Visioning 2026 Blog
Rick Smyre on Twitter and Related Trends
A quick search on Twitter to see if anyone had mentioned Rick’s name and came up with the following report.
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=rick+smyre
Interesting to read some of the comments relative to Tea Parties. This just reflects what Rick has been saying for many years that our representative democracy is not keeping up with the changes that are occurring around us and across the world. I find it interesting and distressing that there was so much press coverage on the Somalia pirate situation which is a continued outgrowth of the problems in this region, a systemic problem that we knew about during the Clinton years and probably earlier. The political situation is becoming more unpredictable with Iran, North Korea, Pakistan and Afghanistan (3 with or near to have nuclear weapons). We see the frustrations at the local level where are local officials are over whelmed with information and issues, especially with paying for services and the current tax revenue structure and how to conduct economic and community development. Again I find it interesting about the local public school system looking at closing “attendance centers” versus using the term neighborhood schools. As Marv Cetron tried to get us to understand, the learning environment isn’t about bricks and mortar, but well incentivized teachers that are trained well for helping children learn how they individually learn.
On the Edge -- stuck in a prolonged deflationary trap
Another email newsletter from Rick Smyre on a New York Times article by Paul Krugman, On the Edge.
Am sending this article to you for two reasons....one to focus on the importance of the deflationary trap about which Krugman mentions in this article. Second, I am having more and more conversations with citizens at the local level who are obviously concerned, and I think almost to the point of getting involved...but they don't know what to do and are stuck with traditional knowledge and experience that relates less and less to the kind of society and economy that seems to be emerging.
In my opinion, what we currently are observing at the federal level reflects problems on both sides of the isle with the way we will need to think about how to prepare for a future that is very different from the past. There is no template and if politics as usual continues to be the way we approach increasingly complex and difficult problems, we will continue to see both economic and social disruptions grow which will, in turn exacerbate the problems. It is interesting to see how the concept of "either/or" thinking is inhibiting and, at times, preventing the ability to think and act at a higher level of complexity.
What is happening provides an opportunity for futures thinking and transformative dialogue at the local level in people and small groups who care about learning trends, weak signals and transformational concepts and methods. In my opinion, without developing new capacities for transformation at the local level, we will continue to see increased frustration that may boil over into anger and violence if the economy tumbles into such negative territories that citizens lose all faith in their leadership.
As the Chinese say, "with crisis there is opportunity." The conversations I have had with people throughout the country this week gives me great hope that we will see more and more "access points" where the ideas and methods of community transformation will not be seen as just nice to know, but necessary to move beyond our present economic and potentially social debacle.
Hope all of you have had a good week. All the best. Rick
Another post captured from Larry:
Along the lines of our "and/both thinking"... consider the following article by Burton W. Folsom, Jr. entitled "Do We Need a New New Deal?" which is the second article on the following page:
http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis.asp
Isn't that an eye-opener!? What might be the implications of a New New Deal?
BTW, if anyone wants to read the Krugman article without registering for NYTimes online, read it here:
http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/1:new_york_times:67347aa903876d8af7f563180344b1df
Great discussion, everyone!
Larry
twitter: VirgilOutlander
SL: Virgil Outlander
Leadership Norfolk Class Project Reference Material
Just a quick follow-up from the session on Feb 3rd.
http://www.kurzweilai.net/index.html?flash=1
http://www.twellow.com/twellowhood/
http://twittgroups.com/showgroups.php
http://www.ehow.com/how_4668396_connect-twitter-facebook-status-updates.html
Mark Hall