Monday, February 25, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
36 States of the Nation
The Great Cultural Revolution will be a life changing era to all who live through it, and its affects cannot be under-estimated.
The changes that are likely to happen will also trigger bitter reactions from the general public - a public who are ill-informed of the bigger picture and the inevitability of the events that will be precipitated. It is certain that the vast majority will be unprepared and will look for simple solutions in order to maintain the status quo. These solutions are likely to be counter-productive and potentially as damaging as the changes. Accompanying the reactions of those who seek to grasp that which cannot cannot be held on to, will be a profound shock of such depth that it will dissipate any remaining mental energies to reduce the daily impacts of change.
In order to counter these two fatal responses people need to be able to see where "things are at" and where "things are headed". This at least may facilitate some life saving abstract thinking which might work itself out in sound decision making.
I propose to track the status of some 36 aspects of national life under the following six headings:
- Environmental Wealth
- Economic Health
- Social Cohesion
- International Relations
- Cultural Vitality
- Spiritual Integrity
This will be done with the crude but highly evolved (or beautifully designed) metric of subjectivity. The results will be published monthly and the status of each aspect will be shown as a colour from a "Chromatic scale". - This all sounds a lot more complicated than it is.
Each of the six headings will have six features critical to the common wealth of the nation. The list is an educated guess at what is important and is intended to capture the broad sweep of national health and activity. Because this is a work in progress some aspects may be replaced with others that are deemed more appropriate.
The list of Headings and aspects follows:
ENVIRONMENTAL WEALTH
- Geological stability
- Meteorological Stability
- Natural asset stocks
- Bio-diversity
- Bio-hazards
- Ability to manage waste
ECONOMIC HEALTH
- Essential services (power/water etc)
- Inflation
- Concentration of wealth
- Paid employment
- Living within means
- Balance of trade
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
- Continuity of oil supply
- Access to markets
- War and peace
- Continuity of communications
- International reputation
- Ability to service treaties
SOCIAL COHESION
- Ability to govern
- Stratification in society
- Law and order
- Crime and decency
- Family life
- Individual rights
CULTURAL VITALITY
- Health and fitness
- Ability to reason
- Education system
- Health system
- Research and development
- Lucidity of expression
SPIRITUAL INTEGRITY
- Lordship of Christ
- Focus of belief
- Unity of believers
- Principalities and powers
- Manifestations of integrity
- Persecution
This list could be longer or shorter and six sets of six is somewhat arbitrary. There is no defining way to model the life of humans in society. If it is found to be useful all very well. If not there are plenty of other blogs to choose from - but time is shor . . .
The changes that are likely to happen will also trigger bitter reactions from the general public - a public who are ill-informed of the bigger picture and the inevitability of the events that will be precipitated. It is certain that the vast majority will be unprepared and will look for simple solutions in order to maintain the status quo. These solutions are likely to be counter-productive and potentially as damaging as the changes. Accompanying the reactions of those who seek to grasp that which cannot cannot be held on to, will be a profound shock of such depth that it will dissipate any remaining mental energies to reduce the daily impacts of change.
In order to counter these two fatal responses people need to be able to see where "things are at" and where "things are headed". This at least may facilitate some life saving abstract thinking which might work itself out in sound decision making.
I propose to track the status of some 36 aspects of national life under the following six headings:
- Environmental Wealth
- Economic Health
- Social Cohesion
- International Relations
- Cultural Vitality
- Spiritual Integrity
This will be done with the crude but highly evolved (or beautifully designed) metric of subjectivity. The results will be published monthly and the status of each aspect will be shown as a colour from a "Chromatic scale". - This all sounds a lot more complicated than it is.
Each of the six headings will have six features critical to the common wealth of the nation. The list is an educated guess at what is important and is intended to capture the broad sweep of national health and activity. Because this is a work in progress some aspects may be replaced with others that are deemed more appropriate.
The list of Headings and aspects follows:
ENVIRONMENTAL WEALTH
- Geological stability
- Meteorological Stability
- Natural asset stocks
- Bio-diversity
- Bio-hazards
- Ability to manage waste
ECONOMIC HEALTH
- Essential services (power/water etc)
- Inflation
- Concentration of wealth
- Paid employment
- Living within means
- Balance of trade
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
- Continuity of oil supply
- Access to markets
- War and peace
- Continuity of communications
- International reputation
- Ability to service treaties
SOCIAL COHESION
- Ability to govern
- Stratification in society
- Law and order
- Crime and decency
- Family life
- Individual rights
CULTURAL VITALITY
- Health and fitness
- Ability to reason
- Education system
- Health system
- Research and development
- Lucidity of expression
SPIRITUAL INTEGRITY
- Lordship of Christ
- Focus of belief
- Unity of believers
- Principalities and powers
- Manifestations of integrity
- Persecution
This list could be longer or shorter and six sets of six is somewhat arbitrary. There is no defining way to model the life of humans in society. If it is found to be useful all very well. If not there are plenty of other blogs to choose from - but time is shor . . .
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