In many PCs, the first software to run after hitting the power button is called BIOS (Basic Input-Output System). BIOS loads the computer’s operating system and the individual settings that make your personal computer so...personal. A malfunction at this most basic level leads to a cascade of other problems, including error messages, poor performance, or refusing to boot at all.
It’s important to get the foundational things right, and not just in our computers. For too long, says Blake Pagenkopf, author of The Structure of Political Positions, our political discourse has been hobbled by a fundamental error—an error not just in our language but in the structures beneath that language. In particular, we tend to locate ourselves and others as points on a single line, a Left-Right spectrum. But this one-dimensional paradigm is too limiting. There are too many data points that fall outside the conventional Left-Right political modes, says Pagenkopf. We need to reboot our politics with a fuller, richer way to frame our political disagreements. We need to upgrade our political BIOS.
In today’s episode of the Strong Towns podcast, Strong Towns president Chuck Marohn talks with Pagenkopf about why we must transition from a one-dimensional view of political positions to a two-dimensional view—with a Values Axis (the familiar Left-Right/Liberal-Conservative line) but also a Power Axis, from “centralized” at the top to “citizen-based” below.
Marohn and Pagenkopf talk about how Pagenkopf’s background in architecture helped him think differently about political positions, and why the current approach obscures opportunities to work together...and delegitimizes some people altogether. They talk about why the Strong Towns movement is one part of a larger “meta-movement” that doesn’t fit traditional liberal-conservative modes. And they discuss how a two-dimensional view reveals surprising bright spots in our politics, right when we need them most.
Additional Show Notes:Peak Delusion of the Long Emergency
Downshifting into a Meaningful Life: A Conversation With Ruben Anderson
Is Strong Towns the same as Sprawl Repair?
Upzoned Episode 1: Dams and Reservoirs Won't Save Us
It's The Little Things Episode 1: Running For City Council
Where To Next For CNU? A Conversation With Lynn Richards
A Conversation With the Urban3 Team at CNU
Programming Update
The Emptying Out of Rural Kansas: An Interview With Corie Brown
The Week Ahead, August 29, 2017
Thoughts on Incremental Development
Young People and CNU
How Relevant is Localism in an Age of Urgency?
Ask Strong Towns #5
E-Scooters and Who Takes Up Space in Cities
From Vision to Policy, Making New Urbanism Work
Suburban Poverty Meets Sprawl Retrofit
What does it mean to build a vibrant community?
Ask Strong Towns #4 (June 2018)
The Week Ahead: From Technical Writer to Grocery Store Owner to Community Builder
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