All roads here lead to better democracy – better “self-governance”, (the original point of Cybernetics itself, not to mention the ancient Greeks) – even though I’m keeping my personal focus at its higher levels of abstraction, to the point of being metaphysical. “Self” governance is many layered from the individual (where actions actually happen) to the cosmos via all collective levels of “state” communities where ideas can achieve shared understanding. Local, national and supranational with any number of “federated” layers of representation within and across each. Democracy – messy – by any other name.
Well, the New York mayoral election came down to:
“Islamophobia vs Antisemitism” and “Tax the Rich”
The two recurring topics where the philosophical rubber meets the road of shared experience. And two topics where public debate is ideologically polarised name-calling.
Religious rights, responsibilities and behaviours in a free secular democratic society, and individual and corporate “globalised” interests big enough to cut across “states”. These are the two issues where shared understanding is central to addressing our existential polycrises and both needing that shared understanding agreed beyond any one “constituency”.
States limiting expressions of
private thought and belief
in (our) secular public.
States limiting
relative commercial power
beyond (our) state borders.
Can’t see us sorting our polycrises without getting a grip on these two. All real actions are individual – bottom-up – but we need collective agreement on these overarching – top-down – issues. Discuss.
I will continue to do so 🙂 #SystemsThinking #MoreThanScience
=====
Post Note:
A respected voice on polarised name-calling:
=====