Dave Cortright 🔸 comments on Systems Change 101

[Dave Cortright 🔸]

Thanks for putting this together! A few other considerations I didn’t see in the article (correct me if I missed it):

Any organization [or system] is perfectly designed to get the results that it gets.
—Arthur W. Jones, organizational design expert

So if you want different results, you must change the system. Expecting players to “be better” is not a viable path to lasting change.

Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.
—Clay Shirky

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
—Upton Sinclair

The fortunate man is seldom satisfied with the fact of being fortunate. Beyond this, he needs to know that he has a right to his good fortune. He wants to be convinced that he deserves it and—above all—that he deserves it in comparison with others. Good fortune thus wants to be legitimate fortune. [a.k.a. system justification theory]
—Max Weber

Veil of Ignorance (a.k.a. Original Position) — a philosophical concept by John Rawls, which suggests that individuals should design the principles of society without knowing their own personal circumstances, such as their gender, race, or social status. This thought experiment aims to promote fairness and impartiality in decision-making, encouraging the creation of just and equitable societal structures.

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect. [a.k.a. Social dominance orientation]
—Frank Wilhoit (composer from Ohio)