DEMANDING TRANSPARENCY: Our Systems Have Been Corrupted. Transparency is the Cure.

Fixing corruption in our systems is the one thing all people should stand in solidarity on. We need a #TransparencyMovement. The world is primed for one.

A fascinating thing to think about that Balaji Srinivasan brought to our attention is this: technology will often follow culture.

In other words, if we want to move our society forward right now, the first thing we need to do is establish a new culture. There is an order to societal change, and culture happens first.

Let’s look at a quick example: In the late 1800s the culture changed from one of the “Wild West” to one of “cleanliness is next to godliness.”   Once that culture changed, technology followed.  Arguably some of the best inventions of all time came from this culture change - sewers, waste removal, and running water.

We need a modern day “cleanliness is next to godliness” mantra, to fix the corruption that is happening all around us. Before the 1900s human raw sewage in the streets led to decay, plagues, and death. The same thing is happening today as we allow our systems to be centralized and corrupted.

So how do we change the culture?

If we stop all of the insane noise caused by corporate media, social media, and irrational thought, we find that there are important underlying principles that when adhered to would flip the predicaments we are in. Let’s start there. Let’s boil it down to two simple things that if we all worked to change would have massive positive implications for all of humanity.

Two cultural shifts:

1) Demanding Decentralization and Transparency to fix Corruption. If you tell us what kind of systems you live under (family, government, educational, infrastructure, medical, science, etc.) we can accurately predict the quality of life you have. Systems have immense power over humanity. We have allowed the systems that govern over our lives to become corrupted. Corrupt systems harm people; thus what is happening right now. Transparency exposes corruption. We must be relentless, unwavering, and courageous in the pursuit of transparency, and we should honor all those who adhere to the quest for it. The time is perfect to take responsibility for our systems. Who is guarding over them? We need to be. This starts by simply understanding the difference between decentralized and centralized systems, and how centralized systems always attract corruption (like we wrote about here). All systems that govern over our lives should be championed to be transparent and decentralized. The only people who should be against transparency are the corrupted ones. This plan makes it obvious anyone who is part of the corruption. We also wrote about this here.

2) Results matter most. All decisions in society should be based on results, not intentions. Too often we allow intentions to dictate policy instead of results. We can never allow intention, propaganda, or societal peer-pressure to blind us from results. Every policy and system and decision and leader can be boiled down to one thing: effective or ineffective. We have allowed the noise to blind us to this. Let’s get back to being a results-driven society.

These two basic things would have a profound impact on society if we championed them together. These are two things all sides of society should agree on, and they are worth fighting for.

But how do you start a movement?

A cultural change today could start with a few hashtags and grow from there:
#TransparencyMovement
#DecentralizeEverything
#ResultsMatterMost

Simple things.

Whatever it is, we have to make it a mantra - a mantra that is louder than all of the other propaganda.  We need to say it over and over :  We are all demanding transparency together.  Right now.  Left and right.  Show us what the hell is going on behind our backs and inside closed doors. 

One fun thought experiment: Maybe we need to hire our own civilian private (and decentralized) detective agency?  Put bounty’s up with big rewards for any private detectives or whistleblowers that bring out evidence of corruption in government or other powerful systems. 

Or what about a decentralized investigative news network? One where politicians and cultural leaders would have to answer directly to We The People. We can curate questions and targets of the investigations with new digital systems.

The ways to explore for the people to shine transparency back on government is endless. We have not begun to scratch the surface on this, as we are currently leaving our best tools on the table.

Humanity could be and should be heading in a lot better direction than it is right now.
We have the technology, the understanding, and the know how to make it light years better. But we are stuck. To make the next shift we need to switch the culture first.

A recap:

Step 1:
Identify the problem: Corruption in the systems that govern over our lives

Step 2:
Think Tank Solutions: Transparency and Decentralization (and eventually collaboration)

Step 3:
Change the Culture: Know what to fight for and how to fight for it.

Step 4:
Build and Implement Solutions: Super collaborate together (like we wrote about here)


We are between step 2 and step 3 right now. Culture’s next. Cleanliness needs to be next to godliness in our systems too. Let’s clean them up. Let’s define our new code. One that takes a hard-lined absolute stand for transparency in the systems that govern over our lives.

Any system - or corporation - that has power over people should have to prove its trustworthiness with transparency. The one absolute law is supply and demand, and we could be demanding it.   

There is no bigger problem to address. Step one to fixing any problem is seeing it and understanding it. If we can’t see it, we can’t even begin to fix it. The people who have corrupted our systems know this and try their best to keep us in the dark. Demanding transparency - relentlessly en masse - is how we get there. In other words: a massive cultural change.  i.e. We stop voting for people who are not transparent and only vote for people who make systemic transparency their number one priority.  We also stop spending money with companies unless they do the same.  

Think about it like this (we have written about this before so we apologize if this is redunant but it needs to be constantly said): If our current system is corrupted, that’s like the equivalent of having a computer that has a corrupted motherboard. Picture all of the other hot button issues in society - none of them matter. They are just programs that run on the computer. If the computer itself is corrupted, then arguing about what programs are best to run on it is a pointless exercise. We need to fix the system first.

By making transparency the primary target we should be able to unify many different people from many different parts of the political spectrum. Fixing the corrupted system should be something all of us want - all sides of the political spectrum. No matter who you vote for or what your views are, we should all want the systems that govern over our lives to be bulletproof to outside forces such as special interest groups or regulatory capture. (Unless of course you are part of the corruption and benefitting somehow from it). So by focusing on this one line item - together - it can be a great way to smoke out the people who are trying to corrupt it. We will see clearly who is a friend of the people and who isn’t, because only a crook wouldn’t want better systems for humanity.

Imagine a new kind of systemic transparency, one where politicians record all meetings and post them online in real time for their constituents to see and react to. Picture all bills being posted online and receiving feedback before they are voted on. Imagine if all government spending was kept in transparent ledgers, and independent decentralized audits run by the people triple checked them at will (we wrote about more of these ideas here).

Truth is a moving target. Transparency, however, is more easily definable. Show us the receipts - for everything - because transparency leads to truth.

Can we set aside the culture wars and hot button topics for long enough to work together on these two things and once fixed we can see just how much having a system that is trustworthy, transparent, accountable and actually responsive to representative democracy governing over us really changes how we grow as a society?

We know that as a society we have the tenacity. Look at any base of rabid sports fans - we have that kind of enthusiasm possible inside us. Let’s harness it.

Also, we love to see Lex and Elon talking about the right things, even if we aren’t so sure that we trust them:

Lex Fridman @lexfridman

Transparency in social media companies is rare, but is essential. That is why, in my opinion, this is historic and really great to see. Transparency helps keep people honest and minimize undue influence from politics and money.

Elon Musk @elonmusk

@lexfridman Transparency is the key to trust

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As always the entire purpose of The Rationalist is to connect with other solutions-minded people like yourself! We strive to be a Society of Problem Solvers, and if you align with that we are happy that you’ve joined us. For over 3 billion years on this planet there were only single-celled organisms. Then one day they somehow learned to work together and make complex multi-celled creatures like you and me. Right now we are like those single-celled organisms. Our next evolution is finding how to work together, better like we wrote about here.

#DecentralizeEverything #Transparency #transparentsystems

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