A Government Tyranny Meter - Measuring Personal Trust And Taking Action

What do we put in the place of bureaucracies gone afoul to manage things as important and expensive as our national defense, international affairs, and the environment, while shepherding our economic system?

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I had an interesting discussion with a fellow veteran recently about the word "Tyranny", using it to describe what is happening in the world today. That train of thought may be reasonably accurate from a historical perspective, considering how tyranny evolves, grows and employs its methodologies.

We can think of many historical and recent examples of tyranny. What has happened in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Gaza are war applications of tyranny on so many clan, state and international fronts that it makes the general public dizzy and confused, to say nothing about the maze many world governments find themselves in trying to deal with related events as they unfold.

The world is so tightly wired and moving at such warp speed in communications, technology and dangerous weapons that it is extremely difficult to know when tyranny is sprouting because we get overwhelmed with the details and ignore the trends.

Tyranny sprouts within organizations that imbed themselves in economies and assume a life of their own. These organizations become entrenched and difficult to change because they are wired to so much of economic and public life (a defense company in every state, a pork project tacked onto a defense appropriation). 

 We target our elected officials as figureheads for our frustration, when in fact the real culprit is a big, faceless machine grinding onward, never changing, because we (the citizenry and the politician) will not bite the bullet and dismantle it. It risks finally collapsing of its own weight.

Some who analyze tyranny believe the best way to avoid it is to avoid violations of the constitution. That is a bit simplistic in our era. The conundrum is detecting complex circumstances with the potential to become violations of the constitution before they become horror stories and do something about them IN ADVANCE.

As students of history we know much of what we are experiencing today in war and politics is tied to human nature. The big issue: "What do we put in the place of bureaucracies gone afoul to manage things as important and expensive as our national defense, international affairs, and the environment, while shepherding the our economic system ?"   

The US political system classically appoints a blue ribbon panel to study such problems spread the blame and write a detailed report. We must do better then that in the future. The impending trauma will not permit it.  

Mass marketing and communications have created expectations beyond reality in venues from romance web sites to building wealth and dealing with warfare.   We must come down to earth and become more sophisticated in the manner with which we view all this input and sift it in a meaningful way to have true trust. If we do not we run a high risk of tyranny and that fact is inescapable.

To a very large degree trust is a personal responsibility. We must become involved, make prudent judgments regarding our leadership and think for ourselves. 

Above all, must learn from each other to evolve true trust and choose leadership capable of developing it. 

What We Can Learn From People Who Are Different From Us

A Combat Veteran Sees Irony In U.S. "Peace" Posture Today

 

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The irony the United States faces, both within our country and globally, is a product of technology, weapons and power races inside human communication bubbling voids. This is high risk.

Both within our country and abroad, we are struggling to understand one another, having not taken the time to learn about each other's respective values, cultures and objectives. We have much more in common than we have been led to believe.

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With the finest technological advances ever achieved to enable conversation, our focus has been to overpower one another and not listen and learn about each other to achieve compromise. Technologies like AI and advanced weapons and warfare will never achieve that end. Without effective human learning, understanding and communication those tools may end us.

Our leadership must understand the risks and communicate, bringing about agreement on actions at a level that facilitates learning about each other to develop solutions based on our mutual interests in avoiding impending disasters.

A win/win result is necessary to avoid everyone becoming survival losers.

The tragic lesson we are learning from our ironic posture in the world today is that someone different than us may not have the same value system we possess, but by learning about them we may be able to make distinctions between our values and theirs.  

That learning process then could permit us to consider accepting the differences, communicate and move forward on constructive objectives.

When governments and weapons makers treasure the economic windfalls in collective military industrial technology or in political power, while refusing to negotiate, then values on both sides collide.

Soldiers and civilians often suffer and die while livelihoods and economies endure massive debt or risk collapse while other world powers are forced to take sides.

All conflicts, internal or external, eventually result in negotiated settlements. Avoiding them by learning and negotiation in the first place is the most effective war weapon and by far the least costly in materials, debt and lives. 

A look over our shoulders at our recent warfare is useful when viewing our future while making prudent decisions regarding financial and defense security. Every citizen from the individual voter to the politician must consider the risks and the opportunities to avoid the risks.  

Effective negotiation must involve learning the other party's values, not simply the perceived threat they represent to us because we do not know them.

From the neighborhood to the boardroom, from the Statehouse to the Congress and the White House, we would do well to learn more about those different from us before we fight.

The way forward lies in developing a mutual understanding of our respective values and cultures in lieu of conflict, internal or external, using diplomacy and negotiation to save lives and economies.

Nations are evolving technological tools for communication and war fighting at a startling pace. Our diplomacy, and negotiation must keep pace by using those tools with communicative, knowledgeable leadership to keep the peace.