A failure or success?

What is an organization? What is the least common multiple of all companies and institutions? They all have a mission and a structure, they depend very much on the labor. But do they care about the future?

Organizations are advanced, artificial structures without biological content. An organization may be built up like a biological cell, but it doesn’t have any feelings. Through good advertising, we sometimes associate a company with emotions, but the company doesn’t feel anything for us. We are only means, our money is the input.

Political parties once were founded to strengthen the people’s rights. A democratic party was a way to articulate the common public will. The party was like a megaphone, speaking the grassroots will to those in power. Now, this has changed, at least in Sweden. The megaphone turns in the other direction, telling the people to vote for the parties in the next election as if they have their own will. But they don’t. A political party is like any other organization. 

Almost all humans and animals seem to have emotions, but I doubt organizations have. They can have human missions, but they have no hearts, no feelings at all. If humanity eventually will cease to exist no political party or global company will cry. So why do we let organizations rule the world instead of the people?

Fight, flee or stand still – how do you respond to an attack? Different systems have different self-defense, some fleeing while others defend themselves aggressively. This applies to biological and artificial systems, such as animals and power structures.

If an unpopular leadership is challenged by the people they can drive it away, but the victory is only temporary. The hierarchy will try to return. If the old leader disappears, others will fight to become the new leader and keep their privileges.

At a peaceful transition to democracy, one can expect new wannabee leaders to queue up to take over. The democratic challenge is to not let them do it but to stand peacefully as one person and change the whole system, although it may hurt and take some time.

It is not about choosing another leader, but replacing an old hierarchy system with a new “flat” system where all have the same voting rights – not only at the General Election Days but also in between. To fight for a democratic change.

The new founding principle can be inspired by Aki Orr’s Direct Democracy Manifesto: EVERY CITIZEN – ONE VOTE – ON EVERY POLITICAL DECISION. Orr´s system is fair and sound in theory. The problem is practical: a heavy burden to engage in all and every way.

Despite the vast youth unemployment, I suggest the future will remember “the New Italian Spring” as a Victory of Love and Compassion in 2014. The new Pope Francis’ humility gives hope for a moral revival in the Vatican State. In the same period, the direct democratic party M5S enters the Italian Parliament.

Aristotle uses the word “phronesis” to mean morale in theory and practice. According to Aristotle phronesis is prudence. Both Beppo Grillo in M5S and Francis in the Catholic Church seems to be prudent. Like his namesake Francis of Assisi, the new Pope lives a simple life, and Beppo Grillo doesn’t want more power than anybody else in the M5S party. They are both free from practical contradictions in the same way as a map is a true picture of reality: by correspondence.

Phronesis requires the ability to rationally consider actions that can deliver desired effects, but there is still a big problem: the effects happen after the causes, and then it´s too late to act differently. Thus we need to act carefully. I believe that voluntary, reciprocal love between two adult persons hardly can be morally wrong, but if they are not careful the result can be very negative.

Phronesis combines humility with a scientific attitude. The project of Science is to make “the Tree of Knowledge” a better map of “the Tree of Life”. It presupposes cooperation between people and fair competition between ideas. We must not always defend our old ideas. To change opinion in the light of new information is a virtue, even for a Pope.