Brave new world?

Hmmmm ....

So if this isn't the way we want the world to be how do we change it?

Given my last two posts I obviously believe that there is a way through this. That the environment we are discovering should treat everyone as just another node in the network whose power is relative to the validity of what they are saying and the the willingness of others to listen and give it credibility irrespective of whether they are male or female, old or young, senior or junior, black or white.

But what to do?

Do we resort to the blunt mechanics of positive discrimination. tokenism and the over simplification of political correctness or do we each examine our own motives in our own networking, associations and filtering to try to eliminate anything other than evidence based decisions about who adds value and who doesn't without prejudice.

Hmmm ....

Comments

[dave Snowden]

So now we move from the 18thC to the 19thC with the idea that we all examine our motives and make rational decisions based on an evidence based calculation? Utilitarianism under another name?

There are some big assumptions here and I see the influence of your current reading in the first. Evidence based decisions sounds a good idea, but then its what type of evidence are you looking for? If we look at "evidence based" most people see that as based on some form of empicism. Now that is a very limited concept of evidence and is producing some of the idiocies of asspociated targeting systems evident in the health service. If you want to provide evidence for adding value without predjudice - now that is interesting. How can you measure value from an independent perspective? Do I add value if I reinforce your position or if I question it? What consitutes predjudice - you are clearly predudjudiced in this post (nothing wrong with that its life).

Now I agree on the stupidity of blunt instruments. I also agree that we should treat everyone with equal and due respect. Thats easy. What happens when it comes to the hard choices? Go to black empowerment in South Africa and decolonisation elsewhere and its not as easy as it seems when you get into the detail.

Personally (as we started to talk about on Skype at midnight your time 0700 mine) I think you have the unit of analysis wrong. Its not the idividual and a network of individuals is a "incohesion". A nodal network on the other hand works like our brain and social systems - the nodes determine organisation and awareness, but they evolve they cannot be designed. Your unit needs to be "Identity" and thats a more difficult concept

How to maintain the moral high ground and maintain intellectual cohesion? Its not easy

[Euan]

I am not sure Dave where we differ. You'll have to explain how a nodal network differs from my description.