[P2P-F] Fwd: Review of Extreme Democracy - Underlies & Enhances #OWS

Thu Nov 24 23:03:33 CET 2011

If Reddit is any indication, when I give it my all narrow minds think I am
a used car salesman.  Here is what I and others are doing now:  We'd
certainly appreciate your help in getting some buzz in followers and
retweets.  very glad to have this dialog with you.
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On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 4:45 PM, Devin Balkind <devinbalkind at gmail.com>wrote:

> If this is so important why not put your time where your mouth is and
> organize?
>
> Anyone can make sparks by grinding two peices of metal together, but only
> engines make things move.
>
> Be the engine and make it happen, or at least document what's taking place
> thoroughly.
>
> I knapw you've been doing great and important work for decades but this is
> the last inning of game 1 of the world series and we need everyone to give
> it their all.
>
> DWB
>
> On Nov 24, 2011, at 3:08 PM, Robert Steele <
> robert.david.steele.vivas at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Electoral Reform is the only initiative that is:
>
> 1)  VERY attractive to all parties outside of Occupy [Independents,
> excluded political parties, union members, moderates angry at how the two
> party tyranny has destroyed the Republic
>
> 2)  Focused on the ROOT CAUSE, which is the total corruption of Congress.
> NO OTHER ISSUE matters in this context.
>
> 3)  ACHIEVABLE in 3-6 months if the electoral reform summit (has its own
> Twitter page now) comes off (Reform Party and Centrist Party may endorse),
> all 435 representatives are confronted during the holiday recess, the
> demand is made on 5 January, and we burn any representative that fails to
> co-sponsor the bill.  Obama cannot veto it.  This is DO-ABLE.
>
> I don't own this initiative, I'm just the spark plug, I certainly would be
> thrilled if you took an interest and used your powers and knowledge to move
> the initiatve into core consciousness.
>
> This is also a MODEL for Occupy global.
>
> Very respectfully,
> Robert
>
> On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 2:46 PM, Devin Balkind <<devin at sarapisfoundation.org>
> devin at sarapisfoundation.org> wrote:
>
>> Nearly everyone within OWS agrees we need to separate the state and the
>> corporations, end corporate personhood, etc.  What we need is for people
>> who have become comfortable sharing their ideas to engage in the often
>> uncomfortable task of organizing their communities into strong assemblies,
>> building consensus for their proposals and advancing it through their
>> assemblies and helping organizing the regional, national and international
>> movement so we can implement.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 12:45 AM, Michel Bauwens <<michel at p2pfoundation.net>
>> michel at p2pfoundation.net> wrote:
>>
>>> thanks Devin,
>>>
>>> I understand indeed that this is the process of ows, you have to go
>>> through the community as a contributor in order to get traction for any
>>> proposal,
>>>
>>> but I also understand that robert has people in different ows camps who
>>> agree with the separation of corporation and state platform,
>>>
>>> we'll see what comes out of it!!
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 4:53 AM, Devin Balkind <<devinbalkind at gmail.com>
>>> devinbalkind at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> There's a constant debate within ows about whether electoral politics
>>>> are relevant.  General consensus seems to me to be that the electoral
>>>> process has some relevance, but not enough to engage the movement to
>>>> organize for political ends.  People would prefer to organize their local
>>>> communities and rebuild civil society from the ground up, not reform
>>>> political society from the top down.  The people organizing Ows (in NYC at
>>>> least) appear to have very strong anarchist instinct but many don't
>>>> understand that term or take it seriously so there's a modest lack of
>>>> philosophical continuity; but that's being offset by the emergence of an
>>>> open source 'do-ocracy' where people who 'advance' in the informal
>>>> meta-organization are those who work well with others and get shit done.
>>>>  It's beautiful.
>>>>
>>>> If anyone wants to advance something in the #occupy movement such as
>>>> electoral reform, I suggest writing up your plan, passing it through your
>>>> local ga, implement locally, promoting it on the occupation's website (rss
>>>> is more important than social media) then do the same with your regional
>>>> ga's, and continue promoting it until you achieve the result that you seek.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> If you're not tirelessly advocating your position and advancing your
>>>> projects within the ows framework you're not engaging in the do-ocracy.  If
>>>> you're not engaging, don't be surprised when your ideas aren't implemented.
>>>>
>>>> DWB
>>>>
>>>> On Nov 23, 2011, at 1:41 PM, Michel Bauwens <<michel at p2pfoundation.net>
>>>> michel at p2pfoundation.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>>> From: Robert Steele < <robert.david.steele.vivas at gmail.com><robert.david.steele.vivas at gmail.com>
>>>> robert.david.steele.vivas at gmail.com>
>>>> Date: Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 1:10 AM
>>>> Subject: Review of Extreme Democracy - Underlies & Enhances #OWS
>>>> To: <Robert.David.Steele.Vivas at gmail.com><Robert.David.Steele.Vivas at gmail.com>
>>>> Robert.David.Steele.Vivas at gmail.com
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I bought this book in October 2010 because I was getting to know both
>>>> Mitch Ratcliff and Jon Lebkowsky better, but at first pass through it did
>>>> not really draw me in. Then OccupyWallStreet happened. I read the book on
>>>> the flight from the US to Spain where I am talking about commercial
>>>> intelligence and integrity in the messed up new world, and this time
>>>> around, the book GRABS ME.
>>>>
>>>> Because #OWS has brought to life the ideas the co-editors and various
>>>> contributing authors understood well before 2004 and articulated in 2004,
>>>> now I can absorb this book as much more meaningful and inspirational.
>>>> Anyone associated with OccupyWallStreet in any way from direct to indirect,
>>>> should read this book. I am donating my copy to the George Mason University
>>>> Library as I do all my new books (they took over my entire library when I
>>>> joined the UN back in 2010).
>>>>
>>>> QUOTE 6): "Politics is always changing as a society incorporates new
>>>> technology for disseminating information and connecting people."
>>>>
>>>> QUOTE (11): "The whole history of democracy and technology has set the
>>>> stage for what happens next."
>>>>
>>>> In the first contribution Joichi Ito (now head of the MIT Media Lab)
>>>> suggests that emergent democracy is an open process melding social software
>>>> into democracy. I observe that no one now elected to office is serious
>>>> about using social software to properly understand any issue or harness the
>>>> collective intelligence of their constituency on any issue.
>>>>
>>>> Weblogs are digital grass roots equivalents.
>>>>
>>>> Helpful to remind ourselves that democracy is defined by having the
>>>> supreme power vested in the people and exercised directly--NOT what we have
>>>> today in the USA's inverted totalitarian democracy, see Democracy
>>>> Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism
>>>> (New in Paper)<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/069114589X/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk>
>>>> .
>>>>
>>>> Democracy NEEDS the competition ideas that in turn demand free speech.
>>>> Rule by Secrecy is anti-democratic (and also enormously wasteful). See Griftopia:
>>>> A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in
>>>> American History<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385529961/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk>and Rule
>>>> by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the
>>>> Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060931841/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk>
>>>> .
>>>>
>>>> All of the authors share concerns with creemping restraints on the
>>>> information commons and all of the authors are optimistic about the
>>>> emergence of extreme democracy. For the latest book along these lines, see
>>>> Peggy Holman's Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1605095214/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk>
>>>> .
>>>>
>>>> From Gary Johnson and so totally relevant to #OWS it is scary good:
>>>>
>>>> QUOTE (25): "In complex systems the role of the leader is not about
>>>> determining direction and controlling followers. The leader maintains
>>>> integrity, mediates the will of the many, influencing and communicating
>>>> with peers and other leaders. The leader becomes more of a facilitator (or
>>>> hub), and custodian of the process, than a power figure."
>>>>
>>>> The entire book is rich with footnotes and most of them provide URLs.
>>>>
>>>> Three types of network emergence: creative (smallest), social
>>>> (middling), and political (largest). I myself am frustrated by #OWS
>>>> spinning in circles over demands and grievances while failing to move
>>>> aggressively on what US Day of Rage correctly (in my view) calls for as the
>>>> singular demand: Electoral Reform. I like to say there is nothing wrong
>>>> with America the Beautiful that cannot be set right immediately by
>>>> restoring the integrity of our electoral process and hence our governance
>>>> and hence putting corporations back into the box (they hold commissions
>>>> from the public). Everything else is down in the weeds, in my view, but of
>>>> course necessary to the process.
>>>>
>>>> QUOTE (32): "Weblogs create a positive feedback systems, and with tools
>>>> for analysis lke Technorati, we can identify the importance of information
>>>> at the political level by tracking its movement across the weak ties
>>>> between networks and network levels."
>>>>
>>>> TRUST is a critical aspect--one governments no longer enjoy in most
>>>> artificial nation-states--and the book as a whole is huge on both the
>>>> process of creating public trust, and the means by which the public can
>>>> carry out counter-surveillance on the government as well as corporations.
>>>>
>>>> QUOTE (38): "We can bootstrap emergent democracy using existing and
>>>> evolving tools and create concrete examples of emergent democracy, such as
>>>> intentional blog communities, ad hoc advocacy coalitions, and activist
>>>> networks."
>>>>
>>>> Mitch Ratcliff articulates a deep confidence in people that I share
>>>> (search for 2010 HUMINT Trilogy also Reflections on Integrity).
>>>>
>>>> QUOTE (60): Extreme democracy, taking a cue from the recent evolution
>>>> of software development, 'extreme programming,' anticipates a politics
>>>> based on lowered friction in communication that increases the diversity of
>>>> ideas and opinions that can be brought to bear on the development of public
>>>> policy."
>>>>
>>>> In other words, as I articulated in 1995 in a Government Information
>>>> Quarterly article, we can create a Smart Nation that harnesses the
>>>> distributed intelligence of the Whole Earth. NOT what the two-party tyranny
>>>> wants to hear.
>>>>
>>>> QUOTE (76): "Emergence, to a great degree, is simply what we don't
>>>> plan. How to arrive at the best possible unplanned outcome is what emergent
>>>> democracy is about."
>>>>
>>>> I had to read that several times to appreciate the depth. It drives
>>>> directly to the point that top-down hierarchies are not democratic, and
>>>> that indigenous bottom-up consensus processes are. I have a note to the
>>>> effect that extreme democracy crosses all boundaries and takes place in
>>>> real time. In other words, it is the opposite of bureaucratic stove-pipes
>>>> and special interest earmarks, and restores holistic analytics and
>>>> long-term thinking.
>>>>
>>>> QUOTE (89): "A political philosophy must incorporate more than the
>>>> experience of participation. An analysis of power, define ideas about the
>>>> role of the citizen and the government, and the principles society will
>>>> embrace about the value of the individual are required as well. See The
>>>> Thirteen American Arguments: Enduring Debates That Define and Inspire Our
>>>> Country<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812976355/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk>and also What
>>>> Kind of Nation: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and the Epic Struggle to
>>>> Create a United States<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684848716/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk>
>>>> .
>>>>
>>>> Several of the authors focus on the Howard Dean campaign and Joe
>>>> Trippi's brilliance in the first cut of a political web that actually
>>>> engaged people. The conclusions are generally negative--the first cut,
>>>> while brilliant, clustered like-minded people but did not cope with actual
>>>> issues. The web effort could also not overcome Dean's inherent problems
>>>> with himself and others. The bottom line: the web aspect must help the
>>>> totality (human-centered) address new challenges in a visibly effective
>>>> manner. Rah rah and hand-holding are not enough. Real information, real
>>>> issues, real people, real outcomes are essential.
>>>>
>>>> Steve Johnson focused on technology amplified collective action as the
>>>> next big thing. He also hits hard on my biggest concern with #OWS, as shown
>>>> below.
>>>>
>>>> QUOTE (100): "Influencing elections and legislation is the sene qua non
>>>> of effectiveness."
>>>>
>>>> It is driving me mad that #OWS is mumbling about going after 2014 and
>>>> 2016 seats when an Electoral Act of 2012 is online now, could be demanded
>>>> on 6 November, and if not implemented by 15 February 2012, used to create a
>>>> General Strike that flushes the US Congress down the toilet, and the
>>>> two-party tyranny with it.
>>>>
>>>> Ken White makes the very important point that reform is not redesign.
>>>> See Ideas and Integrities: A Spontaneous Autobiographical Disclosure<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0020926308/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk>and Redesigning
>>>> Society (Stanford Business Books)<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0804747946/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk>
>>>> .
>>>>
>>>> Valdis Krebs focuses on our biggest challenge right now: the atomized
>>>> voter. He shows three levels of voting engagement:
>>>>
>>>> 01 The atomized voter
>>>>
>>>> 02 The demographic voter
>>>>
>>>> 03 The social voter
>>>>
>>>> He makes the point that strangers do not influence social voeters, and:
>>>>
>>>> QUOTE (124): "Instead of having strangers call voters, or knock on
>>>> doors, the campaign should find well-connnected supporters and have them go
>>>> out into their clusters."
>>>>
>>>> QUOTE (126): "The network strategy does not require a large war chest
>>>> of political contributions. It does require time and energy and
>>>> understanding of the social dynamics."
>>>>
>>>> I have a note: 100 million voters times $10 each is US$1 billion. 2012
>>>> is a do-able do if #OWS will integrate, adapt, and MOVE.
>>>>
>>>> Ross Mayfield gets into online communities, flash mobs and flash
>>>> fund-raising, flash lobbying, participatory politics.
>>>>
>>>> Danah Boyd focuses on engaging people and engendering community. There
>>>> are so many local to national design opportunities inherent in the economic
>>>> crash (Wall Street can ignore reality, but reality will not ignore Wall
>>>> Street) that I am actually positive about the near future. We are about to
>>>> become "sane" as a nation and stop doing the wrong things at greater
>>>> expense.
>>>>
>>>> Adam Greenfield contributes a chapter, "Democracy for the Rest of Us:
>>>> the Minimal Compact and Open-Source Government" that I consider worthy of
>>>> stand-alone circulation. He talks about portable citizenship and the open
>>>> source world being flexible, adaptive, extensible, infinitely reproducible
>>>> (#OWS!!), non-local, interoperable and mutual, and highly robust.
>>>>
>>>> QUOTE (211): "Whatever else it [extreme democracy] achieves, if
>>>> anything, I hope you take from it the essential recognition it shares with
>>>> open-source development: that we can teach ourselves what we need to learn,
>>>> share whatever knowledge we glean, build on the insights of the others
>>>> engaged in the same efforts. Just as the novice programmer is invited to
>>>> "hack" open-source software, the minimal compact invites us to demystify
>>>> and reengineer government at the most intimate and immediate level." We can
>>>> hack democracy."
>>>>
>>>> Ethan Zuckerman offers some very important wisdom on the need to
>>>> recognize the rest of the world - the five billion poor - as imminent
>>>> beneficiaries of any tools, processes, and success that we enjoy, and I
>>>> especially like his recognition that smart phones are not going anywhere
>>>> fast in the extreme poverty world. There it is dumb phones and talk radio.
>>>> I really really like his emphasis on how we should design tools (and
>>>> networks) for all the world, not just the 1st world.
>>>>
>>>> Roger Wood is phenomenal in his focus on the FACT that all political,
>>>> social, and economic structures boil down to the individual.
>>>>
>>>> QUOTE (248): "All initiatives are born, all decisions are made and all
>>>> actions are taken by individuals. The individual human, uniquely endowed
>>>> with the capacity for thought and reasoning, is the source of all political
>>>> action. Power, as the ability to cause action in society, comes only from
>>>> people."
>>>>
>>>> Adina Levin discusses specific tools and functions:
>>>>
>>>> 01 Dialog and deliberation (this is what the National Council for
>>>> Dialog and Deliberation does, but their tools are non-existent)
>>>>
>>>> 02 Researching policies and strategies (this is the core of Open Source
>>>> Intelligence (OSINT) and public intelligence
>>>>
>>>> 03 Educating public and the media (not well developed today)
>>>>
>>>> 04 Identifying supporters (#OWS has done that -- 99%)
>>>>
>>>> 05 Gathering and motivating supporters (this is where #OWS lacks a
>>>> strategy, vision, funding plan, and political plan)
>>>>
>>>> 06 Raising money, mobilization (early days yet, I am certain we can
>>>> raise $1 billion a year as a democracy subscription in the USA, much more
>>>> once this migrates to the rest of the world).
>>>>
>>>> I put the book down with huge admiration and respect for all of the
>>>> contributing authors and the two editors especially. I believe that the
>>>> Arab Spring and the demonstrable Hypocrisy (search for Jon Lebkowsky
>>>> Hypocrisy Video) of the current Administration were seed crystals for #OWS,
>>>> and #OWS is a seed crystal for something much much larger that ultimates
>>>> engages 300 million US voters and then billions of global voters. It is a
>>>> rare privilege to be alive today and in association with Extreme Democracy.
>>>>
>>>> See Also:
>>>>
>>>> The Tao of Democracy: Using co-intelligence to create a world that
>>>> works for all<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591095204/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk>
>>>> Conscious Evolution: Awakening Our Social Potential<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1577310160/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk>
>>>>
>>>> - - - - - - -
>>>>
>>>> *Review Permalink to Vote and/or Comment<http://www.amazon.com/review/R3J8Z2NQKKP6DQ/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm>
>>>> *
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Devin Balkind
>> Director, Sarapis Foundation
>> <devin at sarapisfoundation.org>devin at sarapisfoundation.org
>> @devinbalkind
>>
>>
>
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