Seeing Like a State

Goals of a State

Most states aim to organize and structure society so that it is easier to conduct activities necessary for the state itself to survive. e.g.
  • Taxation
  • Control of land
  • Quashing rebellion
  • Knowledge of wealth
Throughout history, there were many different variants of attempts to organize society, some less successful than others. (e.g. Collectivism)
The 4 elements for a failed state system are:
  1. Administrative Ordering of nature and society
  1. High-Modernist Idelogies
  1. The Authoritarian figures that tries to mould the state into a High-Modernist reality
  1. A prostate society that fails to resist the Authoritarian figures

State Projects for Legibility and Simplifications

Some of the earliest projects for legibility has been for forestry due to it’s tight coupling with the pre-modern economy
Overtime the modern economy changed to human-capital, and it was important to “keep track” of the population
Forestry became tightly controlled and organised to maximise yield. Slowly, administration seeped into the control of wood, imposing structure on it’s disorderly nature.
notion image
Organization also enabled controlled scientific experimentation. Similar to societal Organization where tests can be carried out on certain regions and sample sizes.
However, such a attempts to control the chaotic system was extremely difficult due to the many variables (pests, forest fires, illegal logging, uneven rain)
This endeavour shows the dangers of dismembering complex systems.

Simplification

States want to simplify the population for
  1. Taxation
  1. Conscription
  1. Political Control
Concepts of standard measure arose from these efforts. In the past, physical measurements were not as useful as measurements of yield (1 acre of land vs 3 cow grazing land). The quality of the 1 acre of land might not be sufficient for 3 cows to graze on.
However, these localised and contextualised measurements were not good for aggregation, as it’s highly subjective.
These non-standard ways of measurements also led rise to exploitation through shrinkflation. E.g. The landlord can arbitrarily change the measurements to his advantage
There was heavy resistance to the Simplification process in France, due to the power transfer to those who were well versed in the language of titles, deeds, and land ownership.

Names and Languages

The Simplification project also resulted in the creation of Surnames! It tied a person to a kin group, which allowed census of tax, land ownership and conscription.
English surnames took after profession (Smith, Baker) or location (Hill, edge wood) and other descriptors.
The naming convention of “son-of-…” also stemmed from Simplification in order to identify lineage and inheritance when people did not have permanent names.
State naming practices, like state mapping practices, were inevitably associated with taxes (labor, military service, grain, revenue,) and hence aroused popular resistance.
The creation of artefacts such as IC numbers, fingerprints, birth and death certificate was an evolution in this train of thought

High Modernism

High modernism views society as a process that can be optimised to extract productivity gains. Society must be ordered and directed but the ruling elite. Centralism was it’s main theme.
Societal adoption of high modernism was made conducive by warfare, colonialism and revolutions, each making the current social order weak, an incoming power with societal reformist plans, and a prostate society too weak to resist.
Wartime socialist efforts sparked the first hint of a possible way of organising society that extracted maximum productivity
It turns out that human society does not derive happiness from machine like order, and thrives in chaos and uncertainty.
High modernism betrays the past social fabric of the community in search of industrial efficacy