Skip to main content

Dharmic Creativism ☸️ ️️️

Creativism: Beyond Capitalism, Communism and Socialism​

Creativism: is the conscious application of creative principles to everything in life

As a society, we are constantly faced with challenges, and solutions to some of those challenges that have worked in the past might not be suitable for the present/future. We must learn to rely on our creative faculties to devise solutions as the nature of challenges and circumstances evolve. One such approach to do so is “Creativism” and we believe that this should be the guiding principle of progress for any society. We advocate for a particular kind of “Creativism” called “Dharmic Creativism” as a core ideology for the construction of the future.

Our Solution​

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.

Speak or act with an impure mind And trouble will follow you As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.

Speak or act with a pure mind And happiness will follow you As your shadow, unshakable.

― Shakyamuni Buddha, The Dhammapada

The Buddha uses these words to explain how we tend to create our circumstances through the nature of our thoughts. When our thoughts come from a deeper sense of righteousness they create constructive circumstances for oneself and society as a whole. When our thoughts come from a sense of fear, anxiety, or scarcity they create unhealthy circumstances and lead to conflicts in our society. Therefore as a society its important we make emotional development a top priority. It is only through our emotional development journeys that we can discover a sense of righteousness within our hearts.

The Indians used the term “Dharma” to refer to this sense of righteousness within us. It is through our “Dharma” that we create deep bonds with one another and create positive outcomes for our society. It is important for us to differentiate creativity built on this sense of “Dharma” from other forms of creativity. We have coined the term "Dharmic Creativism" to refer to Creativism built on a sense of “Dharma”.

We believe that “Dharmic Creativism” can work as a great ideology for constructing a Political Economy for Network States.

We have already identified how Political Economies in a Network State are fundamentally different from those in Nation States. Let us now look at how Dharmic Creativism leverages each aspect of Political Economy in a Network State.

Markets​

Markets in Network States have one or more Creative Asset(s) at their core to keep their Network engaged. Any kind of monetization is tied to this engagement. Market growth is directly linked to Network growth in terms of engagement, number of participants, and interest groups represented. This growth can either be achieved by creating more creative assets and/or improvising on existing assets. Dharmic Creativism represents an *integration of “*Creativism” and “Dharma”. For example:

  • Through “Creativism” we can employ our creative faculties to devise new solutions to existing demands/problems in the Network in the form of Creative Assets. This is one way to boost engagement rates within the Network and attract more people from time to time.
  • By embodying a sense of “Dharma”, existing and new creative assets can be made to align with larger societal demands/problems. This is what would make these assets appealing to more interest groups and boost outreach.

Governance​

Let's take a look at how Dharmic Creativism fits into key aspects of governance in Network States:

Geographically Agnostic​

Network States are not bound to any geographical territory. Most preceding ideologies were applied to a territory that had a history. A territory whose wealth has been drained by Colonialism would view Capitalism in a negative light and choose Socialism or Communism to ensure there is an equitable distribution of wealth. A territory with vast amounts of resources and a handful of people would prefer Capitalism to maximize individual potential. Ideologies are often a reflection of circumstances. In Network States we can build from scratch and give people the choice to take part in certain circumstances or experiments . This makes it favorable to create multiple trajectories and give people the choice to take part in one or more of them simultaneously.

Dharmic Creativism believes that any problem can have multiple possible solutions and advocates simultaneous implementation of multiple creative solutions as long as they represent deeper alignment towards “Dharma”. The NGS would support this by enabling each sub-society to operate on their own creative solutions simultaneously. An individual can choose to opt-in or opt-out of any of these sub-societies instead of having a single blanket solution for everyone.

Dynamic Governance​

DAOs enable a much more robust form of governance that can leverage analytics, AI, p2p encryptions, and smart contract automation to enable much faster cycles of evaluation-ideation-legislation-execution. Such a system minimizes the time between ideation and manifestation, enabling new ideas to become a ground reality in much shorter time-spans. This needs to go hand in hand with an ideology that supports such dynamic cycles of ideation and manifestation. Creativism defines that a solution must always be rethought from first principles as per the change in circumstances. Applying 19th-century law to 21st-century circumstances is not the ideal way to deal with problems. Emphasis on “Dharma” ensures that any new solution is intended to create positive outcomes for our society. This makes “Dharmic Creativism” a very compatible ideology for Dynamic Governance through DAOs.

Liquid Democracy​

Some decisions are better off when taken by experts alone. Others are better off with the direct or indirect involvement of citizens. This dynamic combination of technocracy, direct and representative democracy is called a Liquid democracy as the nature of democracy is constantly evolving with changing circumstances. The Indians used a wheel to represent Dharma as a wheel keeps changing its position to make room for new ground and take the vehicle forward. Ancient India had Dharma at the heart of any governance mechanism and manifested different governance structures as per changing environments. Dharmic Creativism is an attempt to revive this approach of not believing in a “One size fits all” solution like some of the other ideologies. The only thing that must remain constant is the alignment towards Dharma.

Individualism​

The aim of any Political Economy has been to enhance the sense of sovereignty in its subjects. However, the binding of solutions to national identities and their inability to evolve as per circumstances produces the exact opposite effect.

  • Capitalism was built to maximize an individual’s sense of individualism by enabling them to participate in free markets to maximize their profits and grow their capital. However, the binding of free markets to a national scarcity creates monopolies that restrict other individuals to grow their capital.

  • Socialism was built to address problems inherent in Capitalism. It ensures collective welfare so that one person’s sense of individualism does not come at the cost of another. Sharing parts of wealth and ownership were considered ways to protect the sovereignty of Individuals by ensuring a bare minimum. However, socialism only re-enforced a sense of scarcity and eternalized it by saying “capital is scarce and must be shared”. This dis-incentivized individual growth and constantly impeded it.

  • Communism believes that Socialism is an imperfect way to provide collective welfare. It advocates for forming a utopian society by treating everyone as absolute equals and distributing wealth accordingly. But in practice this becomes authoritarian and suppresses the sense of individualism much more than the other two approaches.

Dharmic Creativism is not bound to any national identity. Network States can formulate their own set of creative assets or also evolve existing assets to add value to its subjects. Here, you can have infinite number of creative assets and an individual can choose to be a part of one or more Network States. This ensures that there is always abundance and an individual can use their interactions with creative assets as a means to expand their sense of individualism.

Social Dynamics​

Nation States have certain circumstances at their founding that give rise to certain kind of social dynamics as an inherent part of their identity. Political Economies are also chosen as per these circumstances and further reinforce certain social dynamics over others. Let’s take India as an example.

India as a Nation State was founded in 1947 as a consequence of the De-colonization of the British Empire and the two-nation theory that also gave birth to Pakistan.

  • Excessive drain of capital due to colonization led to Socialism being the prime choice as a Political Economy. This nurtured an anti-wealth social dynamic that discouraged any kind of excessive private capital even if it did not come at the expense of other individuals. At a collective level, this led to the eventual stagnation of the Indian Economy as fewer people took up entrepreneurial journeys.

  • The two-nation theory eternalized the conflict between Hindus and Muslims. Indian politics to date is built on this conflict and this also reflects upon the social dynamics of Indian society.

Network States are free from historical baggage and can afford to construct their Social Dynamics in a much more dynamic manner. Dharmic Creativism enables Network States to use new creative assets to rapidly evolve the nature of their social dynamics. This, when combined with the focus on “Dharma” ensures that any social dynamic is built on a sense of abundance and enables multiple interest groups to integrate into the society.