Let’s talk about standardization, the problems it causes, and ways we can solve them.
What is Standardization?
Standardization in short is conformity. It’s using a one solution that works for a lot of problems for every problem. That doesn’t mean all standardization is bad, it’s not. It has helped streamline production and advance our society in several ways. But too much of anything can be bad and when we started standardizing people and decision-making processes rather than just assembly lines, we lost something in ourselves. The ability to think.
We are a society that standardizes everything, our education, our investment opportunities, our governing. Standardization allows us to escape accountability. When problems arise, we place blame on the system, not the people running the system.
What has the standardization of our society created?
A lack of leadership, especially at the local level.
We elect leaders who are looking for one solution to fit many problems when they should be looking at many solutions to solve each individual problem. Our world is large and when we look at it through such a narrow lens, we miss the complexity of our problems. Our local leaders look to the federal government to solve our most complex problems, coronavirus, healthcare, gun violence, and the economy to name a few. And when they fail, they blame their political opponents. But complex problems are best solved up close, with free thought and compromise. When our country faces its biggest domestic problems, it’s the local leaders who should be leading the charge, and the federal government should be watching closely to assist when needed. Why do local leaders keep getting away with this? Because we, the people are guilty of it too.
This isn’t just a leadership problem, it’s a people problem.
America is an “ask for the manager” society.
When we see problems, we want answers and we want them now, so we go to the top. We look right past our local leaders, the people who could most easily help us. This creates opportunity for leadership to escape accountability which allows us, the people, to escape as well. Eventually we must stop looking up to solve our problems and start to look within.
What has this lack of leadership and “ask for the manager” society created?
It has created parties that resemble aristocracies rather than a mechanism in a democratic government. “Democracy is a rule of the people, for the people and by the people", not a rule of the people with money.
With everyone passing the buck on accountability, money has seized control of our elections.
No, they aren’t rigged. Well, not widely successfully so far…. (Let’s put a pin in this)
This means if you want to run for congress, you’ll meet with people in the political circle who will want to know how are you going to fundraise? It becomes the most important quality a party looks for in a candidate. Ideas and free thought are hushed inside the parties, out of fear of offending the wrong person and starting a fight. The good people left in the system, the ones holding it together need help, but it seems like people have lost faith in the system.
A system that has lost belief is vulnerable to corruption.
There is no secret that our politics in this country is toxic. And a toxic system will repel the most reasonable of man and woman, leaving the system in the hands of those who brave the toxicity and those who are toxic.
How do we fix these problems?
By making the system less toxic.
How do we do that?
By getting involved. By understanding that it is people and ideas that matter in elections not money. By thinking big and taking small actions to achieve our goals for society. It’s our country, we should have a say in where it goes, and our say starts by investing our time in the system. The more nontoxic people in the system, the better the system will function.
How can good people thrive in such a toxic system? We may be lacking leadership and we may be an “ask for the manager society”, but we are still Americans. Our past generations built this country, they went to the moon, defeated evil in WWII, and they made our convenient modern society possible by working to survive. Their sacrifice and courage are in our blood. Americans solve problems. Americans work. Americans compromise.
We can’t keep looking to others to solve our problems, we need to solve them ourselves.
If you want to become more engaged in your community, keep reading my substack, listen to my new podcast Thank You for Sharing (TYFS), and check out my next project.
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