Today’s events suggest the existing governance structure is skating ever closer to the abyss. On Sunday, 21 September we posted a note titled “Fundamental Transformation” that focused on Fundamental Transformation of governance structure.
As of 28 September there were 37 comments following the post but only one addressed the issue of Fundamental Transformation of governance structure. That one (Anon 7:21) discussed a change that would abrogate a major tenant of the Constitution.
In our view, Fundamental Transformation of governance structure requires NO change in the Constitution.
The Constitution is fine, the problem is that implementation of the intent of the Constitution is thwarted by a failure of governance structure to evolve. This failure to evolve reflects a complete lack of understanding about the economic, social and physical changes that have taken place over the past 220 years.
There has been a failure to respond to changes with a contemporary version of the governance structure that is framed by the Constitution because those in control benefit from Business-As-Usual. For this reason they deny the need for change providing only lame excuses such as “traditional values.”
Groveton made a very important point in the comments:
“America has overspent and/or under-taxed for too long.”
He is absolutely right. Whether by taxes, fees or sweat equity, citizens individually and collectively must contribute more to the good of society and less to the greed and aggrandizement of a few at the top of the Ziggurat. If there is to be a sustainable trajectory for civilization there must be a new metric of citizen well being, a commitment to Balance and less focus on competition. There must also be a fair allocation of costs, especially location-variable costs.
As we note in the post “FROM CNN:”
“Citizens of the US of A cannot continue to expect to live off of natural capital, imported energy and loans from foreign investors.”
We argue that the economy must be restructured so that citizens do not have to rely on Mass OverConsumption – specifically buying more Large, Private Vehicles and buying more Wrong-Size Dwellings in the wrong location as the way to end recessions and create a prosperous, sustainable society.
A sustainable trajectory for civilization requires a steady state economy, not a consumption driven “growth” economy.
In this regard:
Small IS beautiful and Speed does kill.
With respect to Small IS beautiful: The Winner-Take-All / Consumption-Uber-Alles / Supercapitalism trajectory is based on the assumption that big is better and biggest is most competitive. Global organizations may be super-competitive from a price perspective but not from a value / sustainability perspective. There are finite limits to competition.
As we document in “The Shape of the Future,” the first step toward a sustainable trajectory is to evolve functional human settlement patterns. That means a recognition that the New Urban Region is the Fundamental Building Block of contemporary society and that sustainable Regions are made up of Balanced Communities.
Organizations – Enterprises, Agencies and Institutions – that are larger than Region in scope must become the focus of intelligent Transformation. That is impossible to do within the existing governance structure.
At some point in the near future citizens will look at Global / Multi-National and dominate nation-state Enterprises, Agencies and Institutions the way tourists not look at the Pyramids:
“Why did they do that?”
“How did they get all those people to work so hard for the aggrandizement of a few?”
Some have considered mega-Agencies with suspicion for a long time. More and more view mega-Enterprises as a problem, not a solution. Next up are mega-Institutions and MegaRegions.
Credit where credit due: MainStream media is now raising a caution flag: The current bailout proposals will create more mega financial Enterprises, ones that are too big to fail e.g. Enterprise socialism. So far it is only a yellow flag. Why only a yellow flag when it should be obvious? For this answer see THE ESTATES MATRIX.
With respect to Speed kills: The complexity of society and the rate of churn increases the befuddlement of the RHTCs and paralyzes the aging population. Research shows marketers that Forest Gump spends more when he is befuddled. We now have $700 million of befuddlement according to some Agency heads. Without Fundamental Transformation there will be a lot more and nothing with which to cover the debt.
EMR