The Ego Separates the Union of Souls

The flexibility of the soul (or malleability of the mind) is the main quality that allows it to connect and merge with other souls, whether it be of animals, plants, or humans.

This, together with the principle that like attracts like (as the foundation of the common interest), allows souls to form into society.

• The flexibility makes souls and societies dynamic and scaleable
• The similarlity keeps the waves together

The loss of this flexibility (as the rigidity of the mind) disconnects the soul from others and confines it to itself.

This confinement builds ego, which is the feeling for the self.

When left unchecked, this ego leads to disagreements, disunity, and eventual conflict. The more democratic the society, the more difficult it is to maintain unity:

The ego is built up by the current ideologies of liberalism, materialism, and even science which treats the soul (and therefore the merging of souls) as pseudo-science. And so no one studies it and everyone remains ignorant of how to actually work together to solve so many current problems.

For example, science knows that countries must work together to stop global warming, but is actually impotent to make them do so. And so the planet heads for a slow extinction thanks to science and the current liberal and materialist beliefs.

The Solution: Harness the Common Interest via Social Networkism

It would be easier to prevent the growth of ego by pointing out that no one is perfect:

• A beautiful woman will have most of her attention on her physical looks, making her deficient in intellect
• An intelligent man will have most of his attention on abstract ideas, making him deficient in bodily strength or looks

In the above, the common interest is overall personal well-being.

• A popular politician will spend most of his time interacting with the masses, instead of spending time for policy research
• A bright researcher will have many good policy-ideas, but will not have the popularity or connections to have them implemented

In the above, the common interest is implementing the right policies.

• A skilled app developer can create a superior app, but might not have the skill to market it
• An active marketer can make any app go viral, but might not know how to make an app in the first place

In the above, the common interest is spreading useful apps.

Thus, the key to common interest is to group everyone according to ideas that would interest them. This would let them gravitate to it and hopefully lower their egos in order to explore that idea further.

For example, we sometimes go to Meetups about the food, technology, artists, and sports that we like. Nowadays, the internet, social networks, and messaging apps like Whatsapp, Zalo, and Viber help us to access such interests virtually.

Facebook is a Personal Network, Not a Social Network

Unfortunately, some social apps group people not to build the common interest, but merely funnel advertisements more effectively. An example is Facebook which lets its users add other users that they like, creating a personal network instead of a proper social network.

Those users can then post whatever is in their personal interest which then creates a personal bubble or echo chamber that might go against other bubbles. If left unchecked, it can lead to online conflict, followed by real physical conflict or harm.

In order to earn more from ads, some social networks focus on user quantity instead of user quality. Our system is different because it earns primarily from a tax, as Pointtax , and only secondarily from advertising.

A true social network therefore is one that encourages personal interest as long as it is within the common interest. This necessitates a regulator, just as an early society has a chieftain and a modern society has a President or Prime Minister.

The key qualification of this regulator is his understanding of the common interest as to keep the society unified and whole. His whole moral authority depends on this.

Socrates’ version of the regulators are the guardians who are morally upright:

We implement his guardians as ISAIAH which is the machine learning that will regulate our proposed points-based economic network which implements our concept of social networkism desribed here. Thus, social networkism is made up of the following ideas:

• The soul of society being made up of individual souls that merge and dissociate flexibly
• A common interest that unifies such souls together into a society
• A moral leader or regulator to protect and grow that common interest

It is similar to the dynamics of a Republic or Aristocracy as described by Socrates and Spinoza. It is not a wild democracy as is in force in the United States and in most countries that allow free elections.