The other guys are part of the system, too

I self-identify as liberal when I’m not, more accurately, a bleeding-heart libertarian.

Unlike many liberals, I know, I don’t see other political viewpoints as “wrong.” Instead, I see them as necessary.

And not necessary as in necessary evil. If we didn’t have conservatives and anarchists, then the worst liberal ideas (and there are some horrible ones) would have been enacted, and we’d all be screwed.

It’s the system, stupid. I’m big on systems.

W. Edwards Deming, famous (and once known) for introducing quality to Japan post-war, was one of the founders of the quality management movement. Back in the day, the emphasis on quality was a big deal and unconventional, so it got called a movement. Nowadays, it’s either taken for granted or ignored, but his ideas were considered revolutionary back in the day.

Deming was a systems thinker. When someone asked him to study the fires that broke out occasionally at a particular factory, he reported (not an exact quote), “your system for producing fires is working reliably, producing between 6 and 10 fires a year.” His point is: fires (or accidents or defects) may happen randomly, but the rate of random occurrence was a system property. The only way to change the rate was to change the system.

Deming railed against managers exhorted workers to “do better” to improve quality. He’d point out that quality was a system characteristic. Only changing the system could change quality. Workers and lower-level managers could not change the system. Only management could.

So railing at workers was useless, counterproductive, and irresponsible.

Also ignorant.

Someone once asked Demming: “Are you against unions?” He answered: “How can I be against unions? They’re part of the system.”

So, how can I be against conservatives? 

They’re part of the system.

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