politics

Geek As Citizen: What We Don’t Know

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Wrong Way Sign

A few weeks ago there was a story bouncing around the internet about a Google employee who had started a petition to replace the US government, basically, with Google CEO Eric Schmidt.  This was apparently not done with any form of approval from Mr. Schmidt, and you can read more about the person behind this at Quartz.  If you heard about this, it’ll give you some idea of the person behind the petition, Justine Turney.

To put it politely, I find Ms. Turney’s idea to be ill-thought out and lacking a sense of the larger picture, as well as impolite about Mr. Schmidt’s lack of free time.  It felt like a Deep Geek idea, to reference my previous theories, disconnected from reality.

As I discussed it among the gang, something came to the surface  how many times we run into political theorizing that doesn’t seem to involve an understanding of how the world actually works?  It’s a problem whose distribution may vary among people, political groups, and such, but it’s a problem you find everywhere.

We don’t know what we don’t know.  Which may qualify you if your career is to be “random pundit who yells a lot,” but really doesn’t help solve problems.  It is, in fact quite good for creating them, as anyone who has ever worked on a project that was poorly defined without repercussions knows.  I’m guessing that’s all of us.

Now as much as I’d like to see a lot more people address this lack of knowledge about lack of knowledge, it’s something we geek citizens should also address in ourselves.

In fact, I’d say we need to be extra responsible.

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American Politics: Beasts, Ghosts, and Demons

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Awhile ago I posted on how the famous six realms of Tibetian Buddhism could also indicate psychological states, and how that made me rethink my late dog’s life. I’d like to focus more on those six realms, and what they mean for American politics.

To review, the six realms one can be incarnated in (or that one can experience, if your take the psychological viewpoint) are:

  • Gods (Devas) – A realm of pleasure, but the pleasure distances one, and even gods die.  Think of this as pleasurable and peak experiences.
  • Asuras – A realm of ambition and striving godlike beings, who suffer paranoia and envy.  Think of this as a state of “drive.”
  • Humans – Our realm, a real of desire, doubt, and some confusion but also balance so we may achieve Enlightenment, and where we may develop important compassion that lets us do so.
  • Animals – The realm of instinct, ignorance carnality – and fear and opposition to change.  Think of this as functioning in basic fear-response.
  • Hungry Ghosts – The realm of mournful, craving spirits.  Think of this as being in a state of addiction and sheer need.
  • Hell Realm – The realm of anger, hate, and fear.  Think of this as being in a state of terror and rage.

You can see how these realms can easily represent different human sates from peak experiences to unbridled rage, with honest humanity in the middle. Now let’s turn to American politics using this psychological model.

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Cyprus Bank Tax: A Terrible Idea

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You probably don’t keep track of what’s going on in Cyprus.  I certainly don’t.  But the EU attempts to deal with the rolling financial crisis (rolling, I’d say due to stupid attempts to fix it) has hit this country.

What’s really newsworthy is the idea that the inevitable Cyprus bailout will involve a tax on bank deposits.  Approval is pending.

I’m sure you can figure out how this is a terrible idea on a number of levels, but let me assist you:

  • This encourages runs on the banks, creating further instability.
  • This will cause other countries to rightfully worry that their banks will be targeted.
  • This breaks a kind of sacred trust with banks and government.
  • It discourages using said banks and savings.
  • It punishes people who may not have had any part in all the financial foofaraw.
  • It’s probably going to ruin the Cypriot government if they pass it.
  • It doesn’t stimulate any economic activity, which is what is needed.

The usual austerity approach really isn’t solving the problems; what’s needed is stimulus to jumpstart things, and serious financial reform to build confidence and ensure this doesn’t happen again.

What we’re getting feels to me, more and more, like a giant financial-political game of hot potato.  Moving money around, moving responsibility around, and no one trying to let the bill and the need for action land in their laps.  It’s a giant responsibility dodge.

It’s not as if a lot of this didn’t happen on many levels; take a look at the constant tax avoidance in Greece for just one example (note: I am not sympathetic to Greece, as you can tell).  What we’ve got here is a crisis of responsibility, and an almost bizarre urge to punish or come up with bad policy; this one for instance sounds like it was made on a dare.

When the history of these years today is written, I think it will reflect a cowardly technocratic class, vastly out of touch with reality.  I think it will reflect a very angry population with a lot of alienation.  I think it will reflect a widespread ignorance of how the world works.

I hope it reflects how we finally got out of this.  I’d like to think down deep it will, but I have the feeling the inevitable confrontation of our problems is going to leave us with further scandals and recriminations for up to a decade.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.