A Balance Paradigm for Post-Plutocracy: Toward Sustainable Development with Integral Harmony

• Main Author: Kensei Hiwaki
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-02-01
• Series: Systems
• Subjects: balance paradigm; balanced socio-economic development; sustainable development; society-specific holistic culture; integral harmony; culture-oriented employment; human self-destruction; reckless run of modern civilization
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2079-8954/5/1/16

For a sustainable human future, a rapid paradigm shift is a must from the prevailing “Explosion Paradigm” to a more reasonable “Balance Paradigm” by means of constantly enriching the existing diverse society-specific holistic cultures (“Cultures”). This means inviting a new age of balanced and integrated socio-economic systems worldwide with the help of the most important human common property—diverse Cultures. Generally speaking, each Culture has been deeply interwoven with its social value system, belief system, natural-social environments, and experience-based knowledge and wisdom. Such Cultures all over the world, however, have been mostly devastated by the modern ideology of lopsided market fundamentalism (“Market”) that has favored the plutocracy-driven power structure (“Big Market”) of the world. In order to seek a sustainable future by achieving the paradigm shift, the devastated diverse Cultures need to be restored, invigorated and enriched by long-term worldwide collaborations. For such a purpose, we cannot rely totally on the existing line of modern thoughts and theories of economics and other disciplines. Therefore, the present article introduces an alternative theoretical framework of balanced socio-economic development, which is argued for on the assumption of respectively and differently enriched diverse Cultures.