De-Schooling the Company - Learning to question your assumptions.

	De-Schooling the Company by John S Veitch
	"Be the change you want to see in the World" Mahatma Gandhi
	One Printable Page

Ivan Ilich introduced us to the concept of de-schooling. For individuals, deschooling was a process of unlearning and relearning. We are all indoctrinated, and much of what we "know" isn't useful in the context of our present lives in a modern networked society. It's quite likely that we are trapped in difficult situations because our training and habits and tradition tell us that we are doing the "right" thing. Some of what we "know" is likely to be causing our problems.

Much adult learning requires some unlearning, some de-schooling. There is nobody in charge of the effort to create and "Open Future©". What we can always do is build a learning community where we are. In this short video Alan Moore tells us to stop assuming the solution is a straight line, because while that's easy for us to imagine, it's unlikely to so in the real world.

In modern societies, organisations: business, social, cultural or governmental; have statutes and rules and rituals and laws and traditions that are meant to be unchanging. The purpose is to give the organisation the business or the community stability. Organisations therefore are slower to change than the community as a whole. This isn't an accident, it's part of the design, and intended function of the organisation.

I think you can see this most clearly with politics. Political Parties, carry a lot of baggage, they have to appeal to a traditional base, as well as attract new people. Society changes more quickly than the parties can cope with. They are always "behind" where the mainstream of society is moving too. In a slow changing world that didn't matter much. It was probably "good" for the law of the land to change slowly and conservatively. I don't know what you imagine the size of this lag is, but my estimate for New Zealand is about 20 years, and for the USA, it seems to be about 50 years, possibly more. (Public opinion in the USA has supported universal health care since the 1950's, but the politicians are "trapped" into health insurance thinking and are still unable to deliver universal health care.)

How do we Improve Health Care?

We are trapped by asking ourselves the wrong questions.

At TEDMED, Eric Dishman makes a bold argument: The US health care system is like computing circa 1959, tethered to big, unwieldy central systems: hospitals, doctors, nursing homes. As our aging population booms, it's imperative, he says, to create personal, networked, home-based health care for all.

Eric Dishman, explains the health care problem in an interesting way. He talks about the inability we have to understand how the world has changed.

Is this important? I think so. With climate change for instance, We are currently sitting in a 20 year window when radical changes to the way we live and the way our economies work need to be made. It seems to me that people generally understand this, but the political system is incapable of appropriate action. If action takes ten, or twenty, or more years, that window of opportunity is closing or closed. Too late to prevent a disaster? I expect so, and that matters. Political decisions can also make the future more open or more closed.

Business as usual is a veneer that disguises the problems we face. The great disruption will change "business as usual" in ways we won't like. The process will be costly. Costly in financial terms certainly, but costly in terms of lives too. We can strive to be informed, and responsible for ourselves. We can try to live modestly. We can understand that the way we organize ourselves and our society is part of the natural ecology and not the controller of it.

How do we make an "Open Future©"? Start where we are. Start in whatever groups you are a member of. Find some people who understand the direction of needed change and make a start. Do something other people can see. Something simple and practical is good. When others ask you "Why", take the opportunity to build understanding, and to increase your numbers.

There is nobody in charge of the effort to create and "Open Future©". We have to explore the options and make our own choices. Much adult learning requires some unlearning, some de-schooling. If we can learn, change is possible. That process will make a more "Open Future©" real for us.

Your comment on this essay is welcomed. Comments (0)