Thomas Jefferson wrote, in a letter to Edward Carrington in 1788 that “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yeild, and government to gain ground.”
Thank you for another great read. I’ve been thinking more of governance Swiss canton-like. However, that system has had 700 years of participation with a population schooled in civic responsibility. The NZ population has almost zero experience in political and civil decision making and participation and, I suspect, largely no interest. It will require a huge amount of education and likely time, which is not on our side. However, I think small, local groupings of governance are what is required, with frequent changes of leadership to prevent corruption and a local hegemon to emerge.
As you map organizational trajectory, Doc, consider the manifestation of a sense of banality as a correlate with adaptation.
If we reflect on the reason any organization is established, certain biochemical processes would be active at various stages of organizational development. That activation will be observable within limbic response. No individual can sustain heightened activation for an extended period without engendering a concurrent pathology.
If adaptive learning is an attempt to overcome internal disregulation, any subsequent stabilization will compel an individualized return to type.
I've found that it's much simpler to observe reward structures in commercial settings. This is because motivational complexity becomes, at some point, an irrelevant distraction. Monetary compensation is a reward system that reveals fundamental adaptation processes.
As each individual gains entry into a commercial organization, they align with organizational purpose. Over time, the effort required to subsume self-interest within what is essentially a collectivized effort, is disincentivized because it conflicts with the individualized reward structure. The result is a shift in the individual's hierarchy of priorities, with pursuit of self-interest assuming primacy over the organizational imperative.
I've noticed that Berne's game theory applies to a much broader field of endeavor than the purely psychosexual, Freudian reductionism notwithstanding. If you're thinking that reductionism is as reductionism does, well... fair enough. Nevertheless, if we use financial compensation as proxy for non-monetary reward structures, we see very similar individualized choice architecture. My assertion here is that behavioral patterns are similar, and that we can track the way in which organizations are corrupted, and how they become moribund, using very simple behavioral models.
Thank you for another thought-provoking essay. Doctor Garcia.
My thanks to you for publishing, Doctor, and for interacting with your readers.
You've added much to the dialectic surrounding the consideration of how authority is used and abused. I found Peterson's Jungian observations about mass accommodation of totalitarianism fascinating. Many of an age to have encountered Arendt's work, have been pondering that phrase "the banality of evil" for a very long time. Desmet has an interesting take on the matter, as well.
You were in the vanguard of those experiencing the effects of what seemed to me an example of such banality, and reading of the travails of you (and others facing similar challenges elsewhere) aroused my curiosity about the similarities with poor management in commercial enterprise.
I just concluded a conversation with an elderly, retired clinical therapist. We discussed the American response to the recent series of regional epidemics, the emphasis being the manner in which the concept of quarantine for the uninfected was embraced and deployed.
My own observation was that the American chief executive displayed the worst of classic traits associated with mediocrity. Purely as a matter of time constraints, executives are reliant on advice from subordinates and consultants. This is true of management writ large, and it scales upward in a way that increases opportunity for error.
Competence is at the heart of it. I have been privy to many situations where an executive abdicated their responsibility to fully understand the factors presented by their advisors, basing their final executive decision on the outcome of a competition between the advisors. The abdication of responsibility occurs when the executive refuses to invest their time in obtaining a practical understanding of essential minutiae. Instead of providing leadership, the executive fulfills the capacity of referee under such circumstances.
The problem with that, lies with the rules and manner of the ensuing competition. We know that everyone ultimately pursues their self-interest. In the commercial sphere, the obvious avatar is remuneration. When we consider how leadership devolves into a referee paradigm, the game "let's you and him fight" immediately comes to mind, because that's precisely how the situation manifests. At it's core, the player abdicates all responsibility for the situation, benefiting equally from either outcome of the competition.
When the purpose of the competition is to "sell" an idea, subterfuge becomes a central feature of the game.
It's much easier to discuss this with someone like you or the retired therapist, because each of you understands the basics of adaptive learning and behavior, and can appreciate how the more generalized term of "reward" applies across multiple domains of personal endeavor and is foundational to adaptation.
Remember the "Peter Principle?" The praxis of rising to the level of personal incompetence is universal, but it requires an event such as the sudden rise of totalitarianism to appreciate the ramifications. The American president Trump and New Zealand's prime minister Ardern each displayed authoritarian mediocrity, with similar incompetent results.
Persistently elevated limbic response, particularly the "fight or flight" response, impairs rational thought in the most competent of individuals. Here, we are induced to consider the distinction between a competent administrator and a competent leader. We can agree that courage is not an absence of fear, courage is a coping mechanism that mediates vulnerability to the third rail of the fight or flight response; immobility.
A leader must be a competent administrator, but being a competent administrator does not require the same level of courage as a leadership position.
I am confident that you have already considered the messianic component. A "proper" messiah must be seen as selfless to be considered authentic. What has been successfully sold to the general public is the idea that an absence of monetary reward is proof of selflessness, with the corollary being authenticity.
When we pause long enough to remember that money is only one type of reward, that false equivalence is gradually revealed as what it is; an inducement to infantilism.
It's not my purpose to trivialize malevolence into a simplistic pathology. I do think, however, that malevolence employs multiple pathologies. The whole is much more than the sum of its parts.
Thank you so much for your thoughts -- you've written an essay in itself full of intriguing comments. However, I think the situation with Trump and the US was much more complex. One of the main goals of the 'pandemic' was to unseat Trump by forcing mail-in balloting and drop-boxes, in essence, part of a coup. Whenever he did anything to promote treatment (and freedom) he was slammed (remember his remarks about hydroxychloroquine?) Also, the US is a nation of states ... some states didn't lock down at all I think -- South Dakota if I'm not mistaken. Your observations are much appreciated.
I certainly agree with your sentiments, you are correct, power corrupts, indeed becomes a pollutant to what most consider their normal.
The reality and sad indictment today applicable to so many entities and organisations is capture, so many caught in the juxtaposition of group think, of having to be seen to run with the herd, the true dichotomy being to abandon instinct, that inner voice screaming at you to do that, which you know to be correct vs abandoning that, which is considered right and proper.
So many examples abound in today’s world of such, when viewing our Geo and National Political realities through the prism of what most rational persons, able to fully discern, believe and know to be not only correct but equally to be right and proper.
When so confronted, we invariably are able to instantly recognise the fallacies and short comings of such decisions made on our individual or collective behalf, decisions we recognise as being so injurious to our ongoing enjoyment and fulfilment in our lives that we feel assaulted by that which is experienced and assails us.
The examples as cited and opined by you are truly reminiscent of such, sadly the same aberrations seemingly as experienced the recent Scamdemic, as revealed the overt and blatant falsehoods that were de rigour during the Scamdemic resulting from our Political class comprising those elected and those merely appointed, from the professionals we were inured to blindly trust, to follow, our media across both the Network and Social strata, the NGO’s, academia, our institutions, all, blithely underscore the group capture and group think we came to despise.
The paradox being how could such people and entities who by dent of the levels of trust and goodwill bestowed upon them, have strayed so far from that which we all, fundamentally understood, could or should, never ever actually occasion.
How could it be that submissiveness would dominate, that organisations and entities would simply roll over, narry anyone, or any organisation speaking up or out, loudly, boldly, challenging the message and dictates with which we were expected to simply accept, to acquiesce and blindly just bend a knee, bow our heads and or kneel in obeisance, to that which we knew was seriously flawed.
Nothing, not a whimper or murmur, zip, nada, nothing said… instead they caved, save the few of us who knowing, predicate our inner belief and antennae awakened, researched, hunted out, looked for everything we could find to buttress and support our baser instinct.
In our quest to truly know, many have learned to become more truly discerning of the information available, to be dismissive of the hype, the false, the suspect, to filter so much of the noise and the avalanche of information and detail we readily found available, we learned to trust again sources of true integrity and repute, inculcating ourselves with fact based knowledge, growing in the process our knowledge base, able to feel confident with our opinions, our perspective and point of view, our voices able to become louder, a response to the hubris and same old trope used to silence us.
We must not ever forget what it is that has been done that has propelled us to this point in our lives, never lose the ability to say it as it is, to speak up, rather than stay silent, to actually have a say, to ensure our voice be heard.
So many organisations and NGO’s, hiding and sheltering behind such benign descriptors that allude to the foundations that define us as individuals, as communities, as nations, descriptors including such as, freedom, democracy, so many suggestive of benefits and rights that we take for granted are by the actuality of they’re true deeds and actions wolves in sheep’s clothing.
On an International and National basis, they foment and organise regime change, coups, influence and or dictate policy, for example the Western led proxy War in Ukraine, the unrest that has for decades defined the Middle East, the civil strife both past and present in the Balkans, the Caucuses, the election interference engendered across the World…. all definable cases in point, whilst here in New Zealand we witness the policies of division mandated by offshore overlords, by the supremely wealthy, by vested interests, policies feigning benefits which in reality when looked at as need be, scream and shout loss of benefits once enjoyed, of freedoms lived.
It is a despicable reality that those who hold power, who are in positions to determine outcomes impacting lives across so many strata, lose, when most required, their ability to do what is right, that they know should and ought be done, to actually do that which they were put into the position they hold and it was anticipated they would facilitate, to, for those who so swore, to actually live up to the oath taken.
Where we find ourselves today the result of moral delinquency and bankruptcy, a lack of spirituality, of truly knowing one’s self or of selling out because of incentives, bribes, intimidation, coercion and or threats, of cowardice, of being afraid?
I guess we will never truly know, only those so impacted, at the moment of decision ever can, will ever do and will ever truly know the why….. why they lost their voice when it was most needed, those however, truly impacted can never forget nor allow such to be forgotten, to do so merely exacerbates this sad reality, whilst remembering, will engender the shift we know humanity needs to both improve and to build upon the world we know needs to change.
A world with greater participation, term limits on public life and of tenure in the appointed political class, terms reduced when in positions of true power, better education of Civics as impacts citizens both locally and nationally, greater transparency and eliminating the fear of debate, fostering full and open discussion and debate….. avoiding such will lead to the existing silence becoming deafeningly so, will likely result in more freedoms lost, greater ignorance amongst those impacted commensurate a heightened arrogance of those in the positions to determine our future, to say nothing of the greater risks of corruption that will manifest.
Time to find true voice and to act on the same, be it inner or vocal.
Bravo! I believe we must find the way to use the current upheaval to find strategies we can use to rescue ourselves and install positive outcomes for the good of society. The time is now and we need to act in concert. No super hero is coming to save us. There noone like that and there never was. Ee must fin a way to get on board and work together Right Now!
All our current “systems” are being run by a corporation. The attached is not long, and please patience with the chap explaining tricky ideas. By the end all becomes a lot clearer.
Whilst we in NZ have differing governance than America, we are also similarly ruled by a corporation.
Crazy. But true. And it’s of paramount importance to know this when discussing new systems to live by.
excellent link and thank you for your comments -- yes, I know about the NZ corporation business ... there is an Equity Law movement here that discusses this.
As I understand it, in Switzerland at election times people get to vote on something like 50 different referendum items simultaneously. Say for example the age for marriage, the tax rates on certain items, the amount spent on the military etc...etc...
Then on top of that, between elections, the general populace get to vote on important issues of the day in referenda held regularl too.
I don't kniw their exact calculus, but those issues which are supported in what is deemed sufficienly enough numbers, get advanced policy wise. That way the will of the people is more represented and the politicians get reduced to something more like political debaters of issues, rather than the autocrats who issue mandates and pass laws in the small hours 'under urgency' we've suffered from.
The general populace is thus encouraged to be more engaged politically and can feel more respected and empowered with a sense of inclusion in shaping their nation.
Equally frightening and yet enlightening at the same time.
We absolutely have an opportunity upon us.
We absolutely do have some obstacles to navigate.
We absolutely are up against a tide of challenges, some consciously aware of what they are doing and others ignorant and bamboozled, acting out in their bodies best interest without thought to the wider environment around them.
I am convinced that evil prevails over good in this world. Jefferson applies this concept to the political landscape. The reason I am convinced that evil prevails is because evil has greater freedom to act. Evil can be malevolent, cunning, deceptive, and manipulative. It can prey on human nature and win. It can also be benevolent when that suits its purposes. In a word, to further its aims, evil can employ the tools of "goodness." Evil, as a system of self-interest, can even comprise what appears to be a battle between good and evil, tricking those who want to be "good" into supporting a form of good that furthers conflict, when destruction is the goal. (Who would give their life to defend one side of evil against another side of evil? No, it must be a battle of good versus evil, orchestrated by power interests, convincing those on the side of "good" to kill others and violate their conscience - a state of affairs now called moral injury - for "the cause." That is call being heroic.) In addition, pride can drive acts of selflessness, making the result not truly a selfless good, but an internal exchange of one type of reward for another.
Genuine good, on the other hand, can only be selfless, charitable, pure, and dedicated to truth. It cannot be transient. The standard is absolute. Who can expect to win in a power-driven world with tools like that at one's disposal? A mixture of good and evil cannot be called good, because evil can accommodate what is called good, but what is genuinely good requires purity, without any taint of evil. That is why the pursuit of goodness is most logically linked with concerns beyond this world, and requires help from a God who is morally pure. In this world, apart from small and transient victories, what is genuinely good will not prevail. (And so, in Christian theology, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the only sinless human being, was crucified. The world (which He created) did not give Him victory, or life. That required an intervention in the form of the power of God, raising Him from the dead. Those who follow Christ are reminded that no servant is greater than his or her master, a clear indication that if we pursue what is genuinely good, we cannot expect to win in this world.)
Small groups terrify me. They, too, can start out with good intentions, but unless they are limited, in time and purpose, to interests that are fully aligned, with no opportunity for power struggles to emerge, they, too, quickly devolve into hierarchies where the most manipulative and power-hungry rise to the top and exercise subtle forms of tyranny.
If Rousseau tells me I am free, I would say to Rousseau, free in what way? Being free to exercise my will is not the same as being free to embody moral perfection. I am not free in the latter sense, because I cannot alter my own nature. So what sort of freedom is that? I agree with Paul in Romans who described the internal struggle of knowing what is good, wanting to do good, and still not being able to redesign my nature to embody moral perfection. He calls it being a slave to sin. And is he not correct? We all know that it is not possible to attain moral perfection, either in our actions or in our innermost desires. But if God judges the good and evil that we do, as well as the good and evil that resides in our hearts, that is the freedom that counts. I agree with Jeremiah that "the heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick." If I am correct, when I concur with what I read in the Bible, then to say that I have a spark of deity within me, as so many do, is a terrifying thought. It means that deity in this universe is fatally tainted with evil. Heaven help us all, then, because we have no being who is both all-powerful and morally perfect - characteristics historically associated with a God who is not within us, but wholly distinct from us. All we have left is a universe permeated with evil and a synthetic battle between overt evil and evil disguised as good.
you've written a very interesting essay ... while I would dispute your conclusion, I understand where you are coming from, and it follows lines of question that have asked, for example, how, if a good God exists, rank evil can be allowed to run rampant ... Thank you!
Thank you for another great read. I’ve been thinking more of governance Swiss canton-like. However, that system has had 700 years of participation with a population schooled in civic responsibility. The NZ population has almost zero experience in political and civil decision making and participation and, I suspect, largely no interest. It will require a huge amount of education and likely time, which is not on our side. However, I think small, local groupings of governance are what is required, with frequent changes of leadership to prevent corruption and a local hegemon to emerge.
an excellent observation ... thank you so much for reading and for your remarks
Excellent as always! Thank you!
and thank you for reading and commenting!
As you map organizational trajectory, Doc, consider the manifestation of a sense of banality as a correlate with adaptation.
If we reflect on the reason any organization is established, certain biochemical processes would be active at various stages of organizational development. That activation will be observable within limbic response. No individual can sustain heightened activation for an extended period without engendering a concurrent pathology.
If adaptive learning is an attempt to overcome internal disregulation, any subsequent stabilization will compel an individualized return to type.
I've found that it's much simpler to observe reward structures in commercial settings. This is because motivational complexity becomes, at some point, an irrelevant distraction. Monetary compensation is a reward system that reveals fundamental adaptation processes.
As each individual gains entry into a commercial organization, they align with organizational purpose. Over time, the effort required to subsume self-interest within what is essentially a collectivized effort, is disincentivized because it conflicts with the individualized reward structure. The result is a shift in the individual's hierarchy of priorities, with pursuit of self-interest assuming primacy over the organizational imperative.
I've noticed that Berne's game theory applies to a much broader field of endeavor than the purely psychosexual, Freudian reductionism notwithstanding. If you're thinking that reductionism is as reductionism does, well... fair enough. Nevertheless, if we use financial compensation as proxy for non-monetary reward structures, we see very similar individualized choice architecture. My assertion here is that behavioral patterns are similar, and that we can track the way in which organizations are corrupted, and how they become moribund, using very simple behavioral models.
Thank you for another thought-provoking essay. Doctor Garcia.
fascinating and stirring commentary -- thank you so much!
My thanks to you for publishing, Doctor, and for interacting with your readers.
You've added much to the dialectic surrounding the consideration of how authority is used and abused. I found Peterson's Jungian observations about mass accommodation of totalitarianism fascinating. Many of an age to have encountered Arendt's work, have been pondering that phrase "the banality of evil" for a very long time. Desmet has an interesting take on the matter, as well.
You were in the vanguard of those experiencing the effects of what seemed to me an example of such banality, and reading of the travails of you (and others facing similar challenges elsewhere) aroused my curiosity about the similarities with poor management in commercial enterprise.
I just concluded a conversation with an elderly, retired clinical therapist. We discussed the American response to the recent series of regional epidemics, the emphasis being the manner in which the concept of quarantine for the uninfected was embraced and deployed.
My own observation was that the American chief executive displayed the worst of classic traits associated with mediocrity. Purely as a matter of time constraints, executives are reliant on advice from subordinates and consultants. This is true of management writ large, and it scales upward in a way that increases opportunity for error.
Competence is at the heart of it. I have been privy to many situations where an executive abdicated their responsibility to fully understand the factors presented by their advisors, basing their final executive decision on the outcome of a competition between the advisors. The abdication of responsibility occurs when the executive refuses to invest their time in obtaining a practical understanding of essential minutiae. Instead of providing leadership, the executive fulfills the capacity of referee under such circumstances.
The problem with that, lies with the rules and manner of the ensuing competition. We know that everyone ultimately pursues their self-interest. In the commercial sphere, the obvious avatar is remuneration. When we consider how leadership devolves into a referee paradigm, the game "let's you and him fight" immediately comes to mind, because that's precisely how the situation manifests. At it's core, the player abdicates all responsibility for the situation, benefiting equally from either outcome of the competition.
When the purpose of the competition is to "sell" an idea, subterfuge becomes a central feature of the game.
It's much easier to discuss this with someone like you or the retired therapist, because each of you understands the basics of adaptive learning and behavior, and can appreciate how the more generalized term of "reward" applies across multiple domains of personal endeavor and is foundational to adaptation.
Remember the "Peter Principle?" The praxis of rising to the level of personal incompetence is universal, but it requires an event such as the sudden rise of totalitarianism to appreciate the ramifications. The American president Trump and New Zealand's prime minister Ardern each displayed authoritarian mediocrity, with similar incompetent results.
Persistently elevated limbic response, particularly the "fight or flight" response, impairs rational thought in the most competent of individuals. Here, we are induced to consider the distinction between a competent administrator and a competent leader. We can agree that courage is not an absence of fear, courage is a coping mechanism that mediates vulnerability to the third rail of the fight or flight response; immobility.
A leader must be a competent administrator, but being a competent administrator does not require the same level of courage as a leadership position.
I am confident that you have already considered the messianic component. A "proper" messiah must be seen as selfless to be considered authentic. What has been successfully sold to the general public is the idea that an absence of monetary reward is proof of selflessness, with the corollary being authenticity.
When we pause long enough to remember that money is only one type of reward, that false equivalence is gradually revealed as what it is; an inducement to infantilism.
It's not my purpose to trivialize malevolence into a simplistic pathology. I do think, however, that malevolence employs multiple pathologies. The whole is much more than the sum of its parts.
Thank you so much for your thoughts -- you've written an essay in itself full of intriguing comments. However, I think the situation with Trump and the US was much more complex. One of the main goals of the 'pandemic' was to unseat Trump by forcing mail-in balloting and drop-boxes, in essence, part of a coup. Whenever he did anything to promote treatment (and freedom) he was slammed (remember his remarks about hydroxychloroquine?) Also, the US is a nation of states ... some states didn't lock down at all I think -- South Dakota if I'm not mistaken. Your observations are much appreciated.
Thx Doc. Honest, probing, insightful, self reflective and well worth your time and effort to write to and for us!
How do we get enough of us willing to change ourselves to effect much better outcomes.?
Keep reading and writing! And sharing and living well -- thank you for your kind comments!
Dr Garcia,
I certainly agree with your sentiments, you are correct, power corrupts, indeed becomes a pollutant to what most consider their normal.
The reality and sad indictment today applicable to so many entities and organisations is capture, so many caught in the juxtaposition of group think, of having to be seen to run with the herd, the true dichotomy being to abandon instinct, that inner voice screaming at you to do that, which you know to be correct vs abandoning that, which is considered right and proper.
So many examples abound in today’s world of such, when viewing our Geo and National Political realities through the prism of what most rational persons, able to fully discern, believe and know to be not only correct but equally to be right and proper.
When so confronted, we invariably are able to instantly recognise the fallacies and short comings of such decisions made on our individual or collective behalf, decisions we recognise as being so injurious to our ongoing enjoyment and fulfilment in our lives that we feel assaulted by that which is experienced and assails us.
The examples as cited and opined by you are truly reminiscent of such, sadly the same aberrations seemingly as experienced the recent Scamdemic, as revealed the overt and blatant falsehoods that were de rigour during the Scamdemic resulting from our Political class comprising those elected and those merely appointed, from the professionals we were inured to blindly trust, to follow, our media across both the Network and Social strata, the NGO’s, academia, our institutions, all, blithely underscore the group capture and group think we came to despise.
The paradox being how could such people and entities who by dent of the levels of trust and goodwill bestowed upon them, have strayed so far from that which we all, fundamentally understood, could or should, never ever actually occasion.
How could it be that submissiveness would dominate, that organisations and entities would simply roll over, narry anyone, or any organisation speaking up or out, loudly, boldly, challenging the message and dictates with which we were expected to simply accept, to acquiesce and blindly just bend a knee, bow our heads and or kneel in obeisance, to that which we knew was seriously flawed.
Nothing, not a whimper or murmur, zip, nada, nothing said… instead they caved, save the few of us who knowing, predicate our inner belief and antennae awakened, researched, hunted out, looked for everything we could find to buttress and support our baser instinct.
In our quest to truly know, many have learned to become more truly discerning of the information available, to be dismissive of the hype, the false, the suspect, to filter so much of the noise and the avalanche of information and detail we readily found available, we learned to trust again sources of true integrity and repute, inculcating ourselves with fact based knowledge, growing in the process our knowledge base, able to feel confident with our opinions, our perspective and point of view, our voices able to become louder, a response to the hubris and same old trope used to silence us.
We must not ever forget what it is that has been done that has propelled us to this point in our lives, never lose the ability to say it as it is, to speak up, rather than stay silent, to actually have a say, to ensure our voice be heard.
So many organisations and NGO’s, hiding and sheltering behind such benign descriptors that allude to the foundations that define us as individuals, as communities, as nations, descriptors including such as, freedom, democracy, so many suggestive of benefits and rights that we take for granted are by the actuality of they’re true deeds and actions wolves in sheep’s clothing.
On an International and National basis, they foment and organise regime change, coups, influence and or dictate policy, for example the Western led proxy War in Ukraine, the unrest that has for decades defined the Middle East, the civil strife both past and present in the Balkans, the Caucuses, the election interference engendered across the World…. all definable cases in point, whilst here in New Zealand we witness the policies of division mandated by offshore overlords, by the supremely wealthy, by vested interests, policies feigning benefits which in reality when looked at as need be, scream and shout loss of benefits once enjoyed, of freedoms lived.
It is a despicable reality that those who hold power, who are in positions to determine outcomes impacting lives across so many strata, lose, when most required, their ability to do what is right, that they know should and ought be done, to actually do that which they were put into the position they hold and it was anticipated they would facilitate, to, for those who so swore, to actually live up to the oath taken.
Where we find ourselves today the result of moral delinquency and bankruptcy, a lack of spirituality, of truly knowing one’s self or of selling out because of incentives, bribes, intimidation, coercion and or threats, of cowardice, of being afraid?
I guess we will never truly know, only those so impacted, at the moment of decision ever can, will ever do and will ever truly know the why….. why they lost their voice when it was most needed, those however, truly impacted can never forget nor allow such to be forgotten, to do so merely exacerbates this sad reality, whilst remembering, will engender the shift we know humanity needs to both improve and to build upon the world we know needs to change.
A world with greater participation, term limits on public life and of tenure in the appointed political class, terms reduced when in positions of true power, better education of Civics as impacts citizens both locally and nationally, greater transparency and eliminating the fear of debate, fostering full and open discussion and debate….. avoiding such will lead to the existing silence becoming deafeningly so, will likely result in more freedoms lost, greater ignorance amongst those impacted commensurate a heightened arrogance of those in the positions to determine our future, to say nothing of the greater risks of corruption that will manifest.
Time to find true voice and to act on the same, be it inner or vocal.
what a wonderful essay you've written in response, so many rich and stimulating thoughts -- thank you!
Bravo! I believe we must find the way to use the current upheaval to find strategies we can use to rescue ourselves and install positive outcomes for the good of society. The time is now and we need to act in concert. No super hero is coming to save us. There noone like that and there never was. Ee must fin a way to get on board and work together Right Now!
exactly -- thank you for reading and taking the time to comment!
https://reinettesenumsfoghornexpress.substack.com/p/the-lost-political-history-of-america?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
All our current “systems” are being run by a corporation. The attached is not long, and please patience with the chap explaining tricky ideas. By the end all becomes a lot clearer.
Whilst we in NZ have differing governance than America, we are also similarly ruled by a corporation.
Crazy. But true. And it’s of paramount importance to know this when discussing new systems to live by.
excellent link and thank you for your comments -- yes, I know about the NZ corporation business ... there is an Equity Law movement here that discusses this.
As I understand it, in Switzerland at election times people get to vote on something like 50 different referendum items simultaneously. Say for example the age for marriage, the tax rates on certain items, the amount spent on the military etc...etc...
Then on top of that, between elections, the general populace get to vote on important issues of the day in referenda held regularl too.
I don't kniw their exact calculus, but those issues which are supported in what is deemed sufficienly enough numbers, get advanced policy wise. That way the will of the people is more represented and the politicians get reduced to something more like political debaters of issues, rather than the autocrats who issue mandates and pass laws in the small hours 'under urgency' we've suffered from.
The general populace is thus encouraged to be more engaged politically and can feel more respected and empowered with a sense of inclusion in shaping their nation.
thanks so much for enlightening us about these matters, your remarks are very much appreciated
Highly thought provoking.
Equally frightening and yet enlightening at the same time.
We absolutely have an opportunity upon us.
We absolutely do have some obstacles to navigate.
We absolutely are up against a tide of challenges, some consciously aware of what they are doing and others ignorant and bamboozled, acting out in their bodies best interest without thought to the wider environment around them.
Simple is good, small is easy, local is focal.
I guess this is where I intend to start.
excellent, thank you!
I am convinced that evil prevails over good in this world. Jefferson applies this concept to the political landscape. The reason I am convinced that evil prevails is because evil has greater freedom to act. Evil can be malevolent, cunning, deceptive, and manipulative. It can prey on human nature and win. It can also be benevolent when that suits its purposes. In a word, to further its aims, evil can employ the tools of "goodness." Evil, as a system of self-interest, can even comprise what appears to be a battle between good and evil, tricking those who want to be "good" into supporting a form of good that furthers conflict, when destruction is the goal. (Who would give their life to defend one side of evil against another side of evil? No, it must be a battle of good versus evil, orchestrated by power interests, convincing those on the side of "good" to kill others and violate their conscience - a state of affairs now called moral injury - for "the cause." That is call being heroic.) In addition, pride can drive acts of selflessness, making the result not truly a selfless good, but an internal exchange of one type of reward for another.
Genuine good, on the other hand, can only be selfless, charitable, pure, and dedicated to truth. It cannot be transient. The standard is absolute. Who can expect to win in a power-driven world with tools like that at one's disposal? A mixture of good and evil cannot be called good, because evil can accommodate what is called good, but what is genuinely good requires purity, without any taint of evil. That is why the pursuit of goodness is most logically linked with concerns beyond this world, and requires help from a God who is morally pure. In this world, apart from small and transient victories, what is genuinely good will not prevail. (And so, in Christian theology, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the only sinless human being, was crucified. The world (which He created) did not give Him victory, or life. That required an intervention in the form of the power of God, raising Him from the dead. Those who follow Christ are reminded that no servant is greater than his or her master, a clear indication that if we pursue what is genuinely good, we cannot expect to win in this world.)
Small groups terrify me. They, too, can start out with good intentions, but unless they are limited, in time and purpose, to interests that are fully aligned, with no opportunity for power struggles to emerge, they, too, quickly devolve into hierarchies where the most manipulative and power-hungry rise to the top and exercise subtle forms of tyranny.
If Rousseau tells me I am free, I would say to Rousseau, free in what way? Being free to exercise my will is not the same as being free to embody moral perfection. I am not free in the latter sense, because I cannot alter my own nature. So what sort of freedom is that? I agree with Paul in Romans who described the internal struggle of knowing what is good, wanting to do good, and still not being able to redesign my nature to embody moral perfection. He calls it being a slave to sin. And is he not correct? We all know that it is not possible to attain moral perfection, either in our actions or in our innermost desires. But if God judges the good and evil that we do, as well as the good and evil that resides in our hearts, that is the freedom that counts. I agree with Jeremiah that "the heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick." If I am correct, when I concur with what I read in the Bible, then to say that I have a spark of deity within me, as so many do, is a terrifying thought. It means that deity in this universe is fatally tainted with evil. Heaven help us all, then, because we have no being who is both all-powerful and morally perfect - characteristics historically associated with a God who is not within us, but wholly distinct from us. All we have left is a universe permeated with evil and a synthetic battle between overt evil and evil disguised as good.
you've written a very interesting essay ... while I would dispute your conclusion, I understand where you are coming from, and it follows lines of question that have asked, for example, how, if a good God exists, rank evil can be allowed to run rampant ... Thank you!
It would be wo interesting to read an elaboration of your thoughts on this!