Doc's post on Thoreau was interesting- as John said, not much has changed-
we still face these dilemmas nowadays- we still suffer from ignorant
politicians. Do we protect our reputation for integrity by conforming with
the law- or avoid stupid laws because of our principles.
However, we are going through a massive discontinuous change that it
facilitating new solutions- new forms of democracy that overcome the
problems Sherri has outlined with representative democracy. We also have a
new option for an economic system called technological capitalism-
combining economic equality of opportunity access with very free markets.
The four fundamental forces in the unorganized world allow individuals to
avoid coercion and dependence. Bounded rationality causes the problems
from interventions by institutions, but this limited understanding and
control can be overcome by the voluntary exchange principle that
facilitates collapsible corporations because of reduced transaction costs
because markets are now contestable.
I believe in more direct forms of democracy, a move from party to
non-party politics, impermanent collapsible coalitions shaped around
issues, a democracy so widely distributed and so deeply embedded that
no-one can seize control of it, and so on. These views are explained in
"unorganization: the social and political consequences" at
http://www.unorg.com/socpol.htm
This thread on democracy really is of interest to all LO members because
the two biggest threats to individual liberty these days are interventions
from politicians in government and from managers in corporations. Just as
we have persisted with ridiculous organizational structures for centuries,
we have persisted with outmoded systems of government too. They are direct
parallels, although government is much harder to avoid. Successful exit
from organizations that limit individual's freedoms is relatively easy for
branders although harder for rankers. Both systems are changing, and
neither can continue to survive in their present form- both are losing
their effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and respect.
Thanks Sherri for starting the thread- it is bound to incite disagreement-
such divergence of opinions and expectations is the exact reason why
representative democracy is now flawed!
Regards sincerely Simon Buckingham, http://www.unorg.com
unorganization: business not busyness!
"Better lean liberty than fat slavery" Unknown.
--Simon Buckingham <go57@dial.pipex.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>