The good thing about the recent financial/economic crisis is it demonstrates how all of us all over the world are bound together in a web of interconnections that highlights our participation in the long predicted and now realized global village. The bad thing is the solutions to remedy the situation are old school. They rely on employing isms in ways that are defunct, obsolete and proven failures. They will not be able to effectively address our problems - certainly not in the long term and, perhaps, not even in the short term. They are all devoid of the kind of vision necessary to deal with the enormous changes in the world that have been running ahead of our fossilized thinking for decades.

Factionalization, fragmentation, compartmentalization, etc. still rule the day whereby a social body is a compendium of moving parts going off in different directions at the same time creating waste, ill advised legislation, failed policies, mismanagement and unnecessary conflict.

What is needed is an ism that makes combined coherent operation possible, that is, a mutually advantageous conjunction and compatibility of distinct elements.

What ism is that?

Synergism, which is also defined as the interaction of discrete agencies, agents and conditions such that the total effect is greater than the sum of individual effects. That is how you create optimum conditions within which a society can most effectively function.

So, instead of having various factions working at cross purposes continually producing less than adequate effects, a synergistic social system would be set up as an integrated information processing system where various organs would be oriented in such a way as to produce a coherent, cohesive, viable organism on an ongoing basis.

Who can deny that such a social system would be a vast improvement over what is now in place?

But is it possible?

Yes, of course, it is. But it would entail enormous changes in our perspectives, mind sets and institutions.

Are you ready for such total radical change?

Perhaps not. Perhaps you would rather hold on to what is now in place until it completely collapses.

But then you won't have much, if any, control over what will come next - most likely dictatorship. That would be the realistic historically based scenario for a society in disrepair.

But even under the best conditions that today's social systems can provide there are some universally desired and vitally necessary attributes they are incapable of providing.

Some of these desired attributes are;

1. Enlightened interaction between self-interest and collective-interest.

2. A society that everyone has a strong sense of belonging to no matter what one's status.

3. A political process free of the influence of money.

4. A society that fosters maximum individual freedom along with maximum individual responsibility.

5. Flexible, agile institutions that can quickly and correctly adapt to change as needed.

Shall we hope for these things to happen? No! Forget about hope. It's not about hope. It's about realization. It's about actually realizing those desired attributes.

That list of attributes can only be installed by a social system that is synergistically configured. That is, set up so that particular organs of a social body are working in conjunction with all others to produce a coherent whole. This can only be accomplished by weaving the fabric of society from autonomous localities networking together to form the social political economic organs that serve to create the whole social body.