Musings about governments, the net, and rigidity

One of the major things the Internet taught us is that if you put a lot of smart people together and give them access to as much information as possible, really cool and amazing things happen.

Look at all the open source stuff out there, lots of it started with one or just a few people who knew each other then moved online and then made everything open and available to everyone. Its given us some of the most robust and reliable software.

Its also a good way to organize governments, if you think about it long ago it was the only way people got together and got things organized. Early Athenian government everyone had access to a similar level of information.

While at the moment I don’t think we have the most stingiest government with information they are nowhere near the most liberal.

Open information fosters innovation including “negative” innovation. Whatever your opinion on 9-11 is you’ve gotta admit it was damn innovative. Why build a bomb when they’re already in the air and just need to be steered? This information mind you isn’t new, the Japanese used it during WWII.

So what if terrorists are using sixty some year old techniques? The government sees the road to safety is planning as much as possible and seeking to prevent negative innovation.

But “Rigidly certain organizations die early. They collapse from the weight of the structures they’ve erected to hold themselves up.” (p. 86 A Simpler Way)

So overly rigid countries die. Yes, look at The Roman Empire, The USSR, The Ottoman Empire. So why hasn’t the US collapsed under all these structures? I would say a lot of it has to do with technology, but thats just a guess.

So what about the fact that rigid leaders and organizations are clearly moving in one direction?

One last quote:

Rigid identities give rise to rigid organizations. Initial clarity about direction becomes hard certainty about everything. such organizations feel unapproachable. They know the way the world works … They stand in their certainties, suppressing disturbances, shooting messengers.” (p. 86 A Simpler Way)

So eventually everything might collapse but then it is also possible that we might get a transformation, or a really good government out of a collapse.