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Blog 20. Citizens United: more dangerous than climate change

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Sophisticated bribery?

In Blog 16 I described the money feedback loop, in which industrial profits that are invested to influence government form a positive feedback loop, enabling even more profits with which to purchase more of government. I called this a sophisticated bribery, corruption. The Citizens United court case opened the gates for a new flood of this monetary feedback. Many people have raised their opposition, but I find no journalists who have identified the underlying amplifier-the positive feedback that leads to destruction.

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Blog 19. Making Ideology Conscious

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Ideology = ideas

Ideology is the body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual person, group, or culture.  Laws are based in ideology.  A law tells what must be done or must not be done, how or how not to do it.  A law is intended to restrict or to promote a situation.  That situation reflects somebody’s ideal, even if it is a tax break for a particular party, money for education, or a prohibition of a private sexual act.  Therefore, all laws are based in prejudice of some form, a pre-judgement of what’s best and what’s worst for somebody.  Continue reading →

Blog 18. Social Anxiety Rooted in Inequality?

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Angst

In talking with people-including conservatives, liberals, the young adults, and especially the retirees-I detect an underlying tension, an angst, as though something is generally wrong, the world is decaying despite the visible affluence without a particular ill symptom or dissatisfaction. What’s going on? Continue reading →

Blog 15. The B Team Has Plan B for Profits, People, and the Earth

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Frustrated by change?

As Blog 1 discussed, society is changing faster every year, with the rate of change driven by the accumulation of prior changes.  My frustrated colleagues issue complaints like this:

  • The print and broadcast news media are becoming slanted because they are controlled by a few companies with political agendas.
  • Commercial TV now fills 30% of its time with advertising.
  • The news is no longer investigative journalism, but panders to spectacular events and personality displays.
  • Politicians focus on making the other side look bad rather than solving problems.
  • Blame and fear instead of facts and analysis recently dominate government.
  • CEOs make tens of millions while outsourcing jobs.
  • As soon as they are elected, congressmen invest half their time in fund-raising and politicking for the next election.
  • Big businesses like oil and corporate farming get subsidies.

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Blog 13. Models and modeling

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What’s modeling?

A model is an abstraction, a physical abstraction of an object or a conceptual abstraction of a situation.  An architect might use a cardboard physical model to illustrate a proposed building.  Conceptual models can represent complex systems like population dynamics, economics, or schooling fish.  By “complex systems” I mean the things described in Blog 2 and Blog 3, situations with many independent agents governed by nonlinear rules of interaction among the agents and their surroundings.  A conceptual model often takes the form of a set of equations with which the system can be simulated by computer, thereby becoming a “computer model.”  Note I said simulated by computer, not solved by computer.   Continue reading →

Blog 12. Why a violent America?

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 In Blog 4 I asked whether this country is governed by reality or by ideology.  I used the Iraq wars, banking, and gun violence as examples.   That example of gun violence raises a larger question.

 Big Question:

Does the continuing public debate on guns overlook violence itself as an underlying cultural characteristic, an unwritten rule of interaction in a complex  social system? Continue reading →