Fresh minds for our future

To the editor (December 03, 2011 )

What we need is a new idea.

Albert Einstein said “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Today we are trying to do exactly that; with the most obvious example being the attempt to borrow our way out of debt.

I have said, we need some radical new ideas to solve our problems and I have observed that, no government is seriously considering such ideas. A new round of cutback and a few new taxes will not do it. As the US super-committee looks to trim $1.2 trillion of budget fat, nothing big and bold has been suggested. Well of course no, because they are using the same thinking that caused the problems, they can’t find any answers.

To understand what is going on we need to know a bit about mental frameworks. Everyone has one; it is a structure of values that we use to make sense of life, a meter stick for norms of behavior, and the older we get the more rigid it becomes. Our political leaders and chief civil servants, whether good or bad people, are directed in their patterns of thinking by the frame work they have built up over their careers.

What can be done?

Toss out everyone. All members of parliament, all senators, all upper level civil servants; fire the lot of them. Replace them with kids fresh out of high school. Radical sounding, of course it is, that is the idea.

“But even if they are bright A students, they don’t have any real experience, they can’t possibly run the country.” Is the quickly made objection. However that lack of experience is exactly the quality we need. The youth, who will have to deal with our debt sooner or later, have not accumulated the narrow mental framework that we adults have.

If we gave them the power to act, we might find that they can solve our problems with different thinking. But I admit this idea is mostly wishful thinking. Fear of the unknown will likely keep us voting for the experienced politician who promises change, but then fails to deliver.

So if you Occupiers want some real democratic radical change; my advice is to form a new party for the next federal election and run candidates all under age 22. Put your skills to use and capture the normally non-voting section of society. Fresh minds for our future, elected defenders of the 99%.

Think about it.