He had me at hello....

Thomas P.M. Barnett on Hewitt:

Well, because an empire is about enforcing maximal rule sets, what you must do. And what we do is we enforce minimal rule sets. That’s the nature of our political system, you know, what’s not written into law is everything you can do. That’s different from other parts of the world. I remember being almost arrested in the Soviet Union in 1984 for playing Frisbee in a park, and the cop came up to me and said that’s against the law. And I said where is it written, and he said buddy, it’s not written that you can play Frisbee in a park. And that’s how most of the world is governed. But our system has always been based on the notion that if it’s not written down as prohibited, then it’s basically fair game. And that’s the way we’ve ruled the world, if you want to call it that, as we basically enforced minimal rule sets, certain bad things that you must refrain from, so that we can have a relatively stable and free flow of commerce around the planet.

So, last week, I had an opportunity to explain my philosophy on leadership. I said, basically, that I want to put the rules downstream, vice upstream. I'm not going to tell you what to do, but if you drop below these lines, these rules, then I'm going to slam you.

No sense treating people like children before they commit a crime. No sense treating them like children, after they commit the crime.

The minimal rule set. Or, as I like to call it, the responsible individual. The adult.

At the wedding, I got to talk with my best man from our wedding. Something of a warrior poet, this guy.

He's into the Greeks and the Romans. He said that after 2,500 years, we haven't figured out what's "right", in terms of political systems. Democracy, Dictatorship, Oligarchy, Republicanism. We've played with it all.

Got me thinking about Accelerating Change. A theory applied to technological innovation.

2,500 years ago, we didn't have the car, the plane or the iPod. These things came along as we developed, and not over time, but rather instantly.

So I started to apply Accelerating Change to how we govern, and interact with each other. It's going to be interesting how that all plays out.

I apply Accelerating Change to whether the choice will be good societies or good individuals.

I apply Accelerating change to the nature of man and the state.

We live in a time of Accelerating Change.....

.......And may the devil take the hindmost.