Some Thoughts for the Weekend.
My first thought is, “I’m glad I am not an American” having to choose between Trump or Harris next week.
The choice itself would be easy. I could never vote for a guy that has ambitions to be a dictator. And I disagree with just about every word that Trump utters in his deluge of lies. But Harris cannot be a good choice either. If she were the race would not be as close as it is.
One reason I am glad I am not an American is that whatever the outcome the result will not be a good one. The other reason is that the whole mess that ‘democracy’ in America now is indicates the systems is fundamentally flawed.
This I knew this already, having read “The Politics Industry” by Katherine M Gehl and Michael E Porter back in 2020 which I wrote a review on back then.
A key part of the problem is the media. The ‘free press’ is as much a fiction as the idea that America is a democracy. I just published a separate post about that, based on an interesting chat I had about it on ChatGBT.
The bigger threat is that America, and countries that are on the same path, are becoming “failed states.” In his book, The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave Community Behind, Raghuram Rajan, Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (2013-16), argues, “The state and markets have expanded their powers and reach in tandem, and left the community relatively powerless.” And he makes the case that, “many of the economic and political concerns today across the world, including the rise of populist nationalism and radical movements of the Left, can be traced to the diminution of the community.” Importantly he also argues, “the solutions to many of our problems are also to be found in bringing dysfunctional communities back to health.
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Rajan notes that, “Markets and the state have not only separated themselves from the community in recent times but have also steadily encroached on activities that strengthened bonds within the traditional community.” And to put it another way, power has been increasingly centralised in the state and the markets whilst communities have been systematically disempowered. Worse still it the fact that the markets have used their economic power to corrupt the state in ways that Gehl and Porter document very clearly.
In my opinion the only solution is to bring dysfunctional communities back to health as Rajan suggest. But how?
In the UK every political party speaks of decentralising power to more regional and local devolved administrations. The process began to a very limited extent and in very chaotic and controversial ways, based on top-down policy making. They have made a mess of it.
My view is that in all countries that suffer from the conditions I have been describing the best approach would be for communities to organise themselves more effectively, to take back power and control rather than wait for it to be handed to them. To assist this process the Enlightened Enterprise Academy is a partner in the design of a Civic Intelligence Academy (CIA).
The Civic Intelligence Academy will seeks to re-empower civil society, ensuring it can stand alongside market and state forces with a comparable level of influence. And it will promote civic intelligence as the ethical and intellectual foundation for societal transformation.
The CIA will help civil society understand why intelligence is essential, and what role it must play, in addressing systemic challenges. It will also engage with actors across the three pillars of society: Civil Society, State, and Market with the aim of bringing about transformational changes.
The US election, and recent elections in several other countries, clearly demonstrate how urgently we need to realise radical changes and a re-balancing of the three pillars if we are to stand any chance of resolving the crisis of confidence in our existing systems and avoid complete breakdown.
Do You Support the Idea of Bringing Dysfunctional Communities back to Health?
If you do, and you would like to know more about our plans, email [email protected]
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1 周There are lots of layers to be explored here, and problems created by definition of terms. As geographically defined hyperlocal regions, it is not my experience in many States of the United States that "communities" are "dysfunctional," whatever their predominant politics. Neighborliness is unglamorous and uncelebrated by observers outside of any given community. It is the case, however, that there is increasingly grotesque economic inequality across geographic communities in America. There is ever increasing fragmentation and segregation of people with different socioeconomic status. The immoral result is striking differences in health of individuals and their exposure to unhealthy environments. As throughout history and the world, the poor suffer quietly with insufficient representation in government and in the markets that capitalism posits will save us all. Those who are interested in observing the diversity of realities on the ground (e.g., a "Civic Intelligence Academy") may need to join forces with those who have deep visibility into hearts, minds, and souls of all people, whatever their socioeconomic prospects, wherever they reside in the world. https://tinyurl.com/SeeJustice
Retired Lecturer, PhD Researcher, Businessman, NHS Nurse & Nurse Manager. Now looking to pick up my PhD level research on an occasional basis.
3 周Rambling idiot or sensible person. Choice seemed straightforward to me.
Integrated Management Community past chair.
3 周I agree but not at all sure democracy is safe here in the UK.
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3 周Paul Barnett The race is close because Harris is a Black woman and I had noted to several early on that deepseated racism and mysogeny would keep this close. She is a good choice, just not one half the US population can accept. And, the Democrats are hurt by the asinine thinking of some on the left who are willing to withhold votes from Harris over her stance on the Israeli-Hamas war. What do they think a Trump administrative would mean? It’s a mess in the US. We are at a point we have not reached since before the Civil War. That led to attempted separation from the Union.