My background has been in the computer R&D business (Xerox PARC, Apple, Oracle, my own start-up, consulting), designing and implementing software for each new wave of hardware technology -- mainframes, minicomputers, timesharing, personal computers, multimedia, etc. While hardware has always trended toward faster, smaller, and cheaper, software has trended toward bigger and more complex. Survival in software R&D has called for the ability to conceptualize and create increasingly complex systems (involving applications, external systems, and users) -- and, perhaps more difficult, to be able to comprehend and repair complex systems created by others.

In this kind of work one develops a sixth sense regarding how systems are constructed -- just by using a piece of software one can intuit how the system was put together and what kind of stratagems the designer employed. The deep structure always shows through, in subtle ways, to the surface of system behavior. A colleague of mine was actually threatened with a lawsuit because he had figured out details of the Microsoft operating system that they thought could only be known by looking at their proprietary code. They were wrong.

A well-developed sensitivity to systems and their underlying mechanisms is one of the main lessons I took away from my software experience, and it's a lesson that applies to many other domains. In particular one can look at the world as a collection of interacting systems -- as we all know from ecology, which looks at the natural world as a system of interacting species and environments.

One of the systems that most attracted my attention over the years was that of international politics, with its many layers and diverse centers of influence. What seemed most surprising was that US foreign policy appeared to be so ineffective, frequently accomplishing the opposite of its announced objectives. I began to notice that other, un-discussed, objectives were being accomplished, which in many cases made perfect geopolitical (or economic) sense -- but a sense that would not be publicly defensible. Increasingly, I discounted the interpretive aspects of news reporting, and focused instead on the raw underlying events being chronicled.

I began to perceive a degree of consistency in the behavior of governments, politicians, and institutions, that was far greater than what one would detect from the interpretations of news reports, pundits, and official statements. The rough contours of underlying strategies and goals emerged which made seemingly random phenomenon -- such as U.S. foreign policy -- not only understandable but generally predictable.

At the same time, news reportage itself began to take on added meaning. Rather than simply being shallow and biased, which is presumably obvious to any serious observer, it became apparent that the distortions and selectivity of official pronouncements, and of news coverage, were carefully coordinated with underlying political strategies. The net consequence of media coverage (syn: "cover-up"?) is to systematically distract attention away from what's really going on, the way a magician draws the eye away from where the rabbit is being hidden. If you focus on what's not being asked or said, media coverage actually reveals quite a bit about the underlying events it is so intent on disguising.

So over the years I began to develop my own model of what "the system" was about -- who the various players are, what their relative powers and relationships are, what their various goals are, what their modus operandi are, what they want people to believe, etc. Not being in a hurry -- this was a hobby -- I was able to refine the model over time, to debug it, if you will, by testing it against years of unfolding events and an ever-growing reading diet of histories, biographies, and political analysis.

Eventually I got to the point where I felt that my "findings" were worth writing about, or otherwise communicating to people who I felt could benefit from them. I left my career and environment (Silicon Valley), moved to Ireland, and began to use Internet as a learning channel for writing and further analysis.

I joined several online discussion forums, launched a few new ones of my own, and began spending full time debating and learning about political perspectives from all comers - including historians, political scientists, and people with all sorts of attitudes and agendas. I further clarified my analyses/perceptions and learned how to express them cogently, or at least that's the drift of reader feedback. My postings to Internet evolved into respectable essays, and I began to receive invitations from print (and online) publishers to turn some of the essays into articles.

The current book project is more or less a culmination of these activities. I've received one contract offer from a major publisher for the book, but I'm not rushing into to any "sell all your rights" deals... the publishing industry is changing too quickly. With the advent of modern desktop publishing systems, self-publishing operations, and amazon.com -- not to mention the web itself -- there are now many options opening up for "getting out there" without losing control of your material and waiting more than a year to get through a publisher's production pipeline.

I've presented my analyses at academic conferences, and was generally received with bemusement, but a few responded with considerable interest -- not quite everyone who dwells in the ivory tower, it seems, has lost the ability to think beyond fashionable dogma.

Last May, I was invited to speak at the UN in Geneva by Bruna Note, International President of WILPF (Women's International League for Peace and Freedom). The occasion was the 50th anniversary of the first free-trade treaty (GATT - General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), and my topic was "Future of the WTO" (World Trade Organization). I was part of a panel organized by Henry Volken, Chairman of the "Special NGO Committee on Development". He is well aware that free-trade is a dire threat to humanity -- and to everything good the UN stands for. I did my best to open up the discussion to radical thinking, and with some success. It was a real pleasure to make some small contribtion to the NGO effort. I gained a lot of respect for those who must deal day-to-day with the frustations of UN impotence and wrong-headedness.

This coming May , I've been invited to speak at a public meeting in Derry, Northern Ireland, by Peter Doran -- of the Foyle Basin Council, and an NGO representative on the Northern Ireland Steering Group for LA21. Local Agenda 21 represents a treaty commitment by national governments to get local and regional authorities to produce local / regional plans for sustainable development. The meeting is on the topic of genetically modified food and the related issues. Peter has also invited a representative from Genetic Concern, the campaign group on genetic engineering in Ireland.

Like Henry, Peter is someone who understands that globalization is about personal and social disempowerment, and that the proper leadership response is to nurture empowerment. He is very keen to cast the Local Agenda 21 process in the frame of community democratisation, opportunities for exploring ideas of active citizenship, and mobilisation of the social economy. Again, I am honored to be asked to contribute to a very worthy effort, and will again have the pleasure of meeting people who are out there doing what responsible citizens in a democracy should be doing -- asserting popular sovereignty.

The mandate Peter has offered me is an exciting one...

...to set the scene for Genetic Concern with a 20-25 minute mini-lecture (illustrated if possible) on the rise of corporate power, the collapse of economic self determination at the state level, and any other suggested inpput you have on international political economy...

1. Why do governments appear powerless to resist the economic agenda of corporations?

2. Where do corporations get their power?

3. Are there examples of communities successfully challenging the dictate of corporations?

4. What are the economic and political tools required by communities today for the development of effective sustainable and equitable development?

I thank you for your attention -- particularly if you've read this far. Please write if you feel so inclined.

empowerment and solidarity,
rkm

Publications

(1994 to present)

Open Information Exchange -- Technology Handbook (UK), "Document Architectures and Container Formats -- an Overview" (Chapter 4).

oii SPECTRUM (UK journal), "Bento -- a container for electronic documents".

The Information Society (an international journal), "Cyberspace Inc. and the Robber Baron Age".

New Dawn (Australian conspiracies and coverups magazine), "Common Sense and the New World Order", "Human Rights and the New World Order", "Doublespeak and the New World Order", "The Fateful Dance of Capitalism and Democracy", "America and the New World Order", "China vs. Globalization -- the Final War and the Dark Millennium", "The Police State Conspiracy -- an Indictment" (in four parts).

Theory & Praxis ( marxist-oriented journal), "Doublespeak and the New World Order".

enneagram monthly (new age magazine), "Physics and the Enneagram", "The Life-Cycle of Creative Endeavors", "Inventing Enneagrams -- the dramatic story and two-force analysis".

Agree to Disagree (street youth 'zine), various article reprints.

Toward Freedom (progressive magazine), "Closing the Information Highway", "Absolute Power: The Making of the New World Order", "Signing Away Sovereignty".

The American Patriot (right-wing newsletter), "Big Business: The Real Enemy".