Parallels and Possibilities

I just read an interesting  article by historian Dominic Sandbrook about the parallels between 1931-1932 and 2011-2012. Then, as now, the economy was in the tank, financial institutions were failing, unemployment was high, mainstream politicians seemed impotent and unable to solve the problems and there were numerous demonstrations and marches by angry citizens.

Eighty years ago, people searched for cures to the maladies of society, but unfortunately many of the cures, like Fascism and Communism, ended up being worse than the disease. Luckily, we have the history of that period as our guide, and are unlikely to repeat those failed experiments. But people are still searching for solutions. Most of these involve creating additional laws, or other forms of adding additional complexity to our already complex democratic system.

What other options are out there?  Well, we could take advantage of new technologies (the internet) and paradigms (social software) to create a new political system. This is what Ikanocracy does.