The March of the Charlatans - Alcyonenews

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Posted November 29, 2024

The March of the Charlatans

It happens frequently but is recognized sparingly because of the nature of the beast. Charlatans are fooling everyone and thrive where they shouldn’t. The political stage is naturally hostile to charlatans but sad to say, it is congested by them. The damage they cause is too massive to gauge and their victims are the whole society. They operate with impunity, masquerading as “agents of Democratia”, many being true believers in being God designated to govern us. They implant Myths in our crania like research scientists implant microchips on wildlife.

Societies protect themselves by regulating the various fields of economic and cultural activities. Jobs are learned in the workplace which is open to all. Entry to Trades requires training in an institution like the BC Institute of Technology. To wire a house, one needs a government licenced Electrician.

As for the Professions, entry requires Divine appointment for Theologues, university level education for the rest. To treat VD, re-join severed bones, or design sewage disposal systems require university education. Such as the Sorbonne, Leibniz, MIT and UBC.

Flying straight in the face of commonsense, those who govern us are at the bottom of the pile. They need have no qualifications whatsoever, they may be “picked up from the street” so to speak. No, they are not “chosen” by us, the “demos” of Democracy. Simply said, with the current state of civilization, we cannot be “jacks of all trades”. We, therefore, cannot tell a “smooth” charlatan apart from a real professional. Hasek’s masterpiece “Good Soldier Svejk” is the textbook for that.

Abe Lincoln proudly proclaimed that “‘They’ cannot fool all the people, all the time”. This is technically self-evident, because all it says is the oppressors of freedom may sometimes relax their oppression thereby occasioning a short reprieve for their “subjects”, us. Is this enough? Are we to suffer silently awaiting such moments to live “free”? Lincoln missed the point methinks.

Because of the complexity of the things we are surrounded with, use and consume, the proficiency of the members of the professions cannot be gauged by lay-people. The only ones who can do that are the peers-to-be of the entry applicants. Hence societies grant self-governance to learned professions. For example, license to cure diseases or build hydroelectric power systems are delegated to Professional ”associations”, such as the College of Physicians and the Association of Engineers, respectively. Their members’ uppermost concern is to serve the people, advance the science and to protect us from unqualified persons drilling our teeth or severing our liver mistaking it for our appendix. We even protect animals against charlatans by having the College of Veterinarians to protect us from mad dogs and lurking sharks.

Once, at the time of the Cyprus liberation war, at a Seattle social I met an American Senator. He grabbed the opportunity to learn first hand about the matter so as to “govern” America better: “Please tell me”, he asked me, “is Cyprus in Athens?” ... What this manifests is not a singularity.

There is not a “College of Politicians” to educate and certify aspiring politicians. Nor should there be, if you ask me. There is no prerequisite of knowledge or a threshold of intelligence quotient for candidacy to govern the society in any capacity. Anyone may become a law-maker, dogcatcher or “Head-of-State”. Vacuums are unstable and freedom predators hover everywhere ready to “serve” us. This happens and arguably is the cause for the prevalence of War as a means of adjudicating disputes and stealing resources. The world is kept fragmented to facilitate that.

The above, with the background of “democratia” (= sovereignty of the people), suggests the institution of a system for grading those who seek to govern us. And to complement their propensity to serve with the basics of the task, like we do with dentists, opera singers and soldiers (!).

Governing requires knowledge, not unlike flying a plane or sailing a ship. Plato suggested that a ship without a Captain is a “Ship of Fools”. It is not about selecting one of us, the passengers, to sail the ship – it is about choosing the best of those among us, the passengers, who are capable of sailing the ship. To do that we need know who are the “captains” among us.

What I recommend is the institution of a Governance Ideas Bank (© 1967 by the writer) to receive and expose ideas and knowledge of “societal cybernetics”. This is “the science of communications and response systems”. For example, cooking dinner cause an extra demand for electricity; this is communicated to the “governor” of the Hydroturbines; presto, it lets more water through to generate the electricity to cook our dinners. Norbert Wiener spoke brilliantly to this, the Cybernetics science.

I propose a Societal Cybernetics Academy. It is to operate exclusively On- Line, entirely tuition free, open to all to study at each person’s own pleasure. This, “on-line only”, is to avert “hidden improvements” to the curriculum of the course. Curriculum evolution to be perpetually solicited,

to be openly considered and made ready for inclusion or exclusion. In other words, it will be open to challenge, change, acceptance or rejection, the decision to be oriented towards the best governance of the society. The wheat will be separated from the chaff by the wind of the vox populi.

There is more, much more, to be said, but it has to wait until we debate what was said.