Effective Self-Governance

Introduction:

Hopefully you are about to be convinced that if you want to see the American people do what no democratic society has ever done: make their democracy/democratic institutions flourish spectacularly, permanently –– to paraphrase a famous Star Trek line: you must be willing to strongly support America's voters ~ boldly going where no self-governing nation has gone before.

This webpage is in the middle of a major, time-consuming "extreme narrative makeover"/re-editing effort (when finished, its word count should be half of what it currently is). So odds are you're here because you were notified via email (or the email was forwarded to you), because you either are, or one day might be, a member of our nation's intelligentsia, i.e., (from Wikipedia) "a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the intelligentsia consists of scholars, academics, teachers, journalists, and literary writers." [boldface and underline added]

(aside: to this list we should also add (erudite) political/public policy podcasters and sociopolitical influencers in media and elsewhere.)

Which means you should (in theory) find the new S-G terms, concepts, solutions, etc. on this page –– along with their myriad "spectacular" implications –– "cognitively" stimulating.

However, no matter how you got here –– or what your current, future or former station in life may be –– if you care about America, about American democracy, about its people, about their ability to remain a free, prosperous society and/or about the future of freedom as an inalienable human right across our planet –– your:

academic responsibility AND "civilizational duty" if you are a scholar or educator,

civic responsibility AND civilizational duty if you are a voter or student,

(civilizational duty if you are a billionaire),

...is to explore/wade through this page's wealth of new terms, concepts, Mind Boggling Takeaways (MBTs), etc.:

Then DETERMINE in your own mind if:

0% of it has academic or other merit, but just might give rise down the road to a new line of investigation or exploration for political philosophers, political economists, public policy thinkers/developers, good government advocates, etc. that WILL be of eventual "democracy-saving/civilization-enhancing" value,
Or 1% of it has academic worth and WILL give rise....
Or 10%....
Or 50%....
Or >50%...

Then DISSEMINATE anything you consider worthwhile, or potentially worthwhile, as far and as wide as you can –– a.s.a.p.

and/or...

Become a financial supporter/benefactor. Help this webpage achieve its ultimate mission/goal of making everyone in America old enough to have a "political" view:

"fluent" in the language of Effective S-G –– because when they can speak it, they will understand it. And when they understand it, they will practice it,
unwavering in their belief re the power, and promise, of the holy grail of effective S-G: Effective Sortition (ES), a quasi-random variant of Sortition.

(From Wikipedia): In governance, sortition is the selection of public officials or jurors using a random representative sample. This minimizes factionalism, since those selected to serve can prioritize deliberating on the policy decisions in front of them instead of campaigning. In ancient Athenian democracy, sortition was the traditional and primary method for appointing political officials, and its use was regarded as a principal characteristic of democracy. [boldface added]

"You can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” (Ayn Rand)

Spoiler alert:

This page is being written by a layman, i.e., a non-academic, and it is written for the general public. But it is pointedly directed to the members of our society's current, and future, intelligentsia –– a group who, more so than most IMO, want to help make ours a better world, and is hard at work trying to "make it so."

Their biggest obstacle is that quite a few divide themselves into one of two major PI tribes with polar opposite legislative policy (and other) views re how to make our nation and people the best they can possibly be. Or as political philosophers might say, how to use the power of government to create the greatest good for the greatest number of our citizens.

What the science of "effective" S-G does is show –– clearly and in detail –– how these two groups can enter into a synergistic relationship, headed in the same legislative direction so to speak, based on shared ANI values and objectives.

...

This info-graphic's takeaway...

Principles of Effective Self-Governance, "powered" by Effective Sortition, will enable our society (and species) to advance by lightyears in the way a free people use their NLEP to elect the members of their national legislature.

If you have the slightest interest in actually "saving" American democracy (as opposed to casting the "democracy-saving" effort as an epic battle between the forces of liberalism vs. the forces of conservatism, or the Democratic Party vs. the Republican Party, or etc.), this is the new S-G knowledge our civilization needs to make it happen.

NOTE: Layman's assumption re America's relative handful of "hot button" issues. The overwhelming majority of our nation's Vast Mainstream (VM) will be perfectly happy to either let our 50 states "settle" these issues, or, once PKQ-controlled, to have our U.S. House and Senate enact reasonable, "middle-ground" solutions that the VM agree on, especially the most contentious issues within the ranks of America's extreme left and right, e.g., abortion, immigration, biological (albeit "transgendered") males competing in female sports, etc.

***************

Effective Self-Governance (ES-G) is a layman's working term with a precise definition. It involves or relates to the "process" of America's voters identifying, recruiting and electing (mostly) Ds and Rs to Congress who can and will solve all of America's major economic, financial, fiscal and (poverty related) societal (EFFS) problems (some quickly, others over time) –– because no matter which political faction ends up wielding power in Congress, that power will always be wielded (in both chambers) by a steady supply of a democratic society's version of philosopher kings and queens (PKQs), i.e., highly capable representatives who are NOT self-serving, are NOT politically ambitious, and do NOT crave power for power's sake.

ES-G –– not to be confused with ESG: Environmental, Social, Governance –– is one of a glossary of new terms/ideas/concepts that, hopefully, will:

become a critical part of our society's working "S-G vocabulary,"
be instrumental in turning an idea that no rational person could possibly take seriously into an idea that every rational person takes seriously: PKQ-controlled Congresses.

"Throughout the centuries there were men* who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision.” Ayn Rand (* and women)

Three observations re the New S-G Knowledge Thought Experiment info-graphic

This “new knowledge” info-graphic suggests the "new road" the vast mainstream (VM) of America's left- and right-of-center (LOC/ROC) voters must "boldly go" down to avoid the Orwellian future that conventional political wisdom (CPW) says awaits our nation (and planet).

Our voters' sole obstacle (to "transitioning" to PKQ-controlled Congresses) will be the Semmelweis reflex, the tendency of people to reject new ideas or knowledge (including strategies) that contradict well established (Think: entrenched) ideas, orthodoxies, theories, paradigms, strategies, etc. In other words, our voters' initial reaction will be, "In twenty-four hundred years, no free society has ever managed, or even attempted, to keep their national legislature filled with PKQ-caliber legislators. Therefore, it can't be done –– so why even try."

Fortunately, the history of new, paradigm-shifting, status quo-disrupting, course-of-history-changing ideas says it can be done –– and will. So, you will need to buckle your intellectual seatbelt. Your journey of discovery (of this "strange new" S-G knowledge) is going to make for one hell of a bumpy ride.

re the URGENT MEMO info-graphic

Many readers may consider the “hellish, freedomless existence” described in the above URGENT MEMO to be overly dramatic, hyperbolic even. Or blatant fearmongering. Yet two thousand plus years of conventional political wisdom (CPW) says otherwise.

In fact, CPW has been adamant that, one, all democratic societies will "eventually fail” in their effort to govern themselves [successfully, effectively, competently].

Plato, circa 400 BC: “Democracy will inevitably become tyranny”
Aristotle, circa 400 BC: “Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.”
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) "The body politic, like the human body, begins to die from its birth, and bears in itself the causes of its destruction."
John Adams, 2nd U.S. pres. "There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
Thomas Babington Macaulay, British historian, poet, Whig politician (1800-1859): “I have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty or civilization, or both.”
Shawn W. Rosenberg, Political/Psychological Science, UC-Irvine, 2017: “Particularly in well-established democracies like the United States, democratic governance will continue its inexorable decline and will eventually fail..."

Two, they will fail because, "for the most part," their voters simply aren't intelligent enough to govern themselves successfully/effectively/competently. They also have a number of other human "shortcomings" that don't help matters. For example, far too many are woefully uneducated, or are insufficiently "informed on the issues." Or they're misinformed, naïve, gullible, greedy, etc.

(The ever perspicacious) Winston Churchill (1874-1965): "The best argument against Democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."
Shawn W. Rosenberg, Political/Psychological Science, UC-Irvine, 2017: “...people lack the requisite cognitive capacities for integration and abstraction needed for the kind of systemic understanding, considered judgment and critical reflection that liberal democracy requires of its citizenry." https://www.academia.edu/81028655/Unfit_for_Democracy_Irrational_Rationalizing_and_Biologically_Predisposed_Citizens...

One doesn't have to be an expert on current national (and world) events to understand that the mountain of major economic, financial, fiscal and (poverty related) societal (EFFS) problems America is buried under is only going to grow larger –– and at an accelerating rate –– especially as:

millions of low skill (take your pick)[undocumented immigrants, illegal aliens] continue streaming, unchecked, into our nation, and continue putting considerable strain on a considerable number of our nation's already over-strained systems, e.g., healthcare, education, social services, criminal justice, etc.
The proportion of our population who rely heavily on our nation's already strained entitlement programs, i.e., our very old, very sick, very disabled, and/or very poor, grows significantly relative to the rest of the population (whose tax dollars are keeping those programs afloat).
Moving forward, an already unacceptably high (yet growing at an ever-accelerating pace) percentage of our federal budget is going to be devoted simply to servicing our (as of 5-23-24) $34.8 trillion national debt. If the debt grows faster than America's GDP –– long story short: we're screwed; America's societal/civilizational collapse "will be nigh."

"You can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” (Ayn Rand)

There's no getting around our harsh reality.

America is facing a bleak future.
That future is getting bleaker by the day.
No one has the slightest idea how to slow, much less reverse, our nation's (and planet's) downward civilizational spiral.

So, what's the way out of our civilizational quagmire?

Simple. "Invent" the S-G knowledge that will allow our LOC and ROC voters to, in a manner of speaking: see, in detail, with their mind's eye:

what a (nearly utopian) American future would/might look like, and
how to use their NLEP to "create" it.

"The best way to predict the future is to create it." (various)

A LAYMAN'S TAKEAWAY:

Since today's CPW was already well established when our founders set out to give form and function to their “American experiment,” they knew the odds were stacked against them if they didn't opt for what, presumably, they all recognized was the closest thing to the perfect form of government: a benign dictatorship, a.k.a. a philosopher king.

The monarchy option (think: King George Washington) was discussed/debated by Jefferson, Madison et al. But they decided to go the self-governance route, so developed a system of “checks and balances” (i.e., our federal government's three co-equal branches) to keep our species' innate “lust for power” in check –– inasmuch as the corrupting effects of power (on those with power over those without power) is the single greatest threat/obstacle to freedom and liberty (and happiness and sustained, broad-based prosperity as well IMO).

In hindsight, our founders should have taken one additional exploratory step in their effort to craft a "more perfect union."

They should have posed the following “blue-sky” question:

How do we design, or configure, America's national legislative election process (NLEP) –– i.e., what "algorithm" do we create –– which will essentially guarantee that, no matter who or what political faction ends up wielding power in Congress, that power will always be wielded (in both chambers) by a steady supply of a democratic society's version of philosopher kings –– and queens ––(PKQs), i.e., highly capable representatives who are NOT self-serving, are NOT politically ambitious, and do NOT crave power for power's sake? (aside: impossible to imagine that algorithm? Yes. Easy to design/construct it in 21st century America? Yes.)

My guess is that nearly every modern-day political scientist can talk at length on the difficulties our founders would have faced had they set out to build this feature into America's NLEP (and, moving forward, probably will talk at great length on this subject).

But, what if...

...our academics (and others), instead of only talking about why our founders didn't, or couldn't, design that "holy grail" algorithm, actually designed one? And not for 18th century America's electorate but for 21st century America's LOC and ROC voters?

Then what if today's political academics took one more small step (relatively speaking) –– but, fyi, it would represent "one giant leap" forward for civilization –– and actually taught their students, and America's voters, how to use it in our NLEP?

Short answer: the era, or the age, of PKQ-controlled Congresses would begin. The vast mainstream (VM) of America's LOC and ROC voters would be able to start keeping both chambers of Congress continually replenished with a steady supply of (mostly) Ds and Rs who were PKQ-caliber.

Here's the first mind boggling takeaway (MBT): Congress' 535 representatives would be able to start legislating and governing, i.e., performing their oversight, foreign policy, etc. duties, collectively, with the:

intelligence of an Einstein,
wisdom of a Solomon,
compassion of a Mother Teresa,
logic of a Mr. Spock,
ingenuity of a MacGyver,
vision of a Steve Jobs,
backbone of a Wonder Woman,
moral compass of a Nelson Mandela,
common sense of a Mark Twain.

Second MBT: Legislative solutions to most of America's EFFS problems would start being CO-JOINTLY CRAFTED with LEGISLATION that: (1) was neither distinctly "liberal" nor "conservative," but a synergistic mosaic of both, (2) would have essentially the same legislative language and provisions regardless of which party controlled either or both legislative chambers, (3) would be strongly supported by significant majorities of Americans:

from across the political/ideological spectrum,
of every racial, religious and ethnic group,
of every age, income and educational level.

Notably:

In most cases, the legislation would solve the problems (relatively) quickly, completely and permanently –– even the seemingly intractable ones.
As our mountain of EFFS problems began to get solved, our federal government would stop running deficits every year, and start producing surpluses –– sometimes sizable surpluses.

MBT #3: When our nation's ultimate role models are 535 selfless, non-demagoguing, non-finger pointing, "problem solving-focused," etc. Olympic-caliber national legislators, i.e., near perfect role models –– although it may not be immediately clear why, as a society, we will quickly (very quickly IMO) become much more thoughtful... conscientious... respectful... principled... courteous... forgiving... peaceful... not quick to anger... unbiased... non-judgmental... non-discriminatory... generous... civil... altruistic... resilient... resourceful... self-reliant... stoic... goal oriented... civic-minded... community focused... apolitical... non-ideological... etc... etc... etc. –– because that's how much "good power" emanates from outstanding, national-level role models.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: On the flip side, this suggests how much societal harm has been inflicted on literally generations of Americans (adults AND their children) by the "bad (role model) power" that has been radiating/spewing out of our "PAP-controlled Congresses" for literally generations.

With just these three MBTs in mind –– there are many more –– how many of today's political academics, or entire political science departments will (individually or in groups) devote a small part of their enormous cognitive capabilities (fyi: this is not a put down, just stating a fact) to developing that algorithm, a.k.a. the holy grail of "effective" S-G?

A handful? Ten percent of them? Fifty percent? > fifty percent?

***************

Digital Post-it note to our species' blue-sky thinkers in and outside academia:

Not to be overly dramatic, but twenty-four hundred years of CPW is screaming at you: "HELP!!! Your species needs you to save them from the freedomless, impoverished, Orwellian existence awaiting them IF YOU DON'T DEVELOP THAT ALGORITHM!"

*****************

re Effective sortition

The following is one of many possible ways America's vast mainstream (VM) of left- and right-of-center (LOC/ROC) voters can use ES in the pre-primary process phase of their national legislative election process (NLEP):

1. Every two years, from, say, ten distinct regions across each of America's 435 U.S. House districts and ~33 States, ten groups of LOC voters, and ten groups of ROC voters (with, e.g., 6-12 per group) –– all of whom have volunteered in advance to involve themselves in this process –– are randomly selected (similar to how individuals are selected for jury duty). (For now, let's call these voters: Talented Xers.) (fyi: each district has ~700,000 people.)

2. Each group will then:

identify, using a combination of social media and standard recruiting methods, then
recruit/draft/arm-twist via a quasi-random process,

... several extraordinarily capable LOC and ROC candidates from their district/state who have high POM (purity of motive) ratings –– think: PKQ-caliber (but not aristocrats, or aristocratic).

In other words, these will be highly capable candidates who:

do not have (relatively speaking) self-serving, politically ambitious or power hungry bones in their bodies –– AND of equal importance,
understand going in that they will only be serving a “few” years as a one-time civic duty because both they and the voters understand how easily political power, especially at the national legislative level, can corrupt even the best of us.

3. From each district's/state's pool of identified and recruited LOC and ROC candidates, one LOC and one ROC candidate will be randomly selected via a lottery –– and, subject to the approval of the Democratic and Republican parties' primary voters in the NLEP's primary process phase, will face each other in the general election phase of the NLEP.

FYI: extraordinarily capable (Think: Olympic caliber) = someone:

with an excellent formal education,
intelligent enough to be able to digest and synthesize large amounts of oft times complex material,
with a demonstrated body of general knowledge acquired over decades of meaningful life experience, a.k.a. wisdom,
who has achieved a level of financial success in life (and therefore will be reluctantly agreeing, if elected, to perform a thankless task: serve in Congress for a "few" years as a one-time civic duty, rather than enthusiastically agreeing to serve in the House or Senate because they need the money),
with demonstrated leadership and life-and-death decision making experience.

KEY POINT: ES makes it possible for LOC and ROC voters to insure that, in the general election phase of the NLEP, both major parties' candidates will always be PKQ-caliber. Which means both factions of voters will never have to confront the "moral" quandary: "Do I vote for the other side's PKQ-caliber candidate since my side's candidate is, by definition, a PAP (and therefore also, by definition, self-serving)?"

Layman's observation: ES will not be a big hit with our nation's rabid ideologues (and others). But it will turn out to be wildly/massively popular with the VM of our LOC and ROC voters, i.e., our ~140 million go-along-to-get-alongers –– including, in my view, quite a few big tech and other billionaires who:

agree with CPW's dire prognosis, i.e., moving forward, the "end is nigh[ish]" for American democracy (and Earth's other democracies), and
don't relish the thought of being under the thumb of an autocratic, albeit democratically elected, "imperial" president, e.g., Vladimir Putin –– who can, via demagoguery and other undemocratic devices, whip up the kind of frenzied, mob mentality within society that sets into motion the chain of events that end up turning free societies that don't value freedom into unfree societies that cherish it.

REASONABLE GUESSTIMATE: America has roughly one million PKQ-caliber citizens, which works out to ~0.3% of our population. That's a recruitment pool of ~2,300 PKQ-caliber candidates in each 700,000+ person congressional district.

(reminder)

PAP: politically ambitious "politician"

PKQ: Philosopher K/Q (-caliber)

LAYMAN'S TAKEAWAY re EFFECTIVE SORTITION (ES):

Political science's CPW will continue to be 100% valid so long as the vast mainstream (VM) of America's ~155 million left- and right-of-center (LOC/ROC) voters (= ~ 140 million) continue using the “primitive S-G paradigm/model/algorithm” they've used for the last century to elect their 535 members of Congress. But said CPW will become 100% invalid when a critical mass of our VM voters begin using a “non-primitive” paradigm/model, i.e., Effective Sortition (ES).

ES is the only way America's LOC and ROC voters can transition from PAP-controlled to PKQ-controlled Congresses.

PKQ-controlled Congresses are the only way to avoid the Orwellian future that CPW says awaits us.

***********

REASONABLE FIRST REACTION to the idea of 535 Americans –– who very well may not look, act or talk like "slick," smooth-talking PAPs –– "running" our nation/wielding the reins of power: How can 535 "amateurs" possibly run a modern nation as large, as powerful and as complex as the United States?

That question will be answered in greater detail later on. For now, here's the best short answer:

First, it should be obvious that Congress doesn't "run" America (thank goodness). Our nation is "run" by tens of millions of Americans distributed throughout:

dozens of major federal agencies
50 fully functioning state governments
thousands of county, city and other government bodies, and
millions of:
- [small, medium, large] businesses
- community and social organizations
- school boards, churches
- charities, NGOs, philanthropies, etc.

Second, common sense suggests that our (commonsensical) Vast Mainstream of LOC and ROC voters will quickly begin doing in the House of Representatives what they've done all along in the Senate: elect new PKQ-caliber candidates in one-third of the 435 House seats every two years, and essentially rubber stamp the other two-thirds.

So at any given point in time –– just as it now is, and will continue to be, in the Senate –– one-third of the House members will have 4-5 years of experience; one-third will have 3-4 years of experience, and one-third will be true freshmen legislators.

Making sense of this "new S-G knowledge" info-graphic's takeaway with a novel thought experiment:

Imagine that students in a 4th grade class are voting on which name they want for their classroom's pet goldfish: Spot or Nemo.

Turns out that about half the students adore the name Spot but loath Nemo, and for the other half it's the exact opposite.

If they use the standard "bloodless war" (BW) voting paradigm/strategy that America's voters have always used (and probably most/all voters in most/all democracies), i.e., "to the victors, i.e., 50% + 1, go the spoils of war" strategy, then the "right/power" to decide the goldfish's name will be determined by the side that "wins," i.e., casts the most votes.

Result (worst case scenario):

A non-violent battle is fought, so no blood is spilled. But,
the winners are very happy –– they love their goldfish's new name ––while, understandably, the losers are very unhappy since they loath the goldfish's new name.
Human nature being human nature, this inevitably leads to hard feelings between a significant number of pro-Spot and pro-Nemo students, who begin segregating into their respective tribes.
Friendships are destroyed; trust, cohesion, comradery, etc. between the tribes evaporate. A carefree zeitgeist gives way to a state of "permanent disagreeableness." Nothing is too trivial, too insignificant to spark heated, drawn-out arguments that never get resolved.
"Beating" the other tribe at every opportunity, a.k.a. "one-upmanship," becomes the centerpiece of the students' daily lives.

Moral of the story: Even bloodless/non-violent "battles," can lead to the creation of tribes who exist in a permanent state of hostility. Ergo: goodbye everyone living (and co-sharing) a "neartopic" existence.

Welcome to Dystopia, U.S.A.

Now imagine the students, before voting began, having a class discussion. And out of that discussion they determine that 95% are perfectly fine with calling their goldfish, GF, if it will avoid causing hard feelings.

So our students do what a massive number of "the vast mainstream" of our society would do: they decide to go with GF even though it's no one's first choice (because for our students (the VM of society, too) it isn't about power, but about going along to get along).

This would be an example of our students, not compromising, i.e., meeting half way (because that would result in them naming their goldfish Spmo or Neot), but taking a radically different approach (although the distinction might not be readily apparent): pursuing the "S-G strategy" of Strategic Cooperation, i.e., working together (as allies) to achieve (often times, highly desirable) shared objectives.

With this thought experiment in mind, and relating it to the above Zombie-Warrior info-graphic:

There are a massive number of shared (and also highly desirable) "apolitical/non-ideological (ANI)-based "legislative solutions" to America's myriad of economic, financial, fiscal and (poverty-related) societal (EFFS) problems that the vast mainstream (VM) of America's voters would wholeheartedly support Congress crafting/enacting –– solutions that Congress' two political factions could be “co-crafting” and enacting into law right now (and could have been co-crafting/enacting for generations).

But our two political factions aren't because both factions are overwhelmingly dominated by, by definition, self-serving, politically ambitious, majority status-craving, perks and privileges-addicted "politicians" who –– notwithstanding how well-meaning nearly all of them may be –– care astronomically more about getting re-elected and/or growing their or their party's power than they care about doing what is in the best interest(s) of their constituents and nation.

This has been the situation is Congress for many generations, many will argue since soon after our nation's founding. And it will, if anything, only get worse moving forward unless our political and civics educators start developing the body of new S-G knowledge that will enable the vast mainstream (VM) of America's ~155 million left- and right-of-center (LOC/ROC) voters to start identifying, recruiting and electing the kind of liberal Ds and conservative Rs to Congress who could AND WOULD start co-crafting that legislation.

Given the Orwellian future that conventional political wisdom (CPW) says awaits our species, why our academic experts on the democratic process aren't developing that new knowledge may be one of the greatest mysteries in the field of political science.

Will this website be the two-by-four that gets their attention, and prods them into action?

We shall find out soon enough.

One thing is clear: we need our society's blue-sky thinkers/problem solvers to start thinking "outside-the-PI-War" box –– ASAP!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

In theory, this body of new, "how-to" S-G knowledge should be the mainstay of all (rationally/effectively) self-governing societies. Yet our nation's political [scientists, philosophers, psychologists] will, at best, studiously avoid acknowledging it, at worst, dismiss it out of hand.

Why is that?

If this "instructive" knowledge will prevent what CPW, based on 2,400 years of experience, says is essentially a done deal, i.e., American democracy, along with Earth's other democracies, will all eventually collapse/decay/devolve into either left- or right-wing pseudo-democratic autocracies –– which, fyi, means the human race is doomed to an Orwellian existence, a planet of nation-states ruled by [self-serving, narcissistic, power-craving, glory-seeking,...] left- and right-wing "Caesars" –– why would our political scholars and academics ignore it, or worse, dismiss it out of hand as academically "invalid," not serious, utopian, etc.?

The three likeliest reasons:

The Semmelweis reflex, i.e., the tendency of people (especially extremely intelligent people in this layman's view) to reject new ideas or knowledge that contradict well established (Think: entrenched) ideas, orthodoxies, theories, paradigms, etc.
Intellectual hubris/a lack of intellectual humility, i.e., the view, especially among academics from elite universities, i.e., our deepest, most erudite, thinkers, that if cutting edge/paradigm-shifting/visionary "political" concepts do not emanate from their wheelhouse, but are the brainchild of a non-academic –– then the concepts/ideas can't possibly stand up to intellectual/academic scrutiny (i.e., they're foolish, naïve, utopian,...).
This new way of thinking about, and engaging in, not in the democratic process per se, but the "mechanics" of S-G that LOC and ROC voters use in their respective national legislative primaries –– in order for them to start achieving shared ANI objectives, e.g., routinely fielding PKQ-caliber House and Senate candidates –– will (massively, albeit temporarily) upset the applecarts and/or threaten the lucrative cash cows of a great many individuals working in fields involved in, associated with, and/or impacted by, national politics, e.g., our national news media, political commentariat/punditocracy, overtly [liberal, conservative, etc.] public policy think tanks,...

But, in this layman's view, that's a miniscule price to pay to teach society writ large how to approach the process of S-G (in their NLEP) with a 90% ANI Cooperation mindset.

Recap: this webpage...

1. Introduces a new category of S-G concepts, complete with a glossary of new S-G-based terms and acronyms, into America's marketplace of new self-governance (S-G) ideas. Terms and concepts that, hopefully, will have the intended effect of compelling everyone in America old enough to have a “political” opinion to radically re-think what our nation's ~155 million left- and right-of-center (LOC/ROC) voters should be “using” their national legislative election process (NLEP) to accomplish.

2. Makes the case that it's (long past) time for our political and civics educators to create a new science/academic discipline in the field of political science: the study of Effective S-G Theories, Models and Strategies.

“Change your language and you change your thoughts.” Karl Albrecht

The following is a glossary of acronyms/terms/concepts which are designed to both: 1) massively expand our society's (including our intelligentsia's) understanding of America's "democratic process," and 2) fundamentally transform the way society perceives/views/sees its voters' role in that process.

Primitive Self-Governing Man vs.
Modern Self-Governing Man

PI: Political/Ideological
ANI: Apolitical/Non-Ideological

S-G: Self-Governance
ES-G: Effective Self-Governance

ES: Effective Sortition
POM: Purity Of Motive (rating)
CTG: Capacity To Govern (rating)

PAP: Politically Ambitious Politician
Dystopic [Democracy, Capitalism, Legislative Policies,...]

PKQ: Philosopher King/Queen(-caliber) Legislator
Neartopic [Democracy, Capitalism, Legislative Policies,...]

Dystopic vs. Neartopic systems: e.g., free market, financial, healthcare, education, mental health, criminal justice, immigration, social services,...

(permanently) PAP-controlled U.S. Congresses (= Dystopic Democracy)
(permanently) PKQ-controlled U.S. Congresses (= Neartopic Democracy)

PAP- vs. PKQ-governed (representative) democracies.

100% (bloodless) Political/Ideological (PI) War [theory, paradigm, strategy, mentality] FYI: this is the "S-G strategy" our LOC and ROC voters have always used in their NLEP to elect their members of Congress, as well as their S-G mentality, i.e., the attitude they have as voters, especially re the NLEP.
90% ANI Cooperation/10% PI War [theory, paradigm, strategy, mindset] FYI: this is the strategy/mentality they SHOULD use/have.

Dystopic Democratic Process (= 100% PI War-based democratic process).
Neartopic Democratic Process (= 90% ANI Cooperation-based democratic process)

ineffective S-G mentality vs. effective S-G mindset
Sheeple vs. Spartan S-G mindset

Leviathan's "Head" (From Hobbes) (= Our U.S. Congress)

100% PI War vs. 90% ANI Cooperation Civilizational Paradigm

“All important advances are sudden intuitions, new principles, a new way of seeing." Marilyn Ferguson (1938-2008)

Here are three radically new S-G concepts:

One: "Congress is broken because the "system" is broken" is not the correct way to state the American people's "S-G problem." The correct/instructive way to state it:

Because America's LOC and ROC voters are using, or involving themselves in, a 100% PI War-based democratic process, Congress is overflowing with, by definition, self-serving, majority status-craving, corrupted by power PAPs –– who (in varying degrees) care more about wielding political power, and enjoying the many perks and privileges that come with national legislative office, than they care about doing what is in the best interests of their nation (and their civilization and their species).

Therefore, for our LOC and ROC voters, the S-G solution is for them to transition to a more evolved, or advanced, civilizational paradigm, i.e., begin using/engaging in a 90% ANI Cooperation-based democratic process, the core feature of which is Effective Sortition (ES).

Two: re ES:

By using Effective Sortition (ES) in America's national legislative election process (NLEP), i.e., a uniquely 21st century quasi-random identification and recruitment process, it is possible for our nation's LOC and ROC voters to insure that, at the end of every NLEP –– no matter which political party wins control of the U.S. House and Senate –– political power will always be wielded (in both chambers) by a steady supply of a democratic society's version of philosopher kings and queens (PKQs), i.e., highly capable representatives who are NOT self-serving, are NOT politically ambitious, and do NOT crave power for power's sake.

Three: (permanently) PKQ-controlled Congresses will make possible our society's transition to a 90% ANI Cooperation Civilizational Paradigm.

Obvious question: Why is this page pointedly directed to our society's current/future intelligentsia?

Because, in the same way our medical community is responsible for matters pertaining to our society's physical/bodily (and mental) health and wellbeing, our intelligentsia is responsible for matters pertaining to our society's [democratic, societal, civilizational] health and wellbeing.

Given our intelligentsia's (might we say, moral) responsibility in this area, it is incumbent on our best and brightest “civilizational” "critiquers, shapers, and leaders" to step up to the plate and "lead" the transition away from America's “18th century” 100% PI War-based democratic process in favor of a 90% ANI Cooperation/10% PI War-based democratic process –– inasmuch as the 100% PI War-based democratic process has produced (and will continue producing) a massively long list of horribly unsatisfying/disastrous outcomes.

Here's a tiny number of those horrible outcomes:

Congress is now deemed permanently “broken,” i.e., unfixable. And by broken most of us probably mean corrupted by power, craven, utterly incapable of governing responsibly, or rationally. And by utterly incapable we mean our national legislators are incapable of solving even one of a long laundry list of legislatively solvable economic, financial, fiscal and societal (EFFS) problems with common sense legislative solutions that voters across the PI spectrum would/will strongly support.

Our national debt is now so large, and growing so fast, it will soon require cuts in entitlement spending (major in some cases, massive in others) simply to service the interest on it.

Middle Class poverty is increasing/Lower Class destitution, and hopelessness, is going to begin skyrocketing.

Divisions along [racial, cultural, political, income, education, regional, generational, etc.] lines are growing.

Societal/civilizational norms are decaying. As a group our society is becoming ruder, cruder, louder, (significantly) less "well-read/well-rounded," more grievance-obsessed, more judgmental, more self-righteous, increasingly intolerant of opposing views and values, etc., etc., etc. (you get the point).

re the Semmelweis reflex:

Many of this page's "democracy-saving/strengthening" concepts and ideas are so radical that the Semmelweis reflex will be a major obstacle to our political scientists and others accepting them as academically valid, or feasible, realistic, etc.

Semmelweis reflex: the tendency of people to reject new ideas or knowledge (including strategies) that contradict well established (Think: entrenched) ideas, orthodoxies, theories, paradigms, strategies, etc.

In an effort to provide an antidote to the Semmelweis reflex, this page consists of "new S-G knowledge" info-graphics, Thought Experiments, Foods For Thoughts, What Ifs, Mind Boggling Takeaways (MBTs), and assorted Digital Post-it notes –– enough, hopefully, to counteract this reflexive response.

ASIDE: one of the most interesting MBT (of many MBTs) concerns some of history's major inflection points:

A major “new knowledge” inflection point (IP) occurred in the field of astronomy in the 16th century, the Geocentric to Heliocentric IP.
An analogous inflection point occurred in the field of medicine in the 19th century, the Humoralism to Germ theory IP.
In the 2020s, to avoid the Orwellian future that CPW says awaits our, and Earth's other democracies, a new knowledge inflection point must occur in political science, the 100% PI War to 90% ANI Cooperation IP.

Two housekeeping notes:

Much of the text on the first 40% of this page has been culled from the other 60%.
This web page is an ongoing, never-ending work in progress, it will probably never be (officially) finished. As of 6-20-24, new (un-edited) prose is being created, then revised, then re-revised ad nauseam. New ideas/partial ideas are being formulated, new graphics built. So my sincere apologies for, among things, the horrible sentence structure, dangling modifiers, half formed thoughts, etc. you have, and will continue to encounter.

BY THIS POINT, your intellect has been body slammed by enough (mind-boggling) S-G concepts and ideas –– particularly the idea of PKQ-controlled Congresses –– that, but for the Semmelweis reflex (mostly), you would have already begun:

A: Radically rethinking what democratic societies in the 21st century should be "using" their national legislative election process (NLEP) to accomplish.

B: Coming to several conclusions, most notably:

The "vast mainstream (VM)" of America's ~155 million LOC and ROC voters have the ability to transition the United States as close to an "ideal" democracy as is humanly possible, i.e., a liberty-loving, extraordinarily stable, cohesive multi: racial/ethnic/cultural society –– with a prosperous multi: racial/ethnic/cultural middle-class and poverty as we know it all but nonexistent.

aside: how this "democratic miracle" could/will be brought about, legislatively, will be dealt with in due course.

Transitioning to that nearly-ideal, or "neartopic," democracy, depends 100% on the willingness of a critical mass of our VM voters to upgrade, or modernize, their NLEP, i.e., start using Effective Sortition (ES) to elect Congress' 535 members.

Bringing their NLEP into the 21st century is the only way our VM LOC and ROC voters can "fix" (completely and permanently) their horribly “broken” Congress –– which, it cannot be stressed enough: only our two factions of voters can repair (and only via ES as opposed to government "reforms") inasmuch as, (a) our divided society cannot be mended (completely and permanently), and (b) the spirit of Classical Liberalism cannot be restored (completely and permanently) to America's soul, until Congress' 535 members are able to govern America "optimally" (new concept), i.e., craft optimal legislative policies, and perform their government oversight duties optimally.

Our two political factions in the House and Senate will be able to govern America optimally ONLY when both groups in both chambers are overwhelmingly dominated by a "steady supply" of a modern democracy's equivalent of (non-aristocratic) philosopher kings and queens (PKQs).

Worth repeating: It's probably safe to say that America easily has a million PKQ-caliber citizens, which works out to ~0.3% of our population, which = a recruitment pool of ~2,300 PKQ-caliber candidates in each 700,000+ person congressional district.

"You can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.”

Above quote: H/t: AR

The info-graphic's takeaway –– or, if you will, the "reality" our intelligentsia (and others) really, really need to stop "ignoring" –– is that the existential threat to American democracy is not that our society doesn't have enough intelligent voters –– and as should become apparent, we also have the good fortune of having a sizable number of voters who aren't inadequately educated, aren't uninformed, aren't naïve, aren't greedy,....

What we don't have, and have never had –– because our political philosophers/thinkers never took the time to closely examine their superficial, demonstrably flawed, "it's The Voters' Fault" theory –– is an "intelligent"/instructive theory of "effective" self-governance (S-G) that makes it unambiguously clear what a democratic society's voters MUST do, mechanistically/procedurally/algorithmically, to insure that all of their nation's democratic institutions always function/operate spectacularly well.

******************

QUESTION: Which "S-G mentality" should America's civics curriculum be designed to inculcate/enculturate into America's future LOC and ROC voters?

Sheeple mentality, i.e., 100% helpless/powerless: "as an individual voter, my one vote (in the NLEP) doesn't matter because nothing will change in Congress, no matter which party ends up in control (of either chamber); if anything, things will just get worse" –– so I'm going to put all of what little hope I have in our nation's "leader," i.e., our (Imperial) President, to change things, get things done."

Spartan mentality, i.e., 100% NOT helpless/powerless: "the S-G strategy of me and my fellow voters (from both parties) using ES in our NLEP will absolutely matter, and it will matter massively because everything will change in Congress for the better (so goodbye quasi-authoritarian Imperial Presidents who "rule" by Executive Orders), no matter which party ends up in control of either chamber in any given election cycle."

******************

recap:

If we want to see America's LOC and ROC voters start electing Ds and Rs to Congress who can turn America's mountain of EFFS problems into (relatively speaking) a molehill –– via a largely ANI-based legislative agenda that LOC and ROC voters BOTH strongly support –– the concept of primitive vs. non-primitive S-G [theories, models/paradigms, strategies, mentalities] will have to be introduced into America's marketplace of new S-G ideas.

AND, every American old enough to have a "political" view must become conversant with these ideas, especially the idea of having a primitive vs. non-primitive S-G mentality. The good news: these new terms and concepts will spark a great deal of curiosity about them, including among our young (and, young or old, no one will want to think they have a primitive S-G mentality).

*****************

This next info-graphic is a graphical primer that sums up the thought process/mind set/mentality our best and brightest "political" minds (and everyone else, too) should adopt moving forward.

.

Our best and brightest minds are using "Four Humours" remedies to "save" our failing democracy.

...which explains why our democracy is failing.

re 3 Democracy Destroying Pathogens (DDPs)

The following analogy should cause your cognitive gears to start turning:

The Four Humours theory/mentality of medicine is to the Germ Theory T/M as the 100% PI War T/M of self-governance (S-G) is to the 90% ANI Cooperation T/M.

**********

From time immemorial humans have looked upon “politicians” with a considerable amount of contempt (some of it deserved, some of it not). And the more politically powerful the office, the more contemptible the behavior of the politician(s) seeking it –– or, if they already “possess” the office, the more contemptible the unethical measures they use to keep it, e.g., demagoguery, pandering, influence peddling, etc.

So most of our society, and certainly all of our political academics, are aware of the three DDPs, and understand how much they undermine our democracy, how detrimental they are to the S-G process.

But it's probably safe to say that most everyone treats all three, not as full blown DDPs, but as nuisances to be endured. Or, to the extent they are deemed democracy destroying, the only remedy is via government "reforms," e.g., ethics, campaign finance, redistricting, etc.

Unfortunately, that fatal flaw in our public's AND our intelligentsia's thinking is a direct consequence of the “100% PI War” mentality that overwhelmingly dominates society's S-G zeitgeist –– most notably and especially re our NLEP.

Meaning,

LOC voters' singular objective in the NLEP is to see both chambers of Congress controlled by Democrats who will pursue a liberal/progressive agenda based on, or that reflect, the Democratic Party's values, ideals, etc.

ROC voters' singular objective is to see both chambers controlled by Republicans who will pursue a conservative/libertarian agenda based on, or that reflect, the Republican Party's values, ideals, etc.

Here's the additional irony: in recent generations the battle has taken on a moral dimension inasmuch as a large slice of our electorate, including much/most of our intelligentsia, now believe that one of the two agendas poses an existential threat to American democracy, while the other is seen as a bulwark against that threat.

As a result, here's the moral calculus of our LOC and ROC voters respectively::

For democratic/LOC voters, “better to vote for the contemptible liberal/democratic "politician" who will consistently vote for the Democratic Party's (morally superior/democracy-saving) policies/agenda, than vote for the considerably less contemptible conservative/republican politician who will consistently vote for the Republican Party's (morally contemptible/democracy-destroying) policies/agenda.
For republican/conservative voters, it's the polar opposite moral calculus.

Fortunately, when our society is governed by PKQ-controlled Congresses, our voters' moral calculus will change. To get a sense of why it will, consider this 4th grade class thought experiment.

Students in a 4th grade class are voting on which name they want for their classroom's pet goldfish: Spot or Nemo.

Turns out that about half the students adore the name Spot but loath Nemo, and for the other half it's the exact opposite.

If they use the standard "bloodless war" (BW) voting strategy that America's voters have always used (and probably most/all voters in most/all democracies), i.e., "to the victors, i.e., 50% + 1, go the spoils of war" strategy, then the "right/power" to decide the goldfish's name will be determined by the side that "wins," i.e., casts the most votes.

Result (worst case scenario):

a non-violent battle is fought, so no blood is spilled. But,
the winners are very happy while, understandably, the losers are not (and many are so unhappy they demand a recount),
pro-Spot and pro-Nemo students form their own tribes, then start segregating themselves into them.
friendships are destroyed; trust, cohesion, comradery, etc. between the tribes evaporate. A carefree zeitgeist gives way to scheming and plotting,
fixating on "beating" the other tribe become the whole point of the students' existence.

Now imagine the students taking a poll before voting and determining that 90% are perfectly fine with calling their goldfish, GF, if it will avoid causing hard feelings.

That's the analogy for the not yet formally conceptualized basis of optimalism, which will be touched on later.

If applied to Congress, we would be talking about two factions of legislators who are wide apart on the PI spectrum but, because they are PKQ-caliber, are willing to co-craft a wide array of legislative policies that are neither side's voters' first choice, but that among all possible legislative policy solution "configurations," VM voters on both sides will be the most satisfied with (in fact they'll be overjoyed/ecstatic) given that the legislation the PKQ-caliber legislators co-craft and implement:

will be neither (distinctly) "liberal" or "conservative," nor (distinctly) government solutions or free market solutions,
will actually solve the EFFS problem(s) the legislation intends to solve –– (in the lion's share of cases) quickly, completely and permanently.

Ineffective v. Effective S-G Theories/Strategies/Mentalities

"Throughout the centuries there were men [women, too] who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision." Ayn Rand

FYI: The following MBTs are more reasons why you should be willing, even compelled, to take that first step.

MBT: We are likely to find that, within America's ~140 million-strong VM of LOC and ROC voters:

~155 million total voters minus 15+/- million "rabidly ideological" voters on the left and right = 140 million VM voters

...there will be a number of discrete groups –– we could call them, "mini-Vast Mainstreamers" –– who will be strongly pro-ES/Strategic Cooperation –– although, not at first, and certainly not publicly (unless they're extraordinarily brave), for example, a VM of:

billionaires,
the top 2% of our income earners,
state legislators, mayors, governors,
school boards, parents, grandparents,
college students, post grads,
PhDs, MBAs,...,
professional athletes,
tech geeks, sci fi geeks,...,
entrepreneurs,
Hollywood: directors, producers, actors,...
professional musicians (amateurs, too),
etc.
etc.

These groups of mini-VMers will strongly support America's VM LOC and ROC voters transitioning from PAP- to PKQ-controlled Congresses –– because, presumably, even an [Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg,...], or a state legislator or governor, or an A-list actor, or Wall Street billionaire, or etc., etc. would much rather that America be governed by PKQ-controlled Congresses than accept where our two permanently warring factions of PAPs in both chambers of Congress –– in their never-ending, all-consuming struggle for power (much of it purely for power's sake) –– are almost certainly going to lead our nation:

directly to a Putin-style pseudo-democratic left- or right-wing autocracy whose "leader" can, on a whim –– with the backing of his/her sycophantic, (and cowardly?) PAP-controlled national legislature (and the "thunderous" silence of his/her (cowardly?) national political media) –– take your assets, destroy your name/your career; imprison you, kill you... because that's what people with unchecked power end up doing to maintain their grip on, or grow, their power (while their complicit sycophants in and out of government stand passively, silently by).

re Dystopic vs. Neartopic Civilizational Paradigms

A Free Society/Civilizational Paradigm is:

Dystopic if its national legislature is permanently PAP-controlled.
Neartopic if its national legislature is PKQ-controlled.

Note to America's intelligentsia:

If our society wants to have a clear image in their collective mind's eye of what the vast mainstream of them want their civilization to look like, they will need a new "S-G vocabulary" and body of "informative/instructive" knowledge.

******************************************

About the Info-Graphic:

To get a sense of just how depressingly/embarrassingly low the aggregate "purity of motive" (POM) of our 535 elected national legislators now is (after generations of our voters using the PI War strategy to elect them) –– consider that in any given election cycle (the following numbers are rough estimates):

Approximately half the candidates running for the first time for a House or Senate seat are already “seasoned politicians" who are serving, or have served, in elected office at the state or local level. So, while probably well-meaning for the most part, they are nevertheless, by definition, self-serving, politically ambitious AND majority status-craving –– and (also probably) definitely want to make a career in the (national) "100% political/ideological war (100%PIWar)" industry.

Another 10-20% have never been elected to anything, but have decided to run for national legislative office –– and, if elected, will (probably) end up also becoming, by definition, self-serving PAPs, and also want a career in the 100%PIWar industry. (My takeaway is that they will want to because that industry is very lucrative.)

The remainder have been recruited by [Democratic, Republican] party members at the local (city/county/district), state or federal level –– and, if elected, will ALSO probably end up mutating/devolving into self-serving PAPs who want a career in the very lucrative 100%PIWar industry*.

* consists of Congress' PAPs, the [left vs right] chattering class in cable news, podcasts, etc. and political consultants (fyi: many in this industry have strong ties with the grievance industry both in and outside academia).

re PAPs vs. PKQs, Dystopic vs. Neartopic Democracy

Reminder:

The stakes couldn't be higher for the American people –– AND if the CPW is to be believed, for the future of freedom on our planet. So, as "absurd" as it may sound, we must transition from being a:

reading, writing, arithmetic-focused representative democracy

...to a

reading, writing, arithmetic, effective self-governance-focused rep-democracy.

The nexus between the 100% PI War mentality and R.I.P. U.S.A.

Among the thousands upon thousands of bills enacted into law over the last 230+ years, it's unlikely that anyone can say definitively what percent of them were/are essentially 100% self-serving. (My layman's guess: the number is shockingly high.)

Higher still is the number of bills laden in varying amounts with legislative provisions inserted by said self-serving PAPs for any number of self-serving reasons.

For definitional purposes, let's call self-serving legislative provisions: "dysfunctionalizing" legislative provisions (DLPs). And any legislation written -- either entirely for self-serving reasons, or containing DLPs -- dysfunctionalizing legislation (DL).

FYI: This section's info-graphic lists six kinds or categories of DL/DLPs.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: How many government programs exist solely because of DL, or entire agencies, regulatory and otherwise? Which leads to questions like:

How many rules and regulations exist today that can be thought of as the "children" of DL?
How many of these rules and regulations work at cross purposes to each other?

We can also add to the EFFS harming impact of 230+ years of DL, the cumulative EFFS harm and/or "societal dysfunctionalization" from as much as 200+ years of:

petty [committee, sub-committee, sub-sub-committee] turf battles between PAPs in the House and Senate.
petty turf and other battles between non-PAPs working in every department within every government agency and regulatory body in the federal government.

And we haven't even started thinking through the countless ramifications from the "grandchildren of DL," e.g., how state legislatures have had to deal with DL-birthed federal regulations imposed on their government agencies, or from the greatgrandchildren of DL, i.e., how DL-birthed [federal, state] mandated regulations had the effect of "dysfunctionalizing" the operations (from slightly to severely) carried out by local governments.

Finally, it's common knowledge that Congress is loath to stop funding programs or dismantle agencies that have "given birth" to constituencies, and vested and other interest groups in- and outside government. So we could also stipulate that an unknown number of constituency-, special- and vested interest groups in existence today are the children of DL as well.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

There exists a small but critical mass within the vast mainstream (VM) of America's left- and right-of-center (LOC/ROC) voters –– we could think of them as America's Talented Xers.

What that critical mass is, size-wise, is an unknown. But it could range from a talented:

"tenth" of VM voters (to borrow from a term popularized over a century ago by black scholar, W.E.B. Du Bois) (= 15,500,000 voters), or
twentieth of VM voters (= 7,750,000 voters, or
thirtieth (= 5,200,000 voters), or
fiftieth (= 3,100,00 voters). or
hundredth (= 1,550,000 voters), or
thousandth (= 155,000 voters),
TAKEAWAY: even a small percentage of our VM of voters is a very large number of people.

–– who are:

easily capable of grasping the existential imperative of them "updating" their NLEP in order for them to:
start keeping both chambers of Congress "continuously replenished" with highly capable, PKQ-caliber (mostly) liberal Democratic and conservative Republican legislators.

There ALSO exists a massively large number of VM LOC and ROC voters who would ecstatically support their group's "talented Xers" identifying and recruiting the pool of PKQ-caliber candidates –– in advance of the NLEP –– from which our LOC and ROC VMers would field in their respective House and Senate primaries, thus insuring that, regardless of which candidate was elected in the general election, he/she would be PKQ-caliber.

Therefore, the sooner our electorate transitions to using ES to elect their 535 members of Congress, the sooner we will see our PKQ-controlled national legislature start:

turning our nation's EFFS mountain into a molehill,
becoming near-perfect role models for our children (our adults, too),
mending our divided society,
restoring the spirit of Classical liberalism to our nation's soul,
etc., etc., etc.

We don't need a Convention of States, we need a convention of Talented Xers –– every two years.

This new knowledge will be seen in hindsight as simply "process knowledge," i.e., it will enable voters to make a relatively minor, albeit profoundly consequential, "upgrade" in their NLEP. That said, it nevertheless is, by definition, paradigm-shifting, status quo-disrupting, course-of-history-changing knowledge. And for a not insignificant number of those enjoying the many financial and other ego-massaging benefits that come when operating at the top of the "existing establishment pyramid," that kind of knowledge produces uncertainty re what the future holds for them –– which, in turn, produces fear (not unlike the effect the thought of sunlight has on a vampire).

Spoiler Alert: Our ego-massaged B&B needn't worry; in every society, a B&B's cognitive and other skill sets will always be in high demand.

*******

If this new S-G knowledge were like the Germ theory, or the theory of Heliocentrism, i.e., provable/confirmable via the scientific method, everyone's (initial) unthinking, knee-jerk rejection of its many new, "not possible!!/never gonna happen!!" concepts wouldn't matter, the hard "facts" would eventually win out. But the science of Effective S-G is a social science, not a natural science; and one whose scientific hypotheses cannot be proven in advance.

They can only be validated by one's intellect.

Which brings us to this page's REALLY HEAVY LIFT: The task of trying to "prove" to every visitor to this page, academic and non-academic, who cares deeply about "saving" American democracy –– and is trying to save it by "strengthening" America's democratic process via various "reforms," e.g.:

redistricting reform,
campaign finance reform,
ranked voting,
proportional voting,
terms limits,
etc.,

–– that:

even if any of those reforms get enacted, they will, at best, only slow the process of American democracy's "inexorable decline." (This applies to a COS as well.) Because, in every case:
our good government activists are trying to strengthen the wrong democratic process (DP). (Important new concept: there are two kinds of DPs: one eventually, inexorably tears democratic societies apart; the other does just the opposite.)

In other words, our most concerned citizens are and have been trying to strengthen the "bad" DP, i.e., the political/ideological (PI)-based DP ––which, fyi, is singularly responsible for the fact that both houses of Congress stay permanently overflowing with two factions of, by definition, self-serving, politically ambitious, majority status-craving politicians.

What our proponents of good governance should be hard at work doing is creating, i.e., giving form and substance to, a radically new, ("qualitatively" superior) apolitical/non-ideological (ANI)-based DP.

Or, stated in historical context: Just as our species transitioned out of the Humoralism-based era of medicine, and into the Germ-based era, the survival of the institution of democracy, i.e., individual liberty, rule of law, etc., dictates that every "advanced" (and non-advanced) democratic, multi-cultural society wishing to remain truly free, AND civil, transition (a.s.a.p.) out of the "PI phase" of S-G, and into the ANI phase.

****************

Key "ANI" points:

Good governance refers to the quality of the governance of those who are elected to govern.
On this webpage, Effective Self-Governance refers to the "effectiveness" of the paradigm or strategy voters use to "identify, recruit and elect" the members of their national legislature.

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." Albert Einstein

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination." AE

NOTE to (blue-sky thinking) public policy academics:

TWO MAJOR ANI "truths":

"Fair," common sense legislative solutions exist for most of the problems that make up America's EFFS mountain.
The average VM LOC/ROC voter is massively interested in fairness AND common sense. Not a "radicalized" liberal's definition of fairness or common sense, or a "radicalized" conservative's definition of fairness or common sense. Or, fyi, that of a hardcore socialist, libertarian, etc.

“...democracy needs citizens who can think for themselves rather than simply deferring to authority, who can reason together about their choices rather than just trading claims and counterclaims...” Martha Nussbaum [underline added]

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: our current (centuries-old) civics education curriculum produces students who leave our education system functionally incapable of governing themselves "effectively."

FYI: The starship, S-G Science, is one way to visually represent our technologically advanced, social media-savvy society.

Deciding, collectively, to STOP going where every democracy in history has always "gone" –– to the land of the "unfree" –– but, rather, take the logical next step in the way a free, technologically advanced, social media-savvy people elect the members of their national legislature.

Among the great many massively spectacular “civilizational benefits” of transitioning to permanently PKQ-controlled Congresses, right out of the gate:

America's era of the "Imperial Presidency"/rule by Executive Orders will come to an abrupt end.

Our nation's (non-rabidly ideological) political academics and public policy elite (on both the left and right) –– two groups of extraordinarily intelligent, highly educated, and (almost certainly in my view) truly concerned, well-meaning human beings –– will be able to start exploring and developing comprehensive, innovative true policy solutions to America's myriad of major EFFS problems, secure in the knowledge that truly selfless AND highly capable national legislators will be crafting and writing the legislation.

WHEN our society can speak Effective S-G fluently, layman's guess: 80+% of our LOC and ROC voters will be easily more than capable of at least one of the following:

actively involving themselves in, let's call it the PKQ-caliber candidate identification and recruitment (I&R) process, OR
closely following the I&R process in real-time via social media, AND/OR
neither actively involving themselves in, nor following the I&R process in real time –– but trusting the integrity of the I&R process enough to vote without hesitation (particularly in the primary process, but also in the general election) for the PKQ-caliber candidate(s) who were recruited.

re Effective S-G Synergism: The PKQ/VM connection

Re Optimalism as an apolitical political ideology.

Many of us have heard [governors, mayors, presidents, etc.] from the state/federal Executive Branch say, "Most people don't care if the solutions are liberal solutions or conservative solutions. They just want their government to solve the problems."

CPW's likely (cynical) takeaway is that this is the perfect example for demonstrating why political science's "It's The Voters' Fault" theory is correct, i.e., what voters are really saying is that they want government to solve the problems, but they don't want to have to pay for it (which explains America's ~$30 trillion national debt).

Leaving CPW's superficial/unexamined takeaway aside, it's probably fair to say that our VM of voters would much rather that the choice for them re, say, which healthcare system they want NOT BE a binary choice between:

liberalism's Medicare For All (i.e., government solution/control), and
conservatism's "50 laboratories of democracy" (i.e., free market solutions)

Rather, what they really want, but don't know they do (yet), is the "optimal" solution (which, fyi, only PKQ-controlled Congresses can craft and implement): a healthcare system that provides the highest possible quality of healthcare to the largest possible number of Americans at the lowest possible cost to the patients and is the fairest possible to America's taxpayers (and to our children's' generation, and their children's generation,...).

It's probably also fair to say that our VM of voters would strongly favor optimal solutions for all of our nation's EFFS problems that either impact on or derive from our major systems, e.g., public education, immigration, criminal justice, mental health, etc., etc.

TAKEAWAY: we can now add to liberalism and conservatism (and socialism and libertarianism, etc.) a uniquely 21st century, apolitical/non-ideological governing philosophy: optimalism.

Re an incomplete explanation of Optimalism as a legislative policy formulation process.

The best oversimplified example of optimalism in action is our 4th grade class, via a pre-vote brainstorming session, arriving at a name for their classroom's pet goldfish acceptable to both sides.

If applied to a PKQ-controlled Congress, we would be talking about two factions of legislators who are wide apart on the PI spectrum but, because they are PKQ-caliber, are willing to co-craft a wide array of legislative policies that are neither side's voters' first choice, but VM voters on both sides will be more than satisfied with (in fact they'll be overjoyed/ecstatic) given that the legislation the PKQ-caliber legislators co-craft and implement:

will be neither (distinctly) "liberal" or "conservative," nor (distinctly) government solutions or free market solutions,
will actually solve the EFFS problem(s) the legislation intends to solve –– (in the lion's share of cases) quickly, completely and permanently.

A second example of optimalism as a process: going through every piece of legislation ever enacted into law by Congress and removing every section of every bill that was inserted for self-serving and/or unethical reasons.

Re Optimalism as a governing philosophy.

Here's a (super short) layman's overview...

Almost all of us are familiar with political science's long established political/ideological(PI)-based governing philosophies (GPs), e.g., Marxism, Socialism, Liberalism, Conservatism, Libertarianism, Anarchism.

My layman's take is that these philosophies directly or indirectly grew out of the question debated among political philosophers over the millennia, up to and including today: In a given society, what level, and type, of government control over people's daily lives will end up causing/creating/achieving the greatest good for the greatest number of its citizens?

In recent generations, this academic debate has been weaponized, it has morphed into a never-ending, all-consuming, “all's-fair-in-love-and-political-war” slug-fest* between factions of politicians and their respective "base voters" (even between political academics, too).

* with much of the slug-fest fought for power for power's sake.

The (now weaponized) question is: (To the extent it's even possible) Which political party's legislative policy agenda (LPA) will best solve our nation's major EFFS problems:

the Democratic Party's liberal/government solutions LPA, or
the Republican Party's conservative/free market solutions LPA?

aside: Marxists, Socialists, Libertarians and Anarchists insist that neither of the major parties can get the job done; that to “save” America, voters must toss both party's candidates from Congress in favor of [fill in the alternative party's candidates].

As a governing philosophy, Optimalism could be thought of as the philosophy a Mark Twain would embrace, based on the following analysis/thought process.

America's EFFS mountain was once a molehill.
It did not become a mountain because of either of our two major governing philosophies –– or the political parties espousing them –– but, in cause/effect terms, because Congress has always been "infected" with three "democracy-destroying pathogens"(DDPs): self-servingism, (naked) political ambition and political power-lust.
America's EFFS mountain has now reached "democracy-destroying" size; it constitutes an existential threat to our increasingly less prosperous (in terms of individual incomes), less thriving middle class –– and therefore to a healthy American democracy.
Only PKQ-controlled Congresses can (relatively speaking) remain permanently free of these three DDPs.
(In cause/effect terms) PKQ-controlled Congresses are the singular prerequisite to America's EFFS mountain being turned into (relatively speaking) a molehill –– via legislative solutions that are neither (distinctly) "liberal" or "conservative," nor (distinctly) government solutions or free market solutions.

Therefore, re turning (via legislation) the EFFS mountain into a molehill, a Mark Twain might muse that the "which is better: [socialism, liberalism, conservatism, libertarianism]?" debate is, as a practical matter: a diversion, a waste of time, misdirection plain and simple.

Where our federal legislators fall on the Purity Of Motive (POM), and Capacity To Govern (CTG), spectrums matter infinitely more than where they fall on the Political/Ideological (PI) Spectrum.

************

MORE MASSIVELY INTERESTING point(s) to ponder: Let's posit that everyone in America old enough to have a "political" view, say, 260 million Americans, suddenly has a working knowledge, both of ES and the above three (and other) M-BTs.

For identification purposes, and borrowing from the Terminator movies', SKYNET, let's call them ES-aware.

Let's also posit that, within this group of 260 million, there is a subgroup who are confident that:

Using ES in our NLEP will, in fact, produce PKQ-controlled, veto-proof Congresses.
Said Congresses WILL result in/lead to this page's myriad M-BTs.
Far more than a critical mass of LOC and ROC voters WILL begin using ES to effectuate the transition to PKQ-controlled Congresses.

Let's call this subgroup, pro-Effective S-G Americans, or pro-ES-Gers.

So we have two groups: the larger group of ES aware, and within that group the subgroup of pro-ES-Gers.

Q 1: What percent of our ES-aware group of 260 million would LOVE to see America's VM LOC and ROC voters start using ES? (A: ~250+ million IMO)

Q 2: What percent of that ~250 million, because of the Semmelweis reflex, will assume there will never be enough voters willing to use ES to make any meaningful difference? (A: Initially very high, close to 100%, but a sufficiently funded awareness/education campaign could easily drop that number to single digits.)

Q 3: How many pro-ES-Gers are needed to effectuate the transition to PKQ-controlled Congresses? (my layman's view: < 5%... "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead)

Q 4: How quickly will PKQ-controlled Congresses take back all the "governing power" that generations of (craven, responsibility-phobic) PAP-controlled Congresses ceded/forced onto the Executive Branch (and somewhat to the Judicial Branch, as well)? (A: I can't wait to find out.)

************

Make no mistake, the importance of our academics creating and developing this new field of study cannot be overstated, because we cannot overstate the magnitude of the beneficial, "actionable S-G power" these new S-G concepts will give voters in their effort to prevent, among a great many EFFS calamities, the (massive) hollowing out of America's middle class –– a hollowing out that, once underway, will accelerate to warp speed the (seemingly impossible to prevent) drift toward authoritarianism that's occurring in America and around the world.

FOUR MORE TAKEAWAYS:

For our nation's ~155 million LOC and ROC voters, this is the obvious “S-G solution” for them, i.e., being able to elect –– with minimal due diligence on their part –– the Ds and Rs to Congress who can actually fix America's major EFFS problems with legislative solutions both groups of VM voters strongly support.
This new, how-to knowledge will not make our cognitively challenged voters less cognitively challenged. Not all but most of our woefully uninformed (on the issues) voters will not become less uninformed. Our naïve voters will continue to be naïve. Same with our apathetic, gullible and greedy voters.

Fortunately...

Our electorate will not have to be rocket scientists to comprehend ES, along with a number of other new S-G ideas and concepts, or to recognize their existential import. None of these new voter "skills" will take years to master. And once voters start using/applying them in their NLEP, our nation will quickly (relatively speaking) find itself even freer, even more prosperous, more societally cohesive, etcetera, etcetera –– even more "exceptional," too –– than it's ever been.

***********

aside (another radically new concept):

For our "political/civics" academics, teaching this new S-G knowledge –– but especially driving home the idea of LOC and ROC voters using ES as a means to an end: PKQ-controlled Congresses –– is a "civilizational imperative." Meaning, if America's academic "experts" on the democratic process don't start emphasizing the existential necessity of ES to their students, and to society writ large (both our washed and "unwashed" masses), then, per conventional political wisdom (CPW), the "inexorable decline" and eventual failure of our (representative) democracy (Earth's other democracies, too) will be just a matter of time.

Equally radical concept: the "democratic" process, a.k.a. practicing democracy, and the S-G process are two distinct/separate concepts –– and functions. Expressed differently, the democratic process consists of two distinct processes: the PI process, which we know a great deal about, and the ANI process, which we know absolutely nothing about.

Next point: the centerpiece, conceptionally, of this new academic discipline, Strategic/90% ANI Cooperation, could easily become (quickly, in some cases) the dominate S-G paradigm for many, if not most (maybe even all) democratic societies –– even democracies whose young, largely ignorant-of-history voters, especially, are being lulled into autocratic rule by charismatic (non pro-democracy) leaders.

But first, critical masses within those societies (following in the footsteps of our nation's VM, perhaps), must buy into these new S-G ideas –– more to the point, must adopt a new, uniquely 21st century S-G mindset/thought process, and must begin speaking a new S-G language: the language of effective self-governance.

For this buy-in to happen, the Semmelweis Reflex must be "disempowered" –– an antidote must be found for it such that a respectable slice of our society goes from thinking:

"I can't take these new ideas/concepts –– like Effective Sortition, for example ––seriously; I wish I could, but it's never gonna happen –– this is just another naïve Utopian scheme that has zero chance of succeeding..."

...to thinking:

"I'm taking ES and all these other blue-sky ideas very seriously because they're the obvious "fixes" to our failing democratic institutions. We are still free to choose our representatives, after all; still free to vote for anyone we want –– the 'buck stops' with the voters, right? –– so I'm leaning all the way in on our political scientists, (1) announcing their intention to create this new how-to field of study, then (2) they and our civics educators immediately spending as little as an hour (informally) teaching it's basic concepts to our nation's ~70 million future (and ~155 million current) voters."

*************

We need to remind ourselves that the "it's the voters' fault" CPW is hardwired so invincibly into the minds of today's academics (political and non-political), along with every other intelligent, informed, “rational” person, that it will be all but impossible to convince them, even via the combination of logic, common sense, and glaringly obvious existential necessity, that a new, uniquely 21st century body of actionable S-G knowledge –– technically, an applied social science: principles of Effective Self-Governance –– can and should be developed*, preferably by a large consortium of academics (and others).

*reminder: with a Manhattan Project sense of urgency and a "man on the Moon by decade's end" level of commitment.

******************************************

re: America's consortium of academics

FYI: I'm pretty sure this kind of corroboration on a textbook will be a first in history –– but understandable given the existential urgency of our voters undergoing a course-of-history-changing change in their S-G mindset, or S-G thought process or mentality ––

from a "sheeple" mentality, i.e., 100% helpless/powerless: "as an individual voter, my vote (in the NLEP) doesn't matter because nothing will change in Congress (or Washington), no matter which party ends up in control (of either chamber); if anything, things will just get worse,"

to a "Spartan" mentality, i.e., 100% NOT helpless/powerless: "the S-G strategy of me and my fellow voters (from both parties) using ES in our NLEP will absolutely matter, and it will matter massively because everything will change in Congress (AND Washington) for the better, no matter which party ends up in control of either legislative chamber in any given election cycle."

That massive mindset change will be "massively" easier for our political academics and others to engineer if they introduce a number of new, highly controversial terms into our society's working vocabulary, beginning with two for describing two "qualitatively" different [in terms of their "purity of motive" (POM)] types of national legislators:

Highly UNDESIRABLE: PAPs (even PAPs who are sincere/well-meaning)
Highly DESIRABLE: PKQ-caliber legislators

As well as descriptors for two qualitatively different (in terms of their desirability) national legislatures:

Highly UNDESIRABLE: PAP-controlled national legislature.
Highly DESIRABLE: PKQ-controlled national legislature.

As well as descriptors for two qualitatively different (in terms of their desirability) representative democracies:

Highly UNDESIRABLE: Dystopic democracy, i.e., a democracy whose national legislature is permanently PAP-controlled.
Highly DESIRABLE: Neartopic democracy, i.e., a democracy whose national legislature is permanently PKQ-controlled.

Re the "power" of words: Just the aforementioned six new terms will enable (or trigger, perhaps) our society –– including (and particularly) our best and brightest "political" minds (after their initial rejection of its feasibility) –– to begin discussing among themselves a course-of-history-changing question:

Do we want to continue using our NLEP merely to decide which party's (endlessly bloviating, blatantly demagogic, shamelessly truth-twisting, etc.) PAPs –– no matter how well-meaning many/most of them may be –– will control the House and Senate until the next election? Or do we want to start using it to decide if we want America to be a dystopic or neartopic democracy?

"Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible." (various)

Our species needs a science of effective self-governance (S-G) –– which includes a language of effective S-G –– because, without it, it will be far more difficult (conceivably even impossible) for our voters (and voters around the planet) to stop making the same horrible "S-G mistakes" election cycle after election cycle.

Case in point. We are taught that our greatest responsibility as voters is to simply vote. To (preferably) become informed on the issues most important to each of us personally, then vote for the political party or candidate(s) that/who most closely aligns with us on those issues and/or whose ideology, i.e., values, ideals, principles, etc., we favor or agree with the most.

In 1789, or 1791, using this –– let's call it the 100% PI War S-G strategy or paradigm –– might have made sense. There were only a handful of major issues (at the federal level), and each had, in a manner of speaking, only a few moving parts to consider.

Today, there are from one to, say, three dozen major issues depending on what issues you consider important, e.g., healthcare, education, criminal justice, immigration, domestic energy, etc. And each issue has dozens of moving parts.

It's ludicrous to expect voters to “become informed on the issues” –– or even one major issue.

The only thing the 100% PI War strategy/mentality has done is turn our NLEP into a battlefield in which the consistent losers every two years are our LOC and ROC voters, and the consistent winners: our two factions of (in varying degrees) self-serving, (nakedly) politically ambitious, majority status-craving “politicians,” a.k.a. PAPs, whose polar opposite, zero sum legislative agendas have, in cause/effect terms, turned a significant number of our LOC and ROC voters (and academics, news reporters, cable news channel personalities, etc.) into members of political/ideological (PI) tribes –– each with the same, singular "prime [S-G] directive:" win control of the U.S. House and Senate at all costs, no matter how, by definition, unethical (after all, all's fair in love and political war, especially if you believe your side's [policies, agenda, ideals, values, politicians, voters] are morally superior to those of the other side).

aside: Striving to help a third party get a foothold in Congress will only create a third faction of legislators who will eventually become, by definition, PAPs. We will still be trapped in the part-Groundhog Day, part-Twilight Zone nightmare we're all in and have been in for generations (for some groups of voters, centuries).

And increasing numbers of our LOC and ROC voters will go into their NLEP every two years with the same attitude the two viscous dogs in the next graphic have.

Can our political academics et al. stop "avoiding reality?"

TO: America's "political" [knowledge, information] industry:

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” Helen Keller

A point worth pondering: when the most blue-sky "capable" in our nation's public policy industry realize just how many (radically different) kinds of new legislative solutions PKQ-controlled Congresses, especially if both chambers are veto-proof, will be capable of formulating and enacting, the door to an entire continent of new, unexplored, "ANI-based" legislative policy options/possibilities will be thrown wide open.

That's just for starters. Just think about the massive amount of excitement and interest (and suggestions, thoughts, etc.) that will be generated throughout society –– but especially with our most blue-sky thinking grade-, middle-, high-school students –– when the idea of Congress becoming permanently controlled by PKQ-caliber legislators becomes a foregone conclusion, at which point something else will become a foregone conclusion: the era of the Imperial Presidency will come to a screeching halt, and (as our founders had always intended) the era of Spectacularly Effective Legislative Governance will begin.

ASIDE: If all of this seems impossible to conceive, and your conclusion is that none of this can be accomplished, you now understand the "mentality-controlling" power of the Semmelweis reflex.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: the most striking example of the Semmelweis reflex occurred less than two hundred years ago in the field of medicine when the medical community derisively dismissed Pasteur's new "Germ" Theory because doctors, medical instructors in medical schools, etc. could not conceive of the idea that "tiny animals ten thousand times smaller than a flea" were capable of causing infections and infectious diseases. The idea was inconceivable because it went against about 2,400 years of established medical orthodoxy.

re the LUST for Political Power...

There are roughly half a million Americans serving in some form of elected office, most of them at the local level. A useful operating assumption is that, not all of them but the vast majority initially ran for office, not because they had political aspirations or they craved political power, but because they constitute that tiny minority of individuals in every democratic society who actually get off their butts and offer to perform what are often times the largely thankless tasks that have to be performed by "government" to insure that the many gears of a community (and a society) that are essential to their successful functioning don't stop turning.

Because when enough gears stop turning, civilizations stop being "civilized."

That said, within this group of well-meaning, well-intentioned individuals, there is no doubt a small(?)/substantial(?) percentage who, once in office, experience the perks and privileges that came with their position. And however small or minor those perks may be, they are enough to turn the elected official into, by definition, a "self-serving politician."

Meaning, their desire to get re-elected will corrupt their decision making –– perhaps ever so slightly in some cases, considerably in others.

Regardless of how much, it's likely that a significant number of these elected officials will get re-elected simply because they run unopposed –– because no one else wants the job.

The reason for pointing out this commonsense observation about the corrupting effects that political power can have on some/many/most/all people, generally, is to underscore the larger takeaway:

Political ambition should be seen as a necessary evil at the local and, to a lesser extent, state level –– but a 100% unnecessary evil at the national legislative level.

"The argument is not that democracy is becoming the same as a dictatorship, but rather that liberal democracy mutates into novel forms of illiberal authoritarianism. A new oligarchy seeks to centralize power, concentrate wealth and manipulate public opinion by using media spin, closing down debate, and ironing out plurality." Adrian Pabst, Professor of Politics, University of Kent

***************

NOTE to America's journalism schools.

Are these "news" analysts/commentators (from the Hunger Games) what you want to see America's national political media –– fyi: most of whom you probably taught –– become?

*************

MAJOR TAKEAWAY re ES:

80+% of our VM LOC and ROC voters will be easily more than capable of at least one of the following:

being Talented Xers, i.e., actively involving themselves in the ES process, OR
closely following the ES process in real-time via social media, OR
neither actively involving themselves in, nor following the ES process in real time –– but trusting the integrity of the ES process enough to vote without hesitation (particularly in the primary process, but also in the general election) for the PKQ-caliber candidate(s) who were recruited.

Q: will rabid ideologues try to run their own candidates, or popular incumbent PAPs (with high name recognition) run against these "no-name" (allegedly PKQ-caliber) candidates?

A: of course. But their efforts will repeatedly fail, in most cases miserably, once enough VM LOC and ROC voters are fluent in the language of effective S-G, i.e., they have a working knowledge of strategic cooperation, and are confident that PKQ-caliber controlled Congresses will be able to perform, at near warp speed (relatively speaking), a fairly large number of (jaw dropping) legislative miracles.

End result:

Congress stays permanently PKQ-controlled.
American democracy flourishes spectacularly.
Congress begins morphing America's EFFS mountain into a molehill.
America flourishes spectacularly.

aside: my layman's take is that even the VM of rank-and-file democratic and republican voters will quickly embrace the idea of ES –– along with our nation's largest group of VM voters: moderates/independents –– once it becomes apparent that a Congress controlled by "principled" Ds and Rs who are (by objective measures):

highly capable,
non-self-serving,
non-politically ambitious,
non-"politicians" --

...will be able to perform legislative and policy "miracles" –– the kind capable of turning (at break-neck speed, "relatively" speaking) America's EFFS mountain into (by comparison) a molehill.

"Power is such a dangerous thing that ideally it should be wielded by people who don't want to use power, who would rather be doing something else, but who are willing to serve a certain number of years as a one-time duty, preferably at the end of a career doing something else." Thomas Sowell

LAYMAN'S TAKEAWAY: Sowell's sage quote should be posted in every k-16 civics and political science classroom in America.

OBVIOUS QUESTION: How can 535 "amateurs" run a modern nation as large and complex as the United States?

Answer: First, it should be obvious that Congress doesn't "run" America (thank goodness). Our nation is "run" by tens of millions of Americans distributed throughout:

dozens of major federal agencies
50 fully functioning state governments
thousands of county, city and other government bodies, and
millions of:
- businesses
- community and social organizations
- school boards, churches
- charities, NGOs, philanthropies, etc.

Next, just a reminder, the whole point of voters strategically cooperating in their NLEP is to keep Congress continually filled with among the most intelligent, most educated, most knowledgeable, most accomplished –– even, dare we say, the wisest –– members of our society.

NOT filled with, as some might fear, erudite academicians who will rule from high atop Mt. Olympus, divorced from the reality of everyday life; blindly indifferent to the daily plight of the unwashed masses. Most of America's VM voters especially, unwashed or otherwise, wouldn't give such people the time of day, much less recruit them to serve in our national legislature.

Re: the "535 rank amateurs" issue: LOC and ROC voters will quickly begin doing in the House what they've done all along in the Senate: elect new PKQ-caliber candidates in one-third of the 435 House seats every two years, and essentially rubber stamp the other two-thirds. So, at any given point in time ––just as it now is, and will continue to be, in the Senate –– one-third of the House members will have 4-5 years of experience; one-third will have 3-4 years of experience, and one-third will be true freshmen legislators.

aside: I also think that the lion's share, minimally, of our current cohort of House members –– who are, by definition, PAPs –– once they accept the logic (not to mention the existential necessity) of our country transitioning to neartopic democracy, i.e., PKQ-controlled Congresses,, will eventually stop criticizing and/or resisting this next "evolutionary" step in the way a free people elect the members of their national legislature, and become helpful facilitators.

Next point: My guess is that our voters are going to end up adopting the very high recruitment standards listed at the beginning of this page. So there will be near universal consensus among our VM LOC and ROC voters that the "ideal" PKQ-caliber candidate will have the same general skill sets and abilities that both the public and private sectors look for when they're recruiting candidates to fill, in particular, upper level executive positions.

Next, PKQ-caliber legislators will have what no other generation before us has had: the sum total of all human knowledge at their fingertips (or, rather, their smartphones). IBM's Watson, Alexa, Siri, and other forms of artificial intelligence will be at their beck and call (AI chatbots are still hallucinating, so that source of "knowledge" should be taken with a grain of salt).

aside: you want to know, say, how to break the cycle of "inner city" crime, violence, poverty, the generational transmission of adult-to-child unsocialization, government dependence, etc.?

Not a problem. History is filled, specific example after specific example –– going back centuries in some cases –– of

self-sufficient/self-reliant,
non-violent,
responsible,
law abiding,
highly socialized,...

...[individuals, groups, communities] who have little or no formal education but are able to (easily) live productive, satisfying, purposeful lives –– just like communities made up of the "highly educated" do –– with little to zero government "help."

We (along with our public policy institutions) just have to be willing to search for these "solution paradigms" in our history books. FYI: Many excellent "blue-sky" examples can also be found in contemporary science fiction literature.

While extremely effective (albeit novel) legislative policy solutions can be gleaned from humanity's history books – equally if not more important, PKQ-caliber Ds and Rs will have at their disposal the wealth of "flesh-and-blood" knowledge, experience, wisdom, expertise, etc. residing in our federal agencies, in our many think tanks in Washington and around the country, in our universities, Silicon Valley, our business sector, etc. –– who knows, we may even find novel/blue-sky solution insights in our grade- and high schools.

aside: Will a permanent cohort of long-serving, professional legislative aides and advisors quickly become the "power" in Congress, shaping the legislative agenda, doling out "favors" to their cronies, thwarting the will of the people, etc. (per CPW re power)?

Not with PKQ-caliber legislators -- not least because (and we can't remind ourselves of this often enough): when our U.S. Congress is permanently controlled by extraordinarily capable (mostly) Ds and Rs who are:

NON-self-serving,
NON-politically ambitious,
NON-majority status-craving,
NON-politicians

...(as impossible as it may be to get our brains around this fact) we're going to have to get used to Congress' Ds and Rs collectively governing –– not like wet-behind-their-ears twenty-somethings –– but with the:

intelligence of an Einstein,
wisdom of a Solomon,
compassion of a Mother Teresa,
logic of a Mr. Spock,
ingenuity of a MacGyver,
vision of a Steve Jobs,
backbone of a Wonder Woman,
moral compass of a Nelson Mandela,
common sense of a Mark Twain.

Finally -- love her or hate her, Ayn Rand made a sage observation you've already read a few times (and will read a few more times):

"You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality."

Let's face it, if the collective we, i.e., LOC and ROC voters, AND our political academics, don't deal with our nation's PAP-controlled Congress problem, it will be the things PAPs in PAP-controlled Congresses do to stay in elected office, or to grow their or their party's political power, e.g., demagoguery, finger pointing, fiduciary abandonment, responsibility avoidance, etcetera, etcetera,... that end up destroying our democracy.

It's that simple.

*****************************

REMINDER: “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” Confucius

Political and public policy scholars in academia, think tanks and elsewhere have spent a great deal of time (in recent decades especially) studying, analyzing and debating the pros and cons, or the net EFFS impact(s), of dozens/hundreds of pieces of major legislation enacted during various Administrations.

IF we:

think of each piece of legislation as a tree (with each legislative provision in the bill represented by an individual branch or leaf), then
define as "diseased" every provision inserted for self-serving reasons, e.g., to appease, reward, bribe, etc. special interests, political cronies, the rich/powerful, “greedy” constituencies, etc., and
think of the generations/centuries of aggregate legislation as the entire forest,

THEN, to the best of my knowledge, no meaningful, if any, academic or intellectual currency has been spent (comprehensively) analyzing/discussing/debating:

how diseased –– either quantitatively or qualitatively –– the forest is,
what impact this has had on each of our systems, e.g., healthcare, public education, financial, (federal) tax, immigration, mental health, criminal justice, social services, etc.,
how "socio-civically damaged," and divided, the American people are because of the disease,
[fill in the blank].

In a democratic society,

"contained within" the NLEP = 100% PI War mentality are "the seeds" of that democracy's "destruction."

"contained within" the NLEP = 90% ANI Cooperation mindset are "the seeds" for a spectacularly flourishing [democracy, civilization].

************

Our massively industrialized, massively bureaucratized Administrate State should be thought of as "collateral" damage.

Collateral damage inflicted on our systems* by generations of PAPs (in PAP-controlled Congresses) engaged in their never-ending, all-consuming struggle for power, much of it purely for power's sake.

* healthcare, public education, finance, tax, immigration, criminal justice, mental health, social services, etc.

Q: Where, in a manner of speaking, do PAP-controlled Congresses "come from?"

A: The American people's centuries-old "the NLEP = 100% PI War" S-G mentality.

re OUR PERCEPTION/VISION PROBLEM

Some/many/most of our academics in various fields may point out, usually in passing, the extent to which:

our laws favor the special interests, vested interests, the politically well connected and/or wealthy donors, etc.
"political" corruption –– inefficiency and wastefulness, too ––permeates (in varying degrees) everything that has been "touched" by our federal government (via legislation, mandates, regulations, etc.).

And then said LOC and ROC academics, analysts, etc. proceed to debate/argue among themselves, on a podcast or political talk show, etc., why the Democrat's [economic, healthcare, education, immigration, etc.] policies are better than Republican's –– or vice-versa.

In other words, our best and brightest "political" analysts on the left and right spend essentially zero time, on talk/news shows, etc., focusing on the tens/hundreds/? specific DLPs in countless pieces of legislation that constitute the various "policies" –– whether the legislation was written by Democratic or Republican PAPs.

Presumably, our intelligentsia have concluded that there is nothing that can be done to increase the net "quality"/purity of motive of Congress' PAPs –– which would translate into a reduction of DL and DLPs –– so they choose to debate the quality/efficacy/merit of the two parties' competing dysfunctionalized, and dysfunctionalizing, legislative policies.

********************

re the Dystopic Democracy Tank (massively polluted by generations/centuries of political corruption).

Our perception problem is that all of us have only known the America/American democracy we exist in (same for our planet's other "PAP-controlled" democracies).

We don't have the slightest idea of what our nation would look like if:

our systems weren't massively [industrialized, bureaucratized, dysfunctionalized].
almost everything our PAPs in Congress did in public –– notably during committee hearings –– wasn't Kabuki theater, which, fyi, is a term (from Dictionary.com) "sometimes used in political discourse to describe an event characterized more by showmanship than by content."

"Stretching" America's Overton Window → Astronomically.

A few stream-of-consciousness thoughts/observations that will have to be re-thought, re-evaluated, expanded upon, etc. when time permits.

NOTE: the graphic needs to be updated to read: However, because of the combination of: AI, robotics, productivity gains, foreign competition, the massive recent influx of low skill illegal/undocumented migrants ––

************

It's uncertain how many of our nation's political thinkers and/or public policy problem solvers (in and out of academia) believe American democracy might be as perilously close to the tipping point (beyond which societal disintegration, e.g., inter-group hostilities [Think: 1975 Lebanese civil war] can't be prevented) as is being purported here. That any number of "triggering events" –– producing one or several violent reactions on the part of the extreme left or right that then escalates out of control –– cannot be discounted.

My guess: it's a large number.

But even if America doesn't actually collapse (in the near term) into a left- or right-wing form of pseudo-democratic authoritarianism – it is still the case that, solely because we are a dystopic democracy, we currently exist, and will continue existing, as a nation of [thinking, breathing, feeling] human beings who have been, and are still being divided against each other in myriad ways by demagogic PAPs (using their most effective tactic: divide, demonize and conquer, in their pursuit of greater political power, with much of their desire for the power solely for its own sake.

re Henry David Thoreau's "lives of quiet desperation."

How many of us "non-cognitive elite" live lives that can best be described as little more than joyless struggles –– directly or indirectly because of the things PAPs pursuing power have done in generations past (and are still doing today)?

10% of us? 30%? Half? 60%? Higher?

The harsh/sad reality is how spot on Henry David Thoreau's aphorism is with respect to society's masses living "lives of quiet desperation."

aside: Unless you had the added misfortune of being born poor, but not raised in a nurturing, socializing environment. In which case, for a host of reasons beyond your control –– (IMO) your desperation would not be the quiet kind, but the noisy kind, or the angry kind, or the violent kind. Or all three.

The point of reminding us of this disquieting reality about human existence is to underscore the point being made re the need for creating this new field of study.

The following tenuous analogy may be of help in this regard.

Let's say you've always had the powers of a Superman or Superwoman. You've been able to fly faster than a speeding bullet, bend steel with your bare hands, burn through it with your x-ray vision.

But you've never done any of those things because you've never known you had those powers.

That's how much power –– to be able to start rectifying the disquieting reality so many in our society must endure –– that strategic cooperation imbues to our LOC and ROC voters. And it would be a terrible tragedy for humanity if our species' best and brightest minds, particularly and especially America's elite, didn't grasp that fact –– and that fact's profound implications –– then form a consortium (think: safety in numbers) and start teaching our society about the power, and promise, of Effective Sortition, a.k.a.strategic cooperation.

FYI: Almost NONE of the existing "non-elected" power structure in Washington and across the country will be "replaced" or thrown overboard. Most are at the far right end of the cognitive distribution curve, and our society (desperately) needs them in order to keep the gears of civilization turning smoothly.

**********

"Although none of us can go back and make a brand new start, all of us can start from now and make a brand new ending." various

**********

~The strongest chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Even if we don't (at least in our lifetime) wake up one day to find that many/most/all of our constitutionally protected freedoms have been stripped from us by a newly elected, quasi-authoritarian, Imperial president –– it will still be the case that our voters' horribly counterproductive Bloodless War S-G strategy is singularly responsible for producing a national legislature that is permanently and utterly incapable of proactively protecting our society from any number of (high probability) future external calamities*, e.g., catastrophic [power/energy, water, food, etc.] disruptions or shortages.

* SEARCH/click:

Ezra Klein podcast: The Most Amazing — and Dangerous — Technology in the World (4-4-23)

https://griddownpowerup.com/ Dennis Quaid, narrator

re: energy and food (home products, too) "independence:" My layman's sense is that PKQ-controlled Congresses, with the MASSIVE support of the VM of voters, will (aggressively) pursue a national policy of achieving:

energy and food independence/self-reliance down to the community level, AND
"micro-community manufacturing sectors,"

–– because these kinds of (uniquely 21st century) legislative policies are the surest, easiest way to protect society writ large from the kind of "civilization- (and middle class) destroying disasters" some/many of our "experts" fear (and Hollywood makes tons of movies about).

And let's not forget that transitioning about half of America into a nation of largely self-reliant communities (which the next several info-graphics deal with in varying degrees) will have (multiple) profoundly beneficial impacts on nearly every rung of our nation's socioeconomic ladder, but especially the rungs of our lower half.

My personal hope/prediction: Introducing this new, S-G-based knowledge into our nation's marketplace of new ideas will result in a "VM of America's (pro-neartopic democracy) Ruling/Public Policy Elite" coalescing and leading the charge to make our society “fluent” in the language of ES-G.

******************

Extremely Absurd Thought Experiment:

America's ~140 million vast mainstream (VM) voters gather around an astronomically large kitchen table, then collectively draw upon:

Einstein's intelligence,
Solomon's wisdom,
Mother Teresa's compassion,
Mr. Spock's logic,
MacGyver's ingenuity,
Steve Jobs' vision,
Wonder Woman's backbone,
Nelson Mandela's moral compass,
Mark Twain's common sense.

Our VM need all of these strengths and qualities because their agenda is to figure out how to insure that, by decade's end, every adult who is willing to put in a honest day's work is able to live a “middle class or higher” life. But, perhaps more importantly, everyone is able to begin their day with a satisfying sense of purpose, and end it with a satisfying sense of accomplishment.

MAJOR FYI: Solving this seemingly intractable societal problem will result in a massive drop in crime, violence, child abuse, animal cruelty, loneliness, social isolation, a life devoid of purpose and meaning,...

****************

One of many far flung implications of this thought experiment: While it may seem somewhat oxymoronic, a (PKQ-controlled) Congress' "Middle Class Or Higher" legislative agenda will give birth to a major OFF-GRID "products AND services" industry –– approaching, if not equaling, our manufacturing sector in size.

A "massive" amount of Rube Goldberg "machinery" will continue to "run" a significant percentage of America's major systems as long as America continues to be a dystopic democracy.

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” Confucius

HERE'S TWO OF MANY POSSIBLE (for now: CRYPTIC) TAKEAWAYS OF THE Rube Goldberg GRAPHIC -- which: (1) will be expanded upon in later sections, and (2) "new knowledge" explorers (particularly in the field of public policy) should find thought provoking.

Moving forward:

The unofficial "philosophical mission" of America's education AND public policy industries should be to work to develop transitional societal "systems" which will either facilitate or enable everyone (who is willing to put in an "honest" day's work) to begin their day with a satisfying sense of purpose, and end it with a satisfying sense of accomplishment –– which, fyi, will effectively end poverty as we know it.... (aside: Or we can continue trying to "solve" our poverty problem, and our "inner city" crime and violence problem, etc. by endlessly debating in Congress –– liberal PAP vs. conservative PAP –– assorted income redistribution policies that involve massive levels of (inefficient, ineffective, budget-busting and/or inflation-exacerbating "government-run" programs and/or wealth transfer "solutions," that are, at best, short term fixes.)
#1 can't be accomplished unless America's major systems, but especially her education and healthcare systems, are completely de-industrialized AND de-bureaucratized (think: de-dysfunctionalized).

Rethinking our nation's education paradigm: from dystopic to neartopic.

FYI: Our society would have a "massively" more enlightened understanding of the link between:

our horribly flawed, Bloodless PI War theory of S-G,
our voters' inability to use their NLEP effectively, and
our society's massive EFFS mountain of problems,

...if we recognized that we are still in the "Four Humours" era of self-governance.

Which explains our nation's Four Humours [i.e., flawed, ineffective]:

education policy
healthcare policy
immigration policy
federal tax policy
welfare policy
mental health policy
criminal justice policy
domestic energy policy
etc.

**********

The following quote* by Laurie Neverman (December 2, 2016) is one of many ways for our society and public policy elite to start imaging in their mind's eye what becomes not just possible but easily achievable once we "revise/upgrade" our nation's public policy problem-solving philosophy/mind set.

*which many (myself included) have misattributed to George Carlin.

"What if – instead of worrying about whether we should give kids gold stars for participating or gold stars for being the best, we involve kids in real world activities where the end result of the activity itself is the reward?

Teach them gardening, woodworking, repair skills, fiber arts, sewing, cooking. Get them out hiking somewhere with a gorgeous view. Raise animals – have them learn to care about something other than themselves. Have them help out a grandparent or elderly neighbor.

Our society has lost sight of what's truly important in life. It's time to find it again."

**************

Ms. Neverman's profoundly wise (and timely IMO) societal observation makes for the perfect transition...

Now that we have some idea of what Strategic Cooperation is, the next several sections present collages (similar to this section's two "one room" school photos) which lend themselves to possible (pro-active) "legislative policy objectives" that PKQ-controlled Congresses –– with the strong support of the vast mainstream of our LOC and ROC voters AND society writ large –– might begin aggressively pursuing.

My layman's view: The "spark" that initiates society-wide interest in, and exploration of, these many pro-active agenda possibilities will necessarily involve thought experiments and/or foods-for-thought that will almost certainly be ridiculed by most (at least, initially) as "absurd."

That's to be expected:

"All truth passes through three stages:

First, it is ridiculed;

Second, it is violently opposed; and

Third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860 (attrib.)

In this case, the "truth" is that our society has been on a track so horribly wrong, for so long, we don't have the slightest inkling of what the right track even looks like –– and won't until we become fluent in the language of Effective S-G, i.e., a critical mass of our society possesses a working knowledge of a number of new concepts, e.g., 90% ANI cooperation, ANI objectives, de-dysfunctionalizing legislation, Neartopic systems, etc.

Some of the photo collages on the next several sections offer, in my view, insights into the highly desirable destination the right track will take us.

***************
First absurd food-for-thought: If, say, 90-95% of our nation's parents strongly supported abandoning our massively industrialized, massively bureaucratized education system in favor of reverting back to massively de-industrialized, massively de-bureaucratized micro school systems,

would PKQ-controlled Congresses be able, perhaps via the combination of "direct" and "indirect" legislation, to "make it so"?
what impact would this have on the amount of such things as a.) smartphone usage by our nation's tweens and teens, b.) on the ability of our kids to build strong, lasting bonds of friendship with their fellow students (which, fyi, would go a long way toward solving our nation's epidemic of loneliness/depression/suicidal thoughts among these cohort groups)?
what effect would this have on the level and/or severity of [unsocialization, school discipline, violence, out-of-wedlock birth rates, etc., etc.] in our most economically disadvantaged communities?

***********

BRIEF TIMEOUT: clearly, the goal of every American beginning and ending their days with satisfying senses of purpose and accomplishment –– is an unrealistic agenda (isn't it?)

But the point of this page's "absurd" foods-for-thought, thought experiments and blue-sky infographics is to "expand our minds" –– astronomically –– in order to radically rethink what is possible (not to mention, massively desirable), legislatively, once our national legislature becomes permanently PKQ-controlled.

**********

re "optimizing" our dysfunctionalized systems.

We need to either acknowledge, or remind ourselves, that America's many MASSIVELY industrialized, MASSIVELY bureaucratized systems, most notably our education and healthcare systems, are an artifact of generations of PAP-controlled Congresses.

From time immemorial, politicians generally, but self-serving politicians especially, have gone out of their way to show their constituents that they were on top of things by “doing something” (usually legislatively) when some issue popped up, say, an educational issue.

“Throwing money” at the problem, creating a new regulatory agency, etc. –– these were easy ways for PAPs to show that they cared.

America's post-World War II manufacturing boon certainly lent itself to us creating industrialized education systems in our mid/large urban areas. But that educational structure should have been short-lived, and our education system writ large should never have become MASSIVELY bureaucratized.

********************

"The mind, once expanded by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions." H/t: Oliver Wendel Holmes (et al.)

**********

RE: dysfunctionalized systems (and dysfunctionalizing legislation)

A dysfunctionalized system is one in which PAP-controlled U.S. Congresses have written all of the legislation which affects or impacts the system –– either directly, or via regulations written by regulatory agencies created by Congress to oversee, administer, etc. the system.

Such legislation is, by definition, dysfunctionalizing legislation, because a major defining feature of PAPs (past and current) serving in Congress is their "habit" of (excessively, compulsively) inserting, by definition, self-serving provisions into legislation, or writing entire bills for self-serving reasons, e.g., to:

appease, reward, entice, etc. various special interests groups,
dole out graft to political cronies
(insert 50 +/- more self-serving reasons).

Clearly, while no single provision or piece of legislation will dysfunctionalize a system, over a period of decades, generations, even centuries for some of our systems –– in a manner of speaking, the proof is in the pudding, i.e., 21st century America's systems are massively “industrialized,” massively bureaucratized, massively ineffective, and by nearly everyone's acknowledgment (in my layman's view), riddled with “waste, fraud and abuse” AND increasingly tasked with pursuing political agendas the vast mainstream of our LOC and ROC voters (and society writ large) do not support.

Returning to our VM sitting around a vast kitchen table engaging in Blue-Sky thought experiments...

Our VM realize that they need to make a number of radical changes in their society – fortunately, all for the better. At the top of the list: “optimizing” their nation's major systems. The only problem, they have no idea how, legislatively, to accomplish a great many of their ANI objectives.

So they borrow an idea from President Kennedy. He committed, in 1961, to putting a man on the Moon by decade's end, even though it wasn't even remotely feasible, technically, when he made the commitment. He just trusted that, once our scientific, engineering and other sectors put their minds to it, they would figure it out (a.k.a. "make it so").

Our VM also recognize that achieving their overarching objective –– i.e., every American is living a middle class or higher life by decade's end –– requires just two target goals: every American needs to:

not be unsocialized, and
possess whatever combination of [academic, social, work, trade, self-reliance, self-sufficiency] skills they need to be able to begin their day with the aforementioned satisfying sense of purpose, and end it with a satisfying sense of accomplishment.

To reach those highly desirable societal goals, our VM agree that the following ANI objectives must be achieved:

America will revert to being a nation governed by laws written by elected officials, rather than continue down the path, i.e., horribly wrong track, of an ever more massive, increasingly illiberal "administrative state" governed/controlled via regulations enforced by (relatively speaking) a massive army of massively bureaucratized regulatory agencies -- every agency of which is overseen by an "upper management" hierarchy motivated in varying degrees by self-servingism, ambition, power-lust, petty office politics, etc. Therefore...
Especially in America's education and healthcare systems, our "by decade's end" objective (of a nation "governed" by the combination of laws and common sense –– and in both cases informed by objective reality and existential exigency –– not "controlled" by regulations) will be that 95+% of the two systems' federal and state laws/rules/regulations will be eliminated along with the bureaucracies created to administer/enforce them.
Every k-12 school will be a neighborhood school housed in the smallest building (realistically) possible in order to foster and/or facilitate the development of long term teacher to student, and student to student, socioemotional bonds. Importantly, the education bureaucrats currently employed in the myriad bureaucracies and agencies will form a new category of educators not unlike, in some respects, hands-on, domestic peace corps workers called Middle Class Facilitators (see next).
Every adult willing to put in a honest day's work, and abide by the Golden Rule, will be able to live a middle class existence. In layman's terms, this means living in a nice house in a safe neighborhood, with nice schools and nice neighbors. Those needing hands-on-instruction to achieve this new, updated version/definition of the American Dream will receive it from the abovementioned facilitators. ***
Every child will be able to grow up in a nurturing, “socializing” environment. ***
(food for thought: what would you add to this list that, say, 80% of your fellow (go along to get along) vast mainstreamers would agree with?)

*** My layman's sense is that our sociologists will insist that people on the bottom-most rungs of America's socio-educational ladder are not capable, due to cognitive issues, of achieving and/or maintaining (by their own hands and “sweat”) a satisfying, middle class existence/life.

Yet, examples abound around the world of “primitive” communities, as well as off-grid communities, living materially AND “socio-emotionally” satisfying lives. Communities whose members –– from the very young to the very old –– begin their day with a satisfying sense of purpose (or role in the community), and end it with a satisfying sense of accomplishment.

In other words, our society does not have to invent (from whole cloth) radically new family, social and community structures to accomplish/achieve “neartopia.”

All a critical mass of America's LOC and ROC voters have to do is make the decision to “upgrade” the S-G strategy they use in their NLEP –– from 100% PI War to 90% ANI Cooperation.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, organized citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

FYI: Two examples, suburban sprawl and urban blight, of what, in terms of [de-humanization, human to human disconnection, social isolation, etc.], wrong tracks and horribly wrong tracks, respectively, look like.

One "absurd" legislative agenda our VM of voters would vote to pursue in a heartbeat: the "Mayberry R.F.D. (i.e., human connection) Meets the Swiss Family Robinson (i.e., self-reliance)" Agenda.

THE EXTREMELY ABSURD THOUGHT EXPERIMENT, part 2: Our VM of LOC and ROC voters gather around a vast kitchen table and quickly agree that it's well past time to "repurpose" our education system:

FROM: spending 12+ years –– and a massive amount of money –– trying to make every student "college-capable."

TO: spending 12+ years working to insure that every student who graduates 12th grade (as well as most of those who don't) is middle class (or higher)-capable.

To accomplish this, students who decide that "college" is not for them –– more specifically, a college education/degree that will not command a middle class or higher salary –– will have the option of going on either the TRADE SCHOOL track, or on the OFF-GRID track, or some combination of both tracks.

On the OFF GRID track, students will learn how to:

grow 90-100% (or more) of their food,
either grow (or gather freely available recyclable) materials that can be used to generate energy AND provide the raw materials for their homes, clothing, furnishings, etc.,
become skilled crafts-/tradesmen AND artisans.

Re implementing a Mayberry RFD/Swiss Family Robinson Agenda:

Would PKQ-controlled Congresses implementing policies that resulted in, say, non-educational toy sales plummeting 90+% –– because the kids were outside (sans smart Phones) playing (sometimes several hours a day, longer in the summer) –– which they could safely do (because they lived in safe, stable, self-sufficient, "gated" "middle class" communities) be a desirable, "by-decade's-end" national objective worth our society giving it their best shot?

aside: or do we want to continue on our part-Groundhog Day, part-Twilight Zone, permanently PAP-controlled Congresses, nightmare-track?

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

How much of society's aggregate "emptiness" and sense of purposelessness –– manifested in societal ills like depression and feelings of aloneness and alienation, especially among our children and teens and young adults –– will begin "withering on the vine" when PKQ-controlled Congresses (with the strong support of the vast mainstream of society) begin implementing a Mayberry/Swiss Family agenda?
By how much will acts of cruelty inflicted on children, animals, our most helpless, least able, be reduced? 10%? 50%? 90%? >90%?

re: "gated" AND self-sufficient, foodscaping communities

BRIEF OBSERVATIVE RE: this section's "What if..." info-graphic:

Many wise individuals over the centuries have made the point that it is very easy for a society to “make” a socio-emotionally healthy human being. But it is almost impossible for a society to repair a socio-emotionally damaged human being.

To the extent our society can "heal" America's "damaged" millions who have been the collateral damage from generations of "dysfunctionalizing legislative policies" –– curtesy of PAP-controlled Congresses –– it will be by giving these individuals, for the first time in their lives, a sense of meaningful purpose, and a sense of belonging.

Therefore...

What if... every American prison, state and federal, that housed "non-violent residents/inmates:"

grew all of the food they needed,
generated all of the electricity they needed,
"grew" the raw (and organic) materials they needed –– and also used recyclable plastics and other materials that would otherwise end up in landfills –– to make their own shoes, clothing, furnishings, housing, etc., and
required just a relative handful of prison guards because the wall surrounding the prison (which, fyi, was also built by the residents) was more than tall and impenetrable enough to prevent their escape?

What if... the same were the case for nearly every American prison that housed violent residents?

What if... the same were the case for nearly every:

"mental" facility that housed "cognitively-challenged" –– but non-violent –– residents who would otherwise be homeless, living on the streets, or serving time in prisons for property theft, robbery, shoplifting, etc.?
drug treatment facility that housed non-violent residents who would otherwise be homeless, living on the streets, or serving time in prisons for property theft, robbery, shoplifting, etc.?

FYI: It's worth noting in passing that, in all of the above situations, the fact that all of the individuals would be providing for themselves would give the vast majority not only a sense of purpose and accomplishment, but a sense of community, a sense of belonging.

What if... every peaceful, law-abiding resident –– and their children, parents, etc. –– living in high crime areas was given the opportunity, or option, to live in safe, stable communities (protected by impenetrable gates/walls) in which they grew all of the food they needed, generated all of the electricity they needed, "grew" the raw materials they needed to make their own shoes, clothing, furnishings, living quarters,...?

The takeaway here is... The "science" of Effective Self-Governance gives our society the "power" to, in a manner of speaking, "point and click" the kind of America the vast majority of us [liberals, moderates, conservatives, libertarians, etc.] wish to become (very roughly analogous to the way the advent of "point-and-click" enabled the (MS-DOS-ignorant) general public to navigate their home computer and the Internet as effortlessly, and almost as expertly, as the MS-DOS "fluent").

Meaning, if we want our long term (lower class) poor, and our (probably) soon to be (middle class) poor, to be able to live materially and emotionally satisfying middle class lives, there will be a way (Think: brightly lit path) to legislatively "make it so" once we transition to neartopic democracy.

PLEASE...PLEASE...PLEASE reread that last paragraph.

This Overton Window expanding "info/solution graphic" –– to America's MASSIVELY INDUSTRIALIZED, MASSIVELY BUREAUCRATIZED, (horribly failing) education system "problem" -- is well worth repeating.

switching gears semi-abruptly...

If you search: "lonely societies and socially ill societies" you will quickly realize why this new S-G knowledge is desperately needed knowledge "whose time has come."

Writer and social commentator, David Brooks, said on political scientist Yascha Mounk's 10/28/23 podcast, The Good Fight:

“...lonely societies and socially ill societies have the politics of recognition. Everybody's hungry to be affirmed. They're hungry for heroes who will shame and humiliate the other side. And so politics seems to offer them a moral landscape: us good guys on this side; those bad guys on the other side. This recognition politics seems to offer a sense of moral action: I do good, not when I sit with a widow or feed the hungry. I do good when I hate the other side. Or when I'm infuriated about the other side". [boldface added]

"And so to me," Brooks continues, "people have turned to politics to fill the moral vacuum that the rest of culture has created.”

What jumps out to me is the last sentence, "...the moral vacuum that the rest of culture has created." Because it's clear to me that, in cause/effect terms, i.e.,:

cause: our society's/voter's generation/centuries-old 100% PI War mentality, results in:
"first order" effect: generations/centuries of PAP-controlled Congresses relying (heavily) on a massively large toolbox of immoral/unethical tactics. These tactics are part of our PAPs' standard operating procedure, e.g., (mega) demagoguery, truth-twisting, finger-pointing, near-constant (angry, self-righteous) condemnation of the "other" party's values, ideals, motives, etc. –– which then become the "cause" that, after generations/centuries, produces/results in its own first order effects, e.g., a society, a significant segment of which, (1) sees, among many things, Democrat vs. Republican, liberalism vs. conservatism, in moral/good vs. evil terms, (2) begins increasingly mimicking our PAPs' angry self-righteousness in every aspect of their daily lives, which (3) becomes its own "cause" that, after generations/centuries, produces/results in, among many things, our society's ethical/moral erosion.

Meaning, our culture did not create our nation's moral vacuum. Generations of PAP-controlled Congresses have –– via the process of "dysfunctionalization" (new concept) –– created, among many bad things, our nation's (ever increasing) unethical/immoral "civilizational value system," which manifests itself in, e.g., "I do good, not when I sit with a widow or feed the hungry. I do good when I hate the other side. Or when I'm infuriated about the other side".

Expanding on this nexus:

America is buried under a mountain of major EFFS problems because of generations of PAP-controlled Congresses enacting dysfunctionalizing legislation and legislative provisions.

To avoid voter ire at the polls, each faction of responsibility-phobic PAPs blames the “other” side for the mountain –– and all of the economic hardship, the financial misery, the multitude of other social evils, etc.

But neither side limits the blame to the other party's "failed" policies. That's not what self-serving, politically ambitious , power lusting "politicians" do. They rely (heavily) on a massively large toolbox of morally vacuous tactics –– it's part of their standard operating procedure, e.g., (mega) demagoguery, truth-twisting, finger-pointing, near-constant (angry, self-righteous) condemnation of the "other" party's values, ideals, motives, etc.

Multiple generations of that kind of morally vacuous behavior/role modelling (Think: civilizational abuse) by our democratic society's ultimate role models –– our national legislators –– has cumulatively had, both directly and indirectly, a profoundly harmful impact on our society's socioemotional mentality.

In a manner of speaking, we have been civilizationally unsocialized by generations of civilizationally unsocializing behavior/antics/tactics/rhetoric/etc. on the part of America's ultimate role models –– FYI: that millions/tens of millions of Americans look to for:

guidance,
help,
comfort,
information re domestic policy,
information re who's telling you the truth vs. who's lying to you,
etc.

This explains a massively large number of things –– for example, why so many in our society, especially among our young, our gullible, naïve, uninformed, misinformed,...are so:

self-righteous with respect to their political views and beliefs re e.g., climate change, race and gender issues, etc.
quick to prejudge, and to blame –– usually due to, IMO, massive ignorance of ALL the relevant facts, pros/cons, etc. –– those with differing views and opinions.

One massively instructive takeaway, i.e., how do we solve this and other EFFS problems:

To borrow from a quote by writer James Sherman, the American people can't go back and create a new (PKQ-controlled Congress-based) civilizational paradigm for our nation. But our nation's LOC and ROC voters CAN start now and create it –– almost (in historical terms) in the blink of an eye once our political academics get on board.

TIME TO DECIDE...

Adapt/Evolve? Continue avoiding reality?

Welcome Academics, Scholars, Students and Voters.

Spoiler alert:

...

...

This info-graphic's takeaway...

"You can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.”

.

Our best and brightest minds are using "Four Humours" remedies to "save" our failing democracy.

Ineffective v. Effective S-G Theories/Strategies/Mentalities

re Dystopic vs. Neartopic Civilizational Paradigms

re PAPs vs. PKQs, Dystopic vs. Neartopic Democracy

The nexus between the 100% PI War mentality and R.I.P. U.S.A.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

We don't need a Convention of States, we need a convention of Talented Xers –– every two years.

re Effective S-G Synergism: The PKQ/VM connection

Can our political academics et al. stop "avoiding reality?"

TO: America's "political" [knowledge, information] industry:

re the LUST for Political Power...

re OUR PERCEPTION/VISION PROBLEM

"Stretching" America's Overton Window → Astronomically.

A few stream-of-consciousness thoughts/observations that will have to be re-thought, re-evaluated, expanded upon, etc. when time permits.

Extremely Absurd Thought Experiment:

A "massive" amount of Rube Goldberg "machinery" will continue to "run" a significant percentage of America's major systems as long as America continues to be a dystopic democracy.

Rethinking our nation's education paradigm: from dystopic to neartopic.

Some of the photo collages on the next several sections offer, in my view, insights into the highly desirable destination the right track will take us.

Using Blue-Sky Solution ideas to Expand YOUR Overton Window.

Rethinking our myriad distribution paradigms –– e.g., food, energy, home products, etc. –– from dystopic to neartopic.

Returning to our VM sitting around a vast kitchen table engaging in Blue-Sky thought experiments...

FYI: Two examples, suburban sprawl and urban blight, of what, in terms of [de-humanization, human to human disconnection, social isolation, etc.], wrong tracks and horribly wrong tracks, respectively, look like.

One "absurd" legislative agenda our VM of voters would vote to pursue in a heartbeat: the "Mayberry R.F.D. (i.e., human connection) Meets the Swiss Family Robinson (i.e., self-reliance)" Agenda.

re: "gated" AND self-sufficient, foodscaping communities

This Overton Window expanding "info/solution graphic" –– to America's MASSIVELY INDUSTRIALIZED, MASSIVELY BUREAUCRATIZED, (horribly failing) education system "problem" -- is well worth repeating.

TIME TO DECIDE...

Welcome Academics, Scholars, Students and Voters.

Spoiler alert:

...

...

This info-graphic's takeaway...

"You can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.”

.

Our best and brightest minds are using "Four Humours" remedies to "save" our failing democracy.

Ineffective v. Effective S-G Theories/Strategies/Mentalities

re Dystopic vs. Neartopic Civilizational Paradigms

re PAPs vs. PKQs, Dystopic vs. Neartopic Democracy

The nexus between the 100% PI War mentality and R.I.P. U.S.A.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

We don't need a Convention of States, we need a convention of Talented Xers –– every two years.

re Effective S-G Synergism: The PKQ/VM connection

Can our political academics et al. stop "avoiding reality?"

TO: America's "political" [knowledge, information] industry:

re the LUST for Political Power...

re OUR PERCEPTION/VISION PROBLEM

"Stretching" America's Overton Window → Astronomically.

A few stream-of-consciousness thoughts/observations that will have to be re-thought, re-evaluated, expanded upon, etc. when time permits.

Extremely Absurd Thought Experiment:

A "massive" amount of Rube Goldberg "machinery" will continue to "run" a significant percentage of America's major systems as long as America continues to be a dystopic democracy.

Rethinking our nation's education paradigm: from dystopic to neartopic.

Some of the photo collages on the next several sections offer, in my view, insights into the highly desirable destination the right track will take us.

Using Blue-Sky Solution ideas to Expand YOUR Overton Window.

Rethinking our myriad distribution paradigms –– e.g., food, energy, home products, etc. –– from dystopic to neartopic.

Returning to our VM sitting around a vast kitchen table engaging in Blue-Sky thought experiments...

FYI: Two examples, suburban sprawl and urban blight, of what, in terms of [de-humanization, human to human disconnection, social isolation, etc.], wrong tracks and horribly wrong tracks, respectively, look like.

One "absurd" legislative agenda our VM of voters would vote to pursue in a heartbeat: the "Mayberry R.F.D. (i.e., human connection) Meets the Swiss Family Robinson (i.e., self-reliance)" Agenda.

re: "gated" AND self-sufficient, foodscaping communities

This Overton Window expanding "info/solution graphic" –– to America's MASSIVELY INDUSTRIALIZED, MASSIVELY BUREAUCRATIZED, (horribly failing) education system "problem" -- is well worth repeating.

TIME TO DECIDE...

This website uses cookies.