Everything associated with the Work-Standard is informed by two specific theories. There is a Theory of Value and a Theory of Money guiding the interactions between the Totality’s Arbeit and Geld. Those are the Reciprocal Theory of Value (RTV) and the Work Theory of Money (WTM). In my ongoing attempt to identify a Theory of International Relations compatible with the Work-Standard, I mentioned them to serve as a starting point to find a name. Their significance will become apparent over the course of this post.
To begin, those who have read both The Work-Standard and The Third Place will recall that I talked about the importance of a “National Essence” in relation to a corresponding “National Identity” and “National Consciousness.”
The National Identity is the outward appearance of the Totality. It affects how the Totality present themselves and how they are perceived by other nations within the international system. Key examples of where National Identity is applicable may include, but not limited to, technologies, currencies, foodstuffs, Equipmentalities and finished products, financial instruments, weaponry, vehicles, sports, festivities, infrastructural and architectural designs, cultural achievements, and works of art. Each of the examples I provided is an opportunity for the Totality to describe themselves and are usually what comes to mind when one tries to think about them. If the Totality is under the influence of any ideology, it will also be reflected in its National Identity.
The National Essence, by contrast, is more inward as it focuses on the psychological and psychic conditions of the Totality. It is manifested by a shared culture, tradition, language, history, heritage, social customs and norms. These are all characteristics peculiar to the Totality insofar as they are the product of a centuries-long historical development. They affect how the Self, as a member of the Totality, conducts themselves in the company of Foreigners and the behaviors that they may exhibit while visiting other nations. To determine whether the Self’s actions correspond to their Totality, it is important to know and to understand them as an individual first.
Both the National Identity and the National Essence contribute to the National Consciousness of the Totality. The National Consciousness manifests itself as the ideas, concepts, values, and beliefs expressed by the Totality through visual, verbal and audiovisual language as well as all other modes of communication. Backed by their National Identity and National Essence, the Totality create their National Consciousness in the effort to describe their sense of Authentic Dasein and how they define themselves to the rest of humanity. National Consciousness is shaped entirely in the international system through the conduct of foreign policy. Its most readily apparent manifestation in the 21st century can be found on the International Internet and National Intranet.
In The Third Place, I provided an important justification for a National Intranet. Basically, the digital realm is not meant to be separate from what happens offline. It is not supposed to be an escape from the Real World but the extension. That conclusion is made evident by three ideas from The Work-Standard. Those were the presence of an Information Sector within the VCS Economy, which includes the creation of mass media; and the ability to create Digital Arbeit and Digital Geld vis-à-vis the LERE Process; and the SSE employing the National Intranet as a learning tool.
Beyond those obvious Intents, my discussion in The Third Place also included questions related to National Sovereignty on the digital realm, citing the decision-making of China, Russia, the EU/NATO member-states, and the US as important factors. It was in that context where I began to argue that the International Internet is merely the digital manifestation of Human Consciousness, which should be distinguished from the National Intranet. The biggest problem with the World Wide Web (WWW) is that it makes no distinctions between Human Consciousness and the multiplicity of differing National Consciousnesses that coexist online. The implication is that there are no National Consciousnesses in digital realm, even though they do in fact exist in the Real World. More importantly, so much of what passes as “Human Consciousness” on the WWW is in actuality the American National Consciousness (Californian, to be precise).
It is because of the political, socioeconomic, cultural and financial implications of the digital realm alone that we can begin to ponder over this proposed Theory of International Relations. On the one hand, we have the idea of reapplying the Work-Standard to harness the digital realm in a way that the Liberal Capitalists are incapable of achieving. And on the other, we have the idea of turning the digital realm into an online manifestation of the National Consciousness. There is a pattern to be discerned from those two sets of characteristics. It may seem abstract at first, but I cannot help but wonder about what that might entail for future Blog posts.
Furthermore, we can discern the importance that RTV and WTM play in the digital realm as well. Aside from governing the LER Process in the Real World, they inform the operation of the LERE Process and the Real Trade Agreement. In international trade, both online and offline, the idea of maintaining the Balances of Trades and Payments remains constant. It may be Socialistic as well as Conservative, but it cannot be achieved without some understanding of WTM. I will designate the proposed Theory as the “Consciousness Theory of International Relations.”
Everything discussed up to this point is not at all filler for the sake of writing a long Blog post. In actuality, I have been discussing recurring concepts that have consistently been present throughout the various Entries of The Work-Standard and The Third Place. RTV may have served as the foundation for WTM, but it was WTM that helped RTV realize the Work-Standard.
RTV and WTM were instrumental in helping me articulate the Real Trade Agreement (RTA) and by extension the Shopping Citadel and Shopping Arena. They were also important in understanding how the Work-Standard could be used to promote a National Consciousness supported by a National Identity and National Essence. It was already made apparent in my discussions of Technology and how it can be imbued with a design philosophy that could cater to certain ideological tendencies. The Socialization of Young Minds and the Liberalization of Young Minds could not have been conceived without those discussions of Technology. Thus, the term “Consciousness Theory” sticks.
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