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01550: Re: [WDDM] Book Review

From: Michael Stansfield <pure_democracy(at)yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 18:24:18 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: [WDDM] Book Review

Doug, thanks so much.  I really appreciate your time in this.  I'm heading out of town for the holidays till the 28th and won't have access to email for about a week.  But your comments make sense.
 
Talk to you all soon,
 
Michael :)

----- Original Message ----
From: Doug Everingham <dnevrghm(at)powerup.com.au>
To: wddm@world-wide-democracy.net
Cc: mochelle(at)acenet.net.au; rossin(at)tin.it
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 12:05:27 AM
Subject: Re: [WDDM] Book Review

Michael,

I've copied extracts from the text of your attachment and inserted
comments marked  DE: ...  –  DE.
Sorry that I had time for only the first few pages, so have erased most
of your message.

    –    Doug
====
Chapter I:  Democracy
Fundamentals............................................................
..................... 5

Chapter II: Direct Democracy and the need for national
law............................................ 43

Chapter III: Economic Infrastructure and the evolution of the modern
state.................... 89

Chapter IV: Law Enforcement and the National
Military............................................... 132

Chapter V: World Peace and the preservation of cultural
identity.................................. 167

The Starting line…. Ready, Get Set,
Go…
.....................................................................
214


Chapter I
Democracy Fundamentals
    ...
    ...    Democracy in its elemental form relies on the common people, to
affect the minds of the many individuals, expecting them to make the
right, correct decisions for their society.   When you understand
this,  then you know that voting is a privilege, not a right.   That
is, it is not a privilege based on land ownership, wealth, or power,
but rather it is based on maturity and character.  As we look at the
first of these elements, maturity, we understand that there are
individuals that are not yet ready for this responsibility, because
they have not reached an age of more mature understanding.

A young child can be taught many things, but until he has reached an
age of mental maturity, it may be difficult for him to understand
theoretical concepts about policies of government.  Similarly, in much
the same way, a child needs its parents in order to survive, learn, and
grow to a certain age when it is ready to move out into this world on
its   Think of it in these terms:  if one were to remove a six-year-old
from his or her home--its nest, so to speak, known from its earliest
childhood, then the child most assuredly would not survive on his own.

We also understand that different individuals mature at different
rates.  Therefore the freedom to alter or make alterations to one’s
society depends on a person’s maturity to leave the nest and fly on
one’s own.  Yet as foundations of any government are developed, one
cannot say with certainty, when, exactly, some particular person has
reached a general state of maturity.  Thus, we need some standard,
practical form of measurement that will show when and if an individual
has reached a general level of maturity, a point at which that person
will be responsible and fully accountable for the decisions that will
change, alter, and guide society.  After all, if you ask a six-year-old
boy if he is ready to be a man, if he is anything like the children I
have known, he will always say that he is totally ready and eager to do
just that, but the reality is a different story.  So then, for every
goal we want to achieve, we need to develop practical application
guidelines including whatever is necessary in order to achieve that
goal.
     ...    n has reached this stage of development at the point of gaining
full-time employment, attending college,  or moving out of the parental
nest.  We can say this because each one of these achievements in its
own way promotes responsibility, courage, and self-reliance     ...     .
People with drug and other addictions or certain abnormal mental
conditions (depending on there severity), may definitely need help from
their society ... the hope is that with time and the right treatment
they will one day be able to leave .. drawing a distinction between
those in society that have been forced to deal with their dependency
issues through government law enforcement, such as, drinking and
driving apart from those people who voluntarily, courageously seek
self-help.

...    At the age of eighteen, in most cases, a person is no longer tried
in court as a child, ... can now join the military, attend jury
service, or even vote.  Also, a parent is no longer required by law to
provide food and shelter to a person eighteen years of age or older.
....  Maturity, by definition, should be determined by an action, or a
series of actions, or other character-driven events.   ... an earned
privilege rather than an automatic entitlement, as proven historically,
creates a powerful incentive for good behavior, which is then
manifested by positive practical results.

Unfortunately, there are persons in society that have proven by their
criminal acts that they have not earned the privilege of being a part
of society’s decision making processes.  This is not to say that they
are unintelligent, but often their energy and purposes are not aimed at
bettering our society, but rather, through deceptive manipulations to
build a lesser subculture that they imagine will further their own
selfish endeavors and ends.  Instead of being straight, positive
contributors, their parasitic distortions turn aside the general
good....  On the other hand, people can be--and sometimes
are--imprisoned for intentionally violating laws they see as unjust....

Due to the essential significance of this exception, and others as
well, any failures, even to a small extent, in how matters are set up
for law-creation in this better system of government—law-creation being
the core element in any attempt for direct democracy--could undermine
or erode, dissolve the whole system.  Therefore,  the essential
freedoms and civil liberties of the average person, the “man on the
street,” should be the cornerstone of any attempt at direct democracy
as a form of government.  All we have presently done is to set in place
the natural boundaries in society on who should participate in the
law-creation process.  The first of these boundaries, then, is
maturity, such that for a person to be able to fly, he or she must have
the maturity to leave the nest.  The second, after this “bird” has left
the nest, it can spread its wings and fly on its own, while at the same
not abuse anyone someone else’s right to life on the wing.
     ...
    DE: You seem to have omitted the definition of the second boundary.
DE.
    ...
For practical reasons there must also be a third boundary.  To
participate in any democratic form of government, people must be
citizens, either through birth or immigration,     ...
A republic as a form of government, unlike a direct democracy, produces
a fourth boundary ... it relies on elected persons known as
representatives to represent the will of the people from the city or
town where they were elected.  But when the elected representative
fails to see his or her constituents as persons, each with different
needs and values,  and starts seeing them instead as a whole body of
people to be represented, then the core uniqueness and creativity
inherent within each and every one of us--at least in practical
political terms--is lost.  ...  a person has to communicate by going to
the  representative and telling that person one’s opinions ... hoping
that the elected representative acts, sometime soon, on those
concerns    ...
Does the core dream and passion in your representative’s heart have the
same scope, uniqueness, and creativity as your own?  ...  it is a
representative’s soul responsibility is to represent these people.
...    Democracies of ancient Greece, ...  citizens had the ability to
totally alter the government’s design and structure, ... options could
be chosen at any given meeting, decisions often were made rashly, ...
Quiet, physically weak, or shy people would feel intimidated, ...
Madison once said:

Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention;
have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights
of property; and have in general, been as short in their lives as they
have been violent in their deaths.
 ...  The issue with direct democracy from the republicans (i.e., those
who favor instead the republic form of government), is the notion that
direct democracy means rule by the mob.  ...

We could all agree, I think, that good decisions are based on sound
data and research, which is then considered carefully, with all the
time necessary, in a safe, unthreatening environment. ...

    ...    democratic institutions of government began to form that to some
degree addressed the challenges faced by those first democracies.
...to place state and local propositions on the ballot. ... town hall
meetings, to peaceably assemble, and to petition ... freedom of
religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press
    ...    .  Propositions, by their design and structure, place more
emphasis upon the individual and less emphasis on the group
decision-making process.  This meant ... the monumental task of
collecting enough ratifying signatures from the people in his county,
city, or state.  Then there are the months of decision-making time and
debate within the electorate before the vote...:  (1) the writing of
proposals, (2) the prioritizing of proposals, and (3) the passage of
law.  ... analyze each element by itself and also in that way better
able to amplify the goals that they are attempting to achieve.  Also,
we can understand better why the failure of the first democracies to
separate these processes into their separate, constituent parts lead to
their downfall.

    ... we must begin by narrowing a single person’s focus.  ...s.  The
first kind of research is that conducted by one person. The second kind
of research is that conducted by a group.  The third involves learning
from the wisdom of others.    ...

    ...    let’s consider ..., after collecting a thousand (or many
thousands of) signatures, a challenge with, or much-needed improvement
to, the proposition for the ballot is discovered.  At this point it is
too late ...  the person or persons who develop proposals must reach
what we may refer to as completion of thought, before the signature-
gathering process needed to place the proposal on the ballot.  To do
this, we can further divide the proposal-writing element into its
constituent subcomponents.  The first subcomponent is the original idea
or the spark of insight in which the proposal has its beginning.  The
second subcomponent is the research done on an individual level or
though a group to develop and completely cultivate the original idea.
After everyone in the group—which is to be made up of at least five
cosponsors--believes that they have reached a conclusion, or the
individual studying on his own has successfully petitioned (for
example)  a hundred individuals in favor of a proposal, either the
group or the individual may then take their idea to the governing body,
such as city hall.
     ...
    DE: This panel of 5 seems to me too arbitrary. Less fixed numbers are
typically developed by nested networks of stakeholders in management
and representation as documented by  www.sociocracy,biz,  Shann
Turnbull etc.    –    DE.
    ...
    ... it is important that a nonpartisan individual or group look over
the proposals submitted to note areas of concern or areas of the
proposal that need clarification.  It is also important that these
nonpartisan individuals have some background knowledge about the issues
under discussion....  A natural choice might often be the college and
university system.
    ...    .  We started with an idea.  We conducted research on that idea by
ourselves, individually, or we did so as a part of a group.  Then we
had an independent observer critique the idea presented, and offer
advice, until we had refined the proposal to the point that we were
prepared to defend it in debate.  In society at large the most
professionally polished individuals for debate are generally lawyers,
and their usual forum is the courtroom.  Historically trials are
designed around the supposed guilt or presumed innocence of an
individual, business, or government entity.  The type of “trial” that I
now propose is a trial of ideas, and it takes place between the
individual or group who developed the proposal, the District Attorney,
and twelve “jurors” selected at random from the community1.  This final
element I call Causa Enim Novo, which is a Latin term meaning Case for
Change, but the phrase could also be translated as Cause for Invention.
     ...
    DE: Part of this process or something similar emerges with "ombudsman"
or administrative review tribunals, but like the 5-member panel I think
more internal and external checks and balances along the lines of
sociocracy, ESOPs and the MCC (Mondragon Corporacion Cooperativa) are
more flexible and 'organically' integrated with rule-making and
implementing groups.    –    DE.
    ...
The signature-gathering process as it stands has a second real
challenge.  ...
.
In the first element, the writing of proposals, we set about to find
and establish ways to amplify the effectiveness of the way the
proposals are to the general public.  In so doing we limited the number
of proposals in circulation while not limiting anyone that was really
committed to the law-creating process.  At the end of the process we
left the signature-gather requirement needed to a jury of twelve
individuals.  Using the jury option also allows us to winnow out
proposals with merit that show potential or promise and will most
likely be supported by the community.  Using the Internet, it is
possible to let the general public submit their signature to any
proposal that received an equal or majority vote from the “Causa Enim
Novo” trial.  Remember, this is different from the final voting, which
is the last element we have yet to discuss.  Effectively through this
online forum any person can look at the proposals that are available in
their community and place their signature next to the ones they wish to
see on the ballot.  There is no need to be online all the time, and yet
this method has the same strengths of the Internet in that one may look
at the proposals available and submit one’s signature to the proposals
that look good.   This brings a democratic system of government right
into your life, right where you live.  In some small but significant
way it also puts the responsibility of government into each person’s
hands but without the feeling of being compelled to stay online all the
time to participate.  Beyond that, it provides each one with the
ability to review, study, and research each proposal, according to the
need. Finally, there is something else this method does as well.  For
those who are shy and introverted, they have the power to submit their
own proposal, provided that their proposal received a majority vote
from a jury of their peers.  Then their idea will be placed online and
they can let the idea speak for itself.
    ...
    DE: The internet is developing a method of collating, merging,
sifting, modifying and feedback of proposals.
[In my case if 60 emails arrive today I an likely to erase 10 due to
lack of time or lack of  sympathy with the listed sender or subject,
then read in some detail statements circulated to discussion or action
groups which include me as a communicator or member, then relay or
revise material for relaying to groups that I hope will be interested,
Eventually I may include among these specialist addresses gathering
petitions, updating specialized news topics etc.]    –    DE.
    ...
    ...t we must also provide ways for allowing the law to be expanded
beyond these bounds ... perhaps nationwide.
    ...
    DE: And world wide for justice and environmental issues straddling
borders.  –  DE.
    ...
    ...    allowing other communities to place the proposal on the ballot
for their different communities with only a small fraction of the
number of required signatures
    ...
=================
I'm sorry,


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