooperative co-existence will prevail and universal values co-existence will rank as follows:
Cooperation> Competition> Predation, or Cooperation> Predation> Competition.
Information, as an intangible value wich does not abide by conservation law and its production aiming at effective development of science-technology creation requires dominance of cooperative and equality co-existence. Competition and predation inhibit creativity. Obviously, placing cooperation on the dominant position is a universal step which change public ethics. Creative society, in terms of its everyday life, represents a genuine Next Left society, which combines the principles of solidarity and equality.
Fig.3.The diagram demonstrating relations in social evolution - from industrial society of competitions and creative class of science-technology cooperations towards the solidary creative society of the EU
Society evolution as seen by the Next Left - from the creative class toward solidary creative society. Richard Florida’s concept of creative class society TTT (tolerance, talent and technology) is applied only to economic growth. However, it raise some questions. Is economic growth a key goal of public welfare? Is creative class necessary for economic growth? Economic growth is important, but does it override public aspirations? R. Kurtzweil’s theory of “technological singularity” suggests thatthe evolution of natureandof society representqualitativelyalike continuousdevelopment of newtechnologyand their implementation.Obviously, creative class raises the tolerance of society and promotes talents for work stimulating the development of new ideas and new innovations. The innovations stimulate new and novel technologies, then the new technologies drive the economic growth, which leads to even greater growth of the creative class. But perhaps the future of the welfare state is the establishment of solidary creative public structure (Fig.3.).
“A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of SOCIAL CREATIVE SCIENCE-TECHNOLOGICAL SINGULARITY.”, Karl MARX and Frederick ENGELS would say today.
For a start the Nordic-Europe and Baltic States in this instance, must provide their responses on the EU level and represent a united area of creative science-technology in creatively close-knit in order to form the creative science-technology EU Next Left Welfare Region.