Large institutions have been "failing" for over a century, in most countries, similar to things in orbit being always "falling". Just go find old newspapers and you'll see similar wording. The constant criticism and renewal of our institutions is part of the system.
This is very astute. It's as if all social institutions were dissolved, then reconstituted into a single structure that is bad at just about every interaction it destroyed.
Without necessarily endorsing the premise of the comment, I wonder what can be done to prevent this. Has humanity ever been successful at preventing institutions from regressing to exclusively serving their own needs? It's not clear if as a species we can actually pull that off, at least not in perpetuity.
The problem is the institutions that are okay with being ephemeral evaporate away when their job is done, leaving behind a salty brine of institutions that aren't. In any system where there is selective pressure, survival becomes incredibly selected for, often being prioritized over all else.
Sometimes I think we need to figure out how to rip and replace institutions quickly and efficiently. Every human collective or institution seems to have a shelf life beyond which it gets strangled by its own bureaucracy.
"What we've institutionalized is run to failure: we'll just keep doing more of what's failed spectacularly until the entire status quo collapses in a fetid heap of greed, self-interest and gross incompetence."
This is buried toward the end of the article but I think it's a big statement with massive consequences for many practical issues.
At this point we are all just living in The Wire all the time.
So many of our institutions have been corrupted from the inside but the more ruthless nature of careerism that’s taken over the modern world. Bond rating agencies endorse junk debt, doctors say opiates aren’t addictive any more, epidemiologists say the politics of your protest determine if it’s safe during a pandemic, elite educational institutions tell you going into crippling debt will be good for you.
Literally every institution, including ones supposed to serve the public, is rotting from the inside out from people bullshitting to keep their job or get promoted.
It's a bit of a stretch to group banks, Catholic churches, public schools, and city councils under the same heading of "Our Greatest Institutions". It's not even clear that their alleged decline has a common cause.
Having said that, I cautiously welcome our newfound lack of trust in these institutions. We have often given too much trust to those who hardly deserve it. Let them wither for another decade or two, hopefully to be replaced by a new set of open, global, and decentralized institutions.
It seems to be becoming the central theme of the early 21st century. How do we keep the institutions that are supposedly created for our benefit from doing the opposite?
Seems like you're describing a lack of integrity. I think it important that we remember, people / institutions / things that lack integrity tend to fall apart.
They have become heavily biased towards self-preservation over function.
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