It’s a far off fantasy to imagine that we have good systems in place that make and implement good policy. Fact is, time and again I overhear conversation that goes something like this:

“It won’t make a difference who I vote for” Thing One says as he sips his coffee.

“Nothing ever changes,” says Thing Two absentmindedly as they check their phone.

While technology advances at astounding speeds, it’s left institutions in the dust, and that’s not a tortoise and the hare comparison. Our hospitals and schools aren’t run by unicorns*, and our policy makers sure aren’t wizards. So what can be done to breach this gap?

I’m thinking of policy today because Trump continues to make the front cover of covers I tend to read, such as The Economist, or today, The Globe and Mail “Trump pulls U.S. from Paris climate accord, raising challenges for Canada.”

*Insert your own Trump cartoon drawings*:

Bubble 1: “There will be great policy, for all Americans” – Trump

Bubble 2: Trump (with pouty face) shreds all policy while congress and citizens look on aghast

Bubble 3: “With great policy comes great freedom” – Trump

Bubble 4: Trump walking away from pulpit “And my work as the most liberating President of the United States is done.”

Bubble 5 depicts: Line-ups at the hospital, kids running as school is out or full desks but no teachers, prisoners stacked up in jail like the how many people can you fit in a London telephone booth pics, rich people hiding behind big “Trump” walls….

– End. –

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, did it make a sound? If a policy is made, but it’s not implemented and enforced effectively, does the policy exist? We have all this great technology that makes information accessible, and change possible. What’s stopping us from achieving a better world, especially with all the technology available to connect us? Is it possible that technology is used too often for entertainment rather than for education and information? In a consumer marketplace, this may be the case.

*unicorns: privately held tech startups with valuations exceeding $1bn