An industrial revolution accelerated the Bureaucratic Age - a digital revolution is ending it.

This will get fun later - but first we need to understand what's happening.

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, military, unions, etc; all of them enabled by regulations. I then spent time explaining a rationale for economies of scale and how that led to a one size fits most society.

I was slow to pick up the obfuscation.

I had not considered that some might 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 Western governments have recently changed the debate on every person'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.

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 internal 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. I'll also talk about it less as we look at what is likely to replace it.

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

The things that haven't been done before

Are the tasks worthwhile today;

Are you one of the flock that follows, or

Are you one that shall lead the way

Are you one of the timid souls that quail

At the jeers of a doubting crew,

Or dare you, whether you win or fail,

Strike out for a goal that's new?

Edgar Guest

We can complete the circle.

The Netcohort Revolution era, start of an emerging netcohort age that will replace the bureaucratic age. The industrial revolution's middle class will be replaced by the Netcohort, as the guilds were replaced by a bureaucratic middle class. Most of the upper classes will be replaced by serial entrepreneurs of solid reputation. Bureaucracies will become small, fragile, and easily displaced.

What if I don't want to join?

If you are training to become a professional you are probably in a good situation. There is a need for your skills, but as bureaucratic age schools around the world create huge numbers of competitors, expect diminished value from formal education. Of course that may be good for the rest of us as costs of professional services decrease.

What will have value in the future?

Re-learn to enjoy learning. The successful members of the netcohort will demonstrate integrity, knowledge, adaptability, and a desire to be constantly learning.

How do I become a member of the Netcohort?

Think small business on steroids. Aggressive and honorable business practices will allow you to network with similar individuals in short term, project oriented teams. Information technology Netcohort teams are already producing wonderful results.

How do I prepare?

At any age, start to explore knowledge in areas you enjoy. Use technology to leverage your research. Create based on your insights; and then dig deeper into knowledge that enhances your projects. If you are serving the twelve year sentence in public schools, look beyond their doors for reality. Don't blindly accept a bureaucratic school's view of reality. If possible get yourself home schooled or become unschooled. Find areas where you want to learn and study them, discover the pleasures of self directed learning.

What is the action step?

The final piece is to find other creative people that share your passions. Check their reputation and do some small projects with them. Over time you will develop a reputation; if your reputation is one of passion, knowledge, action, and integrity you will have many opportunities to join important projects.

This is also a fun way to live.

As part of the netcohort you will stay mobile, flexible, and open to new ideas. You will build on what others have created, as others will build on your contributions - all will profit.

It is the sunset of the bureaucratic age.

Disruptive technology and disruptive innovation are both described in Wikopedia. Joseph Schumpeter presented a well developed economist's view of the same idea in the 1940s, he called it creative destruction.

Regardless of origin, the idea that new technology slowly overtakes and then passes entrenched methodologies, to everyone's benefit except the old tech, is a sound concept. A new disruptive technology is frequently just a niche play at first, but as it develops it is found to be an improvement with much broader applications.

Bows replaced sling shots and were in return replaced by guns. It is not just tech, in society: YOU will replace "Them."

Your ability to bring creative destruction also applies to education. "In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists." - Eric Hoffer

Economies of scale are reversing. Opportunities for technology empowered individuals are on the increase. Disruptive technologies offer substantial rewards and huge potential to efficient netcohort individuals and teams.

It's time for a very new type of school.

a school that is challenging, fun, and provides experience..

Build a valuable reputation by doing your own thing.

There is no teacher standing at the front of the room telling you to quit disrupting class.

Be as disruptive as you wish.

Make your dreams as audacious as you can imagine - then create them.

Peer to peer is coming to education, P2Pedu. YOU will create it.

Head over to the Netcohort Institute and be disruptive. Society is rightfully nervous. But you are their salvation even if they can't see it.

Life on earth has always been a race between impending destruction and the innate genius of individuals to innovate.

Bureaucrats can't innovate - they can't even fit into their desk chairs.

It's up to you. It's your world and your life - build it and enjoy it.

Disruptive natural enterprise is the only solution.

"The risks and rewards of natural enterprise are greater, and of far more value to society, than any illusions of security that bind human cogs to a social machine." - Allan R. Wallace

enjoy

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"We are surrounded by easily perceived barriers that limit our achievement. Most such walls were erected using substantial appearing mists of ignorance. We need to discover and acknowledge these boundaries, and then run through them." - Allan R. Wallace





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Will your life be based on what you want to use it to accomplish, or by random urges of what you want to do?