Regenerating Effective Government

We have to look for ways to regenerate effective government.

In the USA, “government” is considered almost a bad word. Decades of neo-liberal policies have left many aspects of government frail beyond recognition. Oversight and regulation of corporate conduct, the defense of fundamental human rights, and ensuring robust democratic mechanisms are almost the stuff of dreams in the USA, even though they are basic components of legitimate sovereign action. The coronavirus showed us that governments are now too weak to solve modern challenges posed by a growing Planetary Crisis of climate change, biodiversity collapse, and environmental pollution and destruction.

We have to immediately explore how to regenerate effective government and retool government so that it can (i) protect and defend fundamental human rights, (ii) address the Planetary Crisis (including the possibility of imminent climate collapse), and (iii) regulate and bring to heel the conduct of private actors (including corporate actors) that threaten the health and wellbeing of people. We need to explore mechanisms to redraw and reaffirm a binding social contract that has broad consensus to accomplish the above.

We must be open to the possibility of change, immediate change.

It is time, particularly in rich societies, to be open to the possibility of change in order to avoid an increasingly destructive future. Whether or not we want to change is irrelevant—ecological and environmental changes are already in the works that will lead to suffering, impoverishment, and the possibility of international conflict, failed States, and wide-scale climate migration. We have to get ahead of these issues immediately. The only way to do that is to implement a long-term plan to mitigate these changes where possible, and adapt and prepare for those changes that are already inevitable.

We have to find ways to build social consensus.

At times, it seems that societies are more politically fractured and divided than ever before. Fractured and divided societies are at risk of crumbling and falling apart on account of the increasing pressures caused by a rapidly warming planet, biodiversity collapse, the spread of disease and pandemics, and the possibility of human displacement and migration caused as a result of all those things. We have to look for ways to build social consensus and unite in fundamental ways in order to prepare for the crises of this century and to pass on some form of enduring and positive civilization to future generations.

We must have hope about the possibility of positive change.

Now is not the time for cynicism. There are grave challenges ahead, no doubt. But we must never doubt our ability as humans to unite in the face of such challenges and to engage in positive social change. Our future selves, looking back in a few short decades, are depending on us acting in the present day to prepare for imminent challenges. Our descendants, looking back millennia from now, are also depending on those of us alive today to make tough choices and confront reality. These critical months and years of human history are months and years that will determine the habitability of the planet for generations to come.

We must not dither or delay.