Visions and Views - The Bureaucratic Age

You've heard me talk about how the Industrial age is over, and the Netcohort Age has begun.

Sometimes I'm a bit slow.

I have spent a great deal of time explaining that industrial age bureaucracies were not just in industry, but in all of the too bigs: government, education, religions, unions, etc. I then spent time explaining a rational for economies of scale and how that lent itself to a one size fits most society.

I had not considered that some prefer to use the industrial age moniker as a way to misdirect attention from where it belongs. Those that want to blame capitalism for all the worlds ills for one, others that don't want you looking at unjust too big governments as arising from the same family business as industry. There are others.

It is similar to how governments have recently changed the debate on every one's right to privacy into a witch hunt of private companies that have weak privacy policies. That leaves government free to be as intrusive as they wish. As recently as President Johnson privacy was an acknowledged universal right: "Every man should know that his conversations, his correspondence, and his personal life are private." - Lyndon B. Johnson

Laws were passed to require "privacy," from business intrusions while all other bureaucracies assumed an open policy. Those same laws had many loopholes to allow big business to join into the mining of your private life. The result? All bureaucrats can use what was recently our discretionary property.

So we see that industry is blamed for any ills of the last few hundred years while governments and other bureaucrats claim to have created the benefits.

As you can guess from the title of this journal post, I think it is time to acknowledge the source of much of mankind's current woes - bureaucracies. We are leaving The Bureaucratic Age, nee industrial age.

Yes, there were great advances made under bureaucratic umbrellas - but most were due to individuals that heroically fought inertial resistance and persevered.

"People who create things nowadays can expect to be prosecuted by highly moralistic people who are incapable of creating anything. There is no way to measure the chilling effect on innovation that results from the threats of taxation, regulation and prosecution against anything that succeeds. We'll never know how many ideas our government has aborted in the name of protecting us." - Joseph Sobran

Mankind has always seemed to be on the cusp of disaster.

It is only in innovation, made possible by individual visionaries, that we will be able to maintain the progression of civilization. It is time the Bureaucratic age ended. We need the self-tailored society being created by the Netcohort.

There ain't no rules around here!
We're trying to accomplish something.
Thomas Edison

I will try to remember to call it the bureaucratic age in my future writings.

If something evil is about to fall -- it should be pushed!

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How To Create A College Degree Substitute

Do you want knowledge beyond a college degree but don't want to go to college?

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete" - Buckminster Fuller

You do not need a college to learn, not even Bastiat Free University. This will not be an easy substitute, in fact you will work harder and learn more than I achieved at a state university.

It can be done faster, and it certainly will help you outperform most college graduates, in almost any discipline. But just because you will be better equipped and a more adaptable performer does not mean your substitute college degree will be accepted in mindless bureaucracies.

Happily mindless bureaucracies are dying along with the industrial age. What you are considering is preparing yourself for a more discerning individualistic age. We call those so equipped The Netcohort.

Two Steps To Your College Degree Substitute.

• First you need to start your own blog. This will be the public record of your achievements and it needn't cost money, just time.

• Second you need to decide on your course of study and find an exceptional mentor(s). You can go it alone - but a mentor can help keep you on track and add their valuable experience to your learning.

What Are The Benefits of A Substitute College Degree?

Self confidence, freedom, knowledge, adaptability, life long learning, and a host of other attributes you will acquire. What you sacrifice is a piece of paper that says so many years ago you complied with a bunch of silly regulations and you are now qualified to follow stupid orders without question.

What you gain is a website / blog that demonstrates your growth, within your field, with improved communications skills and a dazzling breadth of knowledge.

You can now start or grow your own company, work with compatriots at changing the world, or dedicate yourself to further learning.

Once you start your college degree substitute regime let us know. A bunch of folks who are dedicated to personal growth may get us to start re-issuing Bastiat Free University learning certificates or even unaccredited degrees.

After all, it will be easy to review your efforts; recognition of completion and a final assignment should be enough. Books, materials, mentor rewards, and review of your blog and learning documentation by BFU could cost less than a year in a traditional education institution, perhaps much less (use library books, etc.).

As indicated in a prior post, put a link to your student blog in your resume and your cover letter. This should impress everyone except the educational establishment, corporate bureaucrats, and state licensing bureaus. They want proof that you will easily comply with their wishes.

Or -- you can create a college degree substitute on your own.

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Emancipated Consumers & Empowered Consumers = The New Consumer

In a recent Forbes article the CEO of Akamai was discussing the increasing speed available for Internet users.

Paul Sagan mentioned what is happening as disintermediation impacts those that thought they had a captive media distribution channel. The words he used for those that will find material where it is best served was "emancipated consumers."

Combine Sagan's emancipated consumer with the technologically empowered individual we have discussed as a driving force pulling us out of the "one size fits all" industrial age and you have a picture of the new consumer.

The one major hurdle ahead is bureaucracy, using archaic laws and any arguments from individual rights to public interest; those in control of your life will seek to maintain their position. The argument will vary with audience, but the goal is maintaining control by government intervention.

With time this too shall pass. For now don't get caught in the middle by the waring factions - instead do what is best for you without harming others.

Already the Internet provides a medium for consumers to bypass middlemen and secure researched quality at better prices.

more to follow ...