INCLUSIVISM™

There is no question that the world is currently in the middle of a prolonged period of social, political and environmental disruption. The developed world is facing an economic crisis on the scale of which has never been seen before. The developing world is facing massive political and social unrest. The wealthy seem to be getting wealthier and the poor, poorer. High level executives earn salaries that are thousands of times that which their employees earn, a development of the last 20 years. Bankers receive exorbitant bonuses for taking uncalculated risks, but are not held accountable when these risks result in massive failures. Companies neglect infrastructure maintenance and safety requirements in an effort to boost short term profits and, when the inevitable disaster happens, display incompetance and distain for the public and the environment at large by pointing fingers and trying to shift the blame. Politicians seek to maintain the support of their donor base by consistently promoting the interests of lobbyists and big business over those of the citizens. When faced with massive opposition by the voting public, the people are stamped as ignorant and unable to grasp the scope of the problems at hand and the political establishment blatantly ignores the wishes of its citizens. As a result, voter apathy takes hold and voter turn-out at elections plummets. The voting process on the whole is treated with distain; election results are rigged; the opposition is ridiculed and in some cases violently oppressed. Should a reform candidate succeed in being elected, despite voting manipulation, the formerly elected official may just ignore the decision of the public and refuse to hand over power. Other political innovators are simply incarcerated or even killed: their right to expression squelched by the political machinery. People in positions of authority misuse their power to promote personal agendas; either financial, political or in the worst cases, sexual. When confronted with these abuses of power, the perpetrators deny responsibility and, in many cases, seem to consider the behavior as being part of the rewards of their position. The offender tries to avoid being held accountable and instead, the public at large is called to bear the consequences of the moral failures. The effect of this general state of affairs is demoralization across the entire expanse of society. Public unrest, mass protests, strikes and violent demonstrations are the openly visible signs of this condition. In certain extreme cases, irate individuals direct their frustration and anger at the general state of affairs towards individual power holders and assassinations and assassination attempts occur as a result. But there are other less visible signs. A massive increase in the level of criminal activity, psychologically related health problems and suicides can also be documented. On the lowest level, discontent and unhappiness with life in general often leads to a decline in the quality of goods and services, because the people providing them have lost all personal motivation and pride. But, an enormous increase in the consumption of mass public entertainment and the monumental increase in the production and use of video games and various game platforms provides the disenfranchised citizen with a means of escaping reality. These are simply another form of tranquilizer and can prove to be just as addictive as drugs and alcohol, the use of which has sky-rocketed in certain segments of society. In general, this is a very dismal state of affairs and the tendency might be to resign as a result. However, the situation is actually not as bad as it seems. In fact, these societal circumstances are just the indication of the emergence of a new social form. Moreover, as is the case when a child is born, this social form, Inclusivism™, is also being heralded by a series of intense and very painful contractions.