Systemic change by authoritative fiat

Requisite Meta-reflection on Engagement in Systemic Change? (Part #7)

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It is curious to note the extent to which preoccupation with systemic change frames both system and change as objective externalities, typically distant and dissociated from any commentators and the authorities to which they are beholden. Hence the ease with which the matter is misleadingly presented in terms of the need for others to change, together with their institutions and their mindsets. Much effort is devoted by groups to achieving this transformation of other groups in the global system -- or blaming them for failing to act appropriately, however that is defined.

A different understanding is evident in the grassroots focus on local change as potentially enabling global change -- irrespective of whether this is otherwise considered to be feasible or meaningful. The arguments of John Michael Greer are noteworthy in this respect (The Ecotechnic Future: envisioning a post-peak world, 2009; Not the Future We Ordered: the psychology of peak oil and the myth of eternal progress, 2013). When espoused by an individual, this strategy may be widely framed by the Gandhian slogan: Be the change that you wish to see in the world.

Curiously little is said regarding a further opportunity of which there are a variety of indications as to its feasibility. One such is evident with respect to currency and finance, namely fiat money. This is currency which derives its value from government regulation or law -- unsupported by any other value. A striking example is offered in 2015 by the European Central Bank (Draghi Commits to Trillion-Euro QE in Deflation Fight, BloombergBusiness, 22 January 2015; ECB to begin â‚1 trillion stimulus next week, EUObserver, 5 March 2015). Previously deprecated as "printing money" and an indication of incompetent governance, this has now become an accepted global strategy as so-called quantitative easing. An equivalent of relevance can be recognized as a form of "qualitative easing" indicative of a wider spectrum of previously questionable strategies that are increasingly becoming acceptable (From Quantitative Easing (QE) to Moral Easing (ME), 2010).

Another example is offered by the manner in which the boundaries of countries have been defined, most notably on the termination of conflict, as with the Treaty of Versailles. The recognition of "spheres of influence" by the Yalta Conference or the Monroe Doctrine is of a similar nature. These exercises have frequently taken little account of cultural or traditional boundaries of the inhabitants of those lands (as with those defined by colonial policies) -- or the conflicts artificial boundaries may subsequently engender.

A similar approach is recognizable in the boundaries between disciplines. The arbitrary nature of this patterning has been articulated by John A. Armstrong as: We're beginning to recognize that God did not create the universe according to the departmental structure of our research universities (cited by William Honan, Academic Disciplines Increasingly Entwine, Recasting Scholarship, New York Times 23 March 1994). The pattern is also evident in the manner in which complex issues, most notably wicked problems, are arbitrarily defined in relation to the mandates of agencies. The most striking examples of fiat are of course offered by the formal categorisation of people, as by the Nazi and Apartheid regimes. Potentially more insidious is the use of injunctions, namely court orders compelling a party to do or refrain from specific acts -- now extended into superinjunctions preventing publication of the matter or reporting of the fact that the injunction exists at all.

Controversially there is of course a case for exploring the role of fatwa in Islamic cultures as it relates to that of Western use of fiat. Both could also be explored in relation to "models" articulated within academia as a means of ordering reality and methods of engaging with it. As with orders and directives, these all share an arbitrary quality.

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