Adaptive Cycles
Voting didn't help. There are seismic shifts, whether on the personal or national level, that create indelible impacts. The current presidential election is one such inflection. Extreme and misleading rhetoric that would have previously exiled a candidate into obscurity no longer carries such ramifications. The candidate espousing it continues to operate unscathed. I voted today in order to have one less task next week, but also hoping that it might assuage some of the anxiety that I, and everyone else I know, is trying to contain, even though I knew it wouldn't. I wasn't alone. The best designed part of the experience was the clarity and ease of using the touch screen system. The election workers, to their credit, were making the best of the rest of the process, an overtaxed, challenging situation that needs to be as carefully considered as the technology. Systems innovation is needed at multiple levels, from experiences to policies. "We need to do a better job at naming our zombies," a wise and influential friend once said to me, referring to systems that appear alive despite being highly corrupted. I don't know what will happen next week, but I fear chaos. The hard truth is that failure is often a prerequisite for systems change. Nature rebounds from collapse. Will we? And will any shock that might occur be enough to sufficiently highlight the many zombies in our midst? Today, the fright fest of Halloween, never my favorite holiday, seems redundant.
