Software

An excerpt from "The Future: Peace Pays - Exploring The Canadian Identity"

In this essay and elsewhere I have mentioned and made reference to something
I call Software. In some cases I have called it Cultural Software, Social Software
and Human Software, and sometimes Lifestyle Technologies. These ideas are
all related, and in some cases are inter-changeable. The term Software can refer
to any or all of these.

I think of this ‘Software’ as the systems, methodologies, practices, traditions,
ideas, organizational methods, thinking styles and methods we employ: Lifestyle
Technologies. All that Humans do is governed by Values, Traditions, Ideas,
Methods, and so forth. These are each and altogether Software. As with
Computer Technology, these Softwares often come in packages and we know
who invented, designed and implemented them. We know when and how.
It can be something as basic as the way we move goods, people, and services
from place to place. One example of this would be our roads, highways and
freeway systems. These require road surfaces with hidden infrastructure for
power, drainage, et cetera. Then we have signage, traffic laws and regulations,
licensing for vehicles and drivers. Add to this traditions and styles of driving.
Many details go into these transportation systems, including the design,
manufacture and regulation of these interlocking systems. These systems have
proven to be largely and increasingly complex, effective, efficient, safe,
productive, economical; some more so than others.

By thinking about these or other systems as Software and as Software
“packages” we can better evaluate and improve our culture, society, government,
judicial systems, law enforcement, industry and commerce, Human Relations,
communications, family life, education, and even our personal Core Beliefs.
The source of this form of thinking in our modern era can be traced back to the
invention of “practical existentialism” or Phenomenology. This methodology was
created by Edmund Husserl in the early Twentieth Century. Husserl’s
“philosophy” has quietly and profoundly affected all of Humanity from the most
elevated scholars to the lowest of labourers in field, forest or factory. This
analytical method is a central functional component in The Universal Culture, a
term and phenomenon which I have explored elsewhere in my essays.
As Canada is situated at the heart and axis of The Universal Culture, and
consequently in a position to affect and influence the world, it is vital that we
make good choices, and that we write [make] and distribute good Software. For
we will be sharing it with people everywhere and it will be put to the intense test
of Human life on Planet Earth.

Our “Software” is our strongest asset in Canada. We incorporate it into
everything and in every imaginable situation. Canadian Software nurtures
peace, economic strength and stability, social and political stability, democratic
values and practices, Justice and Equality, the dissolution of violent differences
and the reconciliation of enemies. It works at home and abroad. And it does
much more and can do far far more still. All we have to do is use our methods to
the utmost and the world will be safer, friendlier, cleaner, more prosperous and
productive, more creative and rational, more in every way.

Our artists and thinkers and cultural practitioners of all types from lawyers to
judges to politicians to bureaucrats to law enforcement personnel and many
others embody this remarkable Canadian Culture. It’s in our bus drivers,
teachers, athletes, waiters and pretty much everyone. And it has proven to be a
powerful force for peaceful change in the world. The increased export of our
culture in all of its forms will continue to reshape The Earth into a place that is
more friendly for Human (and other) habitation. This initiative can help a
desperate and hurting world to find help (self help), hope, and healing.