How to Promote a Stable Government System (Nigeria Take Note)

I gave this article the subtitle that I did, because I do feel like a young society is like a child. It needs to be nurtured and guided in order for it to grow into a well-adjusted, well-mannered man-society.

I believe that for all the young/third world societies/cultures around the world that are looking for ways to sustain their citizens, America is that next-door neighbor that seems to effortlessly raise his kids right, keep his lawn perfectly manicured, pay his bills on time, and win the award for father of the year from Time magazine every single year. Your kids are always asking you why you can't be more like him! Even when the whole neighbourhood is hit by a natural disaster, this guy volunteers to be head of the town council and the neighbourhood watch. Everyone looks on jealously and enviously, wondering how-in-the-hell he manages to do it all, secretly they want him out of the picture so that they can have a chance to try and shine, but they don't have the heart to actually go through with "taking him out", because...well...he's so useful. They've grown to need him too, and they're afraid of what will happen if he's gone.

Well, I'm here to tell you that you can wonder no more. Here are the tricks and secrets of Super Dad...

Lesson 1

Accountability

Whether raising a child who admires you, or raising a nation who trusts and works with you and for you, instead of against you, the key is accountability. Do what you say you are going to do when you say you are going to do it. DO NOT MAKE ANY EMPTY PROMISES just for the sake of making promises. If you can't do something, don't promise it. But if you KNOW that you CAN, let everyone know what you're going to do (prepare them for the change) and deliver on your word ON TIME. If people wait too long, or you post pone it too long, people are going to start believing that you're not going to deliver and this belief will stay in their mind so long that when you do deliver they may not even appreciate it any more...

Unless you're delivering a million dollars.

Lesson 2

Find out the wants and needs of the people

If a government makes a whole bunch of policies, with good intention, that are counterproductive to the people (for example: a government with a citizenry of farmers enacts policy that demolishes the farmland with the intention of building real estate) not only will he have a bunch of dissatisfied people on his hands, but he is going to have an unproductive society. Unless, he plans to ship in an entirely new citizenry who has been coached on the use of the real estate he built. It would be like a father, whose daughter wants to be a ballerina, buying her boxing gloves for Christmas. Very rarely will you see that little girl pick up those boxing gloves and actually attempt to learn to box. Very rarely! Unless the father knows how to...

Lesson 3

Train the citizenry

First of all, of course, you have to know what you want from your society (or child) and then (since you're the ruler and that comes with money and power) make it possible for them to do those things. People don't like change. They complain about new things, but that's mostly because they don't understand them. They don't want to look like fools. They don't see the value in what is being offered to them. Lets look at the society of farmers that I mentioned before, they do not see the use in the real estate that their seemingly half-witted government leaders hoisted upon them. However, if it were explained to them, that these new buildings were (let's just say for the sake of urgency) in preparation for two years of monsoon weather that was forecasted to ravage their community in the coming years. They are more likely to welcome the change. Hell, they may even volunteer to help build the dang buildings themselves! What about the girl with the boxing gloves? Her father may explain to her that it's a dangerous world, and she needs to protect her self with some self-defense training. He doesn't have to tell her what rape is, but he can make boxing a fun game that he plays with her in which he lets her beat him up occasionally. (Hopefully she doesn't beat him up too bad in retaliation for the crappy present!...lol) Anyway, the point is, with education you can get a compliant community. If you can't give the people what they want, explain to them why what they already have is good enough, teach them how to get what they want with what they already have, or let them know why what they want is not desirable.

• Training programs
• Standardized school curriculums
• Brochures
• Government sponsored television programs
• Speeches and occasional discussions with the community

These are all forms of interaction with your target audience (whether a society or child) that encourages it to grow with you and work for you, instead of against you.

Lesson 4

Make them feel protected

There are always dangers around us, no matter what society to live in, that threaten us harm every day. As far as you are living, you are in danger of dying. So, what do you do? You seek protection. We invent things to keep us alive longer, fight our enemies, constantly supply our needs, make convenient our daily activities. Dangers exist in thieves, deception, violent attacks, natural disasters, and many things that are out of our control? So, what do we do? We look for something that quails our fears. If people don't feel safe under your guidance, they are going to find somewhere else to go. (This is evident in the mass migrations that consistently occur throughout history preceding every single war. As soon as people sense danger, they tend to run for cover!) The father mentioned before who lets his daughter beat him up occasionally to teach her how to box, is in danger of looking weak in the eyes of his daughter by taking too many punches from her. She may, if she thinks he's too weak, seek strength in other male figures as a result. He needs to let her know that he is strong (not only physically) but in other areas that she needs him to be strong in so that she feels protected when he's around. For example, helping her with her homework can cause her to feel he is a smart and (by association) powerful figure in her life. The U.S. makes its citizens feel safe by instituting regulatory programs for most of its resources, including the police and military which regulate the populace by "keeping them in line" and giving people the impression that all the "bad people" can't harm them.

In this same vain, everyone's fear is different. There are people who don't care about robbers, but are paranoid when it comes to the idea of a fire. There are people that don't think twice about the ideas of hurricanes, but panic at the thought of Identity Theft. The U.S. government has been very good at providing, supporting, or at least not banning programs that offer a variety of protective measures to its citizenry. Just going on line, or in your local phone book, you can usually find everything from Ghostbusters to Anti-aging products to Burglar-proofing-equipment. Some of these things may seem absurd, but when you're the one that's afraid of them, there is nothing crazy about building a bomb shelter in your backyard. But, on a serious note, programs that provide:

• healthcare coverage
• house insurance
• car insurance
• life insurance
• the right to defend yourself in court
• the constitutional right to "bear arms"

...can all give citizens the feeling of being protected, and make them more compliant and even defensive about their leaders (no matter how unreasonable or incomprehensible) for fear of losing these priveleges. In fact, the more comfortable the citizens are, the more compliant they will be.

(Note: I was tempted to use the phrase "illusion of safety", because no one is ever truly completely safe. You could just as easily, get vaccinated for every known disease and then get hit by a car crossing the street. You could make sure to carry your umbrella every time to leave the house to protect you from rain and sunrays and then get hit by a metero rock or struck by lightening. However, America does a very good job of making a diverse array of protective tools available to its citizenry, and this is why people flock to this country like geese escaping winter chills in the North to head to Florida every Winter!)

Lesson 5

Support Creativity

People, as part of a society, would only want the best for their society. It's like the cells in your body, for the most part, they all just want to stay healthy and maintain a level of homeostasis (a healthy balance). So, often times people in a community come up with ideas that, they think, will help the people around them work better together, become stronger in anticipation of a future threat, support an initiative that is already in progress, etc. As a leader, you should not judge these people...even if their ideas are ridiculous, like a "ghost tracking association". Your only decision should be to fund, or not to fund. THAT is the question! Set aside some money (as a parent or as a government leader) to support creative efforts to better your community. As a parent, you might want to start setting aside a scholarship fund in case your child decides she wants to go to pursue higher education, or maybe she's going to decide to just get married but she and her husband want to build a house in Maui. Setting aside this money fosters a relationship with that daughter such that even if she moves all the way to Maui, or just goes far away to some university somewhere, she will never forget you and the great things you've done for her and she will always dedicate part of any success she achieves to you. She will also be more likely to take into consideration any advice or suggestion you might have in the decisions she makes in her life.

The same goes for a society. If the leader of the town council makes a motion to give money to the neighbourhood watch. The people in the neighbourhood watch group, with knowledge that he is the one that provided the funding for their new equipment, may spend extra money securing the areas close to his home or they will at least me more likely to take into account any suggestions he might have.

This also makes them feel like they have some control, even though you know that you're really the one in control, because you get to decide which programs get funded.

And finally...

Lesson 6

Only use force as a last resort!

Corporal punishment (spanking your child) was outlawed in the United States for a reason. First of all, nobody wants to see that! Neighbours don't want to hear the sounds of a young person being whipped all up and down the house next to them. It gives them the sense that a wild and unpredictable person is living close to them and they may feel unsafe. Secondly, violence begets violence and people believe that if you beat your child, your child will grow up with the attitude that violence is how you should solve your problems and they will be more likle to endulge in violent crimes. Thirdly, violence does not teach people to respect you. It teaches people to fear you. And fear is an unpredictable emotion. When people are afraid they may become:

• submissive
• vengeful
• paranoid
• depressed
• antagonizing
• or maybe even palliative

It's like rolling a dice. You don't know how a person is going to behave when they are overcome with fear. As a result, it's best to avoid inspiring that emotion within people. I'm not saying that a father or a ruler should be pacifying at all times. I am saying that there is a type of fear that comes with respect that is different from the one that is achieved when you use violence as a means of coersion. Respect comes when you can say "No, because..." (this goes back to Lesson 3) This may not work as much for a child, because sometimes children can not understand your explanations due to their limited exposure to the world. However, if you can find a way to explain it to them in their language they will be more compliant.

When you can say "No, because..." people get a sense that you understand what you are doing. As opposed to if you just punish a person without any explanation of what they did wrong or an explanation that does not make sense to the person. If you put a man in jail for robbing rich people and giving to poor people, and the majority of the people in your society are poor, your people will revolt. They will be less likely to sympathize with you. If you let the guy out of jail early, the people may feel like you "understand".

You have to understand that no system is perfect. Even the almightly American system has room for improvement. So, don't take yourself too seriously. Don't go killing citizens for breaking rules. Consider the possibility that some of your rules may be unreasonable. But if you must punish, do so with one hand while appeasing with the other. If you can't forgive the guy that stole, but need to show the people that their voice is heard, releasing him early may be the way to go. Remember that...I won't say "rules are meant to be broken", because I don't exactly believe that that is the best message...instead, I'll say that all rules and laws are man-made constructs. Even scientific laws and rules. So, consider them carefully. Nobody is perfect, and I think that the American media has proven to us that everybody is fallible. This is evident in the countless "exposés" that are done on cultural icons time after time. We often times critize, scrutinize and judge other people denying that our own ideologies and philosophies are fallible, but no man-made creation (I believe) is infallible! No matter how powerful you are, even if you say your power comes from science, or from God, you can be brought down!

So...what I'm saying is that people will always find one thing in their life for which they claim that things are clear-cut, black and white, there is a line that should not be crossed. However, if you find out everything about a person, you will see that there are events, issues, and people in their lives that even that "one thing" they are so dead-set on, was given some flexibility. For this reason, if you want to stand out as a person of integrity, it is not always a good idea to present yourself as the guardian of morality, banishing people to death and hellfire for doing wrong, because as soon as you slip up (and people WILL be scrutinizing you, especially in this our technology-saturated era) your hypocrisy WILL BE UNMASKED!!!

So, yea...

That's it.

I could probably write an entire book on this, but I will stop here for now, becaue I'm sure that as it stands nobody is going to want to read this anyway.

Too long.

People want to go play Grand Theft Auto. LOL!!!! *Sigh* Oh well!

Good night, everybody!

P.S. I minored in Public Policy...Can you tell?