Marie C. Cassandra

Just finished listening to: Freakonomics Radio episode “He’s One of the Most Famous Political Operatives in America. America Just Doesn’t Know It Yet.”

Steve Hilton was the man behind David Cameron’s push to remake British politics. Things didn’t work out so well there. Now he’s trying to launch a new political revolution – from sunny California.

Steve Hilton’s central premise that government and institutions have become too far removed from the people they are supposed to serve completely resonated with me. We try to use data and higher level thinking to organize into ways that we hope will be more effecient and beneficial overall, but when you design a system that tries to be a catch all for everyone you wind up with something that is not really working well for anyone. In this world of machine computation let’s use the machines to do the computational heavy lifting and focus on being More Human to each other. And hey, whaddya know – that’s the title of his book. It also has the subtitle “Developing a World Where People Come First”.

Look, politics and Steve Hilton himself may be touchy and controversial subjects, but we can all get behind that sentiment, right?

Give it a listen: http://www.wnyc.org/story/most-famous-political-operatives-america-doesnt-know-yet/ and let me know what you think!