The Hidden Power

It may seem like a trivial point, that elections should be representative - are they not already?

Well they may appear to be - but they're not, really, in the UK. Boris Johnson's government took power with less than one third of the electorate. So two-thirds of voters would have preferred not to have the Conservatives in power. But this is nothing in comparison to the take-over of the Conservative party by a group who are in many ways extremists, who slipped in under the banner of Getting Brexit Done. So very far from being representative of electorate, the system we have has resulted in a wealthy, powerful and power-hungry minority taking control.

In this episode we trace the destructive effects of our system of First Past The Post, and explore some systems of Proportional Representation, and the benefits they bring.

Talking points:

Democracy and Subsidiarity in the context of Biosphere and People, as sub-series of this podcast

The current set-up in the UK: First Past the Post as a distortion field

Destructive effects of First Past The Post

Who does it serve?

Politics is an accumulator: hinterland of previous laws

Vulnerability to media manipulation: Rupert Murdoch

Preferential lobbying: the need for limited and proportional party funding

Proportional representation

Why the political extremes should be included

Varieties of proportional representation - Party List, Additional Member, Single Transferable Vote

Electoral boundaries, gerrymandering and the need for extra-governmental boundary setting

Analogy with voter registration

Benefits of proportional representation - fairness, diversity, consensus

Analysis of dysfunction in Italian politics as a counter-example

Positive effects of Proportional Representation in Switzerland

Links:

Why do Italy’s governments keep collapsing? BBC Inquiry Podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-inquiry/id932499233?i=1000513494631

A case in point: the food critic behind Italy's deadliest terrorist attack - Times Stories Of Our Times Podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/stories-of-our-times/id1501716010

More and Less Represented: James Meek (2019) in the LRB on Leavers and Remainers:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n20/james-meek/the-dreamings-of-dominic-cummings

Electoral Reform Society on varieties of election system:

https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/voting-systems/types-of-voting-system/

Make Votes Matter on 3 types of Proportional Representation:

https://www.makevotesmatter.org.uk/proportional-representation

Get proportional representation working in the UK:

https://www.makevotesmatter.org.uk/join-the-movement

Ed's recent 4-part series of articles on Preferential Lobbying:

1

https://johnmenadue.com/preferential-lobbying-the-rich-get-richer-the-poor-get-poorer-part-1-of-4/

2

https://johnmenadue.com/preferential-lobbying-money-talks-loudly-part-2-of-4/

3

https://johnmenadue.com/preferential-lobbying-no-explicit-deals-all-unstated-understandings-how-it-works-behind-the-scenes-part-3-of-4/

4

https://johnmenadue.com/preferential-lobbying-a-scourge-on-our-democracy-part-4-of-4/

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...as to what is in and what is out of the Commons, ie - what is commonly held.

Is this about property, or value generation? These simplifications mask the vastness and complexity of human life, and in this episode we explore where common ownership might be effective, and what it takes to make it work.

List of Talking Points:

What is the commons?

The Tragedy of the Commons

...as it relates to the Biosphere

Enclosure

...and the commodification of the individual

...and monopolies

...and rent paying

Types of commons

Eleanor Ostrom's design principles

...examples around the world

Other commons to consider: air, open source software, drugs

Commons forms as generating more value

local park problem traced to governance and taxation model

...and federalism regarding cities etc

Commons as a means of citizen engagement

Local action linked to wider system can bring about political progress

Evolved definition of Commons: resource + community + set of social protocols

Extra-monetary value derived from commons

...vs consumerism

Commons thinking and global resource conflicts

Thinking forward to the next set of episodes: Democracy and Subsidiarity

Links:

Commons Wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons

Enclosure Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclosure

Tragedy of the Commons on Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

Eleanor Ostrom's design principles - wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Ostrom#Design_principles_for_Common_Pool_Resource_(CPR)_institution

...youtube (2 parts)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEcMLEwaltc

plus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTQPy9tC5WE

Great David Boiller exploration of commons enhancing city life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3itmhDuem8 

3000 year old Persian Qanats and Kariz on Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_water_sources_of_Persian_antiquity#Qanat_and_Kariz

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All lifestyles are accepted – within the constraint of not harming others or the biosphere.

Rather than restate what we have been hearing, our focus here is on the logic of diversity from a governance standpoint - why blind-spots are self-destructive and the embrace of diversity is so enriching.

Talking points:

• Pluralism and truth
• Neoliberalism and consumerist monocultures
• Roots of logic of diversity in need for resilience
• Tribal societies and settled societies
• Diversity of capitalist model - Co-ops and Quakers
• Global monetary system as de facto governor
• Unity in diversity - not liking someone is less important than burning to death
• It's a value - the richness of pluralist societies
• Leadership, certainty and diversity of perspectives
• Humility: disconfirmation of beliefs as the root of all wisdom
• Diversity in forms of feedback (language, media etc - vs truth as such)
• Monoculture in Chinese politics centred on fear of the leader = pandemic
• ...and culture of target-setting
• Liberty, Equality, Fraternity - and Swiss National Service
• ...as a way of escaping our media bubbles
• ...and developing network of consensus on eg. climate action
• Listening to people you don't like

Pluralism as a political philosophy

• on wikipedia

Ibn Khaldun - Berbers and the Maghreb (14th C! Not 10th;)

• on wikipedia
• In Our Time Episode

Successful prison experiment in Norway

• Bastøy Prison

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Its decisions are binding.

Just because we don't live in a perfect world doesn't mean we can't improve things. If events surrounding the death of Ruth Bader Gainsburg in September 2020 left you despairing at the US Supreme Court, perhaps the Supreme Court of the UK's blocking of Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings' attempted prorogation of parliament gave you hope.

However a constitutional court is concerned with interpretation of the constitution into law, not law as such. And as such, it requires a degree of specialism.

Talking points -

• It sits above the system of government
• The tragedy of Sally Clark, ignorance in power
• The need for people who understand
• How is law made? vs How does government work?
• Diversity of perspective
• Eg - Germany, data and social media
• What emerges when the constitutional court works
• Eg - South Africa escapes dictatorship
• US Constitution and separation of powers
• Citizen coalition
• Gentlemens' agreements and culture of trust
• Neoliberalism and culture of exploitation
• Loss of ethics across society
• Trapped in absurd global monetary system
• Delusions in the arena of power
• The value of rules and referees

1 in 73 Million - tragic ignorance and Sally Clark

Not for the feint hearted - but if you want an epic survey of how our reality is constructed and why, have a look at Adam Curtis' series Can't Get You Out Of My Head

Republic of South Africa - Court Youtube Channel

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Anyone following current affairs will see how the rule of law is often stretched to its limit by autocratic leaders seeking to either evade it or bend it to their will - and while this has come to the foreground in the US and UK since 2016, it is a long-running theme in many parts of the world. However the rule of law is not only about holding the powerful to account, it's also about a fundamental feature of life under a functioning government - personal safety.

In this episode we delve into how it has emerged as a principle that requires clear articulation, what difference it makes and where we see versions of it in action.

Talking points:

• the rule of law replaces the rule of violence
• is an agreement as to how to live
• autocracies emerge where constitutions are inadequate
• need for independence in judiciary
• tension with business - eg with data
• international aspect a necessary element
• re. the biosphere
• Ireland, 13th C Wales, South Africa
• adversarial vs inquisitorial justice
• truth as therapeutic
• law as empowering
• law and norms

Great Wikipedia article on the subject:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_law

Stanford SU discussion on rule of law in Hayek:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rule-of-law/#Haye

The late Lord Bingham, who posthumously won the Orwell Prize for literature with his book The Rule of Law, speaks at the RSA in 2010:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlMCCGD2TeM

No busted pluggers - Aussies make it easy to follow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R20U9zkMmg

French TV series, Spiral, on BBC:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0072wk9

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Not all players convey links - find us on Acast if this text is not clear.

Sovereignty - we've heard a lot in the UK about both sovereignty, and "taking back control" - but this taking back of control in the context of leaving the EU has so far barely extended to us as citizens. Why and how is the current UK system so paternalistic? What are the roots of the widespread and long-standing political apathy in the UK? What alternative models can we look to for inspiration?

In this episode we examine how the UK's First Past The Post system creates, not least in Boris Johnson, but also Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher, rulers that are effectively sovereign monarchs, and a citizenry of disempowered subject-consumers. And we explore what it would take for us to assert our sovereignty more effectively.

Talking points:

• The planet is ideally sovereign, but to be practical it's people who are doing the doing
• Who actually exercises power in the UK?
• Centralisation leads to bureaucracy leads to powerlessness
• The Welfare System as a case in point
• Think Tanks vs. Thinking Tanks
• People are perfectly capable, regardless of background
• Switzerland's consensual democracy as exemplar
• Fragmentation of the UK as an opportunity for this
• Hangover of Empire in the current administration
• Challenges to active participation
• Leadership model in Amazon
• Scientific Method, falsification and Karl Popper

Bonus Links:

Sovereignty boffin and Brexit campaigner Claire Fox celebrates the engaging effect that the UK's leaving the EU has had on democratic participation in the UK, and that this is only the beginning - neatly illustrating that for some, Brexit is a gift that keeps on giving, even if for others it is a night - long, dark, damp, and cold - with no promise of morning. Brrr.

Pioneering paediatrician and psychotherapist of family systems D.W. Winnicott's 1949 essay exploring the question of maturity in individuals and society, strongly anticipating themes of systems thinking.

From the In Our Time History Archive - now pieces of history in themselves:

Long history of psychoanalysis and democracy (2002)

Thoughts on the Nation State (1999) - prescient and rather Brexity in retrospect.

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The first and fundamental principle of this series - and indeed this entire way of looking at things - reflects the unseen, creeping processes causing catastrophic climate change. Why do we need this? How are we to think about it? What can we do?

Talking points:

1. industrialisation
2. limits on human behaviour
3. secondary effects of climate change
4. our personal relationship to the biosphere
5. self-harm as an image for how we treat our environment
6. the future generations act in Wales
7. boundaries
8. constitutions filter through to all activities
9. responsibility at different levels
10. what people with higher incomes can do
11. focus on where you live

There are so many links relating to this topic, it's hard to know where to start - but to get a global view on an array of challenges on the horizon, it's hard to beat Earthtime, an open source mapping project which allows you to view other people's stories, or play around with available data yourself:

https://earthtime.org/#

New economic model: https://time.com/5930093/amsterdam-doughnut-economics/

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Welcome to The Hidden Power Podcast, Series 2 - Pre-flight Checklist, where we - Ed Straw, and Philip Tottenham - examine conditions necessary for a comfortable and flourishing life on Spaceship Earth, on the far side of the current climate emergency.

In this nice, concise episode we revisit and draw some of the connections from series one - governance, systems thinking - and explore how, through this medium of a constitution, or "preflight checklist," as we frame it, we can alleviate some of of the pressures we face, and enhance the joys of the apparently unique paradise we find ourselves living on.

Listeners have expressed how much they enjoyed series 1, but still were not clear about what we mean when we talk about systems thinking - so we also try to frame this complex but powerful subject in simple terms.

Any questions or comments? Please email us at [email protected]

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For this final episode of series 1, I wanted to build on Buckminster Fuller's idea of our planet - our habitat and life-support system - as being like a spaceship - Spaceship Earth, as he calls it - and building on this idea to use two related models for our discussion: the post-crash analysis and the preflight checklist

First we look at the globally used post-crash analysis as a model for investigating governance - "It's important that they are not looking to blame someone," Ed says.

Then we get onto Ed's Preflight checklist - essentially a renewal of our global social contracts, or constitutions, as they are known, that would take into account the conditions necessary for our survival.

Finally we hear from Gerald Midgley, philosopher on human systems and founding father of systems thinking as an intentional discipline, spelling out with some excitement the impact of what in many respects has been his life's work.

Gerald Midgley:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Midgley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_systems_thinking

Ed’s preflight checklist for planet Earth:

https://www.edstraw.com/principles-for-systemic-governing/

Eileen Munro (Episode 2 Contributor) advocating post crash analysis model to address culture of blame in child protection:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/nov/03/serious-case-review-child-protection

On checklists - great article overall, if you want to cut straight to flying fortress story go about 1/4 of the way in, paragraph opening “On October 30, 1935, at Wright Air Field in Dayton, Ohio…” https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/12/10/the-checklist

On October 30, 1935, at Wright Air Field in Dayton, Ohio, the U.S. Army Air Corps held a flight competition for airplane manufacturers vying to build its next-generation long-range bomber. It wasn’t supposed to be much of a competition. In early evaluations, the Boeing Corporation’s gleaming aluminum-alloy Model 299 had trounced the designs of Martin and Douglas. Boeing’s plane could carry five times as many bombs as the Army had requested; it could fly faster than previous bombers, and almost twice as far. A Seattle newspaperman who had glimpsed the plane called it the “flying fortress,” and the name stuck. The flight “competition,” according to the military historian Phillip Meilinger, was regarded as a mere formality. The Army planned to order at least sixty-five of the aircraft.

On the Psychology of Military Incompetence

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Psychology_of_Military_Incompetence

9 Lessons from the Blue Zones:

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/06/changing-the-way-america-eats-moves-and-connects-one-town-at-a-time/

Thoughts on Purpose:

Listen to Why Cornel West is hopeful (but not optimistic) from Future Perfect on Apple Podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/future-perfect/id1438157174?i=1000486452652

Welcome to the Anthropocene: 

https://vimeo.com/anthropocene/shortfilm

Perspective, via some very interesting maps:

https://earthtime.org

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