Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Bullying 2

In a comment to my previous post on Root Cause, Robin Wilton makes a useful point about anonymity. Thanks Robin.

One of the interesting things about this particular proposal is that it is not the anonymity of the bully that is at issue but that of the victim. Honest schoolchildren (!?) are supposedly protected against bullying (!?) by giving them a card that cannot be stolen (!?) because it contains a photograph and other identity information (!?).

As readers of Robin's blog will know, "identity" happens to be his specialist subject, and I expect he can see even more flaws in this "solution" than I can. He has discussed many other proposals like this in his blog.

Update: Robin has just posted another similar example, in which honest citizens are urged to engrave their postcodes on their car windscreens, apparently as a deterrent against theft.

But I don't think it is enough for us to shake our heads in despair at the folly of politicians and others. The important analytical work is to expose and challenge the world-view in which this kind of proposal appears to make sense. And this analysis needs to be communicated to a broad intelligent audience beyond the blogosphere.

The mission of the POSIWID blog is stated in the margin, but you may not have looked at it recently, so I'll repeat it here.
When we understand the complex loops that maintain the status quo, we are better equipped to make positive changes in organizations and society.
With your help, dear readers, I hope we can make POSIWID more effective in 2007.

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