The BLAME GAME non solution to problem solving. Bill Mahr's REAL TIME.

Using the Blame Game as a problem solving device in discussion.



Last night I was watching Bill Mahr's REAL TIME on HBO, and naturally, the recent economic disaster was the main topic.

His three guests on his panel were Andrew Sullivan, blogger for the Daily Dish, Naomi Klein, author of the Shock Doctrine, and Will.I.AM, music producer for the 'Yes We Can' Barack Obama campaign viral. He interviewed previously to the panel Paul Krugman, Professor of Economics for Princeton University.

What was interesting about the discussion was that the Blame Game for the collapsing economy became the topic.

The show started off with Bill Mahr begging Paul Krugman to let him blame George Bush for the problem.

Paul Krugman blames the government.

Andrew Sullivan blames the American Consumer.

Naomi Klien blames the Wall Street Fat cats and corporate CEO's.

I could not help but notice the intention of all three guests to find a particular side to blame, and each side they choose to blame reflected their individual ideology at a personal level. It's as if the side that they choose to blame as the problem is a necessary truth that exists in their individual paradigms about the economy, government, and the people.

Let's look at these arguments, albeit a bit superficially, through the point of view of OS 0 1 2.

The Government plays a role in the economy because the Government sets the algorithm in place for the economy by regulating it. Therefore, the government has the power to alter how we trade and distribute wealth through law. This is true.

The financial institutions play a role in the economy because they set limits on how much wealth is available at what percentage and to whom. They control the flow of credit. This appears to be true.

The people play a role because we are the consumers and value creators/producers, and none of these institutions would exist without us. They exist to give us something we want or we need. This also appears to be true, but this is important to consider, because there is no separation between government, corporation, and people when it comes to economy. The People make up all of it. All politicians, CEO's and day traders are all people too.

Therefore, this situation is supported by all of us in some sense. All of us combined are an integral a tapestry we call economy. Economy is the grand synergy of human society and it's allegiance is to the chaos of our combined nature. Adam Smith called this 'The Invisible Hand'.

I suggest therefore that the problem is not the governments, nor the CEO's, nor the people, but all combined, and each with equal importance.

I suggest the REAL problem is the framework with which we try to model problems in the economy. To say that the economy is the fault of the Bush Administration is like saying that Hurricane IKE is responsible for all weather patterns beginning January 1st and ending Dec 31, 2008. It's tautological, argumentative truths that contain logic in their forms but no relationship to objective reality.

CEO's and Governments are irresponsible, selfish, and irrational because human beings are. CEO's and Governments lie because human beings lie.

We are all human beings, and each of us reading this blog entry will also tell lies to cover our asses, feed our families, or support our career. A noble lie is a lie like any other, it's false information and delusion.

The People is an imaginary victim that is perpetuated by politicians and leaders. Politicians and leaders can be any of us whom are seeking attention to gain power and status.

The people always seem to be innocent when one set of politicians look to take power away from another set.

The people always seem to be the ones that need protection from the institution that is blamed by one side over the other.

We have these problems because We the People use false and non-existing bivalent frameworks, deception, and win/lose strategies to solve problems and create opportunity for one side at the expense of the other. We divide ourselves against ourselves and project onto the other side in the division the very core strategy we inherently accept and use ourselves.

When we have a society based on win lose troubleshooting that depends upon deception to gain favor or power, then we will have a society with a false and non functioning map of what's happening and everyone will naturally blame everyone else because there is no clear pointer to the actual truth in the haze of the political scramble.

Win win economic models are indeed possible because of the internet and our collective intelligence. We can have all sides win. We can all have access to billionaire wealth properly organized.

Human society now has enough novelty and complexity to utilize win win governance. The solutions are already here.

We just need to change our ideas and the environments in which we discuss them.