THE LAUNCH DOCK

Structural Conflicts and the Quiet Power of Proximity

Systems Don’t Need Villains

Systems don’t require corruption to fail the public.
They only require familiarity.

When the same small circle of influence moves fluidly between civic boards, development authorities, advisory roles, and private enterprise, outcomes stabilize — regardless of who occupies which seat at any given moment.

Nothing illegal occurs.
Nothing dramatic happens.

And yet, the public consistently arrives after the future has already taken shape.

That is not coincidence.
It is structure.

This Is Not About Secrecy — It’s About Proximity

A structural conflict exists when influence accumulates through overlapping roles, even when disclosures are made and rules are technically followed (Thompson, 1993).

It emerges when:

• The same professionals advise, recommend, and later implement

• Economic development priorities are shaped long before formal approval

• Infrastructure planning quietly sets the ceiling for public choice

• Advisory authority substitutes for democratic distance

Disclosure documents influence.
Only distance limits it.

Why Outcomes Feel Predetermined

By the time the public encounters a proposal, it often arrives fully formed — not because of conspiracy, but because the groundwork was laid elsewhere.

Not in open meetings.
Not through public debate.

But through alignment.

Alignment of priorities.
Alignment of timelines.
Alignment of professional networks.

Each step is defensible.
Together, they eliminate alternatives.

This is how inevitability is manufactured.

Public–Private Partnerships and the Collapse of Separation

Public–private partnerships are not inherently flawed.
But they compress roles that governance depends on keeping distinct (U.S. Government Accountability Office [GAO], 2020).

They allow planning, promotion, and execution to coexist in the same ecosystem — reducing friction while also reducing accountability.

Efficiency increases.
Visibility decreases.

This is not a loophole.
It is a design choice.

Why Distance Matters More Than Disclosure

Ethical governance relies on distance for a reason.

Not because leaders are untrustworthy — but because proximity shapes outcomes whether anyone intends it to or not.

When recusal is optional and advisory influence is informal, the system remains legal while public trust weakens (OECD, 2015).

Communities sense this intuitively.

That is why they stop asking who broke the rules
and start asking why the rules keep producing the same result.

Land Remembers What Systems Forget

The Beth Winter Prairie Nature Trail stands as a quiet contradiction.

A preserved remnant of Missouri prairie — publicly celebrated, educationally framed — existing alongside accelerating industrial permanence.

It asks an uncomfortable question:

Can land be honored symbolically while being functionally surrendered?

Indigenous nations who lived on and stewarded this land never separated use from responsibility (Whyte, 2017).

The Osage, Kickapoo, Shawnee, Ioway, Otoe, and Delaware peoples did not treat land as an asset class.
They treated it as relational — requiring restraint, renewal, and accountability.

Prairies were not “left alone.”
They were intentionally maintained (Missouri Department of Conservation [MDC], n.d.).

What modern systems call “underutilized,” Indigenous cultures recognized as balanced.

Why This Pattern Repeats in Rural Communities

Rural regions are not targeted because they are empty.

They are targeted because:

• Governance structures are thinner

• Oversight is fragmented

• Professional networks carry more weight

• Opposition emerges late

• Once momentum begins, leverage disappears

The model is portable.
The outcome is familiar.

What changes is only the map.

This Is Not Opposition — It Is Stewardship

Communities asking questions are not resisting progress.

They are asserting that:

• Proximity deserves scrutiny

• Influence should be bounded

• Land is not interchangeable

• Speed is not a virtue

• Memory is governance

When development cannot tolerate examination, the issue is not the public.

It is the process.

Closing: Distance Is the Missing Discipline

Power does not need secrecy.
It only needs proximity.

Land does not reset once committed.
Water does not recover on planning timelines.
Communities do not regain leverage after inevitability sets in.

Indigenous stewardship teaches what modern governance forgets:

Distance protects relationship.
Restraint sustains life.
Memory is responsibility.

If development is unavoidable, then transparency must be uncompromising.

Anything less is not efficiency.

It is erosion.

In solidarity,
Lyndsay LaBrier
Merchant Ship Collective
The Launch Dock

References

Missouri Department of Conservation. (n.d.). Missouri prairie ecosystems. https://mdc.mo.gov

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2015). Public sector integrity: A framework for assessment. https://www.oecd.org

Thompson, D. F. (1993). Understanding financial conflicts of interest. The New England Journal of Medicine, 329(8), 573–576. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM199308193290812

U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2020). Public–private partnerships: Key practices and oversight considerations. https://www.gao.gov

Whyte, K. (2017). Indigenous climate change studies: Indigenizing futures, decolonizing the Anthropocene. English Language Notes, 55(1–2), 153–162. https://doi.org/10.1215/00138282-55.1-2.153