REFER TO GREY: Contemplations by Robert Greigos © 2007-2024

Emmanuel Macron and Theresa May are dealing with revolt. Germany, Italy, several other European countries, and even Iran and India are dealing with dissatisfactions within their citizenry that also threaten revolt. Revolt and the chaos that would follow are China’s biggest fears, too, the rationale behind its gloved attempts to squelch political debate. Within the U.S., 49% of the electorate voted for a “leader” who promised to address the dissatisfactions of the 90% who do not earn more than $200,000 per year. The result was a huge tax break for the 10% who do make more than $200,000 per year, the establishment of tariffs that increase taxes on the 90%, a ballooning of the National Debt that all of us will have to pay through increased inflation, a hobbling of institutions of government meant to serve the entire population, and a shredding of regulations, treaties, and agreements in furtherance of more destructive plundering of the environment to the benefit of the 10%, and at the expense of the 90%. Where is rational thought in all of this?

Clearly, self-interest is running amok, if that is the basis for decisions by the unincluded to rise up and for the monied and powerful to clamp down.

Within the discipline of engineering, there is an intellectual tool for dealing with huge complicated interconnected collections of problems. It is called systems analysis. That tool is also used by economists to gage the health of economies, in medicine to understand and treat disease and dysfunction, by coders to create useful software, by scientists to model climate, weather patterns, and the behavior of the sun, and by engineers to build tall buildings, bridges, automobiles, rockets that launch satellites, and cell phones.

Systems analysis says, let’s break this down into parts we can better understand with our limited brains. These separate parts behave in this manner, with this set of inputs and that set of outputs. So, what happens when we fit these separate parts together with those separate parts over there, with the outputs of these parts becoming inputs for those other parts? What behaviors then result from this collection of parts as a whole? And, can we tweak the interconnections between parts to create an even more desirable output from the collection as a whole?

Isn’t that messing with nature, you might ask? No, it’s making use of lessons learned from nature.

The most important lesson to be learned from systems analysis is that unregulated self-interest, or individual part-interest, does not produce system-wide output that benefits anyone, or any individual part, in the long run. Instead, it creates dysfunctional chaos powered by increasing friction and animus between parts. Systems analysis, and nature itself, tells us that only when individual parts allow themselves to be tailored to the needs and workings of the whole do benefits that support health and well-being flow back to individual parts. Take the internal workings of the human body as example.

So, am I suggesting universal socialism, or even a universal religion, as answer to riots in the streets? No, definitely not. Then, am I suggesting some new version of “trickle-down” world order, where workers willingly signup for life within a subservient class, subservient to a much better paid ruling class? No, not that, either.

What I am suggesting is that we all try to hear and listen to the music being played by our creator, within the workings of nature and the physics of the universe, and learn to dance with each other to that music in a manner that supports one another and the environment, instead of tripping each other and undermining each other with our various self-interests. What I am suggesting isn’t any different from learning to play an instrument so that one can join in a band, a band that actually makes music that can be heard and enjoyed by others. And, nothing within that suggestion is meant to imply the quashing of opportunity for individuals to change instruments or change bands as interests and talents develop, or as one finds affinity for new and different aspects of both society’s and nature’s music. The test will always be in how our various social systems survive within nature while attempting to maintain benefits for all its parts. Fail to benefit ALL the parts of a system and frictions, revolt, revolution, and dysfunctional chaos will unavoidably result, just what we are seeing more and more of across the globe. And, no wall or array of guns or butcher’s saw will ever be able to counter that reality.

So, with the lessons of systems analysis in mind, who will be the leader of our time?

We will, we who hear the music and we who can help others to hear it, too. We will be the leaders of our time, we who have learned to dance and who are capable of helping others learn their personally meaningful part in the wider dance prescribed by nature and its music. And, within that dance, within that music, with help or without, no one need ever find themselves unincluded.