America’s founders understood that all of us, including our leaders, are fallible; that errors are inevitable; and that mistakes can’t always be recognized as such in the moment. As a result, they realized, a stable nation must not seek to eliminate mistakes but strive to tolerate them. Almost all the founding principles of democracy – freedom of religion, freedom of speech, direct elections, political parties – reflect this commitment.
This echoes Nassim Taleb's argument that we need to forget about eliminating mistakes. We need to develop a system where the consequences of mistakes are a lot less damaging.
We need black swans that nip our heels rather than devour us.
No comments:
Post a Comment