Charles Hugh Smith: Why Nothing Changes

08-20-2010 • OfTwoMinds.com/blog

The reasons why nothing has changed include institutional inertia and self-preservation, the herd instinct and negative feedback loops. Bottom line: the Savior State can not "save" itself, much less all of us. In a way, the entire Survival+ critique is an attempt to explain why the status quo is incapable of reform. This leads to the following conclusion: the partnership of the U.S. Savior State/Global Empire and Global Neoliberal Capitalism is incapable of "saving" us from the interconnected crises which will dismantle the status quo. We will have to "save" ourselves, hence the book's call for radical self-reliance, reciprocity and localized, resilient, self-selected "solutions" to global (and thus local) crises. Yesterday I noted that the status quo has not changed in any meaningful fashion, despite the global financial turmoil of the past few years. From a systems analysis perspective, the reason is that there are powerful negative feedback loops in place to counter any degradation of status-quo systems. As noted yesterday, the "sweeping changes" which have been marketed as "fixing the system" merely tweak the parameters of the status quo and thus they are incapable of triggering fundamental reformation. Thus "healthcare reform" sets up dozens of studies which are supposed to select "best practices" which will be spread throughout the system with magical results. In other words, the "reform" consists of tweaking some minor parameters and feedbacks. The insurance cartels which control the system are left firmly in charge, along with the Federal fiefdoms and other cartels (Big Pharma, etc.) The same pattern is played out in every major system. The "too big to fail" banks remain too big to fail, systemic risk is left to run freely off balance sheets (behind a few additional screens), etc. etc.--nothing has changed. A few parameters were tweaked--the most grossly predatory fees banks charged their hapless customers were trimmed--but the banks are nonetheless being recapitalized at taxpayers expense. And they've been busy perfecting new fees which evade the tissue-paper "reforms." The National Security State is still expanding, and still doesn't know what its sprawling fiefdoms know or don't know. In every case, the fiefdoms' most powerful forces are directed at self-preservation and smothering or blunting any change with threatens their share of the swag. Natural selection both rewards and punishes change: genetic and cultural mutations which benefit the survivability of the species spread quickly through the species, while mutations which weaken the individual are ruthlessly eradicated. Thus organizations fear changes and adaptive "mutations" (a.k.a. "reforms") because they might lead to the "death" of the organization or a severe restriction in the flow of swag which feeds the organization and its membership.

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