Technocratic Socialism: Principles

• TS is a forward-looking philosophy; it does not value tradition, nor traditional cultures, nor traditional languages. It is not automatically hostile to them, but it evaluates them on equal ground as new ideas and is willing to discard them if they fail in that evaluation
• Notions of oppression in TS philosophy are focused on the most solid of analyses and generally reject symbolic notions of harm (including offense) as not being oppression (or alternatively as criticisms based on symbolic harm as not being actionable criticisms)
• People have a mutual responsibility to each other in society; shirking these duties is immoral.
• A neglectful society is potentially as bad as an abusive society. There is a duty to actually provide to others in one's society, structured and met through a nurturing state.
• All resources within a society ultimately belong to society; their allocation to individuals or groups is provisional and based on a very broadly construed public interest. Reallocation to serve urgent social needs, or in reflection of changed compensation or other allocation policies, is a legitimate option for society with the only reason to hold back on that being concern over what kinds of behaviour such policy shifts suggest
• Citizenship is a strong concept in TS - immigration is not unlimited, and is in fact highly regulated with no provision for refugees of any kind. Noncitizens are permitted to remain in the country for a limited time, but they have much more limited rights and opportunities to participate in society, particularly economically. Access to citizenship is granted strictly based on national interest; consideration for the rest of the world in this form is primarily done through foreign aid and other efforts to make other countries function better, rather than making room in the TS nation for their people.
• Our foreign policy is pragmatist, rejecting pacifism in the name of responsibility for humanity, and structuring questions of when, how, and how much in involvement in foreign conflicts based on careful analysis of the good possible, the harms risked, and the costs involved. In practice, an intelligent moderation between doveish and hawkish perspectives is intended, and no absolute commitment to alliances with other nations (or "special relations") is acceptable. Our willingness to cooperate with or defend other nations is somewhat shaped by the values that those other nations embody, although a commitment to the well-being of humanity in general is also considered.
• A TS society may not be an ethnic homeland. Nations are bundles of cultures and policies with a historical continuity and control over land; while allowing new people into the nation is possible-but-difficult, it may not be done on a racially discriminatory basis, although it should be done in a way that requires a good cultural fit (and serves other public interests).
• Rule of law - Laws and law enforcement remain important concepts under TS; crimes of necessity hopefully would become effectively obsolete, but there are many other motivations for crime and policing remains necessary under a TS society. Laws are structured so that judgement enters into their enforcement and interpretation, but laws are also supplemented by the possibility of a weak form of direct judgement through plebiscites and people's courts, that would be able to summon people, collectives, or other organisations for verbal condemnation and some limited ability to directly or through taxation fine them for egregious-but-not-illegal acts. In the general case, those who violate laws should not be permitted gain from their acts.
• Participation in creation of and participating in international norms - When and as appropriate as determined by popularity in the battlefield of ideals in a TS nation, the values of the TS nation will be pushed in efforts to contribute to international norms, and a TS nation may seek its national interest, general human interest, and prominence through participation in pacts and organisations of an international nature. Active and continual involvement in development efforts in other nations, either in pure philanthropy or in business involvement that may bring resources back home (in a fair way, for some notion of fair determined through various locales of discussion), is expected
• Principles that make governance and rule-of-law too difficult are to be discarded, but generally and ideally through public participation in legislature
• Consideration of governmental policies and of collective (workplace) policies and market results generally happen together; near-absolute prerogatives that come from stronger notions of property under other systems or differences in structure should not divide our general considerations of how society runs.
• Greatness in a society comes through making a commitment to a variety of competing values, and finding reasonable compromises between them, rather than finding one value or a set of first principles to form a foundation