#structured networks

[structuredpolitics]

Dysfunctional Congress?

Congress has been called dysfunctional* but it is doing exactly what a democratic (the definition - not the party) congress should do, which is to prevent the majority from pushing through its agenda without the minority having some recourse. It's a contest and you may not like the result but the Republican Party is playing the game very well.

I came across an article by Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, which discusses the dysfunction issue much better  than I could:

Don't say 'dysfunctional Congress'

* Google search for dysfunctional congress 2013 brings up 2.3 million hits.

[structuredpolitics]

I have written a number of times about Power Elites and their control of the United Sates economy and local and national governments. One of my information sources is the website of G. William Domhoff, a professor of Sociology at the University of California at Santa Cruz.  He and associates have published a new article on structured networking of the Power Elites that is worth looking at.

Members of the oligarchy have numerous opportunities to meet and evaluate each other on political views, competence, and power. It is at this level that the agenda of the United States is formulated.

We are quite possibly in the midst of a changing of the guard at the national level as failed economic and diplomatic policies have become too obvious to ignore.  The failed push to make Larry Summers head of the Federal Reserve and the failed attempt to start a war with Syria are symptoms of that failure.

When you look at the news, it appears as if President Obama and various Senators and Congressmen are driving policy. They are merely players reading a script prepared by others.

[structuredpolitics]

The Continuing Power of the Cuban Exile Lobby

My attention to the continued power of the Cuban exile lobby was piqued by an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, "Phils finally sign Cuban Gonzales". Miguel Gonzalez was a pitcher for the Cuban national baseball team who defected and will be playing for the Phillies next year.

It is remarkable that a small but cohesive group of upper class Cuban exiles who came to this country 50 years ago  with just about nothing in their pockets  have created and maintained a structured network that has controlled American policy towards Cuba. The network may finally be failing although the threat remains that when the Castro regime falls  the descendents of the exiles  will demand the property that their  parents forfeited.

I will be away for two weeks. Hopefully, the world will be at peace when I return.

[structuredpolitics]

Egyptian Crowds Succeed in Restoring Oligarchy

An agenda is a statement of a group's goal and, ideally, the steps the group is going to take to achieve it. Structured networks have agendas. Crowds, like the ones that managed to overthrow President Morsi of Egypt do not have an agenda but they are often unwittingly  manipulated into achieving someone else's agenda. In this case it appears that agenda was to return control of Egypt to the oligarchy that controlled it before the 2011 rebellion.

As usual, it was pathetic to watch liberal commentators gloating over the  overthrow of  an unpopular leader  by the "Will of the People". These commentators apparently never asked themselves, "Well, what happens next?"

The Egyptian Army is promising that  "we are going to have free and fair elections soon" because they do have to  promise something to clear the streets.  Realistically, with the hatred and rioting we have seen, elections may not be held for a few years. The time would be well spent by the various political groups in developing clear cut platforms and forming party organizations, something that was lacking in the last election except for the Muslim Brotherhood.

Populist revolutions -  this is what the Muslim Brotherhood represented -   rarely end well because the People are easily divided and fight amongst themselves. The upper class usually has the resources, patience,  and focus that enables them to outlast or co-opt the revolution. Machiavelli discusses this in the Discourses.

[structuredpolitics]

Tyranny is always better organized than freedom

Philip  Roth in the Sunday edition of The New York Times wrote a eulogy to his former high school teacher. In it, he mentioned a French poet, Charles Péguy, who wrote a hundred years ago:

La tyrannie est toujours mieux organisée que la liberté.

"Tyranny is always better organized than freedom".

One has only to look at the situation in Syria where a network of jihadists are fighting with a single agenda, to create an ultraconservative Sunni theocracy. Also fighting to overturn the Assad regime is a coalition of rebels with different agendas and different sponsors, all supposedly hoping  to some how bury their differences and create a representative democracy. If the Assad regime is overturned, the ultimate victor is obvious. This may be why the United States Armed Forces do not want to get involved in Syria.

[structuredpolitics]

Ivy League Schools and the Power Elites

One more take on Ross Douthat's article on Ivy League Schools as breeding grounds for the Power Elites.

The Power Elites who rule this country project power through structured networks. Effective structured networks are groups of people who know the trustworthiness and competence of other members and work towards  a common agenda. You can only know someone is trustworthy and competent if you see them tested on a number of occasions. This usually happens during work, combat situations, or clandestine operations.

The young people who will rule this country some day begin their networking with the friends they make at exclusive Eastern prep schools and Ivy League colleges. Who will be included in that subconscious list of future network candidates?

It turns out that those classic upper class sports, golf and tennis are perfect tests of character:

Does your future network partner always show up to play at the agreed upon time?

Does he make honest line calls and ball placements?

Is he competitive but not in such a nasty way that he will destroy group cohesion?

Does he handle pressure well or does he fly off the handle when the chips are down?

All of these factors are probably subconsciously filed away for a future day when a structured network must be expanded.

The above essay is of course just a rumination on the transmission of political power down through the generations.

[structuredpolitics]

Yahoo and Structured Networking

Creating and maintaining structured networks requires face to face interaction, whether it be at the workplace or during recreational activities*. Networks depend on mutual trust and we are "programmed" to give trust based on nonverbal cues. We may be misled by the nonverbal cues of an expert liar but we still demand the cues when deciding about a person's dependability. The CEO of Yahoo apparently feels that physical interaction is vitally important and as a result we see:

Yahoo Orders Home Workers Back to the Office

A memo .  .  .  says face-to-face interaction among employees fosters a more collaborative culture — a hallmark of Google’s approach to its business.

.  .  .  Yahoo is taking on one of the country’s biggest workplace issues: whether the ability to work from home, and other flexible arrangements, leads to greater productivity or inhibits innovation and collaboration. .  .  .

Studies show that people who work at home are significantly more productive but less innovative, said John Sullivan, a professor of management at San Francisco State University who runs a human resource advisory firm.

“If you want innovation, then you need interaction,” he said. “If you want productivity, then you want people working from home.”

The company’s memo, written by Jackie Reses, director of human resources at Yahoo, .  .  .  said: “Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home.”

* Recreational activities are used by those in business to foster communication and the development of trust. A major victory for women in business was the elimination of gender barriers at male only in-town clubs  and golf clubs.