There we go again, a new electoral campaign. Entertaining somehow but boring once you've gone through several of them. And what do we get at the end? Same old same old: budget issues, debt, taxes, DOW down, NAS down, Gold up, or a seesaw of indices we can only watch crossing our fingers that our 401k will be beefy enough to pay something at the end.

I guess media pressure is sufficiently high on these monetary-wealth-fearful thoughts to stress our lives in an unprecedented way. But still we have to go to work, do good work, even better work with passion and diligence, we have to keep the family united and well, kids happy and willing to learn, have fun, discover life, travel, experiment etc. Where are our teen years when we thought we would change the world to something better? I guess far behind us but our kids are here to bring them to our memories... and guess what, we apply the same pressure our parents applied on us to our kids: you better work well at school for a brighter future! And... well I know some people with a PhD looking for a job...

Is the end of the world prediction in fact happening? Or should it happen now? in other words, do we have to change our system? Think about it: the House of Representatives has grown a lot slower than the US population (per wikipedia):

The structure of our society has evolved at a slower pace when our population has grown exponentially, and therefore our needs too. This does not seem to work well and I guess we are seeing the decline of the way our societies are built (What's happening in the Middle East is probably a proof). But also the past taught us a lot about what is possible but not viable and we (humans) tried a lot of things (I'm thinking religion, dictatorship, communism, etc.). So, what kind of new models are left to explore?

I believe capitalism is probably the only model surviving today as it matches somehow what an individual is capable of understanding and desire: growth, wealth, therefore happiness (well, I'm caricaturing bit). But when one comes to acknowledge that growth is not infinite and contraction is not accounted for in capitalism, especially when the population is still growing, one shall reconsider her positions...

Interestingly enough, our society, thanks to the Internet, has never been more 'social': a lot more interactions, care for others, likes, publicly shared thoughts, blogs, comments, etc. And at the same time, we are more and more aware of the risks we are exposed to with our own growth and industrialization.

I think it is time to explore more local micro-societies that construct themselves autonomously to be able to regulate their own growth. The interaction between micro-societies should be ruled by simple metrics that help decide the merger or split of these micro-societies. This is not feudalism at all as the metrics will be regulated at a nation or world level. I don't have the full definition or explanation for my proposal, but I'm thinking of simple examples that advocate for such a system:

  • food production: rather than importing, exporting, etc. a small society (even think a neighborhood) could organize itself to produce what it needs. Sure avocados may not be as good as if there were imported from somewhere else on the globe, but does it matter now? Can you really taste the difference?
  • schooling: rather than paying taxes for a global education system, schooling can be paid locally. If a micro-society decays by a lack of knowledge, it will need the support of another micro-society. If both accept to merge for that reason, then fine they do. If they don't agree, the decaying society will dissolve itself naturally and its resources will be reallocated to adjacent micro-societies.
  • taxes: only a small tax is needed for monitoring and regulating inter micro-societies relations. The rest of the taxes is decided by the micro-society in the form of money or time.
  • money: perhaps something that could disappear, but I guess it should be regulated at a macro level. Not sure...

Adjacent does not necessarily mean physically adjacent. Micro societies could be distant. I have yet to find who will pay for the infrastructure of the communication between micro-societies...

Oh well, system is not perfect but I like thinking along those lines. Maybe one day I'll have a eureka moment and will either accept that this is crazy or define the entire roadmap... But I think that even today, what's key is that everyone should think and contribute to the definition of a better world. Just criticisms, sarcasms, pessimist comments will not help us build a better world for our descendants. And today it feels that we are depleting the resources of our planet and our very own patience at a faster pace than they can be renewed.