How Hard it is to Make Policy

In helping bring together the Ragged University I have been working with lots of people who are keen to make a success of this as an inclusive education project. In day to day life we meet and interact with many people and human relationships are always complex.

I mean complex in the sense that even the smallest moments of speaking, working or interacting with others, countless factors feed into the exchange and outcome. This I think is why other people enrich our lives, fascinate us, educate us.

When a group of individuals come together to achieve a common aim, the idea of organisation comes into play. Obviously the ideal situation is to be able to write down rules which everybody can read and reference when a question arises so everybody knows where they are. It is often not as simple as it seems.

I find people and life usually beyond the Complexity Horizon and not predictable or reducible to a statement, equation or pattern. In designing policy for the Ragged University I can only think it wise not to be prescriptive because so many things I have not invested enough time in to understand the best situation to aim for.

In this I see echoes in all cultures great and small. For me, a knee-jerk stance is as unhelpful as a dogmatic one in approaching matters of policy. Being a big fan of libraries I am intrigued to refer to people who have invested much time in questions I have invested relatively little time in understanding.

Trust to the experts - Experto crede - in my opinion, history and literature are some of the finest resources we have available to us. So over time I am going to read about successful policy and hopefully hold an open mind to developing written policy which wins all votes.

There have been lots of very interesting and successful policy makers throughout human history. One which I think is worth mention is Marcus Aurelius as played by Richard Harris in the popular film Gladiator. I was surprised to find out that this was a reference to a real historical figure who thought deeply about the decisions he was entrusted with.

It is interesting that we are privy to the thoughts of this man as he wrote them down all those hundreds of years ago in his Meditations. A humble man who tried hard to think beyond his own interests and administrate in a way that best met the mean of the world around him. What do you think ?

Is Economics a Dismal Science ?

A famous quote is that of Thomas Carlyle stating economics as the dismal science. Thomas Carlyle complained that society had become mechanical and lost much of its humanity because of the abstraction of 'real things' into monetary terms.

In fact, there appears much gloom around the fabled world of money and exchange, and as someone who is outside of this field of study I wrestle with just what it all means and what is the practical nature of economics.

From meeting various people who love economics and invest their lives in it, they have revealed that it is not about doom and gloom but about all the varying ways that people act to exchange goods and services to improve the lives of people (directly and indirectly.

Without the pretence of understanding the subject, I can say that ideas and elements expressed within it are inspirational and I find it fascinating that great thinkers' ideas have been so useful as to have become common knowledge – much as people may not know the heritage or jargon to formally describe the thoughts they have.

My feeling is that economics is not a dismal science but a way of thinking about and understanding better how we as human beings communally meet the needs of the individual and the group. It stimulates me to appreciate more all the diverse efforts which go into producing something and exchanging it for something else.

Something as simple as a pencil (symbol of Sir Humphrey Chetham) can symbolise a whole chain of collective efforts to get something to market (the place we exchange). If you don't believe me, just try making one yourself! For me economics, like so many other subjects of study, adds value to our world.