The problem with the best minds today is that they are confined to the habits of our educational system and the time constraints of making a life under the terms set by the marketplace. As a result, rather than developing a schema of understanding, naturally guided by a direct curiosity, we follow a curriculum set by other minds divorced from the reasoning or bias behind its forging. And upon completion, we are armed with the habit of studying an issue by reading other disconnected studies to resolve our understanding in quick-time to meet the succession of immediate demands placed upon us by our roles in corporate decision making. This produces a shallow, hack, approach to everything from preparing homes for sale to planning the expansion of transportation systems, or supplying markets with goods or services. Another constraint of popular decision making is the minds juvenile predisposition to assume the world around us is a clockwork mechanism… particularly, in which we are prone, in our understanding of how governments operate. It is not enough to merely say, “yes, governments must change to meet the changing circumstances of that which is governed.” Saying it is not the same as operating with an actual understanding of this truth.

I remember gym class in high school… When playing volleyball throughout a quarter, two basic types of teams emerged. First, there was the team loaded with particularly athletic types who dominated immediately. Second, there was the team which methodically learned the intercept, set, return formula for playing the game effectively. It was this second group which took time to put together the skill sets and strictly demarcated realms of responsibilities and roles of the different players which ended the quarter in ascendance.

Today, governments are presented with the growing impossibility of the task presented to them. To manage resources, effort, organizations and individuals within the framework of a system ruled by an agreed upon set of guidelines. As of 1850, there had only been 1 billion people who had walked the earth throughout all of human history… now there are over 6 billion all at once living together. Further, we have companies and corporations controlling more wealth and influence than entire nations. These entities, these power-capabilities have a very narrow set of goals, act upon the say so of spineless individuals willing to set aside regard for law or the common good, and yet, are central to the survival of the populations. This is a perfect storm for self-destruction. To meet these power-capabilities all we have is government… when protesters hit the streets, they rely on the government to protect them against the entities they protest against (even the governments themselves) and beseech to act on behalf of their cause–otherwise, outright conflict is the only recourse for reclaiming the societies to ones concept of civilization. 

Now corporations, and macro-empowered individuals and entities easily cross borders to carry out their self-centered agendas. To meet such potential challengers to the common good, we need governmental organizations already in place and engaged in the never ending process of refinement to identify and address the threats and concerns of the greater society. Right now, there are wildfires raging in Canada. Just today, my roommate, in response to my question about it, replied, “the one caused by the fracking?” This was the first I heard a connection made between the largest single oil reserves and this out of control wildfire causing the destruction of an entire city and driving countless people from their homes in terror. She had heard an early news report making the connection. Now, however, you would be hard pressed to find the connection made in any news reports making the rounds. Why? Because this company has, no doubt, an army of PR people and inexhaustible legal muscle to point out the liabilities and cost of legal action against any institution making such “false” reports–if they, indeed, turn out to be false. What news agency could stand against, not only such a powerful company, but, no doubt, an entire industry, whose consolidte interest also weighs in the balance. How much might do the politicians of Canada wield to meet this challenge?!

Societies and governments are not like businesses with business plans concerned only with justifying loans and meeting quarterly projections; they are more akin to gardens and gardeners. As these gardens grow, so to, must the resources and organizational capabilities of the gardeners. This is why Britain is in the EU.