Centrarian.Com

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all agree on a vision for the future and just begin working together to achieve it - instead of getting stuck in ideological arguments before we begin?

Think, for a moment, about what this nation accomplished after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In less than four years, we managed to transform an economy crippled by the Great Depression and producing few war-related products (soldiers initially trained using broomsticks and trucks to take the place of rifles and tanks) into the most awesome war machine in history. By the end of those four years, this country had produced almost 300,000 planes, more than 70,000 ships, and millions of guns and bombs.

In terms of complexity, that transformation from a peacetime to a wartime economy was at least as complex as most problems we face today. Yet today we have lost confidence in each other and our government to resolve these problems. What is the single most important difference between then and now? We were united then. We are divided today.

The purpose of this website is to provide a basis for us to come together again so that we can solve the significant problems that confront us. How? Part of the answer is hinted at by the name of the site — Centrarian — by centering politics and economics. But centering politics does not mean centering politics in the conventional sense of Triangulation between the two sides as in the Third Way. What it does mean is that the skewed perspectives of the left and the right must be “unskewed” by correcting the faulty assumptions on which they are built. And politics cannot be centered without also centering economics.

Another part of the answer is taking a systems approach to politics. Most bloggers, pundits, interest groups, and politicians advocate particular political policies without taking into account, or trying to change the underlying political, economic and ideological systems. But this only makes matters worse by encouraging the endless conflict between interests. Instead of continuing to argue about whose interests and whose policies need to be advanced, we need to begin a cooperative effort to make our political and economic systems work better for everyone.

Centrarian.Com will attempt to remedy that. Please return February 1, 2007 when the site is complete and the blog begins.