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The Forum > Article Comments > Society lulled into a false sense of security > Comments

Society lulled into a false sense of security : Comments

By Paul Harrison, published 3/4/2009

Why management systems so often fail us - particularly when we over-rely on them to manage our lives.

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Hi Paul
"Near-rightness" is probably the best that societies can muster. Human beings are not perfect and it follows that the institutions or systems we implement won't be perfect. That does not, of course, mean we throw up our hands and admit defeat. We can always do better and from time to time we see reforms that seek and sometimes provide solutions to problems.

Having worked in government for a number of years the biggest failing would be the deeply rooted culture of un-accountability. Reticence to admit mistakes and tendency to sweep major flaws/inadequacies under the carpet.

You only have to look at the effects on whistleblowers like Kessing when he allegedley made public the report the government was willing to keep buried, in relation to airport security.

It is natural for ordinary people to look to governments or large institutions to provide answers when they have been tasked with that responsibility. In a democracy we are all able to bring those organisations to account if we choose to do so. It is not always easy and the processes are at times unwieldy and unecessarily bureacratic.

More open and transparent government is what we should aim for even if it will by it's nature probably fall somewhat short of the mark.
Posted by pelican, Friday, 3 April 2009 9:36:34 AM
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This is a particularly good article. It gives a brief account of the historical context of liberalism in the 17th C, the dark side of the Enlightenment. It would be interesting to trace how rationalistic individualism (John Locke and others) morphed into management systems that actually deny that individualism. This is the interesting bit. We have the denial of ancient authorities, enthusiasm, and a greater dependence on rationality that is bound to produce rational systems of management. The irony is the freedom is lost and the opposite of the Enlightenment ideal is produced. This confirms my opinion that the freedom much touted by Enlightenment thinkers is a facade with no foundation in being. We have traded the freedom of the Christian, based on objective events in the world, for an ideal that is, in the end, fragile and easily subverted. Liberalism turns out not to be liberal after all.

Peter Sellick
Posted by Sells, Friday, 3 April 2009 10:50:16 AM
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The silver lining of the world fincancial crisis has helped to focus world attention on the glaring failures of supposedly fail-safe systems, headed up by agencies with political appointees.

As billions of people look on at the theatre of the G20, the conclusion reached by many by-standers is likely to be that everything will not be all right, despite the detailed plans and systems agreed upon at G20. Our leaders of nation states have yet to come up with credible, long term solutions that will prevent re-occurence of harmonised disasters.

Will their new systems fix the most flagrant abuses of the multitude of loop-holes in free markets? Absolutely not - 'name and shame' is the pathetically weak sole sanction for the board with global responsibility for bringing rogue traders to account.

Will the agreement of G20 leaders to rapidly escallate systems to reduce the carbon impact threatening life, translate into emmissions lower than 450ppm CO2? No - emmissions will rise ever more quickly and melt the polar ice caps.

International agreements are not equipped for decisive action unless they are backed up with harsh sanctions that give no sanctuary to rogue states and rouge individuals.

What we will witness with each global pandemic, is more spin on solutions that let nation states have plenty of wiggle room to continue to do as they like.

However, each global failure will strengthen the case for the end game where we have a strong global government backed up with international courts that have as their core values, the acceptance of universal human rights, openess, accountability, community engagement, secularity, curiosity, creativity, and scientific skepticism as a means of furthering a sustainable existance for the citizens of Earth.

When that day arrives, the tyrannts like Omar Bashir, Dear Leader, Mugabe and the greedy Wall Street spivs will have no where to hide.
Posted by Quick response, Friday, 3 April 2009 3:49:36 PM
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Certainly most clouds have a silver lining and the meltdown is no different. At the least, it will keep everyone on their toes and perhaps make people arrive at the uncomfortable ( for some ) realization that the only real security comes from within oneself.
Posted by real estate, Friday, 3 April 2009 7:41:34 PM
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aint systems great [we have systems in systems], like the airport incident was a result of the underground system ,it is reported that a hellsangel tatooist moved onto the others systemised turf, then viollated their systems rules ...by bringing a gun to the systems negotiation meeting, and the systemised result is clear for all to see

but im moved by another system resulting in my commenting on the finantial system, here [not at my other forum] ,who's system saw me get a one day suspention

anyhow re the finantial system i noted the g20 has ok-ed the selling of a huge tonage of gold http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/g20-supports-imf-plan-raise/story.aspx?guid={5ABAE8F2-060D-44BC-9905-EB79665AEACE}&dist=msr_1&print=true&dist=printMidSection

it can do this because the imf repayment system got some extra gold
quote>>..The IMF, which holds more than 3,200 tons of gold, is the third-largest holder in the world after the U.S. and Germany.

Most of the IMF's gold holdings come from the fund's member countries, which are required to commit 25% of their quota in gold.

The fund can't sell those holdings into the markets. >>

noting many other gold sales went out of the system to the wrathchild private wealth system, but return to the quote

>>..But an additional 403.3 tons of gold the fund acquired through off-market transactions in 1999 and 2000 - such as interest payment from countries that received IMF loans - are not subject to the restriction...<<

but such is the power of those outside the system [to run the banking , media , medical ,law systems as they see fit]

noting the media system neatly left out the gold bit ...lol
Posted by one under god, Saturday, 4 April 2009 1:07:13 PM
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Epilogue

1.
Having recently done a bit of flying between Sydney and Melbourne, I came to realise that “near-rightness” is simply not an option when it comes to piloting a commercial aeroplane. For a situation that throws up a significant amount of opportunities for massive failure, the airline industry makes few mistakes, and when they do, they spend a large proportion of resources to discover how and why. What I did realise is that the piloting of a plane requires the correct mix of both rational systems and human involvement. As a model, the way in which air is managed and monitored is a good one. The amount of resources involved in doing this, is traded off against managing the significant risks involved in flying a big steel tube through the air.

2.
Suggestions by some that the secularisation of society has led to this malaise are unsound - religion is just another system – it is just as circuitous, self-supporting, and pernicious as a management system. This is why the Enlightenment occurred, along with the French and American revolutions. The values of the Enlightenment were sound – it is the corruption of those values which we are currently living with.
Posted by pauljam, Saturday, 4 April 2009 10:53:17 PM
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Just about any Law can be criticized for inadequacies or described as fitting into a system or becoming a new system , is this so bad ,how complex would Laws become if every eventuality was described therefore giving all who were prepared to jump in and protect the man at Syd. Airport the knowledge that the law protected them from all eventualities . Asking Civilians or Security Guards to enter such a fray is unreasonable , asking Security Guards to deal with Civilians is reasonable , Bikey Groups are Military Commando's out of control .
The solution has to be Military . Confiscate "ALL" their Bikes , lock them "ALL" up for two years , Confiscate "All" their property to recover expenses .
Let me focus your concentration , a 14 Yr. Old girl becomes a Bike's Moll three months later she is found unconscious in the main street late at night , she's been dumped , Ambos's are called and She is conveyed to Local Hosp . She has serious Tracks (Heroin injection punctures up her arms)main problem is her bladder has Prolapsed into her Uterus (I think I have the words right) and she cannot discharge her urine . I was told that this is the result of a practice called "Fisting" . If you have a soft spot for these sick hero's you should lose it .

The best solution is to rid ourselves of Magistrates and Judges from our Courts , further , remove the Theatrics no Live Lawyers , everything in writing only .
Judgment made by Senior Sargent and Five Civilians .
This way no witness or Juror can be threatened or murdered .
Posted by ShazBaz001, Monday, 6 April 2009 9:53:21 AM
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When the Parliament of the Commonwealth set out to completely rewrite the Australian Constitution after 1972, the system of checks and balances put in place to guarantee its integrity, had already been destroyed by the Liberal Party in New South Wales, and the Liberal Party federally, in 1952, when they restricted the right of every Australian to freely access the High Court.

The system of government that should have stayed in place was the one we asked for and got with the Australian Constitution and by referendum in 1899 adopted as law. That it was confirmed in the United Kingdom by an Act of that Parliament is really irrelevant. Without proper accountability every public servant starts to misbehave. This misbehavior extends right from the very top, in the case of Menzies and Fraser, down to the constable driving around trying to balance a State budget, by booking and fining people and generally acting as a State terrorist. The role of the Police in a State with a broken down system is distorted and they work on a system of State terror. They do not really know what the law is, but having accepted a salary they do what the State tells them to, like automatons.

The object of the exercise is to avoid becoming a target themselves. Like normal men and women they have mortgages, and families, and a salary is very important to them. Around 100 years ago the Governments of Australia set out to introduce Roman Catholic law into Australia. A prominent feature of Roman Catholic law is the absence of jury trials. The first State to go this way was Queensland with its Criminal Code Act 1899. Code law is a feature of continental Europe, and is one way of governing, whereas the English adopted another. Under a Code a la Roman Catholic Canon Law, everything is forbidden unless permitted. Under the English law, everything was permitted unless forbidden: but the onus on proving it was forbidden lay on the Crown. It had to convince a jury that there was a victim, and a case to answer
Posted by Peter the Believer, Monday, 6 April 2009 1:07:34 PM
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The moral of the story seems to be that all social systems need to let the individual make the final call and minimize pointless authority.
The concept of "minimized authority" actually works quite well in organizations too. "Minimal" does not mean "anarchy", it just means that too much authority is destructive. Anyone who has worked in a big government or business beuraucracy knows what I mean. History teches the lesson repeatedly.
Pelican gets it right: all we can aim for is the best we can do without obsession over the name of the party, the philosophy or the system being used. Excellent example is how in the US people ignore drug convictions for respected republicans, while condemning to death drug users who are poor and black. Tribal, symbolic thinking allows such atrocities to slip through their moral compass. Ignoring the pebbles falling all around, they are shocked at the landslide.
*All* whistle-blowers should be applauded and protected. The systematic corruption due to prohibition needs recognition and attention. (The police are too important to be derailed by the $B drug industry.) Hidden influences on the running of the country need to be aired: secrecy only aids the secretive, and they usually have good reason to hide.
Most of all we need to ensure that in the name of freeedom we *never* allow the travesty of priests and declaration of Good/Evil via sheer opinion. Many died for the ability to hold power to account. To revive it in the name of new-age superstition dressed as christianity is one of the threats to our community.
On the economic front: Can an economy support a financial system that extracts 1/4 of GDP? Where is *real* wealth created? As we now know, the "free market" emperor has no clothes.
Sells: Which brand of Christian should we follow? the "Jesus hates fags" variety, maybe the snake handlers, how about Runners "church of hate everything"... Plenty to choose from. I'm guessing *yours* is the "right" one? Jesus was a Liberalist, only his blinded followers don't get it.
Posted by Ozandy, Monday, 6 April 2009 4:09:55 PM
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