Dick Wolff <dickwolff@patrol.i-way.co.uk> makes a plea for a systems
thinking approach to the trends in society, including:
>...Poverty is a growing and debilitating problem that undermines the
>integrity of the whole System. If we believe that the market capitalist
>system is the best available to us (I for one am hoping that something
>better will emerge) then it behoves us to learn together how to overcome
>those aspects of the System that destroy lives. Blaming the victims avoids
>that uncomfortable responsibility, and stops the learning process dead in
>its tracks.
When we look at some long term macro trends, there appears to be an ever
increasing gap between the rich and the poor. Some writers, such as
Charles Handy and John Kettle. assert that these trends are going to
continue to accelerate. The emergence of such media as the Internet
certainly tend to underscore the problem, as Dick has pointed out.
Yet, I am concerned that the political process that is the source of
democracy cannot deal with any issues at the systems thinking level. As an
example that sticks out in my mind, an illegal immigrant killed one of our
citizens, and the government responded by passing legislation to tighten
up the rules for entry into the country. The government spokeperson was
lauded by the press for taking quick action. Yet the existing legislation
was adequate because this person was in the country illegally. What was
needed was better enforcement of the legislation not new legislation! None
of the commentators even mentioned this.
As the industry continues to move forward and invest in automation, fewer
low skilled jobs will be created and the opportunites for learning
on-the-job without prerequisite skills will decline, according to these
gentlemen. If governments cannot deal with systemic issues, who will? The
capitalist model does not leave much opportunity for business to do more
than symptomatic fixes to tiny portions of the issues...Keith
--Keith Cowan <72212.51@CompuServe.COM>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>