4.08.2013

Institutional habit

Sometimes issues with BIG institutions isn't a bad moral instinct as much as it is institutional habit.

This means that some things are difficult to change not because individuals are against the change, but because the methodology of an institution is configured in such a way as to make change very difficult.

In these case the best course of action is not to focus on the moral factors in the change, but rather on the institutional habit that is keeping it from changing.

An example of this would be the current military industrial complex. Regardless how cruel, inhumane or vital to our security it is the main reason it does not change is because 'the complex' is too big to close. In order to change the military industrial complex we must image other uses for the complex (the tightly knit industrial and consulting businesses) .

It's a bit tough I guess, but I'm thinking that institutional habit does not change as much as transitions.

Something like the war on drugs becomes the war on illegal handguns.