Can Anyone Reshape the State?

European Straits #155

Hi, it’s Nicolas from The Family. Today, I’m reflecting on Dominic Cummings’s ambition of reshaping the British state to make the most of Brexit.

Today’s issue is about reshaping large organizations in the context of the current paradigm shift. It was triggered by the British political climate.

You might know about Dominic Cummings, the architect of the victorious Leave campaign in 2016 and now Boris Johnson’s special advisor in Downing Street. He became well-known after Netflix released a movie about him—he’s been “cumberbatched” 😅 I myself, however, don’t know him well. From afar I admit I long saw him as a mere non-racist version of Steve Bannon 🤔

Trying to read Cummings’s prose hasn’t helped, as I find it quite inaccessible (see his indigestible essay on education and political priorities). “Too many notes,” was my initial reaction. But to be more precise, Cummings is like those teenagers learning to play the bass guitar and trying to play as fast and furiously as Billy Sheehan (a …