THE MOST IMPORTANT IDEAS OF 2003 – PART TWO

This is the second in a series of articles that will be published intermittently this month. This article summarizes what I believe were the most important ideas of 2003 in the world of politics and economics. The first article in the series covered the world of blogs & blogging, and future articles will cover business, the arts & sciences, and the environment.

POLITICS & ECONOMICS — THE TEN MOST IMPORTANT IDEAS OF 2003

I make no apologies for the fact that this list reflects my perspective on the political compass (-8.2, -8.0). Those with conservative or authoritarian views are welcome to make their own lists.

1. Constitutional liberalism must precede democracy, if the democracy is going to endure – Fareed Zakaria makes this point in his best-seller The Future of Freedom. The ill-advised approach of imperialists throughout history, including the US today in Iraq, of trying to impose democracy before the institutions that nurture and sustain it have been introduced and taken root, is doomed to failure. The future of Iraq is inevitably division, civil war, and more totalitarianism, and only the Iraqis can, and will, decide when they’re ready for the bold experiment with democracy, on their own terms.
2. The alternative to ‘free’ trade is ‘fair’ trade, not no trade – The work of economist Herman Daly shows that the ‘market’ is efficient at deciding how best to allocate scarce resources to producers, but incapable of governing the equally important tasks of ensuring distributive justice in the allocation of economic products, and the optimal scale of production of those economic products. Governments, representing the best interests of their people, must be free to intervene in markets to regulate these latter two attributes of an optimal trade system.
3. A non-violent, global, connected, consensual politic has the power to withhold consent for war or tyranny – In his book The Unconquerable World, Jon Schell cites the success of Ghandi’s and King’s non-violent activism, and the peaceful disintegration of the Soviet bloc, to argue that popular refusal to obey an oppressive government, irrational law or unwarranted call to arms can undermine the mightiest of governments or tyrants bloodlessly, and bring about needed domestic and international reforms in politics, law, peace-keeping, and social and environmental programs and institutions.
4. Terrorism is a reaction, not an action – The work of George Lakoff demonstrates that liberals and conservatives have fundamentally different worldviews that dictate, among other things, how they believe violence and disobedience to authority should be dealt with. The conservative ‘strict father’ worldview believes in might-makes-right authority, strict obedience, and severe punishment for disobedience. The liberal ‘nurturing parent’ worldview believes that people are basically good, that fairness should dictate policy, and that consensus and discussion are healthy. Where conservatives see terrorists as disobedient children who need to be disciplined, liberals see terrorism as a symptom of deprivation and desperation, and see the need to treat the underlying symptoms (poverty and oppression) to solve the problem.
5. Our education system breeds a sense of helplessness, acquiescence, fear, guilt about poverty, and self-loathing – As the writings of John Taylor Gatto reveal, the education system is, despite the valiant and well-intentioned efforts of teachers, the means by which the vast majority of people today are subdued, dumbed-down, kept in line, and reduced to passive consumers instead of active citizens. Without reform of the education system, other political, economic and legal reforms will be ineffective.
6. The search for endless productivity improvement is a race to the bottom – In its study of the success of Wal-Mart, Fast Company magazine showed how the company’s single-minded preoccupation with ever-lower prices at any cost was driving the North American economy to massive offshoring, the sacrifice of quality, and the bankrupting of some very good companies. The spiral has been called ‘the race to the bottom’ and I illustrate it in the diagram above that I call ‘The Wal-Mart Dilemma’. We need to strike a balance between low prices on the one hand, and the preservation of North American jobs and high product quality on the other. If we don’t, Wal-Mart will decide for us, and their choice is clear.

7. The American middle class is disappearing – Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren’s new book The Two Income Trap shows that massive increases in costs of housing (especially in areas with prestige schools), health insurance, transportation and education have opened up a chasm between America’s ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, most notably pushing middle-class parents to the verge of bankruptcy in huge numbers. What’s worse, the shame and stigma of bankruptcy is preventing the afflicted parents from seeking recourse against usurious lenders, or even talking openly about this growing, life-destroying problem. The resultant massive concentration of power and wealth in America (see chart above) has enormous implications for the country’s future.
8. The next economy will support consumers holistically to solve their problems, not just sell them products – In her book The Support Economy, Shoshana Zuboff argues that what is needed is a new economic layer, a ‘re-intermediation’, between the producer and consumer, which consists of ‘federations’ of businesses and ‘advocates’ who work collaboratively to look after the busy consumer’s needs cradle-to-grave and deal with the multiple suppliers in the product/service delivery process. I confess I don’t share the author’s exuberance that such ‘support’ will be affordable by any except the rich elite, but so many people I respect loved this book and its ideas that I felt I had to include it.
9. Our fixation with helplessness distorts our perceptions of risk and leads us to make dysfunctional decisions – In an article explaining our passion for SUVs and the dangerous feeling of invincibility they give us, Malcolm Gladwell explores the concept of Learned Helplessness — our perspective failure to realize that the risks posed to life and limb by forces outside our control are dwarfed by the factors we can control. And it’s in the media’s and politicians’ best interests to pander to this misperception — to get us focused on things like terrorism, Mad Cow and SARS that no one can really do anything about, distracting us from far greater but less sensational dangers we can, with money and effort, fix — things like air and water pollution, tainted food from corrupt and underregulated meat packers, drugs in sport and airplane cockpits, drunk drivers, kids with guns, corporate frauds, gerrymandering, and our fatally flawed education and prison systems and treatment of the mentally ill. Things that destroy hundreds of thousands of lives every year.
10. US debt threatens global economic collapse – Even the US-dominated International Monetary Fund is now sounding the alarm that the massive and irresponsible debt built up in three short years by the Bush regime is the greatest threat to the global economy, and with it, our jobs and life savings, since the reckless conditions that precipitated the great depression.