Since I last explored the myth of private sector digital superiority over the legendary sloth of state agencies, there has been a running narrative from friends and colleagues who continue to point to notable omissions on my part.
There have been people who have called and
messaged me essentially proposing that I had forgotten to mention this or that
enterprise, agency, or service.
We can indeed spend a lot of time adding to an
extensive list that conjoins government institutions with private enterprise
when it comes to the general state of underdevelopment relative to the embrace
of technological solutions to societal obstacles.
There is little in sight to suggest studied
commitment by most to the required precision and efficiency of the modern era,
despite occasional declarations of grand intent. It’s nowhere in the partisan
political discourse and persists as PR imperative elsewhere. We can’t be
serious!
The last time I mentioned, in passing, the
prevalence of shiny, new operational facades hyperlinked to a backend of
primordial confusion. I called out the banks, insurance companies, telecom
operators, commercial enterprises, public utilities and state agencies, as all
displaying disturbingly similar symptoms.
Today, I propose to address links between these
undeniable shortcomings and two seemingly unrelated but entirely connected
features of the current reality.
The first speaks to the deliberate
marginalising of youth and the second considers prospects for improving the
well-being of future generations in the face of numerous challenges, including
those of global scope, such as the climate crisis.
We have limited control over most of the
latter, except to adapt and to be more agile. But we have virtual full control
over the former. In both instances, though, there cannot be hesitation over the
embrace of what’s new.
Almost every enterprising, creative and
productive young adult I have interacted with in recent years has attested to
the fact that the processes intended to keep our country viable explicitly
undervalue and disregard the young.
Had this not been the case, we would have more
likely than not by now negotiated more than one significant developmental
hurdle. There is no way the current crop of digital natives, once handed joint
control, would have tolerated the utter backwardness of operational processes
in the public space.
Of course, this is difficult to contemplate
against the backdrop of a notion of a presumed “lost generation.” The deviance
of some is cast as statement on the condition of all. On the contrary, when I
look around me, I see young people ready and set to take the reins.
Instead, they are actively blocked by official
and unofficial processes that openly discriminate against them. For starters,
try as a 25-year-old to register a business and open a bank account.
Meanwhile, people of my generation with the
required mortgages, utility bills and established mailing addresses have
already displayed a general inability to effectively align knowledge and
experience with digital opportunity.
The transition is viewed with the kind of
suspicion and scepticism ignorance breeds. Yet, the attributes that accompany
experience are required in the transition out of a dark past that hangs like a
stubborn shadow over current realities.
Additionally, while there is absolutely no
doubt that digital technology is an indispensable pillar of our developmental
goals, it raises questions requiring brand new ways of looking at how our
societies operate.
For example, while it is true innovation can
both address efficiencies and create economic opportunities, there are
trade-offs to be made against some potential costs.
The most recent report of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to cite poignant examples, advises that while
innovation is important as a tool in addressing the crisis, there can and will
be the prospect of managing increased levels of e-waste, addressing the
negative impacts on labour markets and attending to a widened digital divide.
These are matters that clearly call on a
whole-of-society approach driven and inspired by young, inventive minds and
tempered by the contemplation experience can bring.
But none of this will be possible if we
constantly erect barriers against the forward march of the young. I am not
among the old fogeys looking on at them in disapproval.
Employ a battalion of young people to fix the digital
mess. Elect them to public office. Provide them with the means. Get the hell
out of their way.
