A systems analysis of democracy

A hotel manager, overwhelmed with guests’ complaints about slow elevators, turned to elevator companies for expertise. The experts tweaked the elevators, but the slow elevator complaints continued.

A systems analyst staying there got wind of the complaints and told the manager, “You don’t have an elevator problem.” “I think I do, smart guy. If not elevators, what is it?” “You have a complaints problem. I’ll think about it and give you a solution tomorrow.”

His solution? Put full-length mirrors next to every elevator. The manager reluctantly agreed to try it. The complaints stopped once guests could admire themselves in mirrors until the elevators arrived.

That’s an example of systems analysis — an alternative to knee-jerk problem solving. Might it help us save democracy and newspapers?

Newspapers are so much more than newsprint. Like a library one walks by but never enters, they are a valuable potential resource for every business, organization, profession, home, school, and individual — as The Gazette’s 2024 “Impact Report” detailed.

So why are there 3,200 fewer papers than 10 years ago? Lack of cash? That’s a slow elevators approach.

Where else to look? How about Madison Avenue’s ad agencies?

Men were the primary consumers of cigarettes in the early 1920s. Women who smoked were considered vulgar, immoral, promiscuous, “fallen” women” — even given police warnings. One half of the potential market!

How to respond? Tell women about the quality of the tobacco? The industry’s contribution to North Carolina’s economy?

No, the ads said less about tobacco than today’s car ads explain engines. A goal for many women was appearing “thin.” So Lucky Strike advised women to “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet” — and watched its market share double. Women seeking the right to vote responded to “Women! Light another torch of freedom! Fight another sex taboo!”

Tobacco’s targeting children with an addictive product assured years of profit — like a medicine you’re told to take for the rest of your life.

Starting young makes a difference. Tiger Woods first swung a club when he was 18 months old. A five-year-old Caitlyn Clark was already playing basketball.

Newspapers may not be addictive, but they are habit forming. Children growing up in homes and schools with newspapers are more likely to be lifelong subscribers.

To maintain a democracy, and its newspapers, we need to recall advocates’ rationale for public schools: civics education is democracy’s required course. It helps if students have studied the Constitution. But all talk with neither action nor rewards won’t sustain democracy.

Did kids buy torn jeans because their legs were too warm — or was it a way to buy group acceptance?

What do school children want that reading newspapers, and participating in democratic action — within their schools and neighborhoods — might bring them? Better lunch? Later start time? Popularity? Leadership?

Within the answers to those questions lies the future — or extinction — of our democracy and its newspapers.

Nicholas Johnson is the author of Columns of Democracy. mailbox@nicholasjohnson.org, website: nicholasjohnson.org