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00756: Fwd: Wise Democracy Weekend Wrapup

From: Miroslav Kolar <wddm(at)mkolar.org>
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2006 02:29:42 -0700
Subject: Fwd: Wise Democracy Weekend Wrapup

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.

I recommend to read some information on this subject:
http://www.wisedemocracy.org/
http://www.co-intelligence.org/P-wisdomcouncil.html
http://www.co-intelligence.org/CIPol_CCCandDD.html
And find more links in the forwarded report below.

What do you think about it?

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.

Thank you for participating!
www.WiseDemocracyVictoria.com



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