An ongoing political concern is the balancing of individual freedom with individual physical security, and the balancing of social democracy with social rules of law. We have to remember that all social problems are problems of communication and therefore the language we use is essential for the understanding of our own predicaments. We know what physical security is and therefore let me define individual freedom as the capacity to choose and learn from each other, democracy as the vision to collectively choose to learn better, and the rules of law as the enforceable societal rules to control deviant behaviour as per these rules of law.

The world is becoming more violent, crime and terrorism are realities we have to fight. As a consequence, individual freedom is being curtailed, and democracy is being eroded as more rules of law are being legislated.

Most American politicians have been running their political and business career under the slogan "Law and Order" and yet as we have more rules of law, more policemen and more people in prison so we have more crimes and violence. This is a counterintuitive type of logic as we are unable to understand that a quick fix "here" and "now" is a problem "there" and "later."

We have to change the way to think and I have been mentioning of "Systems Thinking" as the approach to think in circles as all of our actions are interrelated. Thinking in circles means, for instance, to address one specific problem and trying to present the story of this problem with pictures identifying the relevant components of the story and identifying the relationships (arrows/links) among these components. We commonly say that "a picture is better than a thousand words" and that we need to understand the "big picture" rather than the details of a problem, and yet we continue to express this big picture with thousands of words. So I want to deepen my understanding on how to think in circles and on how to present my stories with pictures.

Today, I read the excerpt of the story "Using crooks as informants

"The government's use of murderers as informants constitutes "one of the greatest failures in the history of federal law enforcement," according to a draft report from a congressional committee. The scathing report from the House Government Reform Committee says the Justice Department's failure to rein in criminal informants has compromised investigations nationwide with "disastrous consequences." "Democracy succeeds in the United States when the rule of law is respected. When the government strays from the rule of law, the harm outweighs the benefit. In Boston, this is what happened," concludes the report obtained Monday night by The Associated Press.

The above story reflects a perspective which is taking political implications as policemen, defense lawyers and prosecutors have become more and more corrupt as more "law and order' politicians have been hijacking democracy.

This is my story in one picture as I think in circles about the erosion of democracy due to the "law and order" mentality of politicians and justice system. As we have more Policing Bodies in the justice system so we have more use of Criminal Informants and Forced Confessions. As we use more Criminal Informants and Forced Confessions so Democracy is eroded. As Democracy is eroded so we have more Rules of Law. As we have more Rules of Law so we have more Policing Bodies in the justice system. It is a vicious circle which can only be stopped with the goal of a dynamic sustainable Democracy.

Other References

Pertinent articles published in Ensign

Using crooks as informants, By CHB News Service, Jan 14, 2003 http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_1525.shtml

Remarks delivered by Gov. George Ryan at the DePaul University College of Law, January 10, 2003 http://www.injusticebusters.com/2003/Gov_George_Ryan.htm