2026-05-08
My purpose in highlighting this article is not to inform educate or seek to convince of any particular ideology, but simply to make a point - analysis of the complexity is a trap that sucks us into "the paralysis of analysis" and stops us from standing back to recognise the simplicity of the fundamentals of our situation.
Once lost in the weeds of the ever-proliferating details, it's difficult to remember that we were actually trying to get somewhere quite simple (project managers and governments might be well-advised to pay attention - once those guiding the project are lost, the project is doomed).
We all want the best for ourselves, our families, our communities, even our nations, and (perhaps shortly) our planet, but how to achieve this?
Should "decision-making" be bottom-up evolving from the actions of individuals living in a free society that imposes only the minimum of controls and these only by agreement of the majority?
Or should it be by the apparently simpler top-down control by the tiny "expert" elite at the top of the power pyramid (who will naturally rule in their own interests)?
Paul Cudenec well illustrates the latter approach, and we have been educated in the appalling consequences many times. But how many more times do we need to experience such results before the penny drops?
John Cowperthwaite illustrates the former approach - when asked what poor countries could do to create growth, he responded "They should abolish the office of national statistics" - ie: stop meddling in the details and let free people get on with their own businesses as they see fit.
OK, there's a compromise to be had here, and the trick will be to get "we the people" to genuinely create it and make it work.
