If the thoughts of Mr. Mesjasz reflect those of other subscribers, then
I have succeeded in accomplishing what I intended with my responses to
Francis' first Humanity 3000 post. He correctly perceives that I was
trying to call attention to the fact that the context of Francis'
proposals for the future are critical. And he also correctly says that
too often specialists in the sciences are prone to misunderstanding the
importance of those contexts. Those same contexts that are commonly
included in the humanities disciplines including cultural anthropology,
political science, economics and social sciences. But they are often
simply missing or purposefully ignored when attempts are made to use the
methodologies and assumptions of science in the humanities.
Unlike most of the subscribers to this list, I am not a scientist. Nor
am I involved in any way with the academic community. I have a degree
in public administration and have spent the past 40 years working in the
field of local government and public finance. I began my career as a
city manager. Today a I am an investment banker for local California
cities, counties and special districts. So I am intimately familiar
with the political, economic, legal, social and cultural aspects of
local self governance. I also have a very broad based understanding of
and extensive experience with participatory democratic processes.
It should be obvious that I spent a great deal of time thinking about
and preparing the comments I posted on Francis' Humanity 3000
statement. I felt compelled to bring my views and concerns to the
attention of fellow subscribers. I also was trying to evoke a response
from Francis that hopefully would get him to focus on what I felt were
some of the specific short comings in his answers. I'm sure that I
could have done a better more graceful job of it as is demonstrated by
the well articulated views expressed of Mr. Mesjasz.
Still, I want to convey the message that it is important to be mindful
of the many aspects and consequences of our ideas and prescriptions for
the improvement of our lives. Just saying that some hypothetical meta
theory about politics includes all the possible diverse views and
interests of humanity is no substitute for giving full voice and accord
to those views. And just saying that political, economic, social and
cultural systems are complex is no substitute for the responsibilities
each of us bears for the well being, rights, freedoms and sovereignty of
others.
My experience is that utopian systems and ideas generally cause a lot
more harm and suffering than was ever intended by their originators.
Thus constructive leadership generally builds in small increments
instead of giant leaps.
We are experiencing amazing changes at many levels including the
personal, local, state and world wide scales. And these changes cover
an unimaginable range of fields from ethics, finance, politics,
technology and legal systems to personal values, health, creativity and
on and on. It is easy to imagine that the most important of these
changes is taking place on some physical global scale. I would only
offer the suggestion that the most meaningful and far reaching changes
may be taking place in qualitative arenas.
What I am trying to say is that these qualitative arenas can't be
understood, communicated and appreciated with ways of thinking that are
appropriate for dealing with the macro physical realms. In my
experience, when we mistakenly try to use the methodologies and
assumptions of science, we almost always make serious mistakes that
sometimes can cause a great deal of harm and long term suffering amongst
the very populations we intended to help. So efforts to bring all this
to the attention of my fellow subscribers amounts to a simple plea: Be
Mindful.
Norm McPhail
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