Dysfunctional Governments
I’m often asked what should be done about the obsolete people problem, and I always answer, ‘Until you have a functioning government, you’re going to do absolutely NOTHING!’
One only has to watch the news, any hour on any day, to see how dysfunctional our government has become. Day in and day out, you see little more than monkey fighting, no real difference than a Jane Goodall documentary of monkeys constantly squabbling to gain dominance over the monkey band then hold their ‘dominate alpha male’ position against rivals striving to displace them. What you don’t see is anything that resembles real problem solving with the research and studying required for analysis and systematic problem solving so common to the late twentieth century. This constant monkey fighting lays bare the dismal problem solving and analytical skills, or lack thereof, by those who we elect to govern us.
This isn’t just my opinion, polls consistency show the low esteem that congress is held in by the American public. The congress has some of the lowest approval ratings of any other American organization or people (Gallup poll 21%). Since arresting the growing problem of obsolescence and technology displacement is so very important, people are needed to be congressmen and senators who possess those intellectual skills common to the late twentieth and twenty-first century. People who have successfully abandon the way of the monkey!
So the question is- why has our two hundred plus year old government, which has been so very effective in building our nation and resolving the problems of the people, decayed into this dysfunctionality akin to a band of monkeys out on the Serengeti plains? Yet, the world continues onward, oblivious to the antics of our elected officials, continuing with making people obsolete and displacing them with machines. How has this occurred?
On the day of his retirement, Speaker Tip O’Neill stood on the steps of the Capital and warned of the new generation of legislators coming to Washington, those he called sound-biters, people who were skilled at standing before news cameras and giving perfect fifteen or thirty second sound bites, which was just what the news media loves. People who were skilled at using and manipulating the news media, both print and electronic, to create and maintain images of what their constituents wanted to hear and see. People lacking the ability to research, analyze and solve problems. People unable to see the problems developing for so many Americans in the coming decades, with them becoming more and more expendable.
The net result is that America’s youth are getting the worst deal since the Indian’s sold Manhattan for twenty-four dollars!
Looking at the above picture, you see a Tensegrity Structure, which is a structure held upright and in place strictly by the tensions of strings connecting the ends of the three sticks. There is no physical connections between the sticks. The Tensegrity Structure is a perfect model of a modern government, what is necessary for it to be functional and hence useful for the people. These counter-balancing tensions is the ‘check and balances’ our forefathers designed into our modern government knowing they were necessary for it to operate effectively and not become a tyrant to the people. Just by simple inspection, it is apparent that if strings are cut . . . the structure will collapse into a heap.
Tip O’Neill’s sound-biters brought the technologies of mass marketing and mass media to our government, which in turn cuts those strings of tension so important for functionality. We are now using the same mass media, mass marketing technologies to create our governments that are used to sell tampons, hemorrhoidal medications, laxatives, and toilet paper! The application of these marketing technologies has broken that system of tensions, of checks and balances, by creating an environment where rather primitive, backwards and underdeveloped people could come and flourish without having to be really productive or capable people.
The bulk of our elected representatives are lawyers or political science majors, which I consider to be just a watered down law degree. Not that I hate lawyers or such, I’ve had very little to do with lawyers, or even know a lawyer for that matter. But reading the law is the education of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln . . . it’s the education of the 16th, 17th and 18th century. While the law is still very important and society very much needs lawyers, reading the law doesn’t prepare you for the twenty-first century. And that’s the crux of the obsolete people problem, for we have mostly 16th, 17th and 18th century people charged with leading you, your family, your friends and co-workers into the twenty-first century . . . and they’re simply incapable of doing it. They have no real understanding of the world they live in let alone what needs to be done or how to do it, so they are left with just monkey fighting trying to gain dominance and control of others . . . no different than those bands of monkeys on the Serengeti. And you? You and so many others are left to flounder around helplessly as congressmen and senators enrich themselfs, going into office with little and coming out multi-millionaires decades later.
Full circle! Until you have a functioning government, you’re going to do absolutely NOTHING! So that’s the first step in addressing the obsolete people problem- reform our government and return the balance. Restore that system of tensions that holds a modern government upright and in place. Until you start getting capable qualified mid to later twentieth century people in to govern you, by knowing and understanding the world we live in, nothing will improve. You have to have people with the intellectual skills, the problem solving skills, the planning skills, the education needed to understand the twenty-first century, people who are able to address the problems faced by Americans, rather than be personalities, celebrities and entertainers.
You can’t solve complex difficult problems if you don’t have any understanding.
No amount of monkey fighting, no matter how entertaining it might be especially for political pundits, can help you as technology continues to press you out of the social-economic system. No matter how skilled congressmen and senators are at creating and maintaining illusions and fantasies, they are not real and sooner or later, illusions crumble under the pressure of reality. Restoring the balance to the government, all governments in America, means getting the mass media, mass marketing technologies out of the political process, and that in turn means getting the money out of politics used to buy the powers of modern marketing technology.
There are four major examples of dysfunctionality of governments, Federal, state, county and local. These are:
1) Inertia of large organizations (including governments) - As an organization becomes larger, it becomes more sluggish and non-responsive to changes, and hence is unable to respond.
2) American Judicial System - According to the Center for Crime Statistics, the American judicial system has a little less than 2% effectiveness.
3) Public education - Receiving more monetary funding per student than most other countries, ranking of student academic achievement is in the mid twenties to low thirties.
4) Quality of elected representatives - Little to no education or relevant experience.
Now lets take a closer look at these four examples and some of those elements we’ve discussed.
Principles of Modern Governments | Federal Government Failure | Examples of Failures | Fourth Estate | Mass Media | Solution - the Four Amendments | Help with Funding