going beyond getting the trains to run on time

Human beings are amazingly ingenious. What we have accomplished in areas like technology, medicine, and space travel is astounding. There is no reason we can’t direct our considerable brainpower and resourcefulness toward solving dire problems like climate change and unsustainable economic practices. One of the main obstacles is that we aren’t very good at responsible collective decision-making.

I’m a big fan of democracy, but the so called democratic governance models that we currently have are ineffective. Some say democracy is inherently incapable of “getting the trains to run on time”. I don’t agree. I believe that the problem is that our governments aren’t democratic enough. The main goal should be empowering and mobilizing ordinary stakeholders everywhere to contribute their ideas, talent, skills, time, and energy toward tackling the big problems that will never be solved without their vital participation.

The basic template for democracy as it is generally practiced today was designed by privileged white males who couldn’t imagine the possibility of sharing power with everybody else. To some extent, their fear of losing control was warranted. Democracy does need to be protected from itself. The majority can be very misguided at any given time. Mob rule run amuck is worse than being governed by an oppressive dictator.

We are currently at a crossroads. One way leads to an exacerbation of our worst problems. The other way would lead to new possibilities. The difference lies in whether we can translate what we already know about information architecture into a model that facilitates robust and broadly representative participation in responsible collective decision-making. I know that sounds ridiculously idealistic, but unless we can find a way to harvest the human potential that is currently being wasted and misdirected, we will continue in a downward spiral toward a series of inevitable global cataclysms.