May 08, 2012

Governance

050707 5:07  Governance

Was looking at the theory of time preference.  If you figure that you have total control of your time, you need to spend a portion of that time accomplishing productive work to pay your weigh.  There is a large amount of order that can be achieved from the current chaos by the process of work; most of the work currently done is counter productive.  Some things take on urgency, but the level of importance is dubious at best.

Thing of both urgency and importance need to be done in a timely manner – especially if they provoke opportunities to add to the structured order.  Creation of value, and hence wealth depends on producing products that enable others to use their own time more productively.

As above; so below.  As below; so below deeper.  Our myth called science has evolved itself into a circular pickle, where it spends more time in denial than productive research.  The function of the university is lost, corrupted by the need to train technicians to carry out tasks, rather than teach people to think about their professions as a weigh of life.  So we have fiefdoms that are protected, rather than functions to be filled.

The form of governance needs to be changed.  Monty Python addressed the issue when the peasant confronted the king, seeking the Holy Grail.  Old woman, who lives in that castle?  Man.  Pardon, I can’t just call you man.  Well, you could call me Dennis.  I didn’t know you were called Dennis.  Didn’t bother to find out, did ya?  Patronage has some very valuable themes, which our slaves against slavery really cannot conceptualize, at this point.

Representation needs to be personal to have any value.  If I can walk into Rep. Peter DeFazio’s office and Chris at the desk says ‘hello Doc’, then I feel like I am being heard.  In realistic terms, though I am represented at the county commissioner level.  I can walk in and talk to Doug, Joe or Susan and we all respect the common history we have developed. 

I took the time to attend meetings and provide service.  There was the solid waste advisory committee, followed by the BLM Resources Allocation Committee, the watershed council, the Regional Network, the Clean Air Coalition – I have served my time.  I always resented the fact that the people at the table were all paid to be there and seemed to serve at the liege of the bureaucrats.  Sometimes, the commissioners were part of the committee, one vote amongst a few.

The Umpqua Basin Watershed Council worked out that consensus minus one worked best for our diverse group.  If there was a single exception to a motion, then we were not in consensus and the decision could not be made.  The board member alone in objecting had until the next meeting to garner the support of one other member of the group to stop the action on a permanent basis.

Every interest group had a representation on the committee.  When the local tribes finally decided to join us at the table, they were given a seat and the committee expanded.  Majority rules can never be used to overwhelm the participants by brute force.  People knew their stuff and the group had money to spend on fish passage issues through both public and private land.

I have issue with ‘public’ land.  Other than forts and post offices, government is constitutionally prohibited from owning land.  The current move to restrict access to the land in the public domain is a tragedy of the commons in another form.  Local control is necessary and that circulates us back to representation.

I expect every local area to set their form of governance.  I expect the ability to travel between places will be curtailed in such a way that isolation becomes a weigh of western rural life.  There can be exchange through many different forms – my personal preference is the Mondragon cooperative model, with modification of the mechanisms to be more biomimetic.

Namaste’  Doc

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