11 October 2019: Participate in political life

How do we create a stronger and healthier society? My belief, based in part on complexity theory, is that all of us have to participate more. We can't just sit back and expect others to do the work. As more of us get involved, we create networks of interactions that have a strength of their own. New ideas emerge and people are inspired and motivated to become even more involved. This also makes our society more resilient to problems that arise.

Specifically, here is what I think all of us should do:

1. Become involved in a political campaign. Pick a candidate at some level of government and get involved. You can collect signatures, make phone calls, work in the office, pass out literature, raise money or do something else, but it is important for candidates to feel an obligation to we the people, instead of to political action committees. In addition, it is important for all of us to know that we are part of the political process.

2. Keep in touch with your elected officials. There may be too many to be in touch with all of them, but we should write or meet with at least one of them on a regular basis. They need to know we are watching them.

3. Pick a governmental institution or an issue and get involved. It could be the schools, the library or a park. It could be women's rights, climate change, seniors or taxes. But this is part of our responsibility as citizens - it is our government, we are the owners and we have to exercise some oversight.

4. Register to vote, actually vote and encourage others to do so. Although some states have made the process easier, that doesn't necessarily mean people will vote, see https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-happened-when-2-2-million-people-were-automatically-registered-to-vote/. Most elected officials really, really want to get reelected. When they do things we don't like, it is because they think it won't hurt their reelection chances. But when we take the above steps, we make them more accountable to us.