The Policy Sweet Spot that the World Needs
…the answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind…
With Miroslaw Manicki
Poland’s position in the 19th century was untenable. Technically, there was no nation of Poland from 1795 to 1918. Politics was not available to the Poles. They chose to concentrate on cultural and social development. Embracing the work of Herbert Spencer, the Poles became the best example of positivism in the world (Blejwas, 1984).
There is a lot to positivism, more than what may be called a positive mental attitude, but the concepts are not related. It is all about standards. When Poland was partitioned by Russia, Austria and Germany (as known currently), the people insisted on higher standards than those of their overseers. This wasn’t a new development — Slavic tradition is both strict and practical (Dvornick, 1959).
Strictness and practicality should be the order of the day in our times. People are steeped in politics now. This does not favor resolution of our problems. It isn’t that politics is not important, but what is lacking is clear understanding of what kinds of actions should be taken by governments once seats if power have been clarified.
There is a “Goldilocks zone” of power as there is in many things. Enough power should be exercised, but not too much. This isn’t simple a matter of intensity but breadth. We find ourselves in situations where politicians can and do make decisions that rightly should be made by scientists or others with deep knowledge of subject areas. We would be much better off if politicians were to arrange means by which standards established by communities of practice are supported by law.
This happens a good deal in areas of longstanding need, such as in building construction and other forms of infrastructure engineering and construction. People can suffer civil and even criminal consequences for breaking building codes.
Health represents a similar area, but one that needs much more standardization and documentation than currently exists. People need to be led along the paths of correct and acceptable actions. Nature needs to be our guide in this, as nature functions well, while many of our ideas about accounting, record-keeping, and evaluation fall short and take much more time and effort than they are worth.
We need to enter into a stage of nirvana now with respect to governance at all levels. The entire cycle needs to be clarified and supported. The eight billion humans on the planet demand our strictest attention and respect.
Where has comprehensive planning with social overtones been conceived if not implemented? Poland’s tradition is strong in these matters. The long commitment to positivism in particular is helpful.
Most particularly, Łódź, in central Poland, can lay claim to these:
Planning and finance. Poland can lay claim to effective national health finance. This represents a balance of knowledge and authority, systematically applied in the administration and funding of medical and health standards and practices. This was conceived from the late 1990s to the early 2000s under the leadership of Miroslaw Manicki (Manicki et al, 2014).
The program was also implemented from 2014 onward in Indonesia.
Fiscal requirements. Poland has also provided the world with one of the most effective economists with respect to demand management with social underpinnings. This is represented by the work of Michał Kalecki (Lopes and Assous, 2010). He famously published his demand analysis in 1933, three years before John Maynard Keynes’ famous work, not only on the same subject, but with additional insight into important social underpinnings of such investments.
Knowledge clarification and groundings. How should the data be organized and positioned for conclusive human benefit — both numbers and symbols. This was considered with great success by Alfred Korzybski, who focused his attention on the requirements of meaningful, accurate solutions — both numbers and symbols. Requirements for application of this have been developed in the United States, but yet to be “heard” in the cacophony of voices in the IT world (Tingey, 2014). You might also say that it is “in the wind”.
It has been noted that never before have the benefits of comprehensive planning and the capabilities of information technology been brought together at the same time (van der Pijl, 2017). Poland is also central to the possibilities here.
Sensing the opportunity and acting on it
Bob Dylan has articulated the nature of this challenge in his famous song “The Answer is Blowin’ in the Wind”. Elements of the answer as to what we need may be generally understood, but not necessarily how to achieve it. These are “in the wind” along with many other voices and sounds — not all of them meritorious:
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they’re forever banned?The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the windYes, and how many years must a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
And how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn’t see?The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the windYes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
And how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take ’til he knows
That too many people have died?The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind. Bob Dylan/Musixmatch
Can you hear it? Do you understand it? Hopefully the people who matter most in its implementation will identify make use of the answer in time:
References
Blejwas, S. A. 1984. Realism in Polish politics: Warsaw positivism and national survival in nineteenth century Poland. New Haven, CT: Yale Concilium on International and Area Studies.
Dvornik, F. 1959. The Slavs: Their early history and civilization. Second print edition. Cambridge, MA: American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Kodish, B. I. 2011. Korzybski: A biography. Pasadena, CA: Extensional Publishing.
Lopez, J., and Assous, M. 2010. Michal Kalecki. Great Thinkers in Economics. Houndsmills, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Manicki, M., Tingey, K. B., Farnes, L. D., Ostojić, D. 2014. Dual control or certain derailment: Speed is a given. Logan, Utah/Warsaw, Poland: CIMH Global, 9–17.
van der Pijl, K. 2017, October. The Russian Revolution at 100. Revolutions Conference, Geopolitical Economy Research Centre, University of Manitoba.
Tingey, K. B. 2014. The solution: Permanescence. Logan, UT: Profundities LLC.