Dear all!
I'd like to turn your attention again to Wisdom councils.
Again - after my recent report about Richard Moore's tour of British
Columbia, and his own details to which not much reaction was received.
Most of us feel that for DD to work well, a new way of thinking has
to spread among the citizens.
In those US states where referenda and initiatives got introduced
100 years ago, the process was made ineffective to various extent by
the influence of big money and by not providing the voters with enough
information to make good decisions.
We cannot expect a break though in E-democracy anytime soon - see
for example the recent post of Arjen Kamphuis.
Thus the only way forward seems to be to start rebuilding the
democracy from the community level. The Wisdom Councils seems to be
one of the ways that could bring good results. And if their proponents
are right, the Wisdom Council process should bring a profound change
in how citizens view the public matters - that so desired new way of
thinking - in a very short time of several years.
After Richard's tour, this past weekend (Nov. 10-12) the inventor
of the Wisdom Council (http://www.wisedemocracy.org/) concept Jim
Rough and the founder of Co-Intelligence Institute
(http://www.co-intelligence.org/ Tom Atlee themselves were holding a
series of presentations and workshops on "Wise Democracy" at the
University of Victoria, and on Sunday the actual organizing of the
Wisdom Council process for Victoria was initiated - see the detailed
report of the whole weekend at the end.
By the way, among about 80 participants of the Friday night initial
presentation was also the local MP Denise Savoie who is looking for an
efficient method to consult her constituents on how to vote on various
issues in the Federal Parliament (an intention very similar to Daniel
Rosen's Nevada Vote Direct Project; she was given the advise that
single-issue Citizens Juries would be more suitable for her purpose).
Mirek
----- Forwarded message from prana4(at)shaw.ca -----
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 14:46:11 -0800
From: Caspar Davis <prana4(at)shaw.ca>
Subject: Wise Democracy Weekend Wrapup
This email is going to everyone who signed up on Friday
night and to some other people whom I thought might be interested. We
plan to sent occasional informational updates to this list.If you do not want to receive
these updates, please reply to this message with REMOVE in the subject
line.
Wise Democracy Weekend
November 10-12, 2006 Introduction by Tom Atlee and Jim RoughFriday Evening, November 10
There were various counts of the attendance, but about 85 people were
there.
Caspar Davis welcomed everyone to the Wise Democracy Forum, explained
that the Victoria Branch of the World Federalist Movement had initiated
the process leading to this weekend because of their belief that global
democracy starts with local democracy, and provided some context for the
planned events.
George Sranko introduced the evening with Elizabet Sahtouris' story
(retold by David Korten) which describes the emergence of the butterfly
in its cocoon. First, the caterpillar actually dissolves, and the
resulting soup is reshaped by organizer cells into the form of the
butterfly – but not before the organizer cells are themselves harassed by
the remnants of the caterpillar's immune system. This is a wonderful
metaphor for the emergence of genuine or deep democracy, including both
the need for "organizing cells" (like Wise Democracy) and the
resistance likely to be felt from the existing system.
George introduced Tom Atlee, who enthusiastically recounted the Brian
Swimme/Thomas Berry vision of our evolution from the hydrogen created in
the Big Bang and the complex elements forged in supernovas. He also told
of his friends, Michael Dowd, an erstwhile fundamentalist preacher and
Connie Barlow, his scientist wife, who have written a book called
"Thank God for Evolution" and who travel in a van displaying a
Darwin fish kissing a Christian fish. Tom said that people acting
together are capable of both co-stupidity and co-intelligence, and that
the context determines which emerges. Co-intelligent processes
temporarily lift people to a higher state, where they are able to make
statements that can be used to carry social evolution forward. He said
that Wisdom Councils are a very effective tool for this purpose. Tom’s
website provides a wealth of information along these lines; see
www.co-intelligence.org
Jim Rough then provided a brief overview of the dynamics involved with
Wisdom Councils and recounted some stories of how Wisdom Councils had
been used successfully in different contexts to create a much higher
quality of community conversation. The extensive Q&A session
elaborated on these issues.
In retrospect, we realized that what was missing from Friday evening was
a concise explanation of what a Wisdom Council is and how the Wisdom
Council process works (see below).
Wisdom Council WorkshopSaturday, November 11
Approximately 30 people attended
We started with a round of introductions answering the questions,
"Who are you, and what brought you here?" This round lasted for
some time, and revealed that the participants were a very diverse group
with a wealth of experience under their belts. It also led rather
abruptly into a dynamically facilitated (by Jim Rough) session on the
question of whether the workshop would be recorded or not. Some people
found the facilitated session exhilarating, while others were mystified
and/or resentful of what they saw as an anarchic and possibly pointless
process. One of the “real” issues, we discovered during the process, was
that we had differing views on what comprised a democracy, i.e., a 50+1
majority, or a collaborative approach where all views are
integrated.
As lunchtime approached, Jim realized that some participants were
desperate for more context, and he described his theory of social
evolution:
"Civilized" political authority was originally organized on the
pyramidal model, which Jim depicts as a triangle. Power was person-based,
with the king on top, and loyalty to the king the overriding virtue.
In the 18th century, a very imperfect but radically innovative
"We the people" consisting of (only) propertied white males,
established a contract – the US Constitution – as the new basis for
political authority. This rules-based model, which Jim depicted as a box,
is based on a competition of self-interested parties. When it doesn't
work, people rebel, but so long as they stay inside the box they may
change elites but they do not change the system of competition among
self-interested parties. There is no real space for the common interest.
It is now time for the emergence of a conversation-based political regime
in which each participant is a co-founder of whatever emerges. Jim
depicts this as a circle, and he sees Wisdom Councils as the vehicle that
can take us out of the box and into the circle.
Box processes are self-limiting, and they can be managed by elites. But
circle processes are self-organizing. They cannot be managed, and they
are messy. There is no telling where they will go, but they always have
the potential to go to "of courses" – a place where all the
participants look at each other and say, "Of course. That is how it
is" (or how it must be changed). Square processes are "decision
making" – they are designed to choose among a range of recognized
options. Circle processes are "choice creating" – they are not
constricted by the recognized options but can create new – and better –
options that no one had thought of before, options that take account of
each person's concerns. (For more information, see Jim’s website
www.tobe.net and specifically,
http://www.wisedemocracy.org/papers/wisdom99.html).
After lunch Jean Rough, Jim's wife, (finally) described what the Wisdom
Council Process is, i.e.:
1. The holding of a Wisdom Council – an open-ended,
dynamically facilitated conversation among approximately 12 randomly
selected people.
2. A community meeting immediately following the
Wisdom Council at which the Wisdom Council reports to the full community
at a well publicized public meeting. The members of the Wisdom Council
also talk about their experiences in the Council. It has been found that
the energy and enthusiasm of the participants about the process energizes
the whole meeting, and kicks off
3. A larger conversation throughout a small community,
or in the churches, community groups, coffee shops, etc. of a larger
community.
4. Ongoing Wisdom Councils build on and contribute to
the momentum until the whole community is engaged in a new way of
relating to each other and to issues.
Jean then got into the organizational nuts and bolts, and about 15 people
said they would like to be involved in organizing a series of Wisdom
Councils.
Planning MeetingSunday, November 14
Eleven people met to begin the work of planning for a series of Wisdom
Councils. Six others had said they wanted to be involved but were unable
to attend the Sunday meeting. They will be notified of the next
meeting.
Next Meeting
The next meeting of the people interested in convening a wisdom
council for Victoria is scheduled for Saturday November 25th,
9-11 am. If you did not attend Sunday's meeting but would like to join
the planning group, please call Caspar Davis at 598-5917 or George Sranko
at 598u-0124.
Resources
A “group” listserv has been established to keep interested people
informed and to encourage networking throughout Vancouver Island; see
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/wise-dem-vic?hl=en. Those who
attended the Forum and left their email addresses will be automatically
contacted and invited to join the listserv.