The other day, Farshad and I were talking about the ways of the world, how things seemed to be getting worse. Farshad offered his belief that the problems of the world were due to the lack of will on the part of a “higher power” (read: government). It was to blame for society’s inability to solve the Big Problems in the world. But I wasn’t so sure.
As Thomas Homer-Dixon pointed out near the end of his wildly popular book, The Ingenuity Gap:
“Such explanations are specious… [they] blame all our troubles on an amorphous, undifferentiated group of leaders who could fix things if they weren’t so venal or cowardly, and they conveniently let the rest of us off the hook.”
The problem with assigning blame is that in a world of nonlinear, intertwingled problems, pinpointing the responsible party is like trying to pick up soap in a prison shower without making an unwelcome new friend - entirely impossible. As Dixon points out, the truth is there isn’t a responsible party. Instead, there are multiple responsible parties - namely: us.
Anyone who’s had dreams of being their own boss by starting a company has soon recognized the illusion of control. At first, it’s just yourself - until you actually have to get something done. You hire some other employees, form a board of directors, get some investors, and then, wham! You’re answering to other people! You’re no longer really the one in control! It’s just as true for governments as it is for corporations.
The significance of this point was driven home while I was visiting the Government of BC website as part of my research with the Premier’s Technology Council. I found this fantastic document on the BC Investment Climate that showed, in concise, quantitative terms, why BC kicks supreme ass as a location for companies. I had neither previously heard of this document, nor any of a variety of the points it raised. How is this possible? I read the news! I’m “plugged in”! Delving deeper, I discovered that the Premier has a weekly radio address! Weekly! Address! Am I totally clueless about what’s going on in government?
This disturbs me. Why? Let’s recap: Governments and corporations are responsible for getting things done to change our world; however, that’s actually a red-herring, because I’m actually responsible, albeit indirectly, for spurring them to get things done. But if I’m actually in charge of them being in charge, and I don’t even know what the heck is going on, how is anyone supposed to get anything done?
Then again, perhaps that’s exactly the explanation for the situation we find ourselves in: everyone’s in charge. Like an unhelpful crowd witnessing a mugging, the responsibility for action is dispersed - despite being in a position to make the small, incremental effort required to affect change, we are instead paralyzed by our own self-interests from actually expending that effort.