SueIsmael
JF-Expert Member
- Dec 11, 2013
- 932
- 1,282
If anyone has listened to the podcast by Power Corrupts, from dictators to demigods, they will have stumbled on the above question. May I begin with a disclaimer, that this thread is meant to conceptualize and analyse the political road we are currently on.
I'll build on the following premises:
The Human (as an individual entity)element:
1. Every human being has weaknesses and strengths that can lead to failure or success, demise or prosperity, wisdom or foolishness.. and everything in between;
2. Every human being can be affected emotionally, mentally and physically by surroundings making him/her susceptible to being a victim or a hero, or both in their lifetime;
3. Every human being has the ability to be rigid in somethings and open to change in others;
4. Every human being has a mental system that governs personal actions, enacts its rules and acts as a juror; although capacity and context differ from individual to individual.
The Society
1. The human being is both individual and communal.
2. Differences in individual elements, determine association of the human being as communal beings. Simply, an individual influences and is influenced by society.
3. Harmony in society is determined by existing accepted structures that propel humans as individuals and their association with their environment.
4. No major innovation has become without disruption, whether peacefully or through conflict. Hence, every society has disruptors.
5. Majority of humans conform to "the system" to primarily survive and then to belong, while a few step out of conformity to lead or disrupt.
Power and Convention
1. In this context, power is the ability to influence, control and lead a society, and convention is the balance between the leaders and the led whether implicitly or categorically.
2. Successful leaders are those who can balance control and empathy, intellect and spirit, the present and the future, individuals and masses, heaven and earth.
3. Checks and balances of power are absolutely prerequisite to a healthy society; and most important, consciousness of the individual to this aspect are key to successful leadership
4. The more leaders push for absolute power and control of masses the most likely they are to lose the masses' voluntary convention.
Based on the above premises, I have depicted the following:
1. We are raising dysfunctional individuals who are out of sync with society and environment. A few examples are on education, nutrition & health, and awareness. The quality of education in the country is so diverse and impractical that we have created a huge gap between production and demand. Look at the regions leading in production of food crops vis a vis the regions with a high prevalence in malnutrition of under 5 year-olds; it's disturbing. The level of ignorance and apathy of citizens in understanding basic civic education is quite high.
2. Dysfunctional individuals are a dysfunctional society. Let's put this simply, the leaders we have today are a reflection of the society we raised yesterday. If you want to know what our leadership will be tomorrow, look at the society at its prime today. An ignorant mass that conforms to convention blindly may be an asset to a ruler but a liability to a leader. We are having a society that is reliant on "others" to solve its problems; a society conditioned to "we will give you", "we will bring you", "we will help you" -- while it unknowingly and helplessly "gives" and "helps" a few individuals. We are conditioning the masses to unquestionable and absolute control, but this won't last.
3. Remember checks and balances? These are key to a healthy society. Checks and balances are a combination of systems and individuals. You need both individuals who are competent and can make the systems work, as well as systems that will lead individuals and ensure sustainability. We may have the executive, parliament, judiciary, media, business sector and civil society; we may have the constitution, laws, policies and regulations; but do we have the individuals who adhere to them? If we do have the individuals, are the systems sound enough to support the individuals? We are lacking in both accounts. What we are witnessing is unchecked and imbalanced power and society. Couple that with the first two points, we are walking the thin end of the wedge.
4. Nothing in this world is unprecedented. Only time, and maybe place, make the difference. By now, we should already read the signs and draw some conclusions. When you have a mass that has neither sense of security or belonging, individuals who gain uncontrollable power, resources that no longer sustain the society and a sense of nothing to lose; it's an equation that has too often reared its ugly answer. We are fast ticking these boxes but we have also deeply buried our heads in the sand. The harder it gets to sway the masses, the harder individuals will drive control and power, creating demigods who are worshipped at any cost or leaders who are imprisoned in their own web of control and drugged by power, until they cannot find their individual self any more.
What do we do to turn things around? Where do we start? Or do we simply let "nature take its course" and rebuild from the "ashes"? I don't like the latter; we are not phoenixes and there's no guarantee that we can build a better society from "the ashes". But could that be our only option?
I'll build on the following premises:
The Human (as an individual entity)element:
1. Every human being has weaknesses and strengths that can lead to failure or success, demise or prosperity, wisdom or foolishness.. and everything in between;
2. Every human being can be affected emotionally, mentally and physically by surroundings making him/her susceptible to being a victim or a hero, or both in their lifetime;
3. Every human being has the ability to be rigid in somethings and open to change in others;
4. Every human being has a mental system that governs personal actions, enacts its rules and acts as a juror; although capacity and context differ from individual to individual.
The Society
1. The human being is both individual and communal.
2. Differences in individual elements, determine association of the human being as communal beings. Simply, an individual influences and is influenced by society.
3. Harmony in society is determined by existing accepted structures that propel humans as individuals and their association with their environment.
4. No major innovation has become without disruption, whether peacefully or through conflict. Hence, every society has disruptors.
5. Majority of humans conform to "the system" to primarily survive and then to belong, while a few step out of conformity to lead or disrupt.
Power and Convention
1. In this context, power is the ability to influence, control and lead a society, and convention is the balance between the leaders and the led whether implicitly or categorically.
2. Successful leaders are those who can balance control and empathy, intellect and spirit, the present and the future, individuals and masses, heaven and earth.
3. Checks and balances of power are absolutely prerequisite to a healthy society; and most important, consciousness of the individual to this aspect are key to successful leadership
4. The more leaders push for absolute power and control of masses the most likely they are to lose the masses' voluntary convention.
Based on the above premises, I have depicted the following:
1. We are raising dysfunctional individuals who are out of sync with society and environment. A few examples are on education, nutrition & health, and awareness. The quality of education in the country is so diverse and impractical that we have created a huge gap between production and demand. Look at the regions leading in production of food crops vis a vis the regions with a high prevalence in malnutrition of under 5 year-olds; it's disturbing. The level of ignorance and apathy of citizens in understanding basic civic education is quite high.
2. Dysfunctional individuals are a dysfunctional society. Let's put this simply, the leaders we have today are a reflection of the society we raised yesterday. If you want to know what our leadership will be tomorrow, look at the society at its prime today. An ignorant mass that conforms to convention blindly may be an asset to a ruler but a liability to a leader. We are having a society that is reliant on "others" to solve its problems; a society conditioned to "we will give you", "we will bring you", "we will help you" -- while it unknowingly and helplessly "gives" and "helps" a few individuals. We are conditioning the masses to unquestionable and absolute control, but this won't last.
3. Remember checks and balances? These are key to a healthy society. Checks and balances are a combination of systems and individuals. You need both individuals who are competent and can make the systems work, as well as systems that will lead individuals and ensure sustainability. We may have the executive, parliament, judiciary, media, business sector and civil society; we may have the constitution, laws, policies and regulations; but do we have the individuals who adhere to them? If we do have the individuals, are the systems sound enough to support the individuals? We are lacking in both accounts. What we are witnessing is unchecked and imbalanced power and society. Couple that with the first two points, we are walking the thin end of the wedge.
4. Nothing in this world is unprecedented. Only time, and maybe place, make the difference. By now, we should already read the signs and draw some conclusions. When you have a mass that has neither sense of security or belonging, individuals who gain uncontrollable power, resources that no longer sustain the society and a sense of nothing to lose; it's an equation that has too often reared its ugly answer. We are fast ticking these boxes but we have also deeply buried our heads in the sand. The harder it gets to sway the masses, the harder individuals will drive control and power, creating demigods who are worshipped at any cost or leaders who are imprisoned in their own web of control and drugged by power, until they cannot find their individual self any more.
What do we do to turn things around? Where do we start? Or do we simply let "nature take its course" and rebuild from the "ashes"? I don't like the latter; we are not phoenixes and there's no guarantee that we can build a better society from "the ashes". But could that be our only option?
