Blake Pagenkopf: Rebooting Our Political Operating System

<p>In many PCs, the first software to run after hitting the power button is called BIOS (Basic Input-Output System). BIOS loads the computer’s operating system and the individual settings that make your personal computer so...personal. A malfunction at this most basic level leads to a cascade of <a href='https://itstillworks.com/signs-symptoms-of-a-bios-crash-10001.html'>other problems</a>, including error messages, poor performance, or refusing to boot at all.</p> <p>It’s important to get the foundational things right, and not just in our computers. For too long, says Blake Pagenkopf, author of <a href='https://www.amazon.com/Structure-Political-Positions-Examining-Calculations/dp/B086Y4GXQY/ref=pd_lpo_14_t_0/141-8708138-7613449?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B086Y4GXQY&pd_rd_r=4094457a-9af5-4a18-80f5-6bfa8b32ca1d&pd_rd_w=1DIuT&pd_rd_wg=ouziY&pf_rd_p=7b36d496-f366-4631-94d3-61b87b52511b&pf_rd_r=PCNHY5CNMKFBXYR2HACX&psc=1&refRID=PCNHY5CNMKFBXYR2HACX'>The Structure of Political Positions</a>, our political discourse has been hobbled by a fundamental error—an error not just in our language but in the structures beneath that language. In particular, we tend to locate ourselves and others as points on a single line, a Left-Right spectrum. But this one-dimensional paradigm is too limiting. There are too many data points that fall outside the conventional Left-Right political modes, says Pagenkopf. We need to reboot our politics with a fuller, richer way to frame our political disagreements. We need to upgrade our political BIOS.</p> <p>In today’s episode of the Strong Towns podcast, Strong Towns president Chuck Marohn talks with Pagenkopf about why we must transition from a one-dimensional view of political positions to a two-dimensional view—with a Values Axis (the familiar Left-Right/Liberal-Conservative line) but also a Power Axis, from “centralized” at the top to “citizen-based” below.</p> <p>Marohn and Pagenkopf talk about how Pagenkopf’s background in architecture helped him think differently about political posit