Farming is not adapted to large-scale operations because of the following reasons: Farming is concerned with plants and animals that live, grow, and die. – “Ancient” agricultural textbook (Cornell University, 1942)
Social systems are not adapted to large-scale operations, because social systems are concerned with humans that live, grow, and die.
Part of the problem with society today is that we have gotten too big. Our social systems are designed with the end result in mind, and then reverse engineered to find the starting point. Macro level goals are broken down into micro level steps ill-suited to meeting the needs of the living building blocks that make up the system. We see this problem across the board, from education to health care to agriculture.
We consistently see education failing, in spite of increased emphasis on results-based standardized testing. Ask any teacher why. They are living it every day. Every child is an individual. Every child learns differently. Teaching to the tests takes time away from real learning, which is a matter of meeting individual needs on a micro basis.
Health care is the same situation. Ever person is different. Our health does not benefit from top-down management. Actual health care and treatment is lost in a sea of diagnostic coding, frivolous testing, preexisting conditions – insurance paperwork. That is, if you have access to health care at all.
And agriculture. Nutritional, environmental, and ethical issues. Large-scale agriculture is failing us. (For those that say it is the only way to feed the world, please note: We have more than enough food to feed the world. Hunger is a result of other failing social systems.)
In spite of Malthusian warnings, the world’s population is still growing. We’re getting bigger. So we are going to need to reevaluate our systems. Because the ones we have now aren’t gonna cut it.
Take a close look. If the building blocks that make up the system live, grow, and die, it is likely that that system is already failing.
