Abbe Boulah’s Weblog

Are the agenda platforms of governance candidates consisting of single ‘highest priority’ issues realistic? Aren’t all the issues so tightly connected that none can be resolved without the others?
Attempting to understand, I see this chain:

1 Humanity is confronted by many unprecedented challenges to its survival.

2 There is little if any agreement about how these problems should be addressed.

3 There is a growing sense that current systems of governance are inadequate to address and convincingly resolve these problems: Calls are raised for ‘systemic change’ and ‘a new system’.

4 While there are many well-intentioned theories, initiatives, experiments already underway, to develop new ways of doing things in many domains,

5 There is little if any agreement about what such a ‘new system’ should look like, and very different ideas are promoted in ways that seem more polarizing than unified. We — humanity — do not yet know what works and what does not work: some major ‘systems’ that were tried over recent centuries have turned into dramatic failures.

6 There is much promotion of the many ‘new’ and old ideas, but not enough communication and sharing of experiences among the initiatives for discussion, evaluation and cooperative adoption. Meanwhile, the crises intensify.

So, before attempting another grand system based on inadequate understanding and acceptance, whose failure we cannot afford, it seems that a number of steps are needed:

7 Encouraging the many diverse (usually small scale, local) initiatives and experiments;

8 Supporting these efforts (financially and with information and other resources) regardless of their differences, on condition of their acceptance of some agreements:
a) to avoid getting in each other’s way;
b) to share information about their experiences: successes and failures, for systematic discussion and evaluation, into a common resource repository;
c) to cooperate in a common discourse aiming at necessary (even if just intermediate) decisions — the common ‘rules of the road’ to avoid conflict and facilitate mutual aid in emergencies and system failures.

9 To facilitate the aims in point 8, it will be necessary to develop
a) a common ‘global’ discourse platform accessible to all parties affected by an issue or problem
b) with a system of meaningful incentives for participation to access all information and concerns that must be given ‘due consideration’ in decisions’
c) with adequate translation support not only between different natural languages but also for disciplinary ‘jargon’ into conversational language;
d) new tools for assessment of the merit of information,
e) and new decision-making criteria and procedures based on the merit of contributions (since traditional voting will be inapplicable to issues affecting many parties in different ways across traditional boundaries that define voting rights).

10 It will also be necessary to develop
a) new means for ensuring that common agreements reached will actually be adhered to. Especially at the global level, these tools cannot be based on coercive ‘enforcement’ (which would require an entity endowed with greater power and force that any potential violator — a force which then would become vulnerable to the temptation of abuse of power that arguably is itself one of the global challenges). Instead, development should aim at
b) preventive sanctions triggered by the very attempt at violation, and
c) other innovative means of control of power.

I submit that all of these considerations will have to be pursued simultaneously: without them, any attempt to successfully resolve or mitigate the crises and problems (point 1) will be unsuccessful. The agenda of governance agencies and candidates for public office should include the entire set of interlinked aspects, not just isolated ‘priority’ items. Of course I realize that the practice of election campaign posters, 30-second ads or Twitter posts effectively prevents the communication of comprehensive platforms of this nature. What can we realistically hope for?