Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Systems Based Electoral Technology for Countering Merchants of Death

   (Commentary posted by Roger Erickson)



So systemic logic quickly says it's not wise for a whole culture to travel widely for the purpose of kicking people with our bare feet, since our cultural toes (i.e., Middle/Lower Class citizen recruits) are damaged so often (never mind who we kick, or how hard, or why).

The 1st step in logic - for the feeble minded - is to suggest we wear steel-toed boots. Ok, it's a start. We don't have to stop there of course, even if some of us can get a huge contract for producing steel-toed boots.

In an Effort to Cure U.S. Military Mental Illness Issues DARPA Launches $70 Million Project

The project? It's called "Systems Based Neurotechnology for Emerging Therapies."

Since we've already moved on from individual brains to national cultures, isn't it far more important for us to understand how a culture's group brain works?

Kick back and reconsider the situation for the boots on the ground. If we're capable of the initial example of reason - protecting toes as they kick - you'd think we could also supply ourselves with some doubt & uncertainty about the utility of kicking people at all. Ya think?

The 2nd step in logic is to vote some repair funds, to fix broken cultural "toes" and other social components?

Can we get a third step? Isn't a once of prevention still worth a pound of cure? Surely applying GROUP REASON to policy space and policy agility is also a national therapy?

Someday. The sooner, the better. Do we really have to wait that long? Why not right now? For Pete's Sake! Why Not Just Apply Systemic Logic To Policy Development And Politics?

Meanwhile, a few merchants are getting rich, while a lot of Middle Class toes are getting stepped on, and irreparably damaged. It's a net loss, for all, until we as a people start thinking for ourselves, beforehand, not after the fact, not just for merchants, after we & many others have already been kicked around. Best way to sell more boots? Hold a kicking contest and invite teams from all sides to participate in a round-robbing tournement. That'll fix it!

There is a better way.

Systems Based Electoral Technology for Countering Merchants of Death? Just call it "Democracy" for short?


3 comments:

Roger Erickson said...

Chuck Spinney: "If you want to understand U.S. foreign policy and U.S. military strategy, you need to climb down from Mount Olympus and dig into the dirt to discern and acknowledge its domestic roots."

The Domestic Roots of
Perpetual War
http://www.challengemagazine.com/extra/054_069.pdf

Roger Erickson said...

Leaving Afghanistan: Not With a Bang, But a Whimper

http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/10/28/leaving_afghanistan_not_with_a_bang_but_a_whimper

Roger Erickson said...

Col. John Boyd's Strategic Theorem:

"People say the Pentagon does not have a strategy.
They are wrong.

The Pentagon does have a strategy; it is:
Don’t interrupt the money flow, add to it.”