Atlee – Page 7 – Public Intelligence Blog

31 May 2011: BBC Link corrected.

Dear friends,

The personal is political.

This is true in so many ways. I am part of my culture and social systems, and they are part of me, embedded in me. They shape how I think and act, how I respond, what I think is right and possible — and I, in turn, play my role in them, no matter what I do or don't do.

This isn't something I can escape. It is simply what is. What I CAN do is try to be aware of it, of how this dynamic plays out in my life and in the lives around me. And try to make that dynamic into something that enlightens, empowers, and frees me and us.

Among the most important 21st century “personal is political” dynamics is the increasing personalization of commodities and the commodification of our personal lives.

Continue reading “Reality Always Bats Last: Personal Political Pathos”

2011/03/252011/03/25

Tom Atlee on the US Budget Crisis

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Commercial Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, IO Multinational, Methods & Process, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Open Government, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Reform, Strategy

March 25, 2011

Info and Perspective on the Budget Crisis

Dear friends,

So much is happening under the guise of “the budget crisis” that I thought it might be useful to deconstruct this issue a bit.

Phi Beta Iota: Tom has produced a relatively long and meticulously documented essay

PART A: PRIMARY SOURCES OF THE BUDGET CRISIS

PART B: RATIONAL APPROACHES TO THE BUDGET CRISIS

PART C: IMPORTANT LINKS

Among us all, he is the most balanced and closest to the public soul.

Read entire essay….

2011/02/232011/02/23

Diversity in Wholeness: “We were made different to complete each other…”

Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

Dear friends,

Two remarkable presentations of our common humanity and shared predicament showed up in my email today. One is one of the most beautiful and intense videos I've ever seen and the other is a glimpse of the global spirit infusing the current uprisings in very diverse nations.

Blessings on our shared Journey…

Coheartedly,
Tom

============

1. The Human Planet … A spectacular video trailer of the BBC's ONE

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=2HiUMlOz4UQ&vq=large

Its fast-paced images of the archetypal energies and challenges of human life on Earth are riveting!

==========

2. From Cairo to Madison: Hope and Solidarity are Alive

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/21-11

by Medea Benjamin

==========

And a closing word for U.S.Americans, from Ralph Nader:

“In a country that has so many problems it doesn't deserve and so many solutions that it doesn't apply; all things are possible when people begin looking at themselves for the necessary power to produce a just society.”

______________________________

Tom Atlee, The Co-Intelligence Institute, POB 493, Eugene, OR 97440
http://www.co-intelligence.org / http://tom-atlee.posterous.com
Read THE TAO OF DEMOCRACY – http://www.taoofdemocracy.com and
REFLECTIONS ON EVOLUTIONARY ACTIVISM – http://evolutionaryactivism.com
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2011/02/192011/02/19

Participatory Budgeting Practices, Games, Resources

03 Economy, Budgets & Funding, Collective Intelligence

Dear friends,

Recently I've seen a swirl of information (mostly on the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation listserv) about participatory budgeting. Below, you'll find a sampling of this info, in relatively raw form. I do not know enough to sort it all out, but it looks really fascinating.

Most of this material is about online public budgeting exercises, but some of it also describes the kind of face-to-face, seriously empowered mass-participatory civic budgeting processes developed in Brazil which have spread widely in the last decade or so.

I had no idea there was so much activity in this arena. Given

(a) the attention currently focused on the budget crisis,

(b) the dire impact of that crisis at all levels of government in so many places,

Continue reading “Participatory Budgeting Practices, Games, Resources”

2011/02/132011/10/22

EGYPT: Can Democracy by Randomly Revolutionized?

08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Collective Intelligence, Collective Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Peace Intelligence, Reform

Will Egypt Revolutionize Democracy Itself?

by Tom Atlee

Thomas Friedman suggests that the special strength of Egypt's youth-led revolutionary movement has been “the fact that it represented every political strain, every segment and class in Egyptian society.” But then he turns around and says that diversity “is also its weakness. It still has no accepted political platform or leadership.”

Of course, from a majoritarian electoral perspective, he's right. But perspective that may not provide the most potent and useful democratic approaches for Egypt's future — or ours.

If Egypt's 21st century revolutionaries want their revolution to turn the world, they will make this supposed weakness — their inclusive diversity — into the greatest strength of their emergent democracy. They will cherish, develop and institutionalize their cross-section diversity AS a political platform AND AS the principle underlying their new forms of democratic leadership.

My advice: Make random selection as fundamental to Egyptian democracy as majority vote will be. Properly institutionalized, random selection is harder to manipulate and co-opt than elections.
Continue reading “EGYPT: Can Democracy by Randomly Revolutionized?”

2011/02/062011/02/06

Tom Atlee on Congress 2.0: Empower the Public

About the Idea, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Open Government

YOU, TOO, CAN BE A CONGRESSPERSON

by Tom Atlee

Why would you want to become one? Here are four very enticing reasons:

Read full posting….

The alternative approach:

* You might have to advocate policies that would be hard on yourself, your constituents or your supporters — even temporarily. You might become unpopular. You might get assassinated or your plane might develop unexplained engine trouble and crash. You might even not get re-elected!

* You would actually have to face reality, get the facts, learn about complicated stuff like how complex systems work. (It's really unfortunate, but most of our thorny problems are all tangled up with complex systems that are tangled up with other problems, too. Yuck!!)

* You would have to listen to and work with people who see things differently from you. After all, they may know something that's important to take into consideration. That could be really unpleasant and take you far afield from your party line, out in the political boonies where the real danger lies.

* You just wouldn't get the same adrenaline rush you get when you stick with oversimplifications, grandstanding, being loved by your supporters, and launching juicy attacks on your enemies. There just aren't as many ego-strokes or perks available for working with others to deeply understand things and come up with what makes sense for the long haul.

Co-Intelligence Institute's Pledge for Politicians

Read full posting….

2011/01/29

SOCIAL SYSTEMS AND TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE

Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Officers Call

SOCIAL SYSTEMS AND TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE

by Tom Atlee

Transformational change depends primarily on changing social systems.

A social system — an economic or political system, for example — is how a society is organized. It is a pervasive and powerful pattern of social arrangements that shapes people's lives and interactions.

Any time we seek to do something with other people, we run into the structures, processes, institutions, technologies, and beliefs of our dominant social systems. These then powerfully shape and channel our efforts.

If we want to get or give a product or service, we have to use the economic system — which in the dominant form usually involves money, buying and selling. If we want to change a law or a war, we have to use the political system — which in the dominant form usually involves fighting against those who oppose us and convincing politicians we have votes or dollars to influence their next election.

Whenever we try to do something with others, we have to use the existing systems — or else create new systems that those other people will use with us.

. . . . . . .

The only way to change this, to reduce this habitual co-creation of messes, destruction, suffering, apathy, insanity and catastrophe, is to change the social systems that create them — or, more accurately, change the social systems that cause US to co-create these problems over and over and over again.
Continue reading “SOCIAL SYSTEMS AND TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE”