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Accidental Civilisation

stuff On the accident of civilisation

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Values often function as virtue ethics—traits we’re expected to cultivate. But virtues are context-dependent: courage for a soldier isn’t courage for a teacher, and people respond primarily to their environment. So the real task is to design the context.

Values Don't Matter

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Every organisation or institution you have ever been a part of has almost certainly collected a list of values they want everyone to abide by. Corporates, militaries, sports clubs, schools, local councils, professional bodies. Any place where people collect in a serious way to do things. Even, sometimes, in groups that are less serious, like house rules in a D&D group. People love values. It’s a shame they don’t work.
Values often function as virtue ethics—traits we’re expected to cultivate. But virtues are context-dependent: courage for a soldier isn’t courage for a teacher, and people respond primarily to their environment. So the real task is to design the context.
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betterment spiritual-architecture on-culture on-ethics on-leadership

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Control the water, control the people. Today’s water is energy, social media, infrastructure. We’re coerced through convenience, not malice. There are many vectors for control—we don’t need to hand them over.

Hydraulic Despotism

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If you control the water, you control the people: Karl Wittfogel’s theory of hydraulic civilisations gives us a tidy little insight I think is worth extracting. Today ‘water’ is many things: water, electricity, social media and it has some interesting implications. There are some better theories to get after this insight of ours, but better doesn’t mean interesting, and none sound nearly as sexy as Hydraulic Despotism. So I’m going to bring it back.
Control the water, control the people. Today’s water is energy, social media, infrastructure. We’re coerced through convenience, not malice. There are many vectors for control—we don’t need to hand them over.
Check it out

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connection thought-architecture collective-architecture digital-architecture wealth-architecture on-politics-and-power on-leadership on-being-fruitful on-culture on-ethics

article

The ‘Great Man’ theory of history has the history of ideas moved forward by individuals. But by thinking of these as ‘Great Ideas’, or better ‘spirits’ of ideas, we’re encouraged to examine their motivations, which is surprisingly effective.

Great Spirits of History

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There’s this quote that floats around sometimes. It goes something like:‘If you don’t do the thinking, the thinking will be done for you’. This is usually presented like a bad thing, but really it’s often the only way to navigate the complexity of the world. Here’s one little tool for doing just that.
The ‘Great Man’ theory of history has the history of ideas moved forward by individuals. But by thinking of these as ‘Great Ideas’, or better ‘spirits’ of ideas, we’re encouraged to examine their motivations, which is surprisingly effective.
Check it out

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betterment gratification thought-architecture on-(un)happiness on-culture on-politics-and-power on-thinking-and-reasoning

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Nudging doesn’t work because people aren’t thinking hard enough. Everything is choice architecture, so look to the way you build things in the first place or turn to our deepest motivations—our communities.

Everything is Choice Architecture

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Nudging is a buzzword that floats around places where consultants or policy-makers can be found. In their mouths it refers to the act of encouraging some meaningful change in behaviour by making a small change to… you know… something or other. And then everyone kind of trails off. I will leave you to read around about the criticisms of nudging. There are plenty. But I think these criticisms often miss something that really is worth thinking about.
Nudging doesn’t work because people aren’t thinking hard enough. Everything is choice architecture, so look to the way you build things in the first place or turn to our deepest motivations—our communities.
Check it out

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betterment gratification connection somatic-architecture collective-architecture digital-architecture wealth-architecture on-(un)happiness on-being-fruitful on-culture on-leadership on-politics-and-power

article

Today’s representative democracy balances power between the few & many. Despite flaws & crises, it provides stability for change, avoiding turmoil & uprisings. The many gave power to the few; change is in their hands.

The New Democracy

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The Athenian democracy of Plato’s time was a ‘truer’ democracy than ours. Plato was staunchly against it, and yet his anti-democratic ideas still influence our democracy today. How? The age old dichotomy between ‘the many’ and ‘the few’ of Plato’s time doesn’t really exist anymore. From Plato, to Machiavelli, to Thomas Hobbes, we have devised a new democracy that collapses the two. And it’s this change that should give us hope for the future.
Today’s representative democracy balances power between the few & many. Despite flaws & crises, it provides stability for change, avoiding turmoil & uprisings. The many gave power to the few; change is in their hands.
Check it out

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connection on-politics-and-power on-leadership
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