I have worked for several months to develop the ideas in this article and to articulate them in an accessible way. They are fundamental understandings underlying the co-intelligence vision of a wiser democracy.
If the ideas intrigue you, you can find a longer version with more detailed guidelines and references online. I wrote the abstract below to make it easier for you to see the whole pattern at once. I hope you find both versions interesting and useful.
As a civilization we have tremendous collective power, but we don't always use it wisely. We can make good decisions, but we face messy, entangled, rapidly growing problems with complex, debatable causes. Efforts to solve one problem often generate new ones. We need more than problem-solving smarts here. We need wisdom.
A good definition for wisdom here is
the capacity to take into account
what needs to be taken into account
to produce long term, inclusive benefits.
To the extent we fail to take something important into account, it will come back to haunt us. But often we only realize we overlooked something long after our decision has been implemented. Certain practices – because they lead us to include more of what's important – can help us meet this challenge. Here are eight complementary ways to do this. The more of them we do, and the better we do them, the wiser our collective decisions will be. Continue reading “Tom Atlee: Making Wise Decisions on Public Issues”
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
SeizeDC.org —Citizens for Legitimate Government (CLG) calls for protest – SEIZE DC!SEIZE DC will begin on September 10, 2011, at noon, until finished. Why SEIZE DC? Endless, illegal, murderous and bankrupting war abroad; endless, brutal and bankrupting attacks on the vast majority at home–this is what we protest. How to SEIZE DC? We protest “peacefully,” although not passively. We do not accept marching orders. This is how we protest. [See Seize DC Endorsements.]
From 2003, making the rounds now among the earnest.
Product Description
A study of national security and military strategy by Col. Chester Richards (USAF Ret.), suggests that ancient strategic wisdom may help solve the dilemma confronting the U.S. military: spending on defense exceeds that of any combination of potential adversaries, but the services still face cancellation of weapon systems and lack of funds for training, spares, and care and feeding of the troops. Richards suggests U.S. military leaders can break out of the “dollars equals defense” mindset, and create more effective forces. The second edition contains a new forward written in response to the effects that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States have engendered in the U.S. military.
Free Online
From the Inside Flap
The author would like to thank General Charles Krulak, U.S.M.C. (Ret.), former Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Pat Garvey, NYNM, Charles A. Leader, Franklin C. Spinney, Major Don Vandergriff, U.S.A., Colonel Michael Wyly, U.S.M.C. (Ret.), and Major Chris Yunker, U.S.M.C. (Ret.) for their invaluable contributions and input. The views in the final product are those of the author.
I like your story line, if only because you reach a conclusion that closely parallels one of my own. Coming off a very different base, I found myself convinced that we are at the cusp of a transformative moment, caught between a control oriented, rationalistic awareness (consciousness) of ourselves and our world, verging into an interactive, self organizing consciousness. And “cusps” are always painful and disorienting, which would seem to be an accurate, albeit mild, characterization of our times.
— extract from the end advanced here—
The real issue was that The Millennium Organization was not a “new program” – it was a profound paradigm shift. And if Thomas Kuhn has taught us anything it is that paradigm shifts are counterintuitive, painful and always the last thing that anybody in their right mind would care to do. Even worse shifting paradigms is not something you can think or reason yourself into. You can’t plan it, design it, program it, manage it, nor control it. The journey forward follows a very different route. I believe there are any number of useful approaches – but none of them come from the Old Proactive Toolbox. I think.
Every now and then potentially game changing innovations show up. Wikileaks is one of them, something that shifts the relationship between centralized power and broader national and international populations. We don't know what exactly will happen with it, but we do know that we're on a different playing field now.
I want to highlight two other potential game changers.
