The Big Picture

The Big Picture

By Dennis Renner

Looking for perfection in an imperfect world. I think a lot people have become discouraged with small Political Movements because they expect perfection but instead find many of the foibles that troubled them with in the establishment. I believe the root of these problems is that we take our governing problems with us into our political movements. Most of these ideologies still rely on principles of democracy or consensus for their social governing systems. At the root of these systems is politics and political decision making that has plagued humanity for ages. Political decision making is rooted in emotions, egos, and greed. If it is attached to a profit based economic system then it is doubly dysfunctional and socially stratifying. In our current system of democracy at state and federal levels, it has become the ultimate system of governing by misrepresentation. Corporations through lobbyists now buy the votes of our congressman and senators in order to control financial markets and their every growing profits. A system of political capitalism that is now clearly out of control, unsustainable and does not serve the interest of its citizens or humanity.

As a student of social change I believe that there is a solution and a better way to govern community and humanity. It is a system that already is in practice in business and the scientific community and has proven to work since the time of Galileo.

We need to replace governance by politics, with critical thinking, logic, and the scientific method; followed by peer review and assessment. Everyone with in the community needs to be educated and understands how critical thinking skills are applied and how to utilize the scientific method. All members will need to participate so that decision making will involve all the variables of humanity and our symbiotic relationship to our environment, habitat, and resource potential. This is the only true way to create a sustainable permaculture.

Here is the problem with our current systems. We only look at the profit motive which greatly restricts our positive actions and stymies our sustainability. Secondly because our environment, and our symbiotic relationship are rarely ever brought into our political decision making processes. That is until after damage is done, to the environment, and humanity. In our current system politicians are left to make our laws and rules through a decision making process that is ruled by emotion, ego, and greed (profit), Facts on the subject are supplied by the profiteers. The problem is that politicians are not engineers, scientists, sociologists, environmentalists, or experts of any kind when it comes to our problems that need to be solved. We never see the rules of critical thinking applied on the Senate floor or city councils. Yet the politicians are the ones left to make the decisions that affect us all. When political decision making is tied to a capitalistic monetary base economy, profit always rules over the needs of the citizens and the environment. Thus our current problems, and conditions.

A system where decision making is based on critical thinking, logic, and the scientific method, where real experts from all walks of life become involved. Engineers, environmentalists, biologists, farmers sociologists, and scientists, all the real experts work together to create sustainable solutions. When this type of governing is combined with a resource based economy then both sustainability and our symbiotic relationship with nature can be obtained. Because there is no profit there is no conflict of interests, because there are no corporations, citizens are free to help humanity untethered. Because there are no conceptual monetary shortages, human social issues of poverty, crime, and war will be greatly reduced or done away with.

Resource based economies are designed to work like those economies found in nature. Where all biological life works in symbiosis. Because profit is not a component of a resource based economy the restrictions and damage that profit causes are eliminated. Resource based economies are egalitarian by nature, where all the needs are met and based off of resource supply with sustainability and permaculture applied to the collective behavior.

It is hard for some people to grasp the idea of an economy where money, interest, debt and taxes do not exist. Where profit is only viewed as the over all improvement of life for all of humanity and the health of our environment.

I do think we can all agree that an economy that is based in equality, where governance is shared by all and the decision making process accesses experts in their respective fields to serve for the greater good of humanity and our environment is a giant step in the right direction. No need for political parties or elections, no need of political leaders, no need of ego, greed or emotional based decisions. No more laws that are unjust, immoral, unethical, and only profit the rich. No more economics that work to divide us into social classes but where all share equally in our resource needs. Where we all can voluntarily contribute to the common good of our friends, neighbors, community and humanity as a whole. Where exploitation, bigotry, poverty and wars are recognized as the results of our current out dated systems of political governing. Where resource depletion and social stratification, and our crumbling unsustainable civilization are the results of our current archaic monetary system.

There has been lots of experiments in different types of governing through out history. Whether it has been a Dictatorship, a Totalitarian, a Monarchy, Communist, Socialist, or Democracy. All have failed because of the human element of of politics. Politics brings out the worst, and corrupts any system because it unfairly rewards those in control. This sets into motion social stratification, a division between the haves and the have nots. It rewards the greedy, and punishes the poor. Thus growing the roots of discontentment which leads to revolution and war. We can see this happening so clearly in many countries today including our own.

The missing element to successful governance is Critical Thinking applied to our decision making process. It alone filters out the elements of politics. A panel of experts gathered together in an open forum all following the rules and formula of critical thinking will only look for solutions in an objective way that benefits humanity and our environment. All variables will be given equal weight in the decision making process. After a solution hypothesis is derived then the scientific method goes into action. The solution is tested to see if it is viable. Other groups are also welcomed into this process to see if the finding are reproducible. Also unforeseen side affects are looked for. This is the peer review part of our solution. If our solution passes peer review and shows to be successful then it can be put into use. But that is not where the system stops. It will always be open to review and scrutiny. This way it can be tweaked, improved, or done away with if in the long term it fails to meet its goals or a better solution is found. This solution could be a rule or a law or a physical infrastructure or an action. As long as it does not interfere with egalitarian principles, and shows to be a benefit to humanity, and our environment in a sustainable way. Then the new solution is applied to governance. This form of decision making will not be stymied by cost, profit, taxes, interest, and debt. It will only need to fit with in the boundaries of available resources, equality, and sustainability.

It is time to educate our selves about a better system of governing. I think it is time to implement a new system of economic values. Only then will humanity be able to live up to its true potential. Not perfection but a giant step in the right direction.