Dynamics of the Korean State: From the Paleolithic Age to Candlelight Democracy by Robert E. Bedeski

Author:Robert E. Bedeski [Bedeski, Robert E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781800610590
Google: vH5JEAAAQBAJ
Published: 2021-09-23T08:32:58+00:00

Innovators vs. Organizers — Mankind’s Early Days

The Korean and other states evolved as the result of three primary activities — production, innovation, and organization. Each set of actions was performed by a set of actors — producers, innovators, and organizers. Every group of actors was motivated by recognition of entropy – that life inevitably ends but that willed action may postpone that end. The earliest prehistoric producers lived and died in a semi-animal existence, relying more on instinct than reason. Innovators improved material production and relieved some of the animal desperation from Stone Age humans. As populations increased, natural communities coalesced, and spontaneous division of labor stimulated production and innovation. Further increases in population made life more secure for many through efficient production and stimulated innovation, leaving many behind in the competition for improved lives. Customs and habits also altered conforming to new modes of production, greater use of reason, and regular innovation.

Leaders emerged in the hunt and village organization. Production and innovation were necessary requisites for stable communities, but not sufficient for state formation. A state required productive and innovative subjects so that surpluses could be created to free a few from manual labor. When a certain threshold of dependable surplus was achieved, men faced a choice. Consumable assets could be distributed equitably among families and individuals within the community, a la communism. Or, producers could be maintained at the threshold level of existence, given a small amount of the surplus, and promised greater share in the future, so that an elite would reap most of the extra product. The first plan was arguably fairer, and to keep innovators innovating, they could receive a marginally greater share of surplus than ordinary producers. Specialized craftsmen could be classified as innovators in that creativity was valued — in contrast to producers whose main value was repetition of routine tasks. But, even to impose an equitable system of distribution required some enforcement, either physical or psychological, as the Republic described. Plato’s guardians were required to maintain order and resorted to force when necessary.

Early attempts at organization imposed an oppressive equality on the producing class so that leaders could reap, enjoy, and redistribute material surplus. Over time, they managed an ever-increasing complexity of production and innovation. These managers had to have a type of knowledge different from manipulation of materials. They were typically people supervisors and resorted to argument, coercion, shaming, reward, and punishment. They recognized that, while producers and innovators had superior skills in hunting, crafting, and farming, their social skills were more limited. A new actor set, the primitive organizers, emerged to integrate diverse skills, arts, production, invention, and proclivities based in communities of families, clans, and tribes.

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