Most Americans are moderates. So Why do we keep electing extremists? There's got to be a better way. The Centrist Project may be gaining traction.
Michael Maxsenti: The Centrist Project
AccessJoe Quirk: Seasteading – Aquapreneurs
Access, Crowd-Sourcing, Culture, Design, Innovation, Knowledge, P2P / Panarchy, Politics, Resilience, ScienceMichael Kearns: TruthOut on Time to Talk About the Next System
Access
It's Time to Talk About the Next System
Cecilia Gingerich, TruthOut, 31 March 2015
EXTRACT
It follows that for a systemic crisis, relief will come only through systemic solutions. This means structural changes to the political and economic systems, and a radical shift in social and cultural norms. Of course, accomplishing this will be no small task and will not look anything like the short-term, financialized growth of the 1990s. The necessary solutions will be distinct from those offered in the past and will require a significant amount of creativity and cooperation. These systemic solutions are the focus of a new project titled the Next System Project.
Continue reading “Michael Kearns: TruthOut on Time to Talk About the Next System”
SchwartzReport: Peter Thiel on the Death of American Democracy – Where He Is Right — And Wrong
Access, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government
This is about as clear a statement of the noncarbon generation high tech mogul perspective as I have read. The article also gives an accurate, I believe, critique as to where he is in error. Most fundamentally I think Thiel has confused process and specific circumstances. I think democratic government can work very well. It certainly does so in many other countries. There is a reason why Danes are happy, and Americans are not. It is not working well here because of corruption, unlimited money in politics, and the Republican gridlock that has produced, and the compromised nature of our regulatory agencies. There is nothing wrong with the Founders' vision, and everything wrong with its execution. American politics is to the Founders' democratic republic as Fundamentalist Pre-millennial Dispensationlist Christianity is to Jesus' teachings.
Why PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel thinks American democracy is dead
Jean Lievens: Beyond the market-state – decentralising power in a sharing society
Access, Design, Economics/True Cost, Governance, P2P / Panarchy, Politics
This is broadly in line with what P2P theorist Michel Bauwens refers to as the partner state – a reformed governmental apparatus that builds on the welfare state…
Beyond the market-state: decentralising power in a sharing society
CONCLUSION: Resilient and socially inclusive communities can clearly play an immediate role in the great transition that still lies ahead, but it will remain impossible to establish economic systems that are structurally just and truly sustainable until political power is radically decentralised – especially at the national and global level – and wealth is distributed more equally throughout society. By recognising the global roots of our local struggles, those working towards local alternatives to economic globalisation therefore have a central role to play in democratising our governance systems from the top down as well as the bottom up.
Open Agriculture Data Alliance
Access, Cloud, Data, Design, Innovation, Resilience, Transparency
Open Agriculture Data Alliance
Modern production agriculture has the potential to dramatically improve crop yields and reduce environmental impacts by enabling farmers to properly evaluate past, current and future farm management decisions through analysis of agronomic data generated in the field. However farmers are currently overwhelmed with walled gardens of incompatible data generated by their existing systems (geodata images, logs, reports, charts). Farmer’s want the hardware and software systems they use to interoperate – that is, to share information and be able to adequately rely on each other to help support decision-making. Learn more.
Independent Voter Network: 8 Reforms to Fix Politics in the United States
Access, Civil Society, Ethics
8 Reforms to Fix Politics in the United States
Three of the eight elements are now in public consciousness – our task is to nurture a public conversation about all eight – together – and now, in 2015.
Independent Voter Network, 24 March 2015
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