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Dear Reader:

I believe there comes a time to stop what you are doing and ask yourself if it's working. If you're trying to walk across the room but keep banging into walls and falling down, do you keep beating yourself up, or do you stop to assess the situation calmly? Which is more likely to help you reach your goal? There is a time for thick-headed persistence. There is also a time for surrender to what is (truth).

It is time for pithy observations.

I think one of the reasons we are assembled here is that politics is not working. We are not heading where any of us (including all of humanity) wants to go. I believe it is time to step back and assess our situation, and examine some of the principles by which we are operating. A lot is being done and redone out of habit, and these habits are leading us again and again into the same results.

With this in mind, I have attempted to take a step back and look at the bigger picture, microscopic and macroscopic. First, I sat down and defined some of my terms so I could get an idea of what the fundamental issues are. I am an engineer by education, and I view politics largely as an engineering challenge. I am sharing with you some of what I have found in these explorations, as clearly as I know how. I have attempted to be deeply honest. Try not to be too easily offended – I believe we all ultimately want the same basic things. We just have different ideas on how to get there. The system is not working, so some of these ideas are no doubt flawed. If so, are you willing to exchange them for something more functional?

This is an important question, because for many humans, being right is far more important than anything else, including being happy, healthy, or even alive. It is time to put ourselves aside and have look at ourselves.

Let's take a walk.

(This document is also available on a wiki in the Essays Forum)

[edit] What Is “Politics”?

[edit] Part 1: Definition

Humanity shares a global political system. There is only one system. It has many branches, but they are all connected by a common world and a common purpose. The (geo)political system is humanity's attempt at control. Politics is a control system.

In engineering, a control system is a 'brain' which controls the other 'organs' of a body to produce specific results. The control system is the 'decider' – that which regulates, signals, and manipulates various aspects of the larger system.

In its most basic form, a control system is not necessarily intelligent. It need not involve thinking or conscious intention. It can simply be basic forces of nature achieving a balance, and thereby regulating an outcome. For example, if a river has too much water, it overflows its banks, thus maintaining a sustainable level. The level of water in the river is regulated by this natural control system.

A more complex control system, yet equally unconscious: pupil dilation. Depending on the amount of light coming into the eye, the pupil will dilate more or less, thus regulating (controlling) the amount of light coming into the eye. This is a control system which uses feedback. The eye senses light, the level of which is adjusted by the dilation, which is in turn sensed by the eye, leading to further adjustment. Feedback control systems can be highly effective at regulation.

As we move into intelligent and even conscious control systems, the opportunity for an exquisite level of control arises. Computers are a good example of control systems with basic intelligence programmed in, and they accomplish significant feats in some areas – far beyond the abilities of their creators alone. Computers are powerful.

Another way of looking at control is as power. The more one is able to control one's self and environment, the more powerful one is. That is why politicians are often thought of as powerful (as are flooding rivers). Control and power go hand in hand.

There may be some baggage here around the word “control”. We've got control freaks, control issues, and governments seeking more and greater control of their citizens and other governments. There seems to be a competition for control, and there are many who say “I don't want to be controlled! I want to be free!”

However, what we are suffering from is not control in general, but crude attempts at control - a dysfunctional control system. It is a question of what forms the control takes and how functional it is.

Nothing happens without control. Get up and walk across the room. Are you aware of the phenomenal feedback control system that enabled you to do that? Your eyes and ears were telling the system where you were, your inner ear was providing balance information, and your sense of feeling was providing feedback on the movement of your limbs. If you made an error and ran into the wall, the pain was giving the system error feedback. As the control system was receiving this continuous feedback, it was sending complementary signals to your muscles, controlling the movement of your limbs, and adjusting that movement based on the feedback. Depending on the functionality of your control system, as well as other systems in your body, you may have arrived at your destination.

Control is not the enemy of freedom. In fact, freedom is a product of control. When a child first masters the art of walking, it gains a new degree of freedom. The greater level of control enables it to move at will and get into all kinds of mischief (as parents quickly find out). Finer control produces greater power and freedom.

You will note that some branches of the geopolitical (control) system, for example the United States' political system, place a high value on freedom, and this is no mere coincidence. The principle of liberty is viewed as power. Freedom is also seen as a necessary ingredient in the political process, yet this is in error. Greater freedom is not a prerequisite to greater control, it is a product of greater control. Just as the child with the effective control system was able to walk, an effective political system produces power and freedom. These then become ingredients in an even greater control system, yet it is an error to believe they are prerequisites. If freedom is a prerequisite to control, yet control produces freedom, how do you begin? You must begin where you are, with the freedom and power you have, and produce more through effective control.

So control is no enemy, though crude, dysfunctional forms of control can certainly be experienced that way.

One reason computers are powerful tools, powerful control systems, is that they can take in a lot of information. They get a lot of input and can process it (control it) quickly. You might say they are “aware” of a lot of input. Awareness is part of a very capable control system, as the simple feedback loop of pupil dilation demonstrates. From here it is a quick jump to the human being, who is aware of a great deal compared to a computer or an iris. Humans are conscious information processors.

So what is politics controlling? What are humans attempting to collectively control through their system of politics? This is a surprisingly deep question. Yet it is basic. How can you effectively and functionally control something if you don't know what you are attempting to control, or what result you're attempting to achieve?

Functionality is important in the consideration of control systems. Does it work? And how do you define working? Where are you trying to go? What are you trying to accomplish? Then you can decide whether your control system is functional – whether it is working.

Politics addresses a fundamental dilemma of humanity: there are more than one of us.

For practical purposes, at our current stage of development as a species, politics is a control system for the distribution of resources. There are more than one of us, and there are resources to be distributed. How do we control this?

By resources, I do not simply mean goods. Resources include natural resources (land, air, water, raw materials) and products (which includes services). Anything which you want, which you consider valuable, in some tangible way involves a natural resource, a made product, or a service, and there are others who also want it. How is the distribution of these resources going to be controlled and regulated? Who is going to decide? Who gets what, where, when, and how?

In case you aren't convinced that this definition covers the whole of the political system, let's consider a less tangible example that politics addresses.

Consider morality. Is this a resource? First, we need to consider that our current control system (political system) may be dysfunctional. As such, it may not make much sense. For example, some would say that morality should not be part of the political process. Yet it is, and there should be a way to see how morality connects to humanity's attempt to control the distribution of resources. Why are people introducing it into politics?

Morality amounts to behavior – how people are expected to behave. Morality is intended to regulate or control behavior. Yet how does this involve distribution of a resource? Well, why do you want to regulate their behavior? Ultimately, because it affects you. Perhaps their behavior disturbs you or your family. It affects you. You want it stopped, controlled. Who ya gonna call? Maybe you'll dial your congressperson and make sure there is a law enacted to outlaw their behavior. The system of laws and law enforcement is a service provided to citizens. It is a resource. Or maybe you will attempt to change the form of education, such that it includes morality. The educational system is a service. Maybe you will call the newspaper so they will publish an exposé on this immoral behavior and thus affect it. The media is a service. Maybe you'll notify your pastor, and entreat him or her to visit these people and help them through their difficulties. Pastors provide a service. Maybe you'll sue them and take their property away so they are less able to promote immorality. Property is a resource. No matter what tangible way you try to affect the intangible, you are making use of resources. How those resources are distributed to you and others determines your control and influence of their behavior, including morality. Hence, it is political.

I think if you examine other political issues, you will see that one way or another they all revolve around control of the distribution of resources. This is politics.

Is this overly broad? It seems to include everything. Yet can you name one thing which one way or another does not get pulled into politics?

The political system, like any good control system, takes lots of inputs. The more it is aware of, the more effectively it can control results. In theory.

An unfair challenge for you: turn on your TV or go on the internet and find a political topic that does not involve the control of the distribution of resources. (What you will mostly find in political discussions is an attempt to control politics, which is itself a service, so it still fits our definition. And there is good reason for why the control system is vainly attempting to control the control system, which we will examine in more depth further on. In brief, the control system is out of control.)

An effective political system, that is to say an effective control system for the distribution of resources, would produce power and freedom for all of humanity: utopia. Utopia is the goal of the control system, the goal of politics. Based on this, we can evaluate the functionality of our current political system. The obvious observation: it's not working well. In our walking analogy, we're leaning way off balance, banging into the wall again and again, and are about to tumble out the window. A correction to the system is required.

We also see in this definition that politics goes far beyond just government. Government is a public service. It is a resource. It is a product of politics, a means of distribution. Yet government is not the only organ so created and controlled. The media, educational system, economy, businesses, police/security/military forces, entertainment industry, political parties (okay, same thing), families, neighborhoods, communities, states, nations... these organizations are all outgrowths of the political system – a means for control of resources in some form.

To many, even those in “politics”, it may appear that the purpose of politics is to maintain these organizations... to run them and protect them. It is a battle for survival. This may be one of the causes of the dysfunctionality of the control system. People become obsessed with maintaining a particular organization, ensuring its survival and prosperity, because they believe this is the purpose of politics. Yet these organizations are not the purpose of politics, they are the means of politics – one of the means of control of the distribution of resources. There are more than one of us. Who gets what, where, when, and how? These organizations may or may not be functional means – they may have grown dysfunctional, in which case people trying to ensure their survival in their current form at all costs are also generating dysfunction. Nevertheless, their existence owes itself to an attempt to control distribution.

As the final discussion in this part, I would like to examine the basis of organizations. At the outset I said that humanity shares a global political system, and that there is only one system. Believe it or not, this system is fully self-consistent (it cannot exist otherwise). Like a fractal, its signature can be found at every level of organization, from the sub-individual to the entire globe, including its functional as well as its dysfunctional properties. Since organizations are such a pivotal means of the control system in question, they deserve some examination.

You're in a group of people and you've got to accomplish a task. What do you do? If you are to be an effective group, you will organize in some fashion. It may be a loose organization, a strict one, or even an unconcious one, but organization in some form will grow.

Organization is found everywhere. Not all organization is intentional, even in the human variety. In fact, even inanimate objects - rocks, dirt, space dust – are organized. Even in chaotic systems, such as the weather, order is found (this is the basis of Chaos Theory). Everywhere we look: organization. What's that about?

When it comes to intelligent and conscious beings, their attempts at organization becomes intelligent and conscious. Deliberate. Intentional. Humans respond to a natural, primal tendency to organize, but they do so with conscious intention and direction. Effort. They have a will and a purpose.

In the political system, in humanity's attempt to control the distribution of resources, we see organization used at every level. These are the organs of distribution, and the organs are controlled by the control system, the brain (itself an organ).

First, let's take the sub-individual. There's more than one of you. If you've ever tried to lose weight by following a rigid diet, you already know this. One part of you wants to eat. Another part wants to lose weight. They don't always agree. Who gets what, where, when, and how? By some means, you have to make decisions. Will you eat this or not eat this?

Each individual human mind contains a collection of sub-personalities, thought streams, and they are often in conflict. Some of these thought streams develop into identities. Multiple Personality Disorder is a demonstration of this, yet it exists to some extent in everyone. We are complex beings.

How is all of this regulated? Which voice wins? Which controls what you say? What you eat? What you do? You may not decide this consciously, but there is a control system in place which decides. It is your internal political system. These are often learned at a young age.

Some people have rigid control systems, with one 'voice' having the final say. It is a dictatorship. Dissent is barely heard, and not tolerated. Like any rigid system, however, these same people are often prone to erratic behavior – outbursts, violence. The ignored voices build up and eventually explode. They are out of control.

Other people have more flexible control systems. They entertain different points of view, take polls of the populace, and eventually arrive at a consensus. These people tend to be more mild, more agreeable.

Then there are the people who waiver. First they look at it one way. Then another. They try to determine which is right. They may become paralyzed by indecision and fear. These people tend to be nervous and timid.

In fact, there are countless varieties of control systems. Without getting deep into psychology, you can notice that the dilemma is fundamentally the same: there are more than one of us. How do we decide? Personal politics.

Next up we have groups of individuals. The most basic group is the family. There are many types of families. Some are dictatorships. Father knows best, father decides. The mother and the children are expected to live by the decree of the head of the house. Then there are more flexible families, in countless varieties. All have different ways of deciding. What are they deciding? Who gets what, where, when, and how? Family politics.

From there, it is easy to go on... Families organize into neighborhoods, then communities, towns, counties, states, nations. In parallel, people also organize into various social groups, religions, sports teams, political parties, etc. They are all addressing the fundamental dilemma: there are more than one of us. How do we negotiate this? How do we exist together? Practically, how do we distribute 'stuff'? Some groups are based on competition, some on blood lines, some on beliefs, etc.

Yet through all human organizations, from the sub-individual to the global, one can discern the same system being employed. The system is multi-faceted. It has many branches, and it is continually evolving. Like a fractal, it grows at every level it is employed. This is the political control system.

For example: the monarchy. There was a time when many people lived under the rule of a king, who lorded over the land. His say was final. He was the decider. It was a facet of the political control system. At the same time, on the family level of organization, most families were headed by the man of the house. The father was the decider. He had a wife/queen with some power, though not as much as the king, and the children were mere subjects – expected to obey without question or recourse.

Likewise, in religion of the time, the priest was the authority. No discussion. Death to dissent.

In the individual, people tended to be more rigid-minded. They controlled their behavior, like their children, strictly. The sub-individuals were not humored much.

On the global level, the monarch controlled (ruled) other weaker nations. There were empires, with no denials or apologies.

Oversimplifying, a bit down the road the idea of democracy was born. People had a say in their laws and behavior. Far from perfect, it was different than the monarch model. Likewise, at home, the stern head of household gave way to a less rigid organization, and members of the family and children became more than mere indentured servants. Women still could not vote in the democracy, and in the household they were still subservient to men.

In some cultures, women then got the vote. On an individual level, women began to take themselves more seriously. During the same period, and related, women asserted themselves more in the home. Today, most American women consider themselves an equal in the decisions of the home, at least in theory. Often that is not the case in practice. Likewise, in American culture, there has never been a female president, but there have been representatives. Women in theory are equal, but not fully in practice. Likewise, in religious organizations, women are becoming leaders, but are still not as well represented as men. On the global level, there is variation, but the general trend is the same.

If you observe carefully, you will see parallels at every level of organization, and as the political system at one level evolves, it evolves at all levels. That is not to say that every organization is the same – there is variety. But every trend at one level is represented in some form in trends at all levels, from the sub-individual to the global.

This could be examined in far greater detail, but suffice it to say that the political (control) system goes all the way through humanity, and across all cultures and times. As it evolves, it evolves everywhere. The forms and expressions differ, yet they are all connected by a common world and a common purpose.

This is politics, and it is far larger than we have imagined. It is not just on the TV, it is in your mind, in your home, in your church and grocery store. It is humanity's control system for the distribution of resources. Like all control systems, it employs systems of organization, and these systems change and evolve in form. Different organizations have different operating principles, agendas, and beliefs, yet they share a common purpose.

Take a look at the organizations around you, both ones you are a member of and ones you are not. Notice how they distribute resources. One such organization is the internet itself. It is all about distribution, and it is increasingly surfacing in and affecting politics. In fact, it was created by the political system as an organ. Al Gore was right afterall – he did indeed create the internet.

[edit] Part 2: Analysis

In part 1, I demonstrated how the political system is a control system for the distribution of resources, including natural resources, products, and services. The system creates and employs various organizations (organs) in this process, including the media, educational system, economy, businesses, police/security/military forces, entertainment industry, political parties, families, neighborhoods, communities, nations, religious organizations and others. All forms of resource distribution involve the political system. Humanity's political system spans the globe, with variation, and can be found deeply embedded in every level of human organization. A highly functional distribution control system creates power and freedom for humanity. To the extent the control system is dysfunctional, resources are not distributed effectively or equitably, resulting in conflict and limitation.

In this part, I would like to first consider where we want to go. What kind of world do you want to live in? What result does a functional and effective distribution control system produce? What does that look like on a local and on a global scale? It is impossible to evaluate the functionality of our current system, and identify issues affecting it, unless we know specifically what we are trying to achieve.

I am talking about the ideal world: utopia, the pinnacle of the political process. To some extent, everyone has a slightly different picture of utopia. Rather than consider that an obstacle, I will make it an attribute. Utopia should allow for diversity. It should be spacious and gracious enough to allow people to have a variety of different experiences, all within the same globe.

Also associated with utopia is usually a sense of 'there is enough'. There are enough resources, security, well-being, knowledge, and opportunities for growth. The struggle for survival has ended, and living has begun. Poverty, hunger, homelessness, and war, unless willfully chosen, have been eliminated. Humanity has been able to get on with the business of excellence.

Utopia is generally inclusive, in that all of humanity has enough and is included.

Abundance. Diversity. Inclusion. Deep down, I believe most people feel intuitively that this combination is 'what works'. Those people who don't believe at least in the principle of inclusion generally fear that unless such-n-such group is eliminated, their group cannot have enough, cannot live in peace and prosperity. Thus they see exclusion as requisite for abundance and security, and intolerance results. Such intolerance can become habitual – it remains even when the original reasons for it are gone. Yet if all groups could genuinely enjoy all three, without having their toes stepped on, I think most people would choose to 'live and let live'.

There is a strong sense of 'there's not enough' in our global consciousness. From there, fear sets in, and people believe that the only way they can 'win' is if someone else is the 'loser'. Competition and conflict are born and replace cooperation. It is worthwhile to remind ourselves that were humans to live on the planet sustainably and share equitably, there is indeed enough. Take hunger, for example. The food that the United States alone throws away each day could feed entire nations. The issue isn't that there is a lack of raw materials. The issue is how those materials are being used and distributed (exactly what a distribution control system addresses).

If we are to redesign a functional distribution control system, it is wise to get out of our habitual thinking that 'that's just the way things are'. They are that way, but they don't have to be that way. By setting our sites on utopia, we begin thinking about how to make utopia practical. Unless we set it within the realm of the possible, or at least the plausible, we are sabotaging ourselves at the start. Keep in mind that before most things were invented, the inventor was assured they were impossible.

Nevertheless, not everyone will agree with this general picture of utopia. If you don't, then consider your own. In the coming discussion of functionality, substitute your own criteria, and identify the issues affecting the system on this basis. The process is the same.

For my part, I will consider abundance, diversity, and inclusion as products of a functional system. If we're talking about a globe operating functionally, there has to be a sense of unity to the system. Unity does not imply sameness, but it does imply that all are part of the entire system, and what affects one affects all. This is not new, at least in concept. The United States prints it on their money: “e pluribus unum” (“out of many, one”).

Now for a candid look at where we are. In evaluating the current state of the system, it is wise to remove ourselves from identification with it, or with one branch of it, as much as possible. Much like a doctor examines a patient in a clinical, professional way, we want to turn a clinical, scientific eye toward the system.

The first step in this process is to differentiate between a 'problem' and an 'issue'. If you label something a 'problem', you have immediately biased yourself, as 'problem' conveys negativity. You view this aspect as bad – it shouldn't be there. Yet who is to say what is good or bad, especially in terms of an evolving system? If you hear an inexperienced child playing music, you might say, “that sounds bad!” But the teacher who has been working with the child, and who has seen the progress being made, might say of the same music, “that sounds good!”

When examining the functionality of the system, it is more beneficial to identify issues which are effecting that functionality. Is the system working (achieving the desired result)? If not, what issues are involved?

My first observation of the system involves this exact issue: bias. Control systems might be divided into two types: negative and positive, or reactive and creative. A reactive (negative) control system reacts to what is happening. A creative (positive) control system anticipates and creates what is happening. A toaster with a reactive control system would burn the toast, then scrape off the black. A creative control system would toast the bread and anticipate the correct time to eject it for the desired result.

A good example of a reactive control system is the overall health care system in the United States. This is also a good analogy for the political system, and not by accident. After all, the health care system is a service, a resource. Like all resources, it is created and distributed via the political system.

The prevailing tendency of this health care system is to fight disease. It is constantly trying to unburn the toast. It primarily addresses health from the negative side. Doctors in the U.S. receive almost no education in nutrition. Methods of promoting health, such as nutrition, avoidance of toxins, rest, and exercise are given little attention. Instead, a huge industry has grown around an ever-expanding host of diseases, with a variety of costly pills and treatments for each.

As such, the system thrives on disease. The sicker people are, the more doctors are employed, and the more pharmaceutical companies' profits rise. While most doctors don't intentionally seek to make people ill, the system as a whole depends on the growth of disease – profits are directly proportional to it. Doctors are also victims of this system, in that it is very difficult for them to give their patients beneficial treatment, hampered as they are by HMOs and other corporate systems.

One wonders what would become of doctors if everyone was healthy. You may be tempted to think there would be no need for them, but that is only because you are so accustomed to the negative control system in place, where disease is essential. By contrast, a positive (creative) system would focus on promoting health. Nutrition, exercise, and maintenance would be the norm. Placing toxins in the food, air, and water would be seen for what it is: counterproductive to health (rather than conducive to profit). Why would doctors still be needed in a world of healthy people? There is a lower limit to health: death. At some point, the body simply stops functioning as an organism. However, there is no upper limit to health. No matter how healthy you are, there is always room to be become more capable, more vibrant, mentally, physically, and emotionally.

If a doctor is defined as a 'healer' alone, there is no job security in the event of a health outbreak. Once the patients are not diseased, the doctors are out of a job. Although individual doctors rarely want their patients not to get well, endemically the system resists it in very real ways. Disease is promoted by it – it is the system's sustenance. Yet if a doctor is defined as a promoter of health, as an inventor and maintainer of evolution, the doctor has job security. Doctors can focus on making people forever better. They can become extremely knowledgeable in nutrition and other skills which produce greater health, and can invent new realms as yet unimagined. There is no upper limit to health.

The parallels to the political system are stunning.

The first observation of the current political system is that it is predominantly a negative, reactive control system. It is constantly trying to put out fires. It is always chasing the spiral deeper and deeper into chaos. Like the health care system, it has come to thrive on disaster. When politicians are not focusing on themselves and each other, they are invariably trying to put out a fire. They are scraping the black off the toast even as the toaster is still burning it.

Also like the health care system, there are tremendous profits being made at the expense of health (in this case the health of the globe). Earlier, I noted that most political discussions revolve around the politicians themselves and around controlling politics. In other words, the control system is attempting to control the control system. This is a system out of control. Instead of the distribution of resources being the focus of discussion, the system itself, and more specifically the individuals and organizations of the system, have become the focus and the purpose. The system has produced politicians with bloated bank accounts and egos. Instead of stepping aside and focusing on the job at hand (the optimum distribution of resources to all), they focus on themselves, on their party, and on their profits through corporate kick-backs. Also much like health care, politicians who do 'get it', who try to do beneficial work, are immensely hampered by a system which makes far more money for the elite through poverty than through prosperity. Ego has become the prevailing purpose, and ego attacks the prevailing tool.

Meanwhile, the toast continues to burn, nearly forgotten in a sea of petty agendas. Politics has become a system of such tremendous internal competition, rather than cooperation, that it is nearly paralyzed. As such, the distribution of resources is haphazard, lacking any unifying and balancing system of control. Huge imbalances are the result, so large that they are threatening the very survival of the species. Most people involved with politics in any way, including the voters, feel this paralysis, this inability to have any positive effect. Apathy results in many cases, which is seized upon by those who would hijack what is left of the system for their own purposes.

There is a sense that people have forgotten what politics is for. It has become a means of vying for power – competition rather than cooperation. But power is created by control, not the other way around. Control has largely been lost, as the heating globe, expanding diseases, and growing use of war demonstrates. In the place of control is manic busyness which has forgotten its purpose.

All of this revolves around two facets endemic to the system: A negative, reactive control system that chases fires (profit for the elite) rather than sponsoring development (prosperity for all), and a general forgetfulness of the true purpose of the political system: optimum control of the distribution of resources. Even those who appear to be gaining from this behavior are in the long run not being served by it. No one can be, as we are heading toward total system failure. There are little pockets where this is not yet abundantly clear – floating bits of glacier which have yet to melt, but you can see the sweat on their brow.

Imagine, momentarily, a political system that is a positive, creative control system. Rather than chasing fires (fighting disease), it would continuously be sponsoring greater cooperation, development (health), and abundance. Politicians, rather than trying to fix an endless series of problems or promoting one group's agenda, would be the leaders moving the entire world toward greater harmony. There is no upper limit to health. We begin to see that this approach, rather than the reactive one, is the road to utopia.

No one likes being told they have cancer. Yet suddenly the symptoms fit together and make sense, and there is a name for the malady. If we are to make any progress at all in refitting the political system, hard candor is in order. We must look unblinkingly at where we are before we can decide what steps to take. Keep in mind throughout this analysis that the object is not to judge elements of the system as 'bad', but to look carefully and deeply at how they are impacting the functionality of the system.

For the purpose of this analysis, I will break the generalized political system into four primary super-organs. Remember that this is a distribution control system, so each organ is responsible for distribution of a group of resources. The first super-organ I will call Information. Distribution of information and ideas throughout the system is fundamentally essential to a functional system. Without accurate and timely information, other aspects of the system cannot perform their functions optimally. In practice, the Information super-organ includes organizations within the media (television, internet news, etc), the educational system, (public and private schools and colleges), government services which educate or inform, printed literature, lectures, music and movies, scientific research, and many others. Even individuals speaking to one another are part of this super-organ.

Surrounding the central Information super-organ, there are three additional super-organs: Decision, Security, and Wealth. You might picture a four-sided pyramid with Information at the apex, and the others at the lower corners. Decision, Security, and Wealth support the super-organ of Information, even as Information streams down and enlightens their work.

Decision is primarily responsible for the decision-making process, including organizations such as legislatures, courts, voters, scientific panels, world government, boards of directors, executives, regulators, and mobs. These are services, and this super-organ is responsible for controlling the distribution of them. This is where decisions about the distribution of resources are made, as well as decisions about the political system itself (which is itself a resource). Even a member of a household making decisions about what to buy is part of this super-organ.

Security is responsible for maintaining order and discipline, protecting and attacking individuals and organizations, investigating crimes, imprisonment and confinement, and suppression of violence. These are services, and this super-organ is responsible for controlling the distribution of them. This includes organizations such as police, security forces, militia, mercenaries, military forces, terrorists, and mobs. Even an individual suppressing or using violence or force may be part of this super-organ.

Wealth is responsible for the distribution of goods and other services, including raw materials, land, air space, water privileges, products, fuels, energy, currency, and credit. This includes organizations such as retailers, wholesalers, energy companies, charities, banks, government bodies, and individuals.

The first thing to notice about the four super-organs is that they are not separate. I have created an artificial separation for the purpose of analysis. They are interdependent. For example, Security cannot function without Information, Security, Decision, and Wealth. Likewise, Wealth cannot function without Information, Wealth, Security, and Decision. In this sense, each super-organ contains all four. In my analysis of each super-organ, I will consider how the functionality of each super-organ affects it, including itself.

You can take the four-sided pyramid and set it down on any side. The super-organs at the bottom corners will be seen to support the super-organ at the apex, which in turn will encompass the lower ones.

[edit] Analysis of Decision

I have already done some analysis of the Decision super-organ in discussing the fact that it is currently a negative control system. It reacts to and chases events rather than leading them. Although endemic to the entire political control system, it is clearly visible in Decision.

Another primary observation is that of the disconnect of the ruled from the rule-makers. The general population is less able to influence the course of their governments. Decision-making power is being concentrated in the elite, the wealthy, and the established circles of power. As such, the general tenor of decision-making reflects the views of a small fraction of the whole, and is made to serve their agenda at the expense of the larger population. This is seen at all levels of government around the globe. The primary reasons for this occurring are:

1) Economic disempowerment. The super-organ of Wealth is not distributing resources equally or equitably among people. There is a growing chasm between the wealthy and the other classes. The middle class is shrinking as its members face tightening economic conditions, and the poor grow poorer. One of the results of this is seen in Decision. The barriers to entry into and access to leadership grow higher, even as the means of the general population are reduced. It takes a large amount of money to be effective in politics, especially if you are not in some way connected with the elite who are there. In addition, other ways of affecting the political process, such as education, use of media, and maintenance of political parties and groups depends on wealth. Increasingly, those with the greatest wealth have the greatest influence on decisions. This includes large, global corporations which through lobbying, gifts, and illegal means influence representatives and populations. This influence is aimed at furthering a profit-driven agenda which does not serve the larger system as a whole, and in fact feeds off it. There is also a feedback effect: the more money and influence a person or organization has, the more it can affect decisions regarding Wealth, which in turn causes more money to be amassed, which in turn yields greater influence. To some extent this economic disempowerment is deliberate on the part of elite organizations and corporations, and to some extent it is a consequence of other features of the overall system.

2) Misinformation. The super-organ of Information is failing in various ways to bring accurate, timely information to the people. Large media organizations are increasingly controlled by the wealthy elite and by large corporations, the same entities with interests in furthering their agendas in Decision. As such, the large media organizations are disseminating information which is narrowly focused, biased, and false. The result is a population which is ill-informed, deceived, and unaware of major issues facing them. Without accurate and timely information, even those with the resources to influence and guide Decision are not able to do so effectively. This issue has grown so large that massive segments of the population, even among the educated and wealthy, are operating more from designer cultural myths than from reality. To some extent, this effect is self-regulating, however, in that a misinformed Decision becomes paralyzed. Its responses are so out of harmony that they reveal themselves as deeply flawed, which is itself useful information (feedback). The rising of the internet as a form of global communication and assembly is a consequence of the failure and sabotage of other modes of communication, and this has revitalized the Information super-organ to an extent. Yet this is also creating increasing pressure from those who would sabotage its effectiveness through strict regulation and the undermining of network-neutrality. The force of Wealth is again being applied in a biased and manipulative fashion.

3) Secrecy. Increasingly, major decisions are made in secret, and the general conduct of the decision-making process involves increasing levels of secrecy. Without transparency, it is impossible for effective oversight to exist, and Decision is more easily hijacked for particular agendas. Conspiracies are increasingly successful in such a climate, evidence is difficult to obtain, and denial pervades the culture (it is often easier for people to believe the lie than look at what really is, which causes conspiracy and secrecy to flourish). In general, this is a failure of the super-organ of Information to provide transparency to the processes of Decision. In particular, media organizations are not providing investigative oversight. In addition, laws are being enacted to further this secrecy. Finally, the super-organ of Security is failing to provide insulation to whistleblowers and investigators from various forms of attack - physical, legal, and economic.

4) Voting and polling fraud. The collective will and views of the world population are being misrepresented both to the people and to their governments. Voting fraud has become widespread in virtually every nation, including the nations which consider themselves bastions of democracy, such as the United States, Great Britain, and Canada. The introduction of electronic voting machines has provided a new avenue for fraud which is being enabled by the same corporate and elite influence seen in other areas. In short, votes are not counted accurately. This is evidenced by numerous software vulnerabilities, corporate mischief, and profound irregularities in election counts. This is a failure of the super-organ of Information to deliver accurate tallies, and of Security to investigate and protect the voting process. Feedback exists, where laws are then enacted by the falsely elected which serve to further degrade the integrity of the voting system. In addition, polls and other means of assessing public opinion, often controlled by media conglomerates, are inaccurate and deceptive, misleading even well-meaning community and government leaders, as well as the people being polled. The result of voting fraud is that there is a disconnect between the will of the people and control of government. As such, democracies are increasingly gaining some of the qualities of dictatorships, where the few control the many, civil liberties are not honored, and there is a lack of accountability in government leadership.

5) Violence. Through various forms of attack – assassination, threat of war, lawsuits, invasion of privacy, disinformation – leaders and people influencing Decision in ways undesirable to the elite and others are eliminated or disabled. Although one rarely hears of political assassinations in the press in this age, they are commonplace, presented as suicides, health conditions, and accidents. When more subtle methods of manipulation - voter fraud, misinformation, and secrecy - fail, outright intimidation and violence is used. In addition, wealthy organizations use the system of courts to oppress and bankrupt competitors in the political process. In addition, in world bodies such as the UN and IMF, large, wealthy nations use economic means to influence and intimidate smaller nations. Beyond this, there is outright war. This level of violence involves a threefold failure: Security (lack of protection, investigation, and suppression of violence), Wealth (unbalanced distributions of wealth enable organizations to bring pressure on others), and Information (the true nature of this violence is often hidden, especially in the products of large media organizations).

It is important to remember that the super-organ of Decision is not limited to the services known as government. It influences virtually every aspect of human life. For example, there are decision-making bodies and processes in businesses and corporations, educational institutions, scientific institutions, media organizations, energy groups, technology standards groups, the entertainment industry, regulatory agencies, security and military forces, and many others. To varying extents, the disconnect between the masses and their leaders can be seen in all of these organizations, with many of the same features and results. It all intertwines. In addition, each super-organ contains the super-organ of Decision (each has processes for deciding how to distribute the resources). Economic disempowerment, misinformation and disinformation, secrecy, fraud, and violence leave noticeable marks on all organizations. It is all part of a unified system.

This disconnect between the people and the leadership of their organizations is largely responsible for the overall control system being out of control, as well as the unbalanced way in which resources are being distributed according to the desires of the few at the expense of the many.

It is possible to see a great deal of 'evil' in all of this, and to some extent there is, in that the system is deliberately manipulated in dishonest and unfair ways. However, it is also important to realize that many of the problems are systemic. Individuals within the system are often simply doing their best to get what they want, and they feel they are doing right. Yes, they may break a few rules and hide some of their behavior, but they feel 'this is how the game is played' – it's the only way to get my fair share. Similar to the way that crowds will behave in ways their individual members will not, the system tends to magnify the effects of its parts.

One of the primary reasons for this type of dysfunction is a lack of awareness of what is going on. What is being accomplished here? Are you trying to get as much as you can to sustain your group or organization, at any and all costs to others? Or are you aware of the larger picture? Awareness is key to an effective control system. Do you realize that making some concessions for the greater good, and for the harmony of the whole, ultimately benefits everyone?

Thus it is a matter of awareness and perspective. What is wholly lacking in most of the members of the political system (which includes all of us), is awareness of the very purpose and nature of that system. People have forgotten, if they ever knew, that it is a system for the control of the distribution of resources. And those that do know often try to manipulate that system for the sake of short-sighted and narrow agendas, rather then being cognizant of the bigger picture.

We ignore the bigger picture at our peril, because it is all connected. It is natural to further one's own agenda, and the agenda of one's organization, but it is important to do so within a larger framework of awareness. There is one organization we are all a member of – Earth. Undermining our greatest organization serves no one.

Further on, I will make some suggestions for how Decision can be recreated, and how some of the causes of dysfunction can be addressed. For now, I will continue with the analysis of the other super-organs.

[edit] Analysis of Security

Consider the following: All attackers see themselves as defenders.

Everyone is defending something – their way of life, their organization, their safety, their resources. While one group may label another group as a provocateur, as an attacker, the attacker will not see themselves that way. They will see themselves as pushed against a wall, attacking out of defense.

Many organizations (nations, for example) will claim that they only use force for defense. Yet that is all there ever is – defense, and some other group will view their actions as offensive. The only reason people resort to force is out of a need for survival – it is all defense. Even those groups seeking to build empires, who attack to absorb, do so out of needs for increasing resources – survival.

Any defensive weapon can be used offensively. If you have an excellent shield, for example, which can deflect all manner of bullets and bombs, it enables you to act with impunity. You can act unilaterally, stepping on others' toes, safe in the knowledge that they cannot attack you in response (or as they would put it, they cannot defend themselves against you).

This is not to say that one never has good cause to attack. You may attack as a means of preventing further attacks, for example, against an opponent who refuses to honor your sovereignty. This should be done with deep honesty, however, and with the understanding that your opponent views their actions as defensive and yours as offensive. Otherwise, violence becomes the default language. This is increasingly the case. One may imagine that people are only using a violence as a last resort, but increasingly violence is becoming the language of choice.

The super-organ of Security is specialized, like the other super-organs. Not everyone is a warrior, or can be. Yet those who are not warriors are valuable in other ways to the system. Indeed, in a fully functional world, all are valuable. If one specializes in Information, or Wealth, or Decision, one may not be specialized in Security.

All individuals and organizations use some form of security force. There is that part of the individual or organization which specializes in this, or the service is acquired from others. For example, a town may have a sheriff. When the residents - bookkeepers, children, librarians, factory workers, housewives – have a security problem they cannot handle, they call to the sheriff for help. Even Security organizations have security. For one, they have internal security within their organization. They also have security which makes sure that while they're performing their functions, they are not attacked from other corners. Further, when the sheriff cannot handle something, he calls his leaders, who may call in the military, for example.

When functional, Security provides a space of safety within which other processes may proceed unimpeded. Were it not for Security, every bully who came along would be able to undermine the work being done, the lives being lived, and humanity would be reduced to a might-makes-right battle for physical domination. It is very difficult to study mathematics, art, and politics in such an environment.

Security which is applied equally creates a violence suppression system. It tempers the conduct of people within reasonable ranges such that people can run for office, for example, without being eliminated or disabled by a bully who would sabotage their work. Much like speed limits and traffic lights help to control the flow of traffic so that one may travel safely, Security provides a motherly safety net which reduces friction among the diverse elements of a culture.

When Security is applied unequally, it becomes a bully itself. It is that excellent shield now, which provides defense and protection to some groups, while refusing to protect others. In this way, it becomes a weapon yielded by those who have Security on their side. Any defensive weapon can be used offensively.

When a functional Security organization goes into battle, it's primary function is to genuinely protect everyone, including itself. It does this through violence suppression and negotiation. The object is to create safety for all, at the expense of no one.

“To serve and protect.”

In the case of the current Security super-organ, the first thing to note about it is that it is a negative, reactive control system in the extreme. It is difficult to imagine police who are not fighting bad guys, or even what police would be doing if they were not fighting bad guys. Likewise, what do firemen do when they're not fighting fires? Yet with a little thought, one can imagine a positive, creative Security control system. For one, it would become highly adept at anticipating and avoiding violence and danger long before it manifests. If you think about the current system, what primarily goes on is that a crime is committed, then the police are called to 'catch the bad guy'. Yet is that any real consolation to the person who has been attacked or injured? This is not a success of Security, it is a failure – peace and safety have already been interrupted. The toast is burnt. Wouldn't a real protection force emphasize heading off the sources of crime, and providing protection which avoids, rather than punishes, attack? Would you not rather live there?

In addition to avoidance, Security could evolve to the point where it does indeed “serve and protect”, providing services which enhance the quality of life. This is much like the analogy to the medical profession. There is no upper limit to security. Eventually it becomes empowerment. And empowerment is exactly what a functional Security provides. Even in the case of basic violence suppression, people are empowered to employ themselves at other pursuits besides fighting off bullies.

Currently, Security, like other super-organs, has been co-opted to the purposes of the elite, large corporations, and governments seeking to maintain tight control of people. Rather than the control system distributing security services uniformly, it provides unbalanced security driven by narrow agendas. In this role, it is yielded as a weapon, inciting violence and oppression, rather than preventing it. In the largest example, military forces are used aggressively against other nations and groups. Ostensibly, this is all done in “defense”, for the sake of peace. But because Security is not being applied equitably or uniformly, the result is increasing hostility and increasingly destructive and widespread weapons.

In addition, the lapse in security is undermining the functionality of the other super-organs. Without equitable and balanced security, Decision, Wealth, and Information degrade into fist fights, with the result that their elements cannot perform their functions.

Like Decision, Security is affected by economic disempowerment. Security is provided primarily to those with wealth. This is a feedback system, in that those with security are then in a position to obtain more wealth, through intimidation and violence. It also means that the dysfunctions of the Wealth super-organ, which is not distributing wealth uniformly, is controlling the Security super-organ. The reason for this is that the elements of Security are basing their services on wealth, rather than on the principle of uniform distribution of security.

Security is also feeling similar effects from misinformation, disinformation, secrecy, and fraud. For there to be a fully functional Security, there must be a fully functional Information. Security requires accurate and timely information. Information also comes into Security through education. Knowledge is power, is empowering. Any form of empowerment provides security.

As with Wealth, there is feedback from Decision to Security. Those making decisions to some extent control the application of security forces. If they do so in a biased way, they are using Security as a bully to keep themselves in power.

Finally, Security is deeply affected by Security. Most of the security forces in the world are doing battle, in one form or another, with other security forces. Rather than working in a unified way to provide uniform security, they are locked in conflict. It is a house divided against itself. Increasing amounts of wealth are drawn into this battle against ourselves, with the result that global resources are depleted. (Globally, nations spend far more on military spending than anything else.) As a result of this constant competition within the super-organ, Security is largely paralyzed. The result – a general lack of security.

[edit] Analysis of Wealth

How is the distribution of wealth determined? In different parts of the world, it is determined differently, but there are some general trends. It is interesting that many people believe wealth is distributed to those who earn it, and these people tend to be touchy when alternate distributions of wealth, such as communism, charity, and socialism are presented.

Yet in our world, the workers are at the very bottom of the ladder. They receive the smallest slice of the pie. The largest amount of wealth is concentrated in the hands of a very small minority. By no stretch of the imagination can these people be said to have earned it, at least not in the sense of work that the rest of the world experiences. Rather, they received their wealth through entitlement – as a reward for being a member of a particular family or other organization. Most wealth over time has been acquired and held through entitlement and aggression (the spoils of war), not work. Yet miraculously, this highly inequitable system remains in place, century after century, and suggestions to revise it are met with scorn and fear.

The super-organ of Wealth is highly unbalanced as a distribution system. There would be some logic to taking the world's natural resources and distributing them equally to the people of the world. Instead, natural resources are seen as belonging solely to the people who own the land on which or under which they exist. As a result, battles for land ensue. Some people live in a land of plenty, while their neighbors are literally starving to death. The control system fails to balance this distribution.

Wars revolve around resources – primarily water, fuel, and food. War has become the primary means of distributing these resources. In this sense, the Security super-organ acts as a bully which attempts to control Wealth. Because of the non-uniform distribution of security, the control system of Wealth is undermined by this bullying.

Everything of a tangible nature that is accomplished in the world is accomplished through the use of products, energy, and raw materials. The biased distribution of wealth paralyzes large segments of the human population. Most of the people of the world live in abject poverty. Even those who live in wealthier areas are often smothered in creature comforts – lavish food, entertainment, housing - but are denied the resources to make genuine changes to the system in which they live. As such, many people in the wealthier nations find themselves living hollow lives, with increasing apathy and depression.

The largest distribution of wealth on Earth goes into the armed forces of the world, and is used to make weapons.

There is a remarkable system of international banking which defies understanding or control. Optimally, currency is a form of measurement. However, so removed is practical value from the objects and activities assessed that illusion reigns. The banking and financial organizations have become a magician's act. Sleight of hand and outright fraud are widespread. The addition of credit and other devices creates a sea of money far removed from real values. As a result of this detachment, the distribution of wealth becomes largely arbitrary when it is not biased.

To a large extent, the rules and requirements for attaining wealth are written in such a way as to give preference to particular groups. This further impedes the distribution of wealth, providing little opportunity for circulation.

There is good reason for this. The elite know that wealth is a form of empowerment, so they seek to deny empowerment by hoarding wealth. This is further enhanced by a general belief that there is not enough for everyone – someone has to be the loser.

The Information super-organ is perhaps more dysfunctional in the area of Wealth than in any other. Secrecy, misinformation, fraud, and myth reign. Transparency in financial matters is lacking, which causes crime and abuse to fester. In feedback, Wealth puts Information at its mercy. Resources are granted and denied to Information organizations on the basis of maintaining the current state of the system. Through media and the educational system, populations are highly conditioned to accept the inequities of the system as necessities.

When it comes to distributing security, information, and roles in decision-making, most people express at least a basic understanding that equitable distribution is valuable to everyone. However, when it comes to distributing wealth, people can barely imagine a system outside the one they live in. People are conditioned to hoard, and fail to see the cumulative cost of hoarding in terms of aggression, financing aggression, suffering, and human despair. “That's just the way things are, and that's how they will always be.” Locked in fear, no one wants to be the first one to budge, even where they can.

This lack of understanding of distribution probably contributes more than anything else to the highly dysfunctional Wealth system.

The internet has introduced new avenues to the distribution of wealth, as well as a degree of chaos through fraud, identity theft, and other 'hi-tech crimes'. In addition, a new ethic of sharing has grown on the internet. Many services are distributed uniformly and free of charge, and there is an ethic of promoting the common good. These qualities are being challenged as the infrastructure of the internet is bought by large corporations and network-neutrality is attacked. The internet depends on Wealth for its sustenance, and is shackled in many ways to the same organizations which control distribution in other areas.

[edit] Analysis of Information

Information is the primal super-organ. If any one super-organ encompasses the entire system, it is Information. In one sense, all resources are information. Even raw materials being distributed amount to information being communicated. Matter is energy “in formation”. In the end, it is all energy, and energy is information.

Perhaps at our current stage of development this is unimportant, yet it does provide a window into the unity of the political system. Information is the life blood that flows through the super-organs. Information is the system, the source of energy for the system, and that which the system distributes. It is the amazing power that keeps all the mouths chattering on TV, on the internet, in the classrooms, in the boardrooms, in the bedrooms. Anywhere the flow of information is impeded, the overall system is rendered less functional. Likewise, anywhere the flow of information is enhanced, the system becomes more functional.

The human brain processes information, and a control system is a kind of brain. The super-organ of Information is the brain of the political control system – the brain of the brain.

It is for this reason, whether they are aware of it or not, that information is handled so carefully by people. We know that it is the key to our existence. It is for this reason that a simple thing like a book can lead to the downfall of a powerful government (“A slip of the lip can sink a ship.”) It is for this reason that governments and other organizations seek to control and manipulate information first and foremost. Knowledge/imagination, is primal power, and deep down we all know it.

Our current organizations of Information are the healthiest of all the super-organs. This makes sense – they are at the heart of the system, and will fail last, in general. It is very difficult to keep a secret. As hackers say, information begs to be free. Information is also the lightest of the resources. It is the most easily distributed.

Nevertheless, the flow of information in our world is heavily impeded. Organizations such as the media, education, and the entertainment industry are shackled by the super-organs of Wealth, Security, and Decision. Every attempt is made to slow the movement of information, and to reduce the awareness of the general population. This includes many religions, where the norm is that nothing new is left to be found or added. We know it all. Do not inquire.

Secrecy is employed to the extent it is in our global culture because even powerful governments and corporations know that if the truth of their behaviors came out, their public support would dry up almost instantly. This is why they scurry from the light like roaches caught robbing the cupboard. It is also why they react with violence and fear to efforts toward transparency and liberal education.

Humanity clings to old thoughts, old information, because it knows that as new information seeps into the global consciousness, change and growth is inevitable. Change is something that humanity has been taught to fear. Those who are happy with the current political control system will dig in their heels the deepest. Those who are less content are generally more willing to welcome change. However, this is not always the case. It depends on whether they see the change as making their position better or worse, and they are often led to believe the latter.

Information is also the hardest to control, especially when people decide to seek it. It may be easy to send televised propaganda to people with little will to look deeper into the truth. But when people begin going onto the internet and seeking out the truth, it is just about impossible to hold it back. Information is light and quick, and it is drawn toward the genuinely inquisitive in an almost magical way. How often have you picked up just the right book at the right time, or happened upon a TV program or internet website that seemed to propel your understanding forward at just the right moment? It is because of this that those who would impede the flow of information seek to deaden the minds of the population through a variety of devices, from the physical chemicals they entreat people to consume to the monotonous propaganda which is delivered in a continuous stream. They cannot stop the flow of information, so they seek to overload the receiver. That is why it is immensely important what you choose to give your attention to. If you tune in, the information is there.

As with the health care system, individuals who deliberately seek to deceive people may be rare. It is endemic to the system as it currently stands. The system perpetuates general stupidity because it sustains it – ignorance is profitable for the elite and keeps things as they are.

This is very much a losing battle, as anyone who has attempted to control information knows. It may be slowed, and confusion may be generated by mixing half-truths and deceptions into the soup, but it will not be stopped. It continuously moves in one direction – forward. As it does, growth and change occurs. Evolution goes not backward. You cannot put the chick back in the egg.

There are, however, cycles of awareness, and sometimes this is mistaken for regression. We are in just such a cycle right now, and it appears in some ways that we are regressing. For example, democracies are turning into dictatorships, which certainly seems like a backwards flow. Yet this is just the surface appearance. On the whole, awareness is growing, even if the effects are not always visible.

What is happening is that the global consciousness is shifting. Yes, you had dictatorships before, but did you have the internet? Was there a massive global communication system revealing the details of those dictatorships on a daily basis? Sometimes it is necessary for things to expand, and be fully revealed, before they will contract.

That is not to say we are out of danger. We will be going forward to utopia or to our destruction, but we will not be going backward.

[edit] Part 3: Innovation

In parts 1 and 2, I demonstrated how the political system is a control system for the distribution of resources, including natural resources, products, and services. The overall political control system was broken down into four super-organs: Information, Decision, Wealth, and Security. The issues affecting the functionality of the overall system was examined by analyzing the interplay of these super-organs. Issues such as reactive control, economic disempowerment, poor communication, secrecy, voting fraud, violence, and unbalanced distribution of resources were shown to play pivotal roles in the dysfunctionality of the overall system.

In this part, I will offer suggestions for how the current system can be migrated to a more functional system. I would like to encourage my reader on two counts. First, keep in mind that we have all lived the entirety of our lives in the current system, and as such it is difficult work for us to embrace alternative approaches. In many ways, most of the suggestions here are not new. You have heard them before in other contexts, and may have been encouraged to judge or discard them. If the current system is dysfunctional to the extent it appears to be, then clearly some of our core principles are in need of reexamination. This is not easy work. It taps into our deepest fears and wishes. I am not suggesting that you accept my ideas as optimum. Nor am I by any means suggesting that I have all the answers. I am merely sharing my highest thoughts on this subject in the hope that you will do the same. What I ask is that you temporarily open your mind to considering other approaches from those that may at first seem more comfortable or 'right'. If we are going to get where we want to go, the system is in need of major functional corrections. For those of us in the system, which includes all of us, this will not be an easy ride. Yet it can also be an exciting one. Although I am presenting my ideas as suggestions, I also believe that many of them are inevitable developments in the long run. What is not inevitable: will they be brought about through deliberate work before the system becomes even more dysfunctional, or as a consequence of a painful upheaval due to widespread system failure?

Second, I encourage you to find your place in this process. Who will you be in the new world we are heading toward? What do you imagine to be your highest role, your greatest gift? We are all essential. The new world is inclusive. I hope you will find your place in this world, as well as your place in the process of migration. Perhaps your gifts lie more in the area of Security, Wealth, Decision, or Information, or some combination of several. Please endeavor to put yourself in the picture.

Imagine yourself walking through a forest, a winding dirt path under your feet. There are trees, grasses, shrubs, and wildflowers around you. There is the sound a stream flowing in the distance. You're not the only one here. Ants are crawling along the ground, bees are exploring the flowers, carrying away nectar. In fact, thousands of different kinds of insects are exploring every inch of the forest, moving and consuming bits of it. Birds are chattering overhead. You hear a deer blow in the distance. Lichens on the rocks are breaking the rocks down, eventually to become soil. The trees are growing in that soil (rock), while other trees are rotting, becoming soil again. One day, that soil, under great time and pressure, may become rock again.

Humans are not the only ones with a distribution system. Earth has a distribution system for resources that boggles the imagination with its complexity, interdependence, flexibility, support of diversity, balance, and thoroughness. The forest is an interesting example of a system, because it does not appear to have any centralized control. As a result, you would think everything within it would be a homogeneous chaos. Yet that is far from the case. Different areas have different trees. Some areas are overgrown with shrubs and tall grasses, such that you can't walk through them. Yet other areas are open, the floor covered with a living carpet, home to thousands of species. In one sense, it's chaotic. Yet in that chaos is form, beauty, and sublime functionality.

I will discuss more of how the human distribution system fits into the larger natural system in Part 4. Yet I want to point out some of the characteristics of this successful, natural system now, because we have a lot to learn from nature in the design our our own system.

The first thing to notice about the natural system is impermanence. Everything, and I mean everything, is in a state of flux. Nature creates and dissolves organizations continuously. The organizations themselves, be they lichens, trees, or deer, do not resist dissolution (death). They strive to survive, but they also adapt and die with surrender. Rather than something to avoid, change and death is woven into the system and is a natural function of it. Rather than trying to maintain one form at all costs, nature allows its forms to change, some being absorbed (eaten) by other forms, which allows the overall system to adapt to larger changes. When there is less rain, some of the forms in a forest, some types of trees, for example, will die off, to be replaced by trees that require less water.

There is also constant circulation through natural systems. New inputs are constantly being received and distributed throughout. Rarely does a resource build up in one place for long, and even when such a blockage occurs, it isn't long before the damn breaks.

Another point, as I mentioned earlier, is that there is no apparent centralized control, yet an exquisite harmony develops. Where does this harmony come from? Each element in the system is part of the system. By behaving in ways that they have been genetically programmed to behave, each contributes to the overall functionality of the system. Because the elements are in harmony with themselves, surrendered to their nature, an overall harmony develops. Anything which isn't working, is no longer functional, is reabsorbed.

A human distribution system, which includes consciousness and intention, will be different than a forest in some ways. The addition of consciousness can add sublime new dimensions, including compassion, higher levels of awareness, greater perception of time and history, and more. However, there is much to be learned from the natural system. Further, although we sometimes like to believe so, humanity is not separate from or larger than nature. If we remain dysfunctional for too long, we too will be “reabsorbed” by the Earth. Life goes on.

As part 2 of this discussion demonstrated, the difficulty humans experience with our current distribution control system is that it gets 'stuck'. For one, organizations are created for various purposes, yet rather than performing their function and being dissolved back into the larger culture, or adapting to serve other purposes, they develop a will of their own and want to be permanent. People identify with the organization and begin to defend it against dissolution, re-absorption, and change. This 'ego effect' of organizations also creates a cancerous effect, where the organization grows and grows without limitation, consuming increasing resources. They become tumors in the system. Large organizations in our world almost always become dysfunctional and detrimental to the common good, including large, centralized governments, armed forces, corporations, religions, and media outlets.

The fundamental principle not being honored is impermanence, and this ties into a fundamental attribute of distribution: circulation.

Circulation is the foundation of a functional distribution system. For example, in the human body, blood and other substances are circulated throughout the body, especially to those areas most in need. Distribution is not a matter of putting things in their place and being done. It is a continuous function of circulation (movement) of inputs (resources) to where they are most useful to the overall system. In a dysfunctional system, circulation to some areas fails or is impeded, which is detrimental to the overall system. This is analogous to your arm falling asleep due to lack of blood. If the situation is not corrected, the arm, or the entire body can die.

If humanity's difficulties can be summed up in one phrase, it would be “poor circulation of resources”. Because of blockages, places where the system gets 'stuck', information, security, decision-making, and wealth are distributed to some areas while other areas literally die. This imbalance in the distribution of these resources leads to dysfunction, as described in detail in part 2. For example, an unbalanced distribution of security means that one group is able to bully another group. Another example: if information is distributed in an unbalanced way, secrecy and abuse may develop, or people may be too ill-informed to make wise decisions.

It is important to note that balanced distribution does not necessarily mean equal distribution. In fact, in order to restore the balance, largely unequal distribution may be called for (“redistribution of wealth”). The general idea in a conscious distribution system is that deep awareness of what is most needed in particular areas will determine distribution. And 'what is most needed' is not considered in terms of what is most needed for individual organizations to remain permanently unchanging, but by what is most valuable to the overall system. This is not to say there is no room for compassion. Yet it is to say that the larger system takes more into account than just local desires and needs. It sees and responds to the big picture.

Another attribute to note about the natural system is the immense support of diversity. The natural Earth system, for example, has supported billions of species. Now, you may say, “yes, but some of those species have died out!” Indeed, species do die off. That too is part of the impermanence, the continuously changing nature of the system. Yet those species also lived, many of them for millions of years. And even those were not unchanged over time, but were in a continuous state of evolution. This in turn brings us to another attribute: evolution.

Natural control systems are always evolving. Unlike human systems, where change is resisted, if allowed at all, change and the evolution of the entire system is part of the system.

Support for wide diversity is not just nice, it is essential to a healthy system. As in Earth's case, the greater the genetic variation, the more durable and adaptable the system is. In humans and other life forms, if you have a small genetic pool for breeding, you wind up with low adaptability, birth defects, dwindling intelligence, and eventual extinction. By contrast, having a diverse genetic pool leads to extended adaptability, survival, and development of the species.

Recall the products of a utopian control system discussed in part 2: Abundance (circulation), Diversity, Inclusion. What is most desirable also turns out to be most promising to survival and thriving.

Thus, as we consider in what direction we wish to migrate our current distribution control system (our current political system), what works is balanced circulation, awareness of the health of the larger system, support of diversity, and continuously evolving organization (impermanence).

In case you didn't notice, these are dangerous, exciting words. These are words that turn our current world upside down. Words like “redistribution of wealth” are words that make the wealthy, the elite, and large governments and corporations cringe.

So right off the bat, decide: do you want to be honest, or do you want to be non-controversial? You're not going to get both.

In bringing any of this into reality, in putting wheels on it and actually migrating toward such a system, we will rock the boat.

Nobody likes to be in a rocking boat. However, if we're going to avert disaster, a little reorganization of seating is involved. Not only that, but the boat we're in is already rocking. In fact, it's leaning so heavily to one side that it is about to capsize on those waves ahead.

However, it is not my intention to capsize the boat, nor is it my intention that anyone go overboard, including the rich and powerful, the unpopular leaders, or the humble people who don't want change. After all, one of the core principles just covered is inclusion. I think it is important at the start to remind ourselves to find a place for everyone, and to “distribute” compassion and regard to everyone. The wealthy and elite are no more to blame than any of us – they could not have remained in their positions without our support. Redistribution of wealth may sound scary, but it does not require violence.

On the contrary, I welcome them to join us, as one of us, sharing in the resources of the planet, just like everyone. I do not welcome them to lord over us, or take more than their share of the planet's resources, as they are doing now. In some ways, many of us, even those who are not wealthy, may end up with less, at least for a time. Ask yourself, “are you willing to make do with a bit less if it means a more equitable world, and a world that has a promising future?”

I believe it is important to focus on ways to make the migration to the new world as smooth as possible. I'm sure there will be intense resistance at times – there will be those who will resist this form of change with everything they have. They would rather die in Armageddon than accept a more humble role. Yet overall, I believe it is possible to introduce gradual change that gives people time and opportunity to make the shift, and the earlier we each begin making that shift, the smoother it will be.

Why is this so urgent? Why can't we just go on as we are? Because the way humanity has been proceeding is not working in the extreme. For one, global warming is threatening our very existence. Due to the lack of a connected, responsible, global response we are still making it worse, not better. Additionally, tensions over resources are continuously rising, as is the spread of weapons. Governments are suffocating in secrecy and corruption, diving into dictatorships. Add to this the meddling with the genetic codes of life, with super-diseases poised to wipe out huge segments of the population, and it is a dire picture indeed. In these and other ways our lack of cooperation, humility, and adaptation is leading to major upheaval in the least.

You may be reluctant to start tearing down the structure. But the wood is rotten. It is not supporting you – you are supporting it. It is bogging us down, holding us back. Yet I am not suggesting tearing down the entire structure at once – that would be equally disastrous. What I am suggesting is that we examine it piece by piece, and replace those pieces which are not working.

I am suggesting that change is required, and I am offering what I see as viable means of bringing about change in incremental ways, and in ways that give all of us the opportunity to participate.

[edit] Changes To Security

More than any other, the changes made in the super-organ of Security will determine whether the transition to the new world is a trying, difficult time, or a living hell. The reason for this is that people will be (already are) under increasing pressure, and in their distress will resort to violence and destructive behavior. In addition, deliberate changes, such as the redistribution of wealth, will not be greeted warmly by the powerful entities of the world. They will resist these changes through violent means, just as they have maintained their wealth through violent means.

By Security, I mean the super-organ responsible for the distribution of security services. This certainly includes military, police, and other trained security forces. However, it goes much deeper than that. We are all a part of Security, and we all have responsibilities in that area. How are we going to treat others? How are we going to respond to distress, at many levels, and in many organizations? When will we choose to use violence, and when will we use non-violent methods to suppress violence? These are all wise questions to consider in advance, now.

When fully functional, the Security super-organ maintains a violence suppression system. It anticipates and responds to potential outbreaks of violence and mitigates them through protection, negotiation, and force. The key to a functional Security is balance. Unless security services are distributed equitably, to where they are needed, and uniformly, to all organizations and individuals, Security becomes a weapon yielded by those who possess it. In this case, rather than suppressing violence, it incites violence.

Where we are now on Earth is that we have a variety of large organizations and governments which control most of the trained security forces. This includes police and military. It also includes various 'black ops' organizations which work behind the scenes, maintaining secrecy, performing political assassinations and intimidation, and other work for the powerful. Many of the individuals in these forces are probably far from where they thought they would be when they first entered service.

In the times ahead, it will be important for individuals and groups of individuals in these forces to begin operating outside of the conventional system. Rather than blindly following orders against their feelings, it will be necessary for them to do as they see fit. This is already beginning to happen. In some cases, this will involve outright disobedience and betrayal of the organization commanding them.

This is part of improving circulation. Right now, security forces are concentrated in organizations, and their resources are not being circulated to other people and organizations. As people migrate to other organizations, this will restore balance to the overall security situation. However, they will not be able to do this alone, and they will require assistance from people in other areas of the political control system.

This will be dangerous in some cases, yet danger is part of being connected with Security. It will be important to mitigate as much of that danger as possible – mitigating danger is exactly what Security is about, and it applies to itself.

Ask yourself, “Am I serving the general good? Am I contributing to greater security for people in general, or am I in the hands of an organization with an agenda, who is using me to create imbalance, rather than restore it?” If it is the latter, move yourself. Movement is what distribution is all about, and redistribution of security services will involve people moving to other areas and positions. Expect resistance.

Beyond security forces, people everywhere must begin to take responsibility for each other. If you don't, no one will. Obviously, everyone has different means in this area, but everyone can contribute in some way. If we as people want the power, we as people need to stand up and assume the power. No one will hand it to you. You must regain what has been taken from you. Assume it, use it, exercise it, with no apologies to those who tell you it is not your place to do so.

Many people are used to dialing 911. That is convenient, but as changes occur, that will not be the effective response to every security situation. 911 connects with a centralized organization. What we are looking to do here is decentralize security. New organizations may form, in a variety of ways. This is not to say you will never use the conventional. It means you don't limit yourself to the conventional.

“Don't put all your eggs in one basket.” “Spread the money around.”

Support a variety of organizations that provide security in a variety of ways. Ease your dependence on one particular organization, or group of organizations. They are not necessarily going to be there for you at every point on this journey. As nature does, be flexible and develop multiple sources for your resources.

Another role of Security is to protect diversity. This will be increasingly important as some organizations feel threatened by changes. They will attempt to mitigate their danger through elimination. They will seek to eliminate those who are different from them, those who are not part of their organizations.

One key to the protection of diversity is the use of distance. If you put a man and a lion in a cage, you will likely have a fight and a dead man. A man is weaker in some physical ways than a lion, but does that mean a man is less valuable than a lion? In fact, both the lion and the man are valuable. It is the cage which is making them enemies – otherwise they have a natural tendency to avoid one another. Removing the cage, creating distance, helps to preserve diversity.

The more distance Security maintains between diverse groups, the less friction there will be, and thus the less violence. One aspect of this will be freeing up some of the space which is currently claimed by large organizations and governments. This includes physical space – land – but also includes opportunities in information broadcasting – in other words, let everyone have a voice, and areas where they can talk amongst themselves. You will notice the importance of this if you notice how feverishly some organizations seek to prevent it through control of communication and eavesdropping.

As individuals and organizations involved in the distribution of information, wealth, and decision-making seek to distribute those resources more widely, it will be very important for Security to step in and protect those efforts. Otherwise, bullying will prevent much of the improvement in circulation. This includes everyone in every capacity, because we all have a role in Security.

The main ideas to keep in mind:

1) Circulation and inclusion – are security services being distributed in a balanced and equitable way to create a comprehensive violence suppression system? If not, what role can you play in improving security?

2) Diversity – does distance exist between diverse groups of people, and how can you impact that?

3) Impermanence - is security concentrated in a few select organizations? Are you relying on a small group of organizations for your security? How can you spread the money around? How can you support other organizations and individuals who are capable of improving genuine widespread security. Now that you know what real security may look like, watch for it. Where you see the potential for it to grow, support that. Ultimately, you are supporting your own security when you improve the overall system.

Don't just look for big changes, which will often seem overwhelming and too dangerous. Look for small, incremental changes that you can sponsor in your day-to-day activities. Often these can accumulate and grow in surprising ways.

Also, don't just look for positive action, but for things you can refrain from doing which may have a balancing effect. Non-action can be a surprisingly powerful tool.

[edit] Changes To Wealth

Now that we have Security at our backs, we can tinker with other parts of the system, knowing we will encounter resistance and danger. So why do it? There is already danger present, and not making changes will prove to be more dangerous than not in the long run. I believe that the longer we wait to begin our journey, the harder that journey will be, not just overall, but in each individual's experience as well.

We also have a powerful ally in this work. The universe has a 'grain' to it, and when you work with the grain, the wind is at your back. Life moves in but one direction: forward. It is the nature of life to progress, to evolve. When you lend your energies to this purpose, rather than against it, you often find a power in your motion that comes from beyond just your self. This is no accident. The human political system is part of a larger life system. When you align yourself with that larger purpose, you have a powerful ally: the truth.

It is important now to get the wealth of the planet circulating in more dynamic ways. This in turn helps the super-organs of Information, Decision, and Security to perform their intended functions. As more individuals and organizations in the system receive resources through the enhanced functioning of Wealth, they are better able to make their contributions. This is a feedback effect, in this case a desirable one. More circulation leads to even more circulation. In addition, changes in the distribution of wealth will ease much of the conflict in the world, despite the efforts of some to keep it in place. People don't feel as angry when their bellies are full.

Wealth, which includes natural resources as well as goods, money, and services, is currently in the hands of a small minority. For a variety of reasons, they believe they are entitled to exclusive control of this huge percentage of the world's resources. They have put into place a system that says it is theirs, and they have pieces of paper that prove it.

We can all relate to this. Any of us that own property have laid claim to that property, and have justified it by that same system. Perhaps we feel we have worked for it, and thus are entitled to it. Perhaps we inherited it, stole it, won it in the stock market. There are a million reasons.

I believe there is a place for personal property. However, I also believe there is a place for shared resources – resources which are owned by everyone and no one in particular. A national park is a good example of this. The park is held as communal property, and is available for all to use within a set of agreed upon limitations. You can't chop up the forest for lumber, and you can't build your house there and lay claim to the property. You can, however, enjoy use of the land. Another example might be a highway. Many use it, but no one individual is said to own it.

Privatization of property and other resources is spiraling out of control on this planet, driven by greed and fear. Individuals, as well as corporations and other entities, are laying claim to larger and larger portions of the planet's resources, leaving billions of people out of the loop.

You can argue forever about who owns what, what pieces of paper they have to prove it, and so forth. Obviously, the people who lay claim to it will be mighty upset if you take it from their control. They will say you have no right. It would be as if someone took your car or your house. Yet who is the thief? The person who takes it from the world or the person who returns it? It is a matter of perspective.

A correction to the circulation of the system needs to be made. The blockages of circulation of wealth need to be removed, so that resources begin moving again. Currently, wealth goes to and stays with those people born into a particular family, associated with a particular organization, or otherwise entitled via arbitrary, traditional means.

This isn't just a case of the super-wealthy and the super-poor. In the United States, for example, the majority of resources are held by a subset of white males and their families, and a very discriminatory system is in place to make sure it stays there. Other ethnic groups, and even other groups of white people, live with far less, with no real opportunities for 'upward mobility'. Health care is available to a shrinking percentage of the population, while imprisonment is offered to a wildly growing percentage of the population. Even the brightest minds don't seem to be able to make the connection between the unequal distribution of wealth and crime. A blindness of convenience.

The situation is even more dire when comparing western nations with so-called developing nations and third world nations. Without going into all the gory details, there is a highly inequitable system in place, and it greatly contributes to some of humanity's largest conflicts.

It is time to begin circulating wealth not on the basis of what people have done, what their name is, what pieces of paper they hold, what color their skin is, or what part of the world they live in (land is itself a resource), but based on where the greatest need exists. The first task before humanity is to bring everyone to the basic 'enough' point – basic food, shelter, clothing, health care, access to clean water, etc.

Once that is achieved, and there is no obvious “need”, then the question will become, what is the most beneficial place to distribute wealth? Which organizations and individuals are serving the larger system? Which are empowering the super-organs of Security, Information, Wealth, and Decision with their efforts?

Is there room in this for freedom and personal property? Of course. But there will be limits to the acquisition and use of such property. Further, use of any wealth will be transparent and monitored, and resources which go to those individuals and organizations which do harm to the larger system (the environment, for example) will be diminished. In this way, the system will not be paying to destroy itself, as it is now.

You may ask, “where is the money for all this going to come from?” If that is your question, I would encourage you to investigate how wealth is currently distributed in our world. The sad joke is that we could be living in a far greater world. Even those of us who are relatively comfortable would gain. Only those with immense fortunes will find themselves with less. Yet they will still have plenty, and other consequential benefits of living in a balanced world will far outweigh their losses.

Game over. New game. All pieces go back to square one, and we all get an equal share of the pie to begin with. Depending on how we use it, we can take different directions, but no human will ever again be forced to live in terror and misery.

How can some of this change be encouraged?

As with Security, it is important to 'spread the money around'. Currently, virtually all goods and services are traded on the basis of government notes – money. Money is actually a system of measurement – it measures the value of one commodity against another. Were this done fairly and equitably it might be useful. Instead, money has become a shell game.

Money, as it currently exists, needs to be abandoned. Tear it down. The wood is rotten. The structure is not supporting you – you are supporting it. Begin a new system of sharing outside the monetary system. Contribute without being paid in the conventional way (the internet is an excellent example of this – many contributions are made not for monetary gain, but for the greater good which serves all). This is not to say you must abandon the use of money completely. But increasingly, find other ways to trade and move goods without going through the centralized organization of control – government notes.

Most people work jobs for money. This work they do is a resource. How is that work being used? How is it contributing to the greater good? Or is it detrimental to the greater good? Are you doing your job because you feel you have to? I'm sorry, but if that case, you're a slave – an economic slave. In fact, most people in the world could be classified that way. It is high time to end slavery - again.

The work you do for money is highly undervalued. You are being misused. You may not be able to stop working for money immediately, but you can begin to shift. You can begin to contribute less to the monetary system, and more to the human system.

Money is printed at will. It is manipulated to get people to do certain things for the wealthy, the powerful, and large corporations and governments. You are probably a part of that system.

Don't make any one currency sacred or more valid than another. Direct barter, where possible, and where that is unfeasible, seek to develop open, transparent systems of exchange. For example, imagine if eBay used tokens rather than dollars, much like video arcades do. Use tokens, personal credit, pseudo money, funny money, and even just plain charity to spread wealth as much as possible. Make the new goal circulation rather than acquisition. We have organic food. Now it is time for organically grown money.

They will fight it. And you know who they are. Expect resistance.

In addition to goods, redistribution of land in an equitable way is essential, as are new ideas about who owns resources on those lands. I, as others have done, envision a system where people are stewards of parcels of land, but do not own it. Everyone owns it, in the communal sense, including the natural resources below and above it. If they don't use the land and care for it in a responsible manner – and this includes corporations and other organizations – it is removed from their control. I don't have any clear ideas on how this change can be brought about, except through mutual agreement – Decision. I also believe that as other forms of wealth are redistributed, land will follow naturally. This is all part of a larger system where certain resources are considered communal and others private. We have such a system now in some ways, so it is not a matter of invention, but of reinvention.

One way of look at places where the current political control system gets stuck, where blockages occur, and where circulation is impeded, is as addictions.

People become addicted to one way of doing something, one organization, one form of currency. Centralization occurs and is abused. This does not merely happen by chance. Addiction is to some extent a natural phenomenon, but it is also feverishly encouraged.

Addiction to one mode of exchange works against the natural flow of impermanence. It leads to stagnation – the opposite of circulation. It also places too much power in the hands of a small group.

As with Security, disobedience to authority plays a large part here. One form of disobedience in the area of wealth is boycotts. Another is strikes. Both are old tools, and it is time to pick them up again. Refuse to be a slave and refuse to be forced to get your goods or services from any particular source. Remember that every 'dollar' is a vote. All the money you earn and spend, and all the resources you move without money, through work, trading, and charity, sends a message. You are a direct part of the super-organ of Wealth. The more conscious you become of your choices, and their impact on the larger system, the more functional and aware the system becomes.

Indeed, it is much like the forest, because in truth there is no centralized control. The political control system is everywhere and in all of us. Some organizations attempt to become the authority, the centralized controller, but they do so for narrow agendas, to the detriment of the whole. The system works best when it is non-centralized, when people are not addicted to just one or two sources. Organizations do form, but they also dissolve when they have performed their function.

Do your best to be aware of and support individuals and organizations which work in harmony with the greater good. This is true 'social security'.

Another important step in this direction is to make communities more self-sufficient. You will notice that the business practices of large corporations have gutted small, self-sufficient communities. This is not helpful. Encourage development of technologies and programs which enable communities to exist more 'off the grid' for energy, food, water, education, and materials. Clusters of small communities, connected yet distanced, is a healthier, more flexible, and durable way of living. I do not believe most large cities and their dependent suburbs will survive some of the coming shifts in resources and weather. Networks of small communities, interdependent but not dependent, are much better poised to weather coming storms, literally and figuratively.

Another important facet to the circulation of wealth, which I will only touch upon briefly, but which is probably the greatest danger facing humanity, is the degradation of our planet's viability to support life, i.e. global warming and other damage that humans have caused and amplified. In a functional political control system, repair of this damage will be the highest priority. I believe that greater circulation of wealth will contribute to this process by empowering more organizations, and by stopping the exploitation of the planet's resources.

These are just a few ideas, and I hope you will explore and share others, as well. Generating ideas and taking steps, no matter how small, are fundamentally important – do not underestimate that. The basic challenge: the wealth of our planet is being held hostage. How do we free it?

[edit] Changes To Decision

The super-organ of Decision is perhaps the one most poised to make a radical transformation soon. The internet, and some of the new levels of organization and participation it has introduced, may be a large part of this.

I believe the first issue to be addressed is voting. Voting fraud is undermining the connection between the people and their governments, businesses, and each other. Designing accurate polling techniques will be a large part of this.

From Project Censored, the Top 25 Censored Stories of 2006: #3 Another Year of Distorted Election Coverage:

“The official vote count for the 2004 election showed that George W. Bush won by three million votes. But exit polls projected a victory margin of five million votes for John Kerry. This eight-million-vote discrepancy is much greater than the error margin. The overall margin of error should statistically have been under one percent. But the official result deviated from the poll projections by more than five percent—a statistical impossibility.” [1]

The voting system is a form of poll itself. Yet you will notice that no margin of error is ever calculated or provided for the vote counts. This is fraud, and it is being used increasingly to hijack our governments.

Improving the official voting system may be very difficult at first, because it is controlled by those who are using it for their agendas. So change the channel. Again, don't rely on any one system or organization for your source of power – spread the money around. Organizations can begin by polling their own members, as well as members of the public. Use science in this – measure your margins of error, including errors caused by fraud, and verify these margins with empirical data. Once you have a number for the level of error, you can begin to improve it. Yet don't expect any poll or vote to be 100% accurate, and don't fool yourself or others into believing it is.

The idea is to become increasingly accurate and adept at polling. This will have two primary benefits. First, it will allow your organization to tap into the truth – the collective wisdom and the true nature of people's values. This in turn will lead to growth of your organization and and more harmonious decisions. It will put you in harmony with the true will of the people, and there is great power in this.

Second, as your and other polls become more widespread and accurate, they will increasingly reveal the voting system for the fraud it has become, just as current exit polls have done to an extent. People will realize what is being done, what their neighbors really think. Eventually, the new polling methods you have developed will replace the flawed voting system – eventually people use what works when their back is to the wall.

Polls as they are currently conducted are very limited and deceiving. Generally, pollsters will call around 1,000 people and ask them biased and leading questions. From these 1,000 called, they report what 300,000,000 people think. Sometimes their calculated margin of error and the number of people actually polled are reported, but often the final percentage appears as a headline: “95% of Americans Believe Polls are Accurate”. First, not everyone has a listed telephone, especially now that cell phones are prevalent; nor are they there to answer that phone if they have it. Many others do not have phones at all (hundreds of thousands of people don't even have homes). Also, it is very easy to selectively choose phone numbers based on other databases of personal information, in order to tap into a particular subset of the population (and their views). I realize there is a science to poll-taking, but I believe, in general, that the process is being used more to fool ourselves than to accurately reflect the truth.

With internet technology, it is possible to set up very interesting and informative sets of polls. Credit card numbers and other personal information is used to verify our identities in every other aspect of our lives. This same technique can be used to provide one vote per person. Yes, there will be fraud, just as there is in any public system. Measure this fraud, expect it. The poll will still be far more useful than what is being done today. Also, report fully what segment of the population is accessing your poll. For example, if it requires a computer, you are polling an important, but select and privileged, subset.

I believe creative, accurate polls are the starting point for participatory government. The idea of having an election once every few years is outdated, as is the idea of people having to go to polling places to use defective, compromised voting equipment, where they are harassed and often cannot reach the polling place. The technology exists to create a reasonably secure, widespread, convenient, and rapid voting system. It is no accident that this has been so slow to develop. There are powerful forces at work which want to keep the voting system crippled and corrupt, and thus far they appear to have succeeded.

The idea of electing a representative, who then votes on our behalf, is also outdated. We can vote directly on issues which interest us. We don't need a nanny. Politicians have their place – as specialists who study issues and summarize the core elements for us. Bloggers and others outside conventional politics are doing this already, often better than the conventional politicians, who often don't even read the bills they sign. The truth is out there on the internet, and often one can discern a consensus forming on the internet on various issues. This consensus is often much better informed, much more tuned to what really is, than the so-called “real world”. Why? Because the “real world” is misinformed through large, biased media corporations.

Imagine being able to vote on each proposed change to laws, and having your vote accurately counted. Imagine being able to present changes to laws, and if you garner enough support (perhaps 10% of the people) for that change, it appears in the larger voting system for everyone to decide. The roles members play in decision-making would circulate as well. Nothing would be static, yet there would be a stability founded upon the large number of people involved in the system.

Were such a system in place, changes to our system would come rapidly and effectively, which is exactly why such a system is not in place. We will meet huge resistance as we begin to build such a system – expect this and respond to it. Yet as we develop and improve polling techniques within our own organizations, and let control of those organizations be genuinely determined by their members, we begin to build that system.

In a distributed political system: “we control us”. In a hierarchal political system, orders are barked: “I control you.” In which do you choose to live?

Remember: government is not the only organization of Decision. There are many bodies which play a role in this process, right down to the individuals. Don't be addicted to “the government” as the only way to bring about change. Create your own 'government', as well as other organizations, and move forward. I can't stress this enough. There are many people complaining that they can't get government to do what they want, but they do not create their own. The current system will not change the current system. You have to start anew, outside of it. Historically, dictatorships are very rarely stopped from within, by their own people. It takes an outside force, such as a foreign nation. Were the Germans able to stop Hitler, despite his unpopularity later in his career? No, it required forces from without to do so. The reason is that the decision-making system within Germany had been compromised. I believe the same thing is happening in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, and other nations.

What makes 'the government' powerful? Ultimately, it is because they have the power to send police or military to arrest you, imprison you, or drain your bank account. Were it not for this power, they would have been ignored long ago. They are an arbitrary organization, a gang, which has taken control through bullying. If this was based on true majority support, it would at least represent a large segment of the population. As it stands, it is a crime family that is holding the larger population hostage.

We must not limit ourselves to 'government' to govern ourselves. We need to begin creating new forms of government today. There are many ways to influence people and outcomes. They may not have the power, the police and military might, to back them up, but strength will grow as people subscribe to them, and as people realize they are working for them, rather than against them. Create the alternatives.

The one-government-per-population model also needs to go. Have you asked yourself why it needs to be one body of government? In fact, even today's government is hardly cohesive or unified – it is a mess of competing factions. Make this official. Imagine having a variety of governments to choose from and to participate in. It may sound chaotic, but within chaos order and beauty develop.

As it is, we do have multiple governments, in the form of multiple nations. Expand this rather than contract it. It seems paradoxical, but unity is found in diversity, not centralization.

As one contemplates these ideas and other alternatives, one notices how desperately our current governments (of which we're all creators), resist such developments. They very much insist that they be THE authorities. Challenge this.

All of these mechanisms will help to circulate decision-making power to far more people. As such, the super-organ of Decision will grow from being almost paralyzed to being highly functional. It won't happen overnight, but if we don't begin, it will never happen.

Finally, use the tool of disobedience, especially in organized ways. This too is the worst nightmare of authoritarian organizations, and you will notice how terrible they try to be toward it. In the end, all decision rests with you. You always have the option to disobey an order or law. All obedience is voluntary, especially once you become conscious and well-informed. Yet don't just wait for your neighbor to begin, or else everyone is waiting for the person next to them, and no one takes a step. Live your own values, to the best of your courage and ability. There is no better way to distribute decision-making power than by assuming what has been stolen from you. We ARE the super-organ of Decision. It is time we started acting like it. At present, we are asleep at the wheel, and the vehicle is heading off the road. It is time to wake up out of the dream that the expert politicians will take care of everything for us. We are the drivers.

It is time to stop begging politicians.

I realize that a lot of this sounds “radical”, and in some sense it is. Yet what is happening in many governments right now is radical in another direction. If positive action is not taken, great suffering is going to be endured before we get another chance. Which will you have? The current well-known politicians and seated leaders are not going to voluntarily respond to the people in any effective way. They will continue to fiddle while Earth burns.

[edit] Changes To Information

I believe the internet has become the principle organization of the Information super-organ. It provides circulation of global information more than any other. Bloggers and participatory news organizations are clearly changing the way information is shared and used.

A warning to bloggers: We never think we will become just like our parents. Often, one day we look at our behavior and realize we have become just that. The current media organizations and their members were once bright-eyed and bushy-tailed too, and they actually reported news, investigated, and stirred up trouble. They have grow brittle and dysfunctional with age, now just parroting the government/corporate voice. They are spokespeople for the establishment, shallow and hollow. They were bought out, taken over to a large degree. This can happen to you. Be ever vigilant as to your true purpose: the truth.

In general, we need to continue with the project that is the internet, and allow it to recreate the “real world” in its image. Don't limit the internet to the internet. The internet, and systems born from it, will be the vehicles that take us to a new world. There is a natural tendency toward higher organization, but beware of letting this become centralization. Allow there to be a variety of voices. Use distance – anonymity. Share the bandwidth. Silence no one.

There is a reason why censorship grows – ideas are powerful. They lead to actions, and everyone knows this. When you hear people spouting hatred, you know those ideas and words will turn into actions. The tendency is to silence them.

Censorship is tempting. We all do this to ourselves. When we speak and write, we select what we will include, and what we will keep out of the conversation. We also do this to others, limiting their expressions in various ways. Ultimately, this is always rooted in fear.

When the Nazis grow too large, are you really going to let them continue to brainwash the young with their propaganda, or are you going to stop them?

How are you going to stop them? By silencing them, or by revealing them? When you use your own voice to speak truth, and to reveal what others are doing and being, you bring about change through expression rather than suppression. Have faith in people, in their ability to hear and integrate the truth. It may not be as fast or as convenient as simply silencing your opponent, but it is far more lasting. If you try to use silencing as a weapon, you become the enemy.

Notice how conspirators react to being revealed. They will immediately try to silence you, the revealer. You can see this in the secrecy in our current governments, for example. They try desperately not to have their true workings revealed.

From the Project Censored, the Top 25 Censored Stories of 2006: #1 Bush Administration Moves to Eliminate Open Government:

“The Bush Administration has an obsession with secrecy,” says Representative Henry Waxman, the Democrat from California who, in September 2004, commissioned a congressional report on secrecy in the Bush Administration. “It has repeatedly rewritten laws and changed practices to reduce public and congressional scrutiny of its activities. The cumulative effect is an unprecedented assault on the laws that make our government open and accountable.” [2]

There is a reason why this information is being hidden. They fear the people. This shows you the power of the people, and the power of information.

If you believe you see something dangerous, or propaganda being spread, tell everything you know about that. Then stand back and give the process a chance to unfold – let the more powerful and honest ideas rise to the top. Do not require instant results, and resist the temptation to censor, because it will grow and ultimately have the opposite effect to what you seek.

The right to anonymous speech is in the United States Constitution, and it is there because the authors knew the tendency of governments to use censorship and retaliation to oppress people.

I hear a lot of complaining about the media. People become terribly frustrated that media outlets will not report the truth of what is happening, and that they report biased, misleading information. They will rail against this, trying to force these organizations to honor their view. This is a symptom of addiction.

Beware of making any one source, or group of sources, THE source. Beware of making any one outlet of information official. Is it true for you only when it appears in the NY Times? On CNN? If so, you are addicted to these organizations, and you are letting them stop you in your tracks.

Change the channel, and make your own channel, which is exactly what the internet community is doing. Focus more on content than on the source, and use multiple sources to verify and examine information from different angles. Just because a source is large, familiar, or famous does not make it more accurate. In fact, in the current climate the opposite tends to be the case.

Give your support to organizations which allow you to see through their eyes, not to organizations that tell you what you should think in subtle ways. There is no such thing as unbiased reporting. Despite our best efforts, we see and report events through our unique lenses and perspectives. Rather than fight bias, display it openly and honestly, along with the details of what you see.

Spread the money around. Beware of addictions.

Information is free. It tends to travel. Copyright and patent laws, and other manner of devices to control and impede its transfer go against its nature, and ultimately do not work. They may create and maintain wealth for a minority, but they are detrimental to the proper circulation of information, and are at times used deliberately for this purpose. The more one is able to slow the movement of information, the more one is able to slow progress – the development of humanity. Just because you are the first to find and synthesize information does not mean it belongs to you.

As with all the super-organs, circulation is the key to functionality. Promote it in every way.

What about privacy? There is a place for personal privacy, just as there is for personal property. But like property, the keeping of secrets should be limited in scope. In activities which involve the whole, such as government, financial transactions, and conduct of businesses, transparency must become the norm for the system to be free of misuse.

A lot of the secrecy in our world is linked to greed, abuse, and fear of persecution. As other super-organs become more functional, secrecy will become far less desirable. In a world that shares and that does not persecute diversity, what use does it have?

[edit] Part 4: Integration

Coming soon...

The human system as part of a larger natural system

Thanks for reading. I welcome your questions and comments.

http://www.wikia.com/wiki/User:Slije

Slije 9 edits since July 11, 2006