Human Thought

We know that we aren't just conscious rational beings, that it's more complicated than that. We also know that we aren't even aware of the overwhelming majority of things our brains and bodies are doing.

Government

We how it DOESN'T work. We don't have honourable governments, full of civil servants with social integrity on their minds, free of conflicts of interest (meaning free of incentives to do things against the public interest). We also don't have evil capitalists at the helm, who only care about money and power (although it sure looks that way sometimes). I think a clear sense of how it really works might help us create strategies for altering the structures and incentives so that the Public Good might prevail at the top of the list of incentives motivating politicians and civil servants. So: What DO we have?

1. Business people in politics and politicians in business.
2. Business lobby groups influencing policy directions.
3. Business organizations setting the legistative agendas according to the perceived best interests of members.
4. Government officials work hard to try and stay in positions of influence, and there are complicated dynamics constricting what they can and cannot say or do, regardless of what they WANT to say or do.
   
5. What else? how does it really work?
   

Media and other Informers

Many of us know how it DOESN'T work. We don't have an honorable free press, owned at arms length by captains of industry who believe in the free market and the free press. I have a feeling that getting some clear sense of how it really works might help us create strategies for serving the functions we wish were served by the corporate media. So: What DO we have?

1. How corrupt (compared to our fantasy of what media should be) is it?
2. COULD it even work the way we'd like it to? (I suggest that, for now, the answer is NO)
3. What might we ask be done differently? If so, who might we be asking?
4. What are the basic functions we'd like to see served in the Information Commons - that longed for realm where the interested members of the public might access accurate and useful information?