According to Wikipedia: An operating system (OS) is a set of system software programs in a computer that regulate the ways application software programs use the computer hardware and the ways that users control the computer.

It is interesting to think in terms of systems. Every person has a body, and the body is a system. How to manage the human system so that an individual enjoys the optimum output of health and vitality is a central question of medicine and education. We are far from understanding what the human OS actually is, or how it works, what it is that regulates our ways and makes us who we are.

It’s interesting to attempt to see society as a system and to take the viewpoint of an anthropologist and attempt to understand how the operating system of our society actually works. W. Edwards Deming, the “quality” genius, liked to ask a CEO, whether, or not, his or her company was a “system.” Sure, he said, you have meetings, and goals, and quotas, and people running around, and phones ringing, but, Are You A System? Or are you simply a collection of individual profit centers?

Dayton, Ohio, I’d say, also fails Deming’s definition of “system.” Dayton stays as it is because of inertia, and because a lot of stake holders, individual profit centers, like the way things are. And Dayton is no different from Kettering and every other area.  Our public school organization, I’d say, also fails Deming’s definition of “system,” and again, is a collection of individual profit centers, resistant to change.

If our region will ever grow into its potential, we are in need of huge transformations and transformation is usually powerfully resisted by the status quo. The need to transform our system of public education is a powerful example of the need for system reform, and also a powerful example of how individual profit centers in the status quo resist transformation.

Our challenge is to find a way to get a powerful Operating System called democracy to become functional. But, to have democracy, you must have community — and that’s the hard part. Just like the fact that the OS for a computer has no meaning unless it is functional in a computer, democracy has no meaning unless it is rooted in community. And community is lacking. Here in Kettering, I am continually shocked how tiny the group is that shows up to League of Women Voters “meet the candidates” public meetings — and those who do show up are not the “community,” but friends and family of the candidates.  It’s a good question:  Where is the Kettering community?

Creating authentic community is the challenge.

Luckily this huge obstacle — the lack of community — is more overcomable here in 2010 than in any previous time. We have powerful and inexpensive tools of technology needed to educate ourselves and to social network and effectively work together. We simply need leadership and a vision of what is possible.

The OS in DaytonOS suggests a grandiose thought — that this little web-site might help vitalize the operating system called democracy in the Dayton region. I’m working on a plan for DaytonOS for this fall season, and I will report soon.

See:  How Can The System Known As The United States Be Made To Work To Provide “Liberty and Justice For All”?

In the race to be elected to the U. S. Senate, Democrat Lee Fisher is challenging his Republican opponent, Rob Portman, to debate in seven different locations in Ohio. There were seven Lincoln Douglas debates in the Senate race in Illinois in1858. Fisher’s challenge for seven debates suggests he is seeking to re-make history in the Senate rate in Ohio in 2010 by copying an idea from 152 years ago.

I hope that Portman will agree to Fisher’s challenge — even though, I’m sure, they’ll be plenty of Republican strategists who will tell him not to do so. Portman has a whale lot more money than Fisher — like $6 million more — and so, unless Fisher starts to generate money quickly, this money advantage means that Portman can buy a lot more media time than Fisher. In the limited time I watch TV, I’ve seen a lot of Portman ads, but not one Fisher ad.

So, if Portman has the money to command the media, why should he cooperate in helping to build a free stage that Fisher would share equally?

But I hope that Portman will agree to debate. And maybe public pressure will help encourage him to do so. And, wouldn’t a Lincoln Douglas format be great? I’d feel Ohio would be making a breakthrough if we could use a debate style that was a valuable means of communication152 years ago.

The original Lincoln Douglas debates were each 3 hours — a length of time, probably unreasonable to attempt in today’s culture.  If it followed the original Lincoln Douglas format, a modern day 70 minute debate, would look like this:

Candidate A: 20 minutes
Candidate B: 35 minutes
Candidate A: 15 minutes

In four of the debates, candidate A would go first, as above. And in three of the debates, candidate B would go first. And every debate, the order would alternate. Each debate would focus on the question:  Who should be chosen to hold the office of U. S. Senator, as one of two senators representing Ohio?

The lead article at the web-site, The American Dream, starts, “As the U.S. media trumpets the arrival of a great ‘economic recovery’, the vast majority of the American people are completely unaware that the entire U.S. financial system is caught in a hopeless death spiral.”

Death spiral?

The web-site shows a You-tube video and introduces it with these words:

This video, “Meltup,” is probably the best video on the economic crisis that America is facing that has ever been posted on YouTube. It is just under an hour long, but it is well worth watching. After watching this video you will have a much greater understanding of the economic nightmare that the United States is facing.”

The video (see below) is impressive, professionally done. It is sponsored by the National Inflation Association and, it is pushing a specific point of view — doom, doom, and more doom.

An informed citizen should have some understanding of economics. I’d like to know more about the claims and the issues raised in this video. Its point of view seems total pessimism, and it presents a lot of facts and history to back up its point of view. But, it’s hard for me to accept total pessimism as a point of view, so, it seems to me that it is likely that this video is an exaggeration. It seems to stress the point that a deterioration of the economy will lead to the price of silver and gold increasing. I’ve got to wonder if the motive for such a one-sided outlook is to promote public demand for gold and silver. Fear is an effective motivator: Are We Afraid Enough Yet?

The message of “Meltdown” seems to be the dam is broken, save yourself. I’m thinking we need the message — let’s work together and let’s find a way to keep the dam from breaking. I’d like to see someone produce a video, with the same professionalism as “Meltup,” that would present an insight into economics that would show an optimistic view of the future — that would show a route, that we, as a democracy, could still choose to take, to a future of peace and shared prosperity.