As the old guy (senior) about to make a donation, I get to ramble in a reminiscent manner, we hope relevantly.
I give myself high marks, as the legislation OSPIRG is backing has to do with mitigating food waste, and here I was, veteran of the Food Not Bombs operation (in Portland only, a local chapter), and former computer programmer, on a consulting basis, for the Oregon Food Bank (decades ago).
Oh, and I was in a small group strategy meeting with Ralph Nader once (he wouldn’t remember: Sandy Newman, Project VOTE!, Reagan vs Mondale) and we’d also been at the same Princeton University reunion, my 25th, his 50th.
Wearing my anthropology hat, I underlined the critical importance of logistics. A legislator may believe that simply by virtue of writing a law, so will it be (amen), as if said law’s implementation were a mere afterthought.
Drawing from my experiences in the toy biz, it’s one thing to have a great idea for a toy design, but quite another to have a pathway to profitable (pays bills on time sustainable) mass replication strategy, in itself as much an invention as the design idea, in many respects.
All of which is to say: legislation is not self-implementing and the further a legislative body is from the actual executive front line, the less likely the laws will be followed closely, let alone “to the letter”.
Are judges the referees? Or are they likewise too cloistered to see the disconnects. Maybe only the police are in a position to really experience the absurdity sometimes. Or the soldier. Or the guard.
Let’s go back to Food Not Bombs as a good example. Imagine a subculture, let’s say non-denominational religion-wise, that took serving free food, to anyone, as a calling. They adopted many Food Not Bombs practices, but also upscaled everything to where suburban normies, the average middle class, looked forward to all the logistics involved. A festive atmosphere prevailed. Voodoo Doughnuts? Corporate sponsors? I’m just imagining the science fiction.
Like I told the doorbell fundraiser, I’m kind of a TV head. If I want to say counter racism or other unfortunate bigotry, it’s not the legislators in Salem I’m likely to petition. I’m more likely to look to screenwriting and radio-television, social media.
How we got to healthier social practices, looking back, is a topic for a whole genre of science fiction novel and/or series. Or are more utopian-flavored simulations of possible realities simply too hard to program and/or enact logistically vs-a-vs the more familiar dystopian standard?
That’s a query worth a deeper dive.
:: Mathematically Generated View ::
