An Infrastructure of Consent?

The following was also written at 30000 ft on 12 November, then eaten by my iPhone.  Let this be the last time I say "Itunes to the rescue..."


Yesterday, pondering again on Community and Sustainability, this phrase blossomed into mind:

Society is Community without consent.

Which probably goes some way toward explaining what I see is wrong with Society: here in Australia, at home in the UK, and across the US. Further, the UK is on a governmental abdication path called Big Society. At its best Big Society recognises the value of Communities; at its worst it casts the infrastructure of Society from the paths of strategy and resource into chance and the motivation of individuals.

There is a theory that it could hardly be worse.

Perhaps. Certainly with any transformation, the possibilities for better and worse exist in the change itself. Communities can build better schools. Communities may be able to build better hospitals, better roads, better telecommunications, maybe even better policing.

But what incumbent institutions will stand idly by and see these things slip from their grasp and their reason for continuing to be?

No, the businesses, and most of the rest of the Hydra of Government will fight individuals and communities for their turf. And barring accidents, the current regimes will win.

Because Transformation requires more than a "Make It So" from the top. It needs an infrastructure of consent.

Building an infrastructure of consent is what faces the communities of Libya, Egypt and Tunisia.

They have some hope in the changes they face.

I give Italy, Greece and the UK longer odds on their capacities to transform.