Civil Society – Page 215 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/07/302011/10/22

Tom Atlee: Citizens Panel Cuts 2.2 Trillion in One Hour

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, IO Deeds of Peace, Methods & Process, Military, Policies

Dear friends,

The 160-person British Columbian Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform took every other weekend for a year to research and reach consensus on the best method for their province's election process.

The fourteen citizens in a Danish Consensus Conference take several weekends over several months to learn about their assigned technical issue and come up with shared recommendations for Parliament and the public.

A 24-person Citizen Initiative Review of the kind now institutionalized in Oregon takes a week to figure out how to best advise voters on a given ballot initiative.

Similar Citizens Juries on all kinds of subjects also take about a week.

The dozen citizens selected for MACLEAN'S magazine's 1991 “People's Verdict” deliberations took just three days to come up with a lengthy vision for Canada's future direction.

A Wisdom Council often takes just two days to come up with a consensus statement sharing their concerns and dreams for their community.

Hundreds or thousands of people in a 21st Century Town Meeting take one day to make decisions on the issue that they have been assigned.

And now ABC News gave five citizens of diverse political beliefs one hour to solve the deficit crisis that Washington can't seem to resolve in months. This small group's success is the special feature of this e-mailing, so check out ABC's very short video (2:43) about it

Continue reading “Tom Atlee: Citizens Panel Cuts 2.2 Trillion in One Hour”

2011/07/30

Dolphin: Libyan Rebel – We Want the Green Flag Back

05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Articles & Chapters, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Movies, Peace Intelligence

How many times has the West encouraged rebels–going back to the Warsaw ghettos–only to leave them to die in the lurch? When motives are less than pure, both those being supported and those doing the supporting are on shaky moral ground, and opening Pandora's Box, which always includes third parties with their own agendas, empowered by Western destabilization to muck about on their own.

Libya , Ashraf General Younis son : We want the green flag back

Abdel Fatah Younis Assassinated By Rebels: Rebel Officer

Witnesses: Commander Killed by Fellow Libya Rebels

Libya rebels say Younis killers were ‘Islamist element'

Close Friend Claims General Younis was Betrayed

NATO bombs Libyan TV transmitters

2011/07/29

John Robb: Failure of the Global System Soon?

Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Key Players, Policies

JOURNAL: Early Failure of the Global System

It's impossible to fully measure the impact of disruptive attack on a complex system until it actually plays out. Why? There might be hidden negative or positive feedback loops in the system that either dampen or accelerate the initial damage of the disruptive attack. That's the problem with the fight in the US Congress over the debt ceiling. The system that is being upset is soooo complex that we don't have a clue what the damage will be or how much damage has already been done until it plays out.

What we do know is that the financial and economic system that is being disrupted is extremely leveraged. Further, the entire global economy is entirely dependent on massive deficit spending just to avoid another collapse. Which means that nearly any disruption can result in damage far in excess of the original attack. It is also tightly coupled on a global level. This means that any event in Washington can quickly spread to the rest of world in seconds. The best analogy I can think of at the moment is a pilot of an F-16 trying to rewire his cockpit's instrumentation while in a high G turn to evade a bogey on his six. Needless to say, it's unlikely to end well.

The only silver lining I can take from this is that all of the factors causing a slow unwind of the current system have the potential of being accelerated. That's good? Yes, if only for one reason. We're not as bad off as we would be in a couple of years if this current trajectory continued. The problems would only be worse and our ability to recover from them less.

Regardless, take this opportunity to really think about how you can make a living and protect your family in a full blown global economic depression with all of its negative consequences. A six month stockpile of canned/freeze dried goods and two dozen boxes of ammo won't get you through it. You need a real game plan.

2011/07/29

Koko: Russia’s President Wants Educational Games

06 Russia, Academia, Advanced Cyber/IO, Articles & Chapters, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Policies

Russia's President is on to something, with the observation that the best history games would not focus on what was, but on what might have been had true cost information been embedded at each point in time.

Russia's prez wants educational World of Warcraft history game

DVICE.com, 29 July 2011

While the Chinese love World of Warcraft so much they're using them as punishment in labor camps, Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev wants to make a similar game to teach people about Russian history.

Somebody give this guy a chest-bump and a double high-five. Unlike most Presidents, Medvedev is a young guy. He's in tune with pop culture and “what's in” and “cool” and aims to aggressively use new mediums such as MMORPGs as an educational tool.

Speaking at a gathering of Russia's cultural and science councils, Medvedev said:

“I've checked what our youth are playing with, and most games are pseudo-historical and fantasy-based.”“Take ‘World of Warcraft.' … It's not all about destruction. It has a subtext about developing human civilization.”

“We could try to make something similar if it's so popular — not globally, perhaps, but at the domestic level.”

Medvedev's idea comes as Russia prepares to celebrate its 1,150th anniversary of statehood next year.

Using video games to drill historical facts into heads? If we had a WoW knock-off when we were still in high school, maybe we'd have been less apt to cutting class to hang underneath the football field bleachers where the “evil” lurked.

2011/07/29

Tom Atlee: Abundant Democracy Resources

Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Open Government, Peace Intelligence, Policies, Reform

Dear friends,

In 2001 the Co-Intelligence Institute released a breakthrough compilation of more than 100 democratic innovations. At that time there was no other comparable resource on the web.

This year we decided — and began — to update this list, to fix its broken links, to add new innovations and resources, and to make it into a wiki to allow other people to add democratic innovations they knew about. You can see our initial progress online.

While preparing a grant proposal to expand the project, we researched the web for other lists of democratic and participatory practices and resources. We were surprised to find quite a few.

We decided that to add the most value in the context of this great wealth of resources, our project should

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2011/07/282011/07/28

Secrecy News: ACLU to Congress on Curbing Secrecy

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, White Papers

ACLU: CONGRESS MUST ACT TO CURB SECRECY

“Congress must take the lead in challenging the laws and practices that have allowed excessive secrecy to become the dominant feature of our national security culture,” the American Civil Liberties Union urged in a new report on government secrecy.

“The excessive secrecy that hides how the government pursues its national security mission is undermining the core principles of democratic government and injuring our nation in ways no terrorist act ever could,” wrote Mike German and Jay Stanley, the authors of the ACLU report. “It is time for Congress to make the secrecy problem an issue of the highest priority, and enact a sweeping overhaul of our national security establishment to re-impose democratic controls.”

The report provides a fluid account of current secrecy policy, along with a critique from first principles as well as from recent experience. Highly readable and thoroughly footnoted, the 51 page report covers a spectrum of secrecy issues, from the state secrets privilege to secret law to the role of national security whistleblowers, and a lot more. It concludes with a menu of recommended reforms that Congress could and, the authors say, should undertake.

The title of the report sums it up: “Drastic Measures Required: Congress Needs to Overhaul U.S. Secrecy Law and Increase Oversight of the Secret Security Establishment” by Mike German and Jay Stanley, July 2011.

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2011/07/272011/07/27

Koko: Americans Elect – Electoral Theft Part IV

07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Misinformation & Propaganda

At this time, while espousing the most laudable goals, Americans Elect reeks of subterfuge. Electoral Theft I was Florida in 2000. Electoral Theft II was Ohio in 2004. Electoral Theft III was Obama in 2008. And now we have Americans Elect.

Here are a few stories documenting their connections with Michael Bloomberg and NO LABELS, the tragic farce that ended with a silly song. Hedge-fund money, New York City roots.

Headlines with links below the line.

Continue reading “Koko: Americans Elect – Electoral Theft Part IV”