Plato ’ s Cave to Unite Americans
Introduction
American Democracy is at the threshold of a new era . A significant marker is the 2016 elections . The electorate rejected the establishment , represented by the two major political parties . Each of the two major political parties is currently in a substantial transition , or will be soon . The nature of the new era is uncertain . However , there is substantial likelihood of a major discontinuity , or two . On the downside , there could be a disruption including one or more of an inflation and stock market bubble bursting along with the reversal of free trade progress and another major recession . On the upside , the shortcomings of modernity may be ameliorated by a transition equivalent to the evolution of tolerance that started in the Age of Enlightenment . In any case , the nation is suffering a great divisiveness from a lack of understanding of what is essential to resuming the two centuries of progress made toward the ideals articulated in the Declaration of Independence .
The potential for Plato ’ s allegory of the Cave uniting Americans and saving democracy is in the knowledge phase of development and dissemination , with the critical aid of analytics . We assert that knowledge development , in the form of education innovation , can enhance policy outcomes . We argue to achieve this , a contextual perspective from philosophy , history , economics , complexity science , and analytics is essential to gain deeper understanding of America ’ s current place in history and establish a foundation that takes into account the creative power emergence . Wisdom-challenged decisions , private as well as public , in recent decades provided the seeds of discontent . The disruption of the political structure can be viewed as a rebellion . Public policy in recent decades simply failed to avoid an avoidable Great Recession ( 2007 – 2009 ). Policy also failed to evolve to a sustainable political economy pursuing the ideals articulated in the Declaration of independence . Furthermore , there appears to be a reversal in the minimal progress that was being made in regulatory reform . We assert that the time has arrived for a Declaration of Reform .
A major purpose of this article is to declare that now is the time for a Declaration of Reform , and that Declaration needs to include an integration of knowledge drawn from nascent disciplines like complexity science and analytics . Policy decisions , private as well as public , have been indrawn from twentieth century paradigms built upon linear models of cause and effect without adequate attention to the nonlinearity of organic systems such as the political economy and individual pursuits of myopic self-interest .
The belief in free markets without providing a suitable structure falls short in producing adequate knowledge for sound public policy . The belief in mandating outcomes for desired values in public policy falls short in producing outcomes because it fails to understand enough about the process by which the system will actually operate . Divisiveness of recent decades has obliterated the traditional compromise and at times causing a freeze in public policy and misunderstanding of how the system operates , as well as some morality issues , brought about the Great Recession in the United States .
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