Floating a Platform

September. Time to get serious.

In the aftermath of the catastrophe in the Southern US, I’m deeply concerned, as I am sure are all thinking people. Mostly I am quite discouraged that the current political power structure is structurally incapable of dealing with this crisis. Indeed, in alignment with its “starve the beast” mentality, it will do everything in its power to undermine the role of government in the recovery.

I read a post on Eschaton today that advocated rebuilding New Orleans as a true 21^st Century city. A Sun city. A green city. A designed city. Of course I gravitate to that idea. Nut is there any serious politician who would stand up and promote such as visionary notion? I think not. Moreover, there’s more than a hint of elitism in that notion as well – as if we on the sidelines, generally people not in that area or environment – start dictating what to do to the people who know and understand the region. I’m not for a moment going to pretend that I know or understand all the issues evolved in the Southern Gulf ecosystems, although I have learned a great deal about it in the past week.

So what is the “anticipatory design science” response to the Hurricane and its aftermath? Certainly it’s hard to say specifically, as the full impact is sorting itself out. Are there opportunities here to start to crack through the entrenched infrastructure, and to start bringing a designed, nuanced, for-all response? Certainly so, but I’m not optimistic. I’m looking at my own platform. Am I ready to stand up and grab some rein of power, wherever it might be? Not now, not really. I look at the state of the political game, and it seems such a no-win situation. Those who have power and who know how to get it, they’re the eternally aggressive, eternally paranoid and opportunistic types for whom new ideas are anathema, except for when it come to new ideas about how to exploit. That’s a tough nut to crack.

At the same time, many people, in small ways and large, are becoming capable of piecing together solutions that could address the multi-dimensional crises we face. Hopefully the internet-mediated response to this tragedy will provide a seed crystal to bring us a platform for smarter approaches.