Theft at the Public Till
For example, the architect may invent a way of imposing a geometry onto the contours of the screwy site. Such inventions must be embodied in the artifact through further design moves. Not infrequently, such moves raise new problems that require a second invention no less important than the first. Modern crises occur, not because we are too stupid to avoid them, but because we are emotionally limited. We can only absorb a certain amount of information and consider a certain number of alternatives, because we automatically resist situations fraught with extreme conflict, anxiety and uncertainty. In research one finds virtually no cases of individuals who were unable to 'think' about major crises because of cognitive impairment or intellectual limitations. The problems aren't in people's heads, but in their hearts. Neither individuals nor organizations can sustain long enough the emotional pain that is required in order to learn and to change. Most of the belief systems that people found satisfactory in older and simpler times came into existence as stories that adequately arranged the information that was available at a certain point into coherent explanations of life but the ac- cumulation of further information becomes a constant source of irritation: the information has to fit the story or the story has to change to fit the new information or the information has to be denied or repressed. We move every day into a world that makes greater demands on the intelligence of citizens while the energies of our communicators are focused directly on the creation and dissemination of idiotic stories about what is going on. Lacking absolutes we have to encounter one another as people with different infor- mation different stories different visions -- and trust the outcome. While governance becomes more complex politics becomes more simple minded. The public is beguiled with media images noble lies theatrical poses and half truths disguised as absolute verities. Never have there been such easy answers to such hard questions. Corporations are foundering for the same reason the institutions of marriage, politics and organized religion ate foundering: we- have lost trust in them. We don't trust senior management to keep our best interests at heart (we're not even sure senior management has a heart). We don't trust
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