Sunday, November 21, 2010

There is "Anger Management". There is "Conflict Management" which is different from "Conflict Resolution". Different from them is "Conflict Transformation". I am not an expert in any of these specific subjects or concepts.

However, conflict and anger are a constituent part of every day life and the everyday part of a citizen role in American's life.

I am conflicted and troubled by the partisanship of our American system of governance.

As an additional piece of information to be used later in this piece, I have developed software for the past 30 years. I have first hand stories of conversions one generation of software to the next generation. Much of that has been in the financial realm. These translations are constants and it even involves conservative vs progressive perspectives. Even in the past 10 years there has been evolutions from Email to Facebook to twitter and smart phones.

Since the beginning of this system of governance has been the postal service. This module of our system is becoming obsolete. It is becoming a fiscal burden. The bricks and mortar infrastructure is running the risk of becoming physical eye-sores if the USPS goes out of business. It is an illogic of waste. This is a conflict in terms of utility and history.

There is also a jobless issue that is a part and a problem of the fiscal system for our current system of governance. From where I sit, a significant component of this joblessness is the technological advancement of society. Things have become more efficient and at the sametime requiring fewer citizens to do more work in the business realm.

There have been mind bending changes in terms of person-to-person communication and in terms of social communication or "social networking".

Folks interested in following Professional sports invented the "Fantasy League". Utilizing technology, a segment of humanity known for physical confrontations (and I'm talking about the fans - especially here in Phila) has found a personal and different way to decide the question "my team is better than your team" that does not involve territory. Is this a form of a societal "conflict transformation"?

Yet for all of these kinds advancements, we are not a happier society - why? Why has there not been a parallel advancement in the system of governance and making social decisions? It can be argued that all or most of our social or governance ills are based on our inability to make decisions.

If it is possible, I would suggest that American Citizens are overwhelmed by the amount of information at hand to make choices - so they opt for "none of the above". We opt for the convenience because so much of the information on both sides are similar, delineation is not easy and show we end up becoming unhealthy. We the people need "a something" to make the best decisions and a lot of them.

We the people need a production line system of governance decisions, that is capable of being scaled for the large and small as needed.

Ok enough already, let's get to punchline.
For consideration: A constitutional amendment proposal to formalize a "confrontation transformation" mechanism to address these temporary periods of partisanship caused by social overwhelm.

In this particular period, 3 element be combined in an Manhattan Project scale. Utilize imagination to envision the following:

A "fantasy league" with a purpose. A "Fantasy Congress"

A system of governance is created in parallel to our current system

The purpose of the "Fantasy Congress" is to develop and create a complete and comprehensive parallel system of governance.

When I do this with a piece of software I call the process "clone and modify". In the software realm this has the advantages of maintaining the existing system and also providing a baseline to gauge the development.

At a very specific moment of conditions, and very high levels of certifiable consensus or agreement, the "big Switch" is made, just as software is "Released", updated or generationally improved. The proposed constitutional amendment is passed and accepted.
The ascent of the currently powered , not just "We the people", will be acquired by the quality and nature of the new version and not before.

Just as Twitter on smartphone can't exist without the histories of Alexander Graham Bell and the Internet, the "big Switch" would include the very best of all our American history and governance.

As a specific timeline of "big Switch" is undefined, a sense of anticipation is built into the process. Much as the "Man landing on the moon" effort. Much of engineering is a theory, that is only proven when complete. Also not unlike the saying from Football - "on any given Sunday".

We can start with a basically clean slate.

The "Fantasy Congress" would take a very under utilized governance component (the USPS) and re-purpose it. They would legislate the local rules of the local level "Fantasy Townhall" and facilitate the translations into the "Fantasy State Legislature".

Individuals would form the "Fantasy Congress" in there homes based on the rules from the local zip code provider. Just as in a "Fantasy League", the commissioner determines the nature of points and when they are awarded.

Jobs across the country could be created to develop and maintain the infrastructure of the "Fantasy Congress".

Participants would be charged fees, that could be made tax-deductible or returned after the "big Switch".

Individuals would get pay outs from those fees as various point constructs are acheived by their slate of players on there team of "Fantasy League"

Political Action Committiee or Groups pushing an agenda would advertise to and financially support leagues that seem to ally and therefore refine the specifics of their "message"

Player's or the Elected and Candidates could get points for financial transparency and other condoned behaviors.

The rosters of "players/elected" available to the individual would not be limited to local folks.

The political election season would parallel sports league that ends with a championship game when the "one" who represents the best of the league is determined by the game.

Media and talking heads on both sides of political spectrum could earn money from advertising for adding relevant point changes just as ESPN does for Fantasy Football.

The reader of this will bring their own personality into the imagination elements. Some items will cause more angst then others. It will be easy to dismiss as the components do not intuitively lead to all of the others initially. As a software developer, of many years that is exactly how we have gone from A. Bell to Smartphones and from the earth to moon.

Now is as good a time any to go into the "undiscovered country" and find the American Government of the next iteration. It may take a period of time. It may take a generation. However it is measured, and as surely as time has a direction, the American system of that undefined period will be different. As surely as there are 50 states now compared to the 13 the founding fathers started.

Change is a constant. It is time for We the people to change back into Pioneers (the imagery Sarah Palin might like) and go into the undiscovered country of the future America and build to the "Switch". Today's step is tomorrow's footprint and the futures path from history.