Moving the Ship of State

Governance and Gradients                                                                     by JoSuter    September, 2024

The Problem – How to Find, Filter, and Move Useful Information?

Organization is what makes humans so powerful.  Sometimes the organization of social groups is spontaneous but most organization requires a gradient (tension) to engage people.  Then one level of people can direct the task of many others.  

A gradient can also drive the search for useful information.  If I pay you to look for A’s, you will find A’s but ignore all the B’s around.  A gradient in another direction can be used to spread dis-information and create ignorance, even functional deafness, in people who cannot hear anyone outside their own circles.    

In science and engineering, energy expended over a short time is called “power”.  Political power too can get things done in a short time.  Political power to create gradients comes in one of three forms with the acronym BMI: BOG – barrel of a gun, Money, and Information.  BOG-power and Money can be very personal, BOG being a negative, coercive form of power and Money a more positive form.  Social systems do better when these three are balanced.  

The third power, Information, requires the separation of useful information from less useful information.  But like the knight on the chessboard, information power can sometimes leapfrog layers of the social hierarchy.  Spin must be separated by group discussion and good communication.  This was a function of mainstream media in the past but now under corporate ownership, it becomes more difficult, especially when missing information is added to misinformation.  

Stories as a form of information also help organize society.  Stories can be strategic, long-term and very deep.  Narratives on the other hand, can be thought of as short-term tactical measures.  Players in a game will try to fake out the opponent, feeding them mis-information to make the opponent go the wrong way.  They are using acceptable tactics.  Outside these players may get along well and even be friends.  Any attempt to hurt an opponent player outside of the game period, however, will be viewed as serious misinterpretation of the Larger Story.  Yet, in international relations, it seems that taking out the leadership of another country is now acceptable.  Boundaries disappear, replaced by wars of terror.  

Spin, Lies, and Confabulation 

It is becoming clear that governments are not leveling with the citizens about why we are in forever wars or what the costs will be.  A spokesperson who intentionally lies must either believe that the audience is stupid or ignorant of the facts, something difficult to determine if there is no audience reaction.  

Manifestations of Communication Breakdown  

We all have our fears because of our limited view.  We fear chaos.  So we line up behind someone who looks and sounds like they know where they are going.  Go with the flow.  What are the neighbors doing?  Signs of censorship indicate we may be falling into fascism with fear is a major factor.  People won’t talk to each other if there is reason to fear loss of job or worse.  We need a process that can push and pull others to engage but it will require some privacy and deniability while maintaining integrity of results. 

Most of our current leaders never wore a uniform.  They never carried a fellow soldier on the battlefield.   Had they even been in a fist fight, they might realize that there are more layers to survival than verbal eloquence.  So they try to act tough.  Their fear is a fear of failure in the eyes of their hero, parent, teacher, or religious leader.  

The Congressional Group-Think Exercise exhibits itself on a regular basis.  Why?  Fear.  It is fear of each other or fear of some real or imagined person behind the curtain.  This is much more than they fear voters who, on the whole, are not very organized.   

The deep state (DS) does not have a CEO.  There is no corporate structure.  DS is a manifestation of breakdown in communication with inadequate feedback and often no accountability.   A sufficient number of them are paranoid people who don’t trust those in the next department.  Their technical prowess allows for increasing surveillance and gathering of secrets while at the same time blocking accountability.  Outsiders rarely get beyond the answering machine.   Furthermore, AI will make it difficult in to determine what is real and what is not in some situations.  This will be a problem too for decision makers. 

The DS might be held at bay by resistance and policy making at the top, but unless the communication and feedback problem is solved, the problem will return.  

What to do when GR have the feeling that they are being lied to or simply not told the whole truth?  Do we even want to know?  Are people at the top stealing?  Are they not listening?  One cannot stop the media from spreading lies and mis-information.  Nor can we reverse the convenient overlooking of necessary information or force them to tell the truth.  What we can do is create ad hoc human search engines and filters. 

A Solution – Series of Local Open Debates with Small Groups (SLODS)

Friedrich Hayek wrote that there is often no substitute for local information.  Grassroots people have their ear to the ground and can be used as Small Group Sensors if the process is structured right.  As Small Group sensors, GR citizens may exert more power and be more useful in the democratic process while creating a better way to make lasting change.  But people are social beings and generally seek the safety of a group over seeking the truth.  They do not want to face the world alone.   What to do?  Continue pressure at top?  Yes, but start to change The Story at all levels with Local Open Debates and use of Small Groups as feedback sensors.  

In the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy learned that one should not want to humiliate your enemy. Instead help them to find a way out of the situation. Find another path or another story.  

Focus on a few Decision Makers.  Use specific questions.  Try not to humiliate (initially) but push them to broaden their thinking.  If there is no response then start a series of local open debates close to the home base of the Target Learner (TL).  Family, Friends, and Colleagues (FFC) of the TL can also be candidates for learning.  Mainstream media may not help.   Use Small Mixed Groups (SMG).  The goal is to find better, more useful information for everyone.  Use SG’s to start other SG’s.  Think about the process as a challenge or discussion question.  

One large gradient = many small gradients.   Small Groups can be used to push the process, even preliminary small groups that can start anywhere, by anyone, and ask any question.   Recalcitrant people within institutions can be peeled away, one-by-one, to find new jobs.   

Increase the tempo of debates. They can be started daily in most any part of the country, on any topic or question.  Bogus and look-alikes will not sustain support from the GR.  Privacy of group meetings alternating with public debates will allow people to work with those they don’t know or don’t like.  Yet it is a tool to find better ideas and useful information.  

Marx and Lenin believed that proletariats – or grass roots (GR) – will ultimately rule the nation.  But the proletariats I know would rather fish or play ball.  It’s not as if they can’t do the job, but they realize they don’t have the resources or network to rule over other people.  So we allow ambitious people to take over and make decisions and these people lead and organize by whatever tools they have. 

Summary:

We need not only better feedback but also the tension created by a gradient in order to engage the creative parts of our hearts and minds.  As a type of organized information power, useful stories may contain knowledge needed to survive.  A story must touch reality at some point in order to be effective.  Bad stories can lead to bad decisions and some stories lead astray.  What do people do when they realize their leader has led them down wrong path?  We help that leader change The Story when it needs to be changed.  Is it the destiny of humankind to fight battle after battle with other humans?  That Story can be changed.