Nine
Mega-Institutions of Society
(Outline of a
work in progress)
The societies we have created in the modern world have
different kinds of institutions. The
institutions (or systems) are related and often overlap or act together.
The following perspective is primarily derived from the
developments in Western society following the Enlightenment and the growth of
modern science. It provides a
brief sketch of key characteristics of the institutions and summary of
history. Note that most of what we consider normal today is a
development of the last 200 years.
A) Government
B) Business
C) Education D) Religion
E) Healthcare F) Arts and Culture
G) Science and Technology H) Communication
I) Agriculture
A)
Government
Set
up to allow exhaustion of environment
Anti-Pollution laws
Land Conservation Laws
Endangered Species laws
Boundaries don’t follow natural delineations
Military machines to “protect” and extend colonial power
Regulates free flow of people across borders
Nation-state as primary form
Wealth of nations emphasized
Individual rights
Control of territory, people and environment
Political imperialism
Modern warfare
History:
1492 Columbus sails to America
after 1600 Nation State developed
1607 Jamestown settlement in Virginia
1757 British control over India
1763 Colonialism – European powers divide the world
1776 American Revolution
1789 French Revolution
1914 WW I
1917Communist control of Russia
1919 League of Nations
1939 WWII
1945 First Atomic bomb at Hiroshima
1945 UN
1991 Dissolution of Soviet Union
Top
B)
Business
Market is driving institution
Economics of supply and demand
Environment an “externality”
Reduces environment to resources
Reduces people to labor and consumers
Advertising creates false needs
Competition encouraged
Natural world becomes private property
Economic Imperialism
Progress – the increasing exploitation of the earth through technology
Profit motive, quarterly results and Wall Street
Unlimited growth encouraged
Larger than governments
Promotes consumerism
History:
1606 Virginia Company, Plymouth
Company
1608 British East India Company
1776 Adam Smith Wealth of Nations
1798 Malthus – population places environmental limits on growth
19th century - industrial revolution
mid 19th century – introduction of term “capitalism”
1800’s Growth of modern industry beginning in Britain
1802 Dupont began as black powder company
1817 decision to build Erie Canal
1830 first railroads
1870 Standard Oil of Ohio, Atlantic Richfield formed
1873 Carnegie Steel
1885 AT&T incorporated
1886 corporation recognized as person before law
1892 GE incorporated
1897 Dow Chemical Company, Johnson & Johnson
1898 International Paper
1900 Weyerhauser, Clinton Pharmaceutical (Bristol Myers)
1901 US Steel
1903 Ford Motor Company
1908 General Motors
since 1900 Present form of corporation
1936 Keynes General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
1944 Bretton Woods agreement--World Bank, IMF
1962 Milton Friedman Capitalism and Freedom – liberalism and
individual freedom
1967 GATT (1995 WTO)
1995 World Business Council for Sustainable Development
1998 Exxon and Mobil Oil merge
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C)
Education
Training or initiation to enter
the other institutions
No telling of universe story
Specialization and compartmentalization
Competition for success
Courses, research funded by business
Instrument for teaching values of society
Way to control children and youth
History:
Roots of modern university in
Western Europe in Middle Ages
1386 University of Heidelberg, Germany
1837 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute first to offer degree in scientific
engineering
Western Philosophy
Top
D)
Religion
Captured in outdated cosmology
Heaven outside of earth/universe
Often source of conflict and war
Exclusive of those not following teachings, practices
Anthropocentric
Human history more important than nature
Missionary mentality of Christianity
Often hierarchical
Individualistic
History:
1500 BCE Rise of Aryan culture
in India and Hinduism
1500 BCE and after Hebrews Develop Jewish Nation and faith
950 BCE Solomon
628 BCE Zoroaster
560 BCE Confucius and Buddha
570-490 BCE Lao Tzu
4 BCE Jesus
300 CE Classical Mayan Civilization
570-632 CE Muhammad
1095 CE Crusades
1200 CE Inca Empire
1320 CE Aztec Empire
1517 CE Luther posts 95 Theses
1523 CE Zwingli and Swiss Reformation in Zurich
1536 CE Calvin’s Institutes
1513-1572 CE John Knox, founder of Presbyterianism
1607 CE King James Bible
1739 CE Wesley formed first Methodist Society
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E)
Healthcare
Western scientific basis
Treats human as machine
Disease is external affliction
Treats symptoms
Excludes natural, eastern and indigenous medicine
Health Care delivery systems
Pharmaceutical industry plays key role
History:
1347-1349 Black Death wipes out
one third of European population
1796 homeopathy founded by Samuel Hahnemann
1819 stethoscope
1864 germ theory of disease, Pasteur
1895 Roentgen discovers X-rays
after 1900 Western scientific medicine dominates in US
1928 Penicillin
1950’s antibiotics into general use
Chlorination of water
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F)
Arts and Culture
Art and music as commodity
Sparse funding
Lack of emphasis in education
Co-opted for commercial purposes
History
1452-1519 Leonardo da Vinci
1475-1564 Michelangelo
1564-1616 Shakespeare
16th and 17th Centuries Renaissance
1685-1750 Johann Sebastian Bach
1732-1809 Haydn
1756-91 Mozart
1770-1827 Beethoven
1833-97 Brahms
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G)
Science and Technology
Ties to development of
industrialism and global capitalism
Solves problems that create new problems
Attitudes toward technology:
Technology solves the problem
Technology is the problem
The use of technology is
the problem
Sustainable technology
Most basic and applied research funded by industry or government
History:
1543 Copernicus
earth revolves around sun
1609 Galileo confirms Copernican revolution by observation
1609, 1618 Kepler, three planetary laws, modern astrophysics
1687 Newton modern view of universe
1809 Lamarck evolution from lower to higher forms of life
mid nineteenth century – first oil wells in Pennsylvania
1856 Bessemer converter for making steel
1859 Natural selection in evolution, Darwin
1860 internal combustion engine invented by Lenoir
1879 incandescent light bulb
1880 first electric generating station in London, 1881 first in New York
1886 separation of aluminum from ore through electrolysis, Charles Martin Hall
1903 first flight by Wright Brothers
1905 Einstein modern
understanding of time, space, motion and energy
1909 plastics from petroleum into industrial use
1928 Quantum mechanics developed, uncertainty principle
1929 Hubble evidence of expanding universe
1930’s oil fields of middle east discovered
1938 invention of nylon by DuPont
1953 Watson and Click discover the double helix structure of DNA
1961 First man in space
1962 Rachael Carson, effects of pesticides
1965 Background radiation from big bang discovered
1969 First walk on the moon
1990 Hubble Space telescope
2000 mapping of human genome
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H)
Communication
Tools for dissemination of
consumerism
Introduction of TV destructive of cultures
Tool for sharing information and building community
Concentration in media assures uniformity of message
Implications of moves from vocal to print to electronic
History
1455 Printing press with movable
type Gutenberg
1609 earliest newspapers
1837 Telegraph, Samuel Morse
1876 telephone, Alexander Graham Bell
1895 Radio, Marconi
1940’s Television
1945 First Computer ENIAC
1982 First IBM Personal computer
1960’s Internet
1989 World Wide Web
Top
I)
Agriculture
Mono-cropping
Heavy chemical use
Large farms
High energy input
Distant transport of commodities
Clearing of land
Genetically modified organisms
History:
8500 BCE wheat, peas and olives in Middle East
sheep and goats domesticated in Middle East
7500 BCE rice,
millet in China
pigs domesticated in China
6500 BCE corn
in the Americas
6800 BCE cattle
domesticated in Middle East
6000 BCE irrigation
in Middle East
4400 BCE horses
domesticated in Eastern Europe
3500 BCE potatoes
in Andes and Amazonia
3000 BCE amaranth
and quinoa in Andes
2500 BCE peanuts
in the Andes
1500’s
Spanish cattle introduced in southwestern US
1619
first African slaves brought to Virginia
1700’s AD tobacco
chief crop in Southern US
1700-1800’s slaves introduce grain and sweet sorghum, melons, okra
and peanuts to US
1790-1987 share
of persons employed in agriculture in US dropped from 90% to 2.9%
1793
invention of cotton gin
1805-1815 cotton
began to replace tobacco in Southern US as
chief crop
1842
first grain elevator in US
1870
first foot and mouth disease in US
1862-75
change from handpower to horses in US
1874-76
grasshopper plagues serious in Western US
1890’s
agriculture in US became increasingly mechanized and commercialized
1904
first serious stem rust epidemic in wheat in US
1941-45
frozen foods popularized in US
1945-70
change from horses to tractors in US
1945-55
increased us of herbicides and pesticides in US
1930-35
use of hybrid seed for corn became
common in US
1960
96% of US corn hybrid
1970
Nobel Prize to Norman Borlaug for developing high yield wheat
1980’s
biotechnology viable for crop and livestock products
1989
more US farmers began to use low input sustainable agriculture to
reduce chemical use
1990’s
biotechnology brought new developments to dairy, corn and other
commodities
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