In the 16 February post on the Affordable and Accessible Housing Crisis Groveton said:
“I want a smaller national government, a much smaller state government and a much larger local government.”
As EMR noted in a comment on that post:
“Groveton is RIGHT but there are two Vocabulary problems with his statement. We will get to that in a new post coming up…”
The first Vocabulary problem is the use of the term ‘local.’
See discussion of the Core Confusing Words in The Shape of the Future. ‘Local” is perhaps the most confusing of those words.
Groveton’s ‘local’ government has twice as many citizens as EMR’s home ‘state’ – Montana has two Senators and a Representative – and is 183 times as large as EMR’s current municipal government – which has done a great job of keeping our street plowed since the 18th of December.
Another problem is the use of the term ‘larger.’
NO ONE wants what jumps to mind (the neural linguistic image / framework) when they hear the words “large government’ aka ‘Big Government’ – not even the most well meaning Progressive.
What is needed is:
Far more levels of governance Agencies – at and below the Regional scale – one level of Agency for each of the organic components of human settlement, AND
Far more citizens ACTIVELY involved in Agencies and in Agency activities – but as citizens and volunteers, NOT as employees. It starts with the direct democracy at the Cluster scale as EMR has articulated for 20 years.
The fundamental principle of human interaction is the Golden Rule.
The fundamental principle of governance is allocation of responsibility to the correct level (and levels) of Agency:
Level of impact equals level of control.
(Shared impact requires SHARED control – NOT higher level UBER ALLES.)
One other observation:
Groveton makes a good point about the idiocy of continuing to place importance on the boundaries drawn up even before the current governance structure was created.
For this reason the whole idea of ‘state’ is outdated and needs, and EMR repeats time and again, to evolve to a structure of New Urban Regions – the fundamental building block of contemporary Urban civilization – and MegaRegions. Much more in TRILO-G.
From recent communication with colleague on the need for Fundamental Transformation of governance:
One of the basic requirements of achieving a sustainable trajectory for civilization is Fundamental Transformation of governance structure. That means evolving a governance structure that reflects the organic structure of human settlement. The 3.5 level governance structure was outdated in 1770 and has just gotten worse decade by decade.
It is not possible to pretend that the 18th century economic, social and physical reality which the current governance structure was intended to serve still exists. The evolution from clans to tribes to city-states to empires to nation-states did not freeze in 1770. Economic, social and physical relationships and reality have continued to evolve even if governance structure and the Vocabulary used to describe governance and human settlement patterns did not.
The transformation from agrarian society to an Urban society has made the current 3.5 level system and the Vocabulary used to describe it obsolete.
In 1800 about 95 percent of the population derived economic support from agrarian activities.
In 2000 about 95 percent of the population derives economic support from Urban / Non-Agrarian activities.
In 1800 ‘society’ was controlled by a few literate citizens and it took those citizens or their ideas three days to get from Charlottesville to Georgetown.
In 2000 it takes two hours for almost any citizen to get from one of those places to the other.
Most of the travelers are literate.
In addition, their ideas, images and money can move 120 miles or 12,000 miles in nano seconds.
In 1800 most of the occupants of the several states could only dream of acquiring what the few at the top of the Ziggurat had AND most at the bottom did not know what those at the top actually had.
In 2000 with instant communications, advertising and entertainment there are immediate “I want (deserve) that too” demands / expectations.
Just 40 years ago those at the bottom of the Ziggurat could expect to earn a living wage that was perhaps 1 / 100th of those at the top of the Ziggurat.
Now the chance of getting a job is less certain and the Wealth Gap is much wider and growing. See Supercapitalism concerning the magnitude of the Wealth Gap problem and trajectory of the widening gulf.
With dwindling Natural Capital and a widening Wealth Gap there is the potential of widespread unrest. The threat of weapons of mass destruction is real and current.
Clearly it is time to embrace the need for Fundamental Transformation
Also see analysis of Green Metropolis (post of 20 November 2009) which provides an overview of the importance of Vocabulary – especially the use of ‘city” – and the need for a comprehensive Conceptual Framework.
EMR