The concept is basically a graphic user interface like Simcity. Web based. The user would navigate through the graphics to whatever issue was of interest, and then some sort of database would be available in conjunction with advice and countering argument from both experts and the general public. I guess one would need some sort of deadline, and as one can't have everyone know everything about everything, then some sort of percentage of the affected population would be used to make the required decision. Probably those who were actually interested. More like the voluntary voting schemes in other countries. I think it would be advantageous, at least in the beginning to retain an elected advisory body. It would of course be necessary to make sure that they did not have ability to veto or overturn decisions.
There are lots of fascinating design problems in both the program and the social dynamics needed to make such an idea work, but I feel that something like this concept will be needed when it is time to embark on the next adventure into REAL democracy. By the current state of many of our Representative democracies, I suggest that time is upon us
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Why do I writen this stuff?
For my own Pursuit of Happiness.
The suffering of my fellows is a pain I can no longer tolerate.
Please choose Happiness!!
The suffering of my fellows is a pain I can no longer tolerate.
Please choose Happiness!!
More on Happiness
The Pursuit of Happiness is the "anti viral" that we need to cure the Religious/Quasi Religious thought constructs that have "infected" our collective belief system.
Why Happiness?
Happiness/pleasure/relief from discomfort is a basic biological tool of life to train/evolve the organism to it's environment. Pleasure good. Pain bad. This effect works through the whole of our being. Not just the physical aspect, but also the emotional and mental, etc.
If one is hungry, food will make one happier
If one is cold, warmth will make one happier.
If one is poor, money will make one happier.
If one is powerless, influence will make one happier.
What happens when one is well fed,clothed and sheltered, has sufficient or even excess funds, and one has influence, and is still not happy? Will more of what one already has make one happy? It will not!! Running faster in the wrong direction will not get one to ones desired goal. It is counter productive.
So what else is there in this diseased belief system. There is still Love. I'm not just talking about the love of/for another person, wonderful as it is, I'm talking about the Love that opens our eyes to the wonders of all of life. The Love that gives appreciation of that which we already have, the astounding gift of consciousness in an infinite Universe. The Love that shows that both Giving and Receiving, the out breath and the in breath, are needed for Life.Without this Love, we suffer.
Now I'm not suggesting this from some gushy fuzzy headed concept. This is an aspect of our reality as real as gravity. If one keeps ones attention on the unhappiness from what one is lacking then one enters a negative feedback loop that inevitably leads to destruction. If one keeps ones attention on the happiness that comes from what one already has, then we enter a positive feedback loop that leads to Continuous Happiness.
The reality for most of us is somewhere between the two extremes of the distribution, but the principal remains. To focus on the good will inevitably lead to greater Happiness and understanding. The focus on the bad, fear etc, will inevitably lead to greater suffering and delusion.
With the Knowledge and Understanding gained through the effort to keep ones attention focused on the good, we "inoculate " ourselves against the infective thought constructs. We start to see the individual strands of thought that have been combined to create the construct. We start to understand how these thoughts influence us in our daily lives. We start to see that there are other combinations and intentions that are possible. We start to find the light. We start to cure ourselves of the delusion and discover the freedom that has always been there waiting for us.
Choose Happiness!!
Why Happiness?
Happiness/pleasure/relief from discomfort is a basic biological tool of life to train/evolve the organism to it's environment. Pleasure good. Pain bad. This effect works through the whole of our being. Not just the physical aspect, but also the emotional and mental, etc.
If one is hungry, food will make one happier
If one is cold, warmth will make one happier.
If one is poor, money will make one happier.
If one is powerless, influence will make one happier.
What happens when one is well fed,clothed and sheltered, has sufficient or even excess funds, and one has influence, and is still not happy? Will more of what one already has make one happy? It will not!! Running faster in the wrong direction will not get one to ones desired goal. It is counter productive.
So what else is there in this diseased belief system. There is still Love. I'm not just talking about the love of/for another person, wonderful as it is, I'm talking about the Love that opens our eyes to the wonders of all of life. The Love that gives appreciation of that which we already have, the astounding gift of consciousness in an infinite Universe. The Love that shows that both Giving and Receiving, the out breath and the in breath, are needed for Life.Without this Love, we suffer.
Now I'm not suggesting this from some gushy fuzzy headed concept. This is an aspect of our reality as real as gravity. If one keeps ones attention on the unhappiness from what one is lacking then one enters a negative feedback loop that inevitably leads to destruction. If one keeps ones attention on the happiness that comes from what one already has, then we enter a positive feedback loop that leads to Continuous Happiness.
The reality for most of us is somewhere between the two extremes of the distribution, but the principal remains. To focus on the good will inevitably lead to greater Happiness and understanding. The focus on the bad, fear etc, will inevitably lead to greater suffering and delusion.
With the Knowledge and Understanding gained through the effort to keep ones attention focused on the good, we "inoculate " ourselves against the infective thought constructs. We start to see the individual strands of thought that have been combined to create the construct. We start to understand how these thoughts influence us in our daily lives. We start to see that there are other combinations and intentions that are possible. We start to find the light. We start to cure ourselves of the delusion and discover the freedom that has always been there waiting for us.
Choose Happiness!!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Public vs Corporate vs Private Enterprise
There is allot of Ideological rubbish in the debate about public vs private enterprise.
Let me state at the outset that I am not against private enterprise. In fact, I believe it is the backbone of freedom of the individual, and an effective vehicle for innovation.
In it's most basic form private enterprise is the sole operator offering his/her skills direct to the user. As the scale of operation increases we get partnerships and private companies. These businesses have direct feedback from the customer to the ownership. The owners are directly affected by the success or failure of their own efforts. The natural tendency is to good service at a fair price. This of course is no guarantee as, with every aspect of society, there are some greedy and shonky people involved.
I won't include joint stock companies (publicly listed companies on stock exchanges) as these entities are not strictly private enterprise. I will use the term "corporate." The owners of the business are normally not the operators/workers of the business, they are mostly anonymous investors who's motivating interest is profit. These entities attract the most rapacious individuals into management, who then strip as much remuneration as they can from the business, without any real risk. In fact we have seen many instances where some incompetent CEO and team totally ruin the business yet still end up with the "golden handshake." They also have a tendency to use their board positions to "buy" favours from the political sphere. How many companies have ex politicians on the board?
These structures have the ability to develop into immensely powerful, trans national, economic nodes. This creates distortion in the free operation of both the economy and politics.
Public enterprise has been under concerted attack by the corporate sector eager to get it's hands on the assets and the possibility of monopoly inflated profits. Public sector enterprises when properly resourced and managed have been a very cost effective deliverer of services. They have also been used to set standards for the private and corporate sectors, helping to reign in some of the excesses. They also have been used to train workers to a high standard, as quality was regarded as more important than cost cutting. Many of these well trained workers were then snapped up by the private sector. This training role has been undervalued in the private/ public debate. Public sector enterprise is also ideally suited for the provision of "caring" services. Health, welfare, education etc. In these requirements of the population, to have profit as the primary motivation of the provider, is to virtually guarantee cost cutting leading to poor service provision. Too few nurses to do a proper job, poor facilities, heartless administration, etc, etc. We hear of these atrocities all the time.
Unfortunately most of our Governments have been captured by the Corporate Sector and are busily selling off all the best public assets, often way under value, and underfunding the rest to prepare the public, through discontent with the declining service, for the inevitable sale.
Let me state at the outset that I am not against private enterprise. In fact, I believe it is the backbone of freedom of the individual, and an effective vehicle for innovation.
In it's most basic form private enterprise is the sole operator offering his/her skills direct to the user. As the scale of operation increases we get partnerships and private companies. These businesses have direct feedback from the customer to the ownership. The owners are directly affected by the success or failure of their own efforts. The natural tendency is to good service at a fair price. This of course is no guarantee as, with every aspect of society, there are some greedy and shonky people involved.
I won't include joint stock companies (publicly listed companies on stock exchanges) as these entities are not strictly private enterprise. I will use the term "corporate." The owners of the business are normally not the operators/workers of the business, they are mostly anonymous investors who's motivating interest is profit. These entities attract the most rapacious individuals into management, who then strip as much remuneration as they can from the business, without any real risk. In fact we have seen many instances where some incompetent CEO and team totally ruin the business yet still end up with the "golden handshake." They also have a tendency to use their board positions to "buy" favours from the political sphere. How many companies have ex politicians on the board?
These structures have the ability to develop into immensely powerful, trans national, economic nodes. This creates distortion in the free operation of both the economy and politics.
Public enterprise has been under concerted attack by the corporate sector eager to get it's hands on the assets and the possibility of monopoly inflated profits. Public sector enterprises when properly resourced and managed have been a very cost effective deliverer of services. They have also been used to set standards for the private and corporate sectors, helping to reign in some of the excesses. They also have been used to train workers to a high standard, as quality was regarded as more important than cost cutting. Many of these well trained workers were then snapped up by the private sector. This training role has been undervalued in the private/ public debate. Public sector enterprise is also ideally suited for the provision of "caring" services. Health, welfare, education etc. In these requirements of the population, to have profit as the primary motivation of the provider, is to virtually guarantee cost cutting leading to poor service provision. Too few nurses to do a proper job, poor facilities, heartless administration, etc, etc. We hear of these atrocities all the time.
Unfortunately most of our Governments have been captured by the Corporate Sector and are busily selling off all the best public assets, often way under value, and underfunding the rest to prepare the public, through discontent with the declining service, for the inevitable sale.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
More on Intent
Intent does not have to be anything especially lofty. Say for instance in the public service. The sort of intent that would be great for everyone would be "Do the best we can for our employers, the citizenry that we are here to serve." We all know how much better it is when we deal with someone who is trying their best to help us through the sometimes obtuse workings of government. Contrast that to the officious, by the book, cover their arse type.
The helpful leaves one feeling good about at least the people of the system. The officious leaves one feeling oppressed by a heartless Government that is there for some other reason than servicing the needs of the population.
If the belief of all, or at least a large majority, of the public sector, from top to bottom, was that their function is to service the needs of the population to the best of their ability, not filling in time till payday, not career boosting, not sucking up to the boss,not having to get their own way, not doing special deals, etc., then outcomes will be great. The 'willingness to help-ers' add friendly flexibility and easy outcomes. Whereas the 'rigid rulers', the 'slackers' and the 'bent' are inherently hostile, and toxic to the system.
When we look at Business this becomes even more apparent. As with the Government's role of providing services, so it is with Business . Business exists to provide for the needs of the people.
Many successful businesses have been built on the principals of good service and a fair price.
Unfortunately, Business has largely been corrupted. Some by greed and some by belief and misunderstanding. The joint stock company is largely to blame. The belief associated with these entities is that their task is to maximise profits for the shareholders. This attracts the more predatory individuals, who in the process make sure that they are WELL paid. Gone is the servicing the needs of the population as the primary goal. This belief has an internal logic that requires the doing of less for more, the antithesis of what it should be. Once again we have the example of the GFC.
The helpful leaves one feeling good about at least the people of the system. The officious leaves one feeling oppressed by a heartless Government that is there for some other reason than servicing the needs of the population.
If the belief of all, or at least a large majority, of the public sector, from top to bottom, was that their function is to service the needs of the population to the best of their ability, not filling in time till payday, not career boosting, not sucking up to the boss,not having to get their own way, not doing special deals, etc., then outcomes will be great. The 'willingness to help-ers' add friendly flexibility and easy outcomes. Whereas the 'rigid rulers', the 'slackers' and the 'bent' are inherently hostile, and toxic to the system.
When we look at Business this becomes even more apparent. As with the Government's role of providing services, so it is with Business . Business exists to provide for the needs of the people.
Many successful businesses have been built on the principals of good service and a fair price.
Unfortunately, Business has largely been corrupted. Some by greed and some by belief and misunderstanding. The joint stock company is largely to blame. The belief associated with these entities is that their task is to maximise profits for the shareholders. This attracts the more predatory individuals, who in the process make sure that they are WELL paid. Gone is the servicing the needs of the population as the primary goal. This belief has an internal logic that requires the doing of less for more, the antithesis of what it should be. Once again we have the example of the GFC.
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