Grand Plans

I am convinced by most of what Virginia Postrel says in her book. Mostly, it is about the inability of any individual to come up with an all seeing plan that can capture the difficult to articulate knowledge of the ground level specialist. That having faith in and letting things develop can be better than trying to Orchestrate something over which you don't really have full control.

The bit I struggle I struggle with is something like the 'Three Gorges Dam'. From wikipedia:

The project management and the Chinese state regard the project as a historic engineering, social and economic success,a breakthrough in the design of large turbines,and a move toward the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.However, the dam has also flooded archaeological and cultural sites and displaced some 1.24 million people, and is causing significant ecological changes, including an increased risk of landslides.

The argument would be that no one could no the full costs and implications of such a project, and they forcibly removed more than a million people. The counter argument would be that you can't have huge, world changing projects like these with full co-operation and you need some sort of central planning.

I am starting to change my mind about how effective central planning can be, as I am not convinced that any plan can see down to the level of individuals. Similarly, I am almost convinced that the role of a leader is more effective if what they do is inspire individuals, who in fact no more than they do, to do something rather than telling them what to do.

Maybe grand plans aren't so grand?