All posts by : Joshua A. Moore

Flint Michigan was a teachable moment ; is a teachable moment. One we are failing to fully take advantage of.  Before we begin, there are some clarifications and terms we must agree on. We must agree on these terms in order to have a productive and responsible discussion on the topic. So, to start.  Governor Snyder committed a crime of almost genocidal proportions and I do not level that claim lightly. The effects of Flint’s water contamination have been deadly and done generation spanning damage from which the people and city of flint are unlikely to recover.  BUT for as grave as Snyder, and his administration’s offences are; they are not going to be my main focus here.  

Instead I will focus on the “original sin” and by that I mean the core logical failing that caused the crisis.  I will point out repeatedly, that local government failed in numerous ways to do it’s job. Though local government is responsible for this catastrophe, they are not to blame for it. You cannot blame the victim of a crime for being a victim; even if that victim made poor choices that made them vulnerable to crime. It is those poor choices that will be our focus here. We are not casting blame, we are looking to learn a lesson so that we do not repeat these mistakes.

Flint Michigan, circa 2010, was in Disastrous debt. The water utility which was managed by the city was in crippling debt and had been for years.  The reasons why aren’t important, It doesn’t matter what Flint chose to spend it’s money on. It’s none of our business in fact. But what is our business is that the city was aware that the water infrastructure was old and near failing in some cases.  They knew this, but they chose to spend their money on other things; and so year after year the utility along with the city, incurred debts it could not sustain.  Here, I propose, is why. The government of flint failed to conceive of the idea that the utility could fail in a literal way.

Most Americans, exempting some specific plumbing failure, have never turned a faucet and had it not spit out water. Clean water is such a staple of urban life, so basic and so essential that it is largely not even thought about. Odds are, you too don’t often give a thought to it, The city government failed than to even consider the worst case scenario. They failed to conceive that the water utility could cease to function and that clean water could all together stop coming. Because they failed to even imagine this possibility, they failed to adequately anticipate the consequences of their actions; and therefore demonstrated an incompetence that is not forgivable in leadership and that leads me to the teachable moment I started with here.

Flint, it’s managing government mainly, took water and the complex macro systems that govern it for granted. I suspect even the governor, when he made his criminally incompetent decision to switch the water supply to the polluted river. Even he or even especially he, did not consciously consider that death and human suffering could be a consequence of his action. I believe this theory lines up well with the behaviors exhibited by both local government and State governor parties; both came from a place of taking the water supply for granted and THAT is the original sin.  When we consider it in these terms, the lesson we can derive from their failure is  to never take basic systems for granted. We must always, always, have a conscious thought to the gravity of our choices and the consequences of those decisions, especially how they effect our basic life sustaining systems. From flint, we can draw a cause and effect relationship between each failure of management. Each act of incompetency that drove the utility to ruin is relevant to us, because we are again,  looking at how to not repeat those errors.

A couple of weeks ago I was invited out to the Venus Project by a friend of E.O.S. and author of Tech Trends, Mark Ciotola; living in florida I have always wanted to see the Venus project but circumstances never allowed me to visit plus the chance to meet Mark in person was really extraordinary so I of course accepted!   Since I was given the opportunity to invite someone along I went with my father on a clear and beautiful Saturday January 30,2016.  Of Course it’s winter in Florida which means the temperature was  22c ( 72­73f) and there was hardly a cloud in the sky, with a gentle breeze.   Yes, Florida weather is perfect this time of year and I don’t blame you for being jealous!  I am rubbing it in after all.

The Venus Project.

For those not readily familiar, the Venus Project is an organization dedicated to advancing the vision of Jacque Fresco[1], who is beyond doubt an incredible visionary of our times with a very long, and impressive resume. The vision of Venus is a better world, made so by applying disciplines of science and engineering to solve humanity’s various problems from creating a sustainable world to solving and preventing crime. The Venus project, while not the first of it’s kind is among the most influential and well known of our time. It rose to media stardom among sustainability minded groups  with the Zeitgeist movement[2] circa 2011­2012.  More information about the venus project can be found at their official website with a number of official documentaries, all of which are worth watching. 

The State of the Venus project: 

As you are probably aware, the Venus project is now really quite old, Jaque himself clearly shows his age these days. One thing became readily apparent to me on the tour, the buildings were in various states of disrepair with only the core residency and the studio being  fully maintained, some buildings including the filming studio where in disuse and  now mostly for the sake of tours.  The various models are some ­of ­them broken but mostly sitting on shelves and tables  for photos. 

During the tour a segment where we where in the room of models, houses,planes and other things Jacque had imagined over the years ( including the famous city model.)  Went a little awry when a comment was made about sports.  A debate broke out about  rejecting people’s freedom to do things they enjoy.  The Stance Venus project replied with was “if you like sports you won’t want to live in this city.”  Further pressing the matter, not just about sports mind you but about people who do things which the founders of the Venus project do not approve, the answer was again the same.  This left me with a few,very distinct impressions.

•  The vision Venus project has for society in it’s success scenario is overly 
•  The Venus Project lacks definite plans to accomplish its goals.

For it’s over specificity, jacque & Roxanne believe they can engineer social dynamics to a very specific state, an ideal society they envision. This has a number of problems  most notably, I can think of no attempt ever made to design a specific social construct  that was successful; despite a great many examples in history of the attempt.  Despite these criticisms, there was a lot I took away from the experience.  it was enlightening to better see Jacque’s theories on efficiency and supply chain, even as they are are not defined to my liking either in literature or in presentation. 

In Summary,  The Venus project is an enduring inspiration, its art is inspiring, Jacque’s lectures are enlightening, and the idea of what Venus strived for has no doubt motivated  many people across the world to think in terms of the world as it could be.  Though they lack a solid execution plan and though they have voiced some troubling ideas about social engineering.  The Venus project earns its place as a cultural icon for sustainable thinkers.