Churchill's
often repeated quote “Democracy is the worst form of government,
except all the others that have been tried.”
Now
the idea is that democracy is the best option so far. Even if we
start from this, there are still inherent weaknesses to democracy.
Some are clear. If you end up with an overweight, smoking 'lawyer as
health minister. You know you're in trouble. Obesity does not stop
heart attacks, smoking does not stop heart attacks and lawyers argue
for heart attacks (probably if paid enough). You do not want a
postman as head of the Exchequer. Eton does not teach how the other
half live, even though it teaches a lot more than a state school.
Union negotiations do not provide you experience in much more than
argument. When the elected officials obviously just play political
games rather than actually perform in their jobs you have more than
waste.
With
ignorant, prejudiced, self serving politicians in a fight with each
other in other political parties (or same) with similar political
people actively stopping any decisions and actions as well. The
system is prevented from making good decisions and following through
any plans. In the UK there are only 2 parties that can get power and
each gets into power with around a third of the electorate, a third
of the electorate do not vote for many reasons but one is neither of
these groups represent them. Voters are not rational anyway (The Myth of the Rational Voter), they vote in almost complete ignorance
themselves. Asking the right question and finding the answer and
getting on with it are rare.
The
biggest problem is the short termism of an electoral system. The
future is neglected for the present. This weakness has to be
addressed. The first stage to be addressed is to improve the
leadership who have grabbed power and influence over many years. Now
lets be clear if a king does not understand, or a Prime minister does
not understand or the capitalist does not understand or the socialist
does not understand the problem is the not understanding! Replacing
an incompetent man with an incompetent women has just swapped
irrelevances (incompetency remains). Improving the selection of
decision makers and leaders has to be on merit not inheritance,
privilege, friendship, or political expediency. The more these (and
other) factors interfere, the lower the quality of decision making.
Having an electoral system is not the problem it's when it attempts
to go beyond it's competence. Taking over whole industries because
they are important (or perceived to be), only works if you are
competent. Economics (along with historical experience) finds
monopolies as being bad for the consumer. Mainly for the lack of
necessity to do the best job for the consumer. Some humans have been
amazingly pure in their thoughts and actions but that's a rare
minority. Your system has to encourage the average upwards. There are no
forces motivating this in a monopoly.
In
this blog I will attempt to raise issues where we struggle to see the
long term let alone work towards a better future. I will start with
education but I give myself a free hand to look at other areas. The
whole separation of things into parts is a useful tool but putting
them together again is often missed. Separating education from health
or employment or anything can cause problems if the they are not
joined up at some point(s). There are many human biases that need to be
addressed, it's not anyone’s fault it just running apes have to
transition to a different environment with new knowledge (even though
some 'ancient' knowledge is still new to the human species in
evolutionary terms). I will look for the best way but also the best
application two parts of the same whole. I have to state problems
first and appear negative but then the opportunity to create better
is the positive balance. I will aim for clarity but I will only
simplify things as much as possible not further (Einstein
paraphrase).
Education
is broad in it's aims and benefits, it is part of life that interacts
with all other areas of life. That must not be used to cloud the more
obvious needs from education. 'Major in the majors, do not major in
the minors'. Some aims need to clear and evidence collected, other
benefits are useful perhaps but may not be 'a major'.
Although
already popular the following podcasts are worth a listen:
Many
topics are covered and alternative perspectives abound that rarely
get aired on mainstream media.
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