Hiding Behind the Hyphenated-Justice                       July 2023

   by josuter                                                           

Justice

Hyphenated or not, “Justice” has become attached to many political and social movements.  It’s everywhere: Climate Justice, Social Justice, Racial Justice, Gender Justice, or Economic Justice.  But does the association with “Justice” have the desired effect?  Is there any way to enforce it?  Justice implies going into a court of law where each side makes their argument followed by a decision from someone else.  Courts are notoriously slow.  Get in line.    

When we talk justice, are we seeking revenge, or trying to gain some advantage? Certainly justice and legislation are important, but insufficient to move toward needed changes.  Now many new climate groups use the word “justice”.   So, wake up!  Get woke!  Is that an over-reaction?  Many of the issues raised by woke people are serious issues.

Decreasing carbon in the atmosphere is the key goal – or should be.  Are we meeting it?  No.  If everyone cuts back on their carbon use by half it would help . . . but it will not be enough.  Not now.  We need quantitative leaps, maybe changes in social structure if necessary.  We may need to re-org our lives.   We can make it a challenge rather than an obligation. 

Power  

We cry for justice when we should cry for power.  But people do not ask to be empowered, maybe because those with power make decisions and we feel ill prepared.  Maybe we will be challenged by others around us and attacked from any direction.  People fear public speaking for some of the same reasons.   Company boards that meet behind closed doors have privacy and deniability for the individual and the small group.  These are important in finding solutions.  Yet there must be a way to maintain integrity of the process and find the best ideas.  It’s not automatic.

The term “power” mostly means the kind of leverage exerted by governments with their military and police forces.  We can empower ourselves if we expand the definition of power to include “getting things done” or “slowing momentum of things already in motion”.  Both of these require finding and moving useful information, because useful information is power too. 

Social media gives the feeling of power, especially when it can focus many people on a few decision makers.  But does it have real power to change things?   Sometimes it divides people who should be natural allies.  Social media can certainly be powerful if there are common goals with exchange of ideas and information.  Social media in the political realm is mostly about asking  “Are you on my side?”   Simply getting angry at people you don’t like is not power.  Talking with, and making decisions with people you don’t know very well or don’t like?  That’s power.  Get an action started?  Power.

There is power in creating organization.  This may be the real force behind business success and capitalism – at least until the business decisions run into the question of morality – a morality defined as that which leads to the survival of the group.

A leader on international climate issues, Christina Figueres, recently admitted that fossil fuel companies have been pouring their profits back into drilling for more oil rather than investing in sustainable low carbon technologies.  Even if corporations are concerned with their own survival they may be unable to make moral decisions because of structural reasons.  With no attachment to a specific social and moral group, and without direct feedback, it may be difficult for corporations to change.

Does organizing always require money?  Given a goal and some incentive or tension, some organizing will happen automatically.  Finding the right process and structure to engage people in problem solving will tend to automatically engage their search for useful ideas and information – at least for short periods of time.  Short periods of time may be all that is needed to move the ball forward. It sounds like a sports game, maybe a sandlot game of baseball, not professional, and not academic game theory.

The business model is one of organization, powered by flow of wages and salaries from the top.  Democracy and capitalism (DC) together gets things done.  It is also the most efficient way of depleting Earth’s resources while dividing the spoils in a fair way of course.  Is there an alternative to democracy?  Some people seem to think so, but details on how to get there are missing. 

The related question is “Does democracy have the bandwidth to deal with climate?” Yes, if we create the tools and create a division of labor for finding and filtering useful information.  Such is the purpose of FMUI Games that can make this effort much more efficient. 

Stories and Information

None of us, as individuals, can see very far.  We tend to have a herd mentality and lose sight of the larger goals.  So we use stories to share information and ideas.

Stories and metaphors that touch reality at some point will have power.  Stories can store information and ideas about food supplies, shelter, and how to survive.  Some people are acquainted with the technical concepts of heat, temperature, energy, and kilowatts.  These are all stories, some more useful than others. 

As frameworks for thinking, mental models and metaphors are everywhere.  The mental models of heat absorption in a microwave is very much like the heat absorption of carbon in the atmosphere.  A metaphor about mountain climbing points out a foothold for the next person.  How do you know if you are going the right way?  You check your senses.  You ask questions.  You seek new information, maybe from more than one source.  You get feedback and give it too. 

Feedback is information that is essential for any system to function properly.  One can provide feedback to one’s own group or to outside groups. Feedback is not automatically accurate and can be misleading. Lack of good feedback can lead to corruption.  So we might think of using the FMUI Process-Structure for getting and giving better feedback.  It should be noted that face-to-face feedback has advantages in many situations. 

Economist William Nordhaus apparently thinks that the difference between a zero and one degree increase in average temperature is the same as three to four degrees.  He’s a linear guy.  But is this really the same?  Many processes in nature are non-linear.  Listening to the sound of a gas tank being filled up, it is apparent that near the top the sound accelerates rapidly in a non-linear fashion.  Time to stop.  When we see and feel the effects of climate change we are getting too close to the tipping points.  There seems to be a large gap between those who understand the difference between linear processes and those that don’t, even among the educated. The oil companies cited by Christina Figueres may think they are winning but they are short sighted, and they too will lose it all if they stay on their current path.  

Artificial Intelligence may give us useful information but will also be judged as good or bad depending on whether or not it increases or decreases human social interaction, already at a new low in political problem solving.  “Artificial Interaction” such as games and FMUI might be a first step in the right direction. 

Games to Find and Move Useful Information (G-FMUI)

FMUI Game structure is a process for gathering useful information and for practical problem solving.  It is power.  It is a tool for self-education and education of others.  It can also be used to find or develop better questions.  If we don’t ask the questions that come to fill our brains, then politicians, preachers, or the media will. 

Military commanders talk about OODA Loops (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act), but they have a specific task and tools to test information.  We don’t have military power and may not even know what our task should be, so finding the right question, or least a good question, can be done with the same Game process.  That’s power too. 

FMUI starts with a Discussion Question (DQ), followed by private meetings of small teams of 2-5 people on each team.  Judges pick the best team answer to the DQ.  After each round, players and judges are remixed.  Games can last an hour, a day, or even a week for more complex issues.  A game around an issue is an Issue Question and one that addresses some aspect of the rules or process is a Process Question.   A series of games might lead to solving some real problem.  Power.

When climate groups obstruct traffic or disrupt some event, most people in their audience view them as simply another demonstration. . . “what is so important about 2 Degrees?  Just the other day we had a 20 degree change during the day.” Activists should follow up their action with education of the audience or help create tools for self-education such as FMUI. 

How do you know that I am not just a solar panel salesman trying to make money?

How do you know . . . anything?  Kids poke at things to see if it’s real.  Adults, who deal with more abstract ideas, must debate with other people in order to make some decision about reality, information, ideas, and applications.   It’s all information.  

We should try to love everyone, though we can’t love people we don’t know, really.  But we can help set up a system to empower everyone.  Still, much of nature is about competition.  Grassroots are the biggest sports fans and always fighting or teasing about one thing or another.  We can learn to use this friendly competition for FMUI.

Real power comes from Pushing others Up Hill (PUH)

Outside information in the form of feedback can be invaluable, whether it comes from a parent, teacher, friend, our counselor.  Outside feedback may be rejected but it can also be tested by the target audience with a similar process. 

When Martin Luther King gave his mountain top speech he also said, “I may not get there with you”.  He was implying that we need to keep climbing and pushing or pulling others up the hill.   Pushing others uphill is in contrast to the Old Testament struggles where vanquishing the other tribe was a sign that God was on our side.  We have reached a number of limits however, and so must find other options.   Pushing other communities uphill may be the only way out. 

There is power in making decisions and pushing others to make decisions.  We must push other communities toward Sustainability on Low Carbon (SLC) and maybe help with other issues too.  Pushing from the outside can help to bypass much of the natural resistance that arises within one’s own community.  So we are pushing them uphill and making a game of it.

Apps for FMUI Games:

1. Pushing Others Uphill

Push decision-making on sustainability on low carbon, education, and health care. 

2. NFW – NoFlyWednesday

Most religious leaders would agree that we are the caretakers of God’s earth, right?  How do we express that belief?  NFW is a good start, discouraging commercial flying every Wednesday, a sacred day of the week for the Earth.  The goal is to engage more of the flying public in real problem solving and bringing down carbon levels.    

3. Cop City

Near Atlanta, GA, there is a new police-military facility that appears to be a statement of political and government power.  But is it really?  Maybe in a totalitarian country.  But here it may be a sign of loss of control or maybe a sign of intense lobbying.  It is certainly divisive.  We should rather turn to city neighborhoods to choose their own police or, if corruption is too rampant, at least have each neighborhood be a filter to screen applicants.  This would be another type of feedback, but probably more effective than Cop City. 

4. K1

With the right tools, Indigenous people can lead the way against oil companies that continue to spend on drilling rather than alternate forms of energy.   K1 (1000:1) means that one thousand Indigenous people could play a Game and focus their efforts on 3 executives in the oil industry, helping them in a nice way to find jobs somewhere else, maybe in a green industry. They can do it without anger or hatred.  One dollar from each of the thousand creates a nice prize for competition among three teams of 3 people on each team and a panel of judges – about a dozen people. Focus many on a few.  It can be an entirely self-contained process with no outside help.  Multiple rounds will be needed.  The first round will focus on picking 3 executives. Our choice, not theirs. The second round will find other jobs for these executives.  The third round can focus on contacting the executives in a gentle but persistent way.   Each round can be with a different mix of players with prize money only for the winners.

5-8.  Metaphors can be explored to find ones that make the concepts of climate change more real.  Education can be improved, especially after lost time from covid.  Health Care can be optimized by starting with local communities and finding the right questions to ask.  Waste in the military and government can be minimized using a FMUI process.  It can even be funded privately. 

SUMMARY

What do we do with the increasing anger and anxiety that come with times of change?  We can use it to move forward.  Our individual horizon is limited, but stories and metaphors that connect to reality at some point can be a powerful aid.  Using games and small groups can expand our efforts. 

Good leaders do not simply make promises but ask something of their followers.  Then they also give them the tools to do the job.  If change is going to be fundamental, then there must be efforts to create ways to think, listen, plan the next steps, and move useful information.  There are answers and pieces of the puzzle from people in all directions.