March 24 2008 / by Alvis
Category: Government Year: 2008 Month: Mar Rating: 8
U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey says he
is
quite surprised by the vast number of potential terrorist
threats facing our nation.
In a closed session with reporters last Friday, the leader of
the country’s Justice Department stepped up to the plate,
exclaiming, “I’m surprised by how surprised I am.” 
“It’s surprising how varied [the threat] is, how many directions
it comes from, how geographically spread out it is,” he said.
My first reaction to this went something like: “Are you kidding
me? Have you never heard of accelerating change, discussed the
concept of a flattening world, or noticed how quickly technology is
letting people all over the globe do more with limited
resources?”
Of course, such statements are likely nothing more than
political hyperbole intended to drum-up public support for the big
telecom immunity battle currently shaping-up in Washington, in
which case it’s at least something I can comprehend and chalk up to
politics. But if Mukasey, the Attorney General, is being remotely
serious, it indicates a frightening blind spot for accelerating
change and possibly a deeper lack of strategic thinking throughout
our government, which would not altogether come as a surprise.
Human progress is a double-edged sword. Social evolution
constantly allows us to “do more, better, with less”, as systems
theorist
John Smart puts it. We can direct these new capabilities at
improving our economy, finding new cures for new illnesses,
improving the quality of human life, or use them to plot more
effective terrorism, more quickly destabilize systems, or hoard
more resources. The sword can cut both ways.
Now, as we approach the point where the totality of earth-based
technology and information will double in less that one human
generation (22 years), we must come to terms with the notion that
it’s going to become increasingly more difficult to see what’s
coming next. This applies both to imagining possible new solutions
as well as problems like terrorism. Only by becoming cognizant of
accelerating change can nations, groups, families, individuals and
the world as a whole hope to formulate, much less achieve desired
outcomes. Anything short of understanding our environment and
problem sets as best we can is likely to create a slew of
unintended consequences, such as increased terrorism, that add to
instability and increase the likelihood of more disruptive events.
This is an unavoidable reality that applies to everyone, no matter
what their political, religious or philosophical orientation.
My sincere hope is that the brains at the critical nodes of
government, multi-national businesses and the military-industrial
complex are already hip to acceleration, if only to avoid making
very bad decisions. Ideally, they’d apply that knowledge to foster
positive-sum effects that rapidly grow the pie and broadly
transform attitudes by providing actualization pathways, thus
reducing the propensity for terrorist activity, rather than bring
us all to a breaking point via over-control. But hey, I’ll take
what I can get.
Whatever the underlying reality, I know that I will certainly
feel better about the dynamic we’re living in once
influential folks like Mukasey start acknowledging the 500 lb. (and
growing) gorilla in the room that is acceleration. It’s about time
this increasingly obvious concept started to enter the mainstream.
Our future depends on it.
(via
CNN)
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