A Proliconic Paradigm of Purpose

by Dr. Robert D. Crane


    Irish mythology is full of Leprechauns who live outside of ordinary life but can lead society through their wisdom.  They can function as “court jesters”, who in the more acceptable form of humor dare to expose the errors of the resident rulers and to propose new directions for transcendent justice in public life.

    Perhaps in the twenty-first century we need a new American mythology witnessing the new phenomenon of Prolicons in pursuit of justice.  These live outside all the old paradigms of thought, because they teach the wisdom of the best of progressivism, liberalism, and conservatism in a new way of traditionalism. 

    They are to be distinguished from the “proles” and “proletariat” of ancient Rome, who suffered injustice, as well as from the NeoCons of modern vintage who insist that any mention of justice threatens the stability of the current world order and the survival of “civilization”.

 
    According to proliconic long-range forecasting, spiritually and justice based traditionalism will unite all the wise people on earth in a new paradigm known as “the Just Fourth Way”. 

    Fully developed this new phenomenon is based on natural law as manifested through the Prolicons of every world religion in a new paradigm of proliconic purpose.  This replaces the first three ways, namely, socialism, capitalism, and their combination in fascism, all of which in practice lead to violations of transcendent justice.

    Proliconic wisdom in thought and action is encapsuled in the high level framework of universal principles derived through intellectual effort to understand the meaning and coherence of natural law and divine revelation as understood by the consensus of the wise persons in all the world religions on the meaning of justice.

  This new paradigm of thought and action, known in Islamic jurisprudence as the maqasid al shari’ah, is based on the following eight universal human responsibilities and rights (huquq), which are consistent with and reinforce the principles of justice contained in America’s Declaration of Independence and Constitution: 1) Respect for Divine Revelation and Freedom of Religion (haqq al din); 2) Respect for the Human Person and Life (haqq al nafs); 3) Respect for Family and Community (haqq al nasl); 4) Respect for the Environment (haqq al mahid); 5) Respect for Economic Justice with Broadened Capital Ownership (haqq al mal); 6) Respect for Political Justice with Self-Determination (democracy, haqq al hurriyah)); 7) Respect for Human Dignity with Gender Equity (haqq al karama); and 8) Respect for Knowledge and Dissemination of Thought (haqq al ‘ilm).

    More specifically as a means to promote the perspective of peace, prosperity, and freedom through interfaith, compassionate justice, the Proliconic Paradigm embraces political freedom and democracy based on limiting the political and economic power of the state; free and open markets for determining just prices, just wages, and just profits; the institution of private property for linking owners to control and profits; the removal of all artificial legal and monetary barriers to equality of access to future ownership rights and powers; and the creation of money without the burden of interest and based only on real assets rather than on speculation.

    This higher framework provides the necessary guidance for legislatures in every country to develop specific laws, rules, and regulations (fiqh) that can best reflect and express the highest principles of justice in proliconic jurisprudence.  The executive branch of governance in every country is morally bound to accept this guidance from the legislature.  The judicial branch in every country is responsible for determining whether or not the executive branch has understood and correctly acted upon this legislative guidance.  The other two branches of governance in the 21st century, namely, the media and the institution of think-tanks, are responsible for maintaining the freedom for opinion leaders to critique the performance of the first three branchs of governance and to develop a consensus (ijma) on the purposes, goals, objectives, and action programs of public policy.

 
    According to Jeremy Henzell Thomas, such “Prolicon wisdom is moving towards a composite paradigm.  Only such paradigms which reconcile dichotomies such as tradition and progress hold any hope for human enlightenment.  The real debate to be had is not beween tradition and progress, east and west, secular and religious, or the like, but the stark choice between renewal and decay and its relevance for all civilizations at all times”.