Complexity: it’s complex, real, multi-layered and VERY dangerous

 

Image by J. Star via Flickr

My previous blogs referring to Joseph Tainter’s book, The Collapse of Complex Societies were, again, brought to mind by a recent article, by Prof John Kay, in the Financial Times (Barbarians at the gates of complexity).

The following is an extract from a speech Tainter delivered in 2009. Interestingly the focus of the full version, which can be found here, was Sustainability…another topic close to my heart!

…complexity costs. In any living system, increased complexity (involving differentiation in structure and increasing organization) carries a metabolic cost. In non-human species this is a straightforward matter of additional calories. Among humans the cost is calculated in such currencies as resources, effort, time, or money, or by more subtle matters such as annoyance. While humans find complexity appealing in spheres such as art, music, or architecture, we usually prefer that someone else pay the cost. We are averse to complexity when it unalterably increases the cost of daily life without a clear benefit to the individual or household. Before the development of fossil fuels, increasing the complexity and costliness of a society meant that people worked harder.

The Truth about money: Money as DEBT

This video is a pretty long (almost 50 minutes), but a relatively simple, explanation of when, how, why money came to play such a vital role in all of our lives.

To get the most out of this lesson I would recommend:

a visit to the bathroom

a comfortable chair

activated voicemail

an insulated drinks container…so large that it could accommodate a Starbucks barista

cream or hot milk

a jug of fresh coffee – to be poured into the (above) unfeasibly large receptacle

several sweet (fattening and unhealthy) treats

a stress ball OR details of your nearest anger management class

cigarettes and associated paraphernalia ( OPTIONAL in such politically correct times)

All of this BECAUSE the truth about money is that you will rarely get the truth from the people that are best placed to give it! For exactly the same reasons, those whose integrity has been “impaired” by its lure, don’t really want to talk about it in too much detail either.

HOW COME? Easy because its creation is relatively straightforward. That may go some way to explaining exactly why those with most of it or most attracted by it made it so complex!!!

Woodrow Wilson: Former US President [Quote from 1913]

“Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the US, in the field of commerce and manufacturing, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”

President Wilson was referring to the world’s banking barons! In 1913 the US Federal Reserve was born at a meeting of these banking barons on Jekyll Island in Georgia.

Thank goodness things have moved on since then!!!

I couldn’t resist blogging about this because, even as we speak, the bankers are STILL not doing what they were, allegedly, instructed to do with the public money (so generously given to them by our political representatives) to [1] save the global banking system from collapse [2] minimise the possibility of recession &/or [3] impact of recession upon the populous.

Just to add insult to injury we also have politicians moaning about having to repay the money that they….STOLE from the public purse!!!

Now I know I run the risk of outing myself (again) as a conspiracy theorist but when will our politicians realise that WE KNOW that they and our most senior bankers are two sides of the same coin? No wonder FSA are only effective at the levels at which they can actually regulate.

The only victims of wrong-doing on such a scale are those, considered by “the powers that be” to be expendable, have outlived their usefulness or that run the risk of causing further embarrassment. Apparently this is presenting a problem because there just aren’t enough ministerial, civil service or banking jobs to go around so WE all need to get on and make the best of it.

But before you do why not have some fun with the following table and please feel free to send me any additions or comments. I would like to know into which column each of our “villains” should go and if you felt the action taken was appropriate:

	SILLY	NAUGHTY	BAD	ACTION
Bankers
MP’s
Attorney General
Speaker of the House of Commons
Construction companies
Flavio Briatore/Renault
BAE Systems

Please feel free to amuse yourself by printing off this piece and cutting out the following cash prize. I wish it could be more BUT there’s a recession on at the minute

No amount of faux honesty at Party conference’s or a succession of policies or manifestos, that amount to little more than “patches”, are really going to fool anyone who knows how the financial world works.

Party political change is not what is required! The sad truth is that we trusted our political and financial leaders to do their jobs. They abused that trust. Disgraced the offices the still hold. Have failed to show any real signs of remorse. Admitted nothing and are, patently, intent on keeping their heads as low for as long as is required before they take up, in a slightly altered landscape (still essentially of their own design) to carry on where they left off.

The only way that CHANGE will take place is if people that care keep on looking for ways to work together to bring it about. There is certainly sufficient will and from the conversations that it spawns can come the means.

I would love to hear some ideas on the subject.