[P2P-F] Fwd: Democracy, Peace and the Iroquois - teleconference Apr 17

Sun Apr 14 15:10:09 CEST 2013

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tom Atlee <cii at igc.org>
Date: Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 3:37 AM
Subject: Democracy, Peace and the Iroquois - teleconference Apr 17
To: undisclosed list <cii at igc.org>

Dear friends,

An invitation to speak has brought me back to some roots of my work I
haven't revisited in some time - the Iroquois Confederacy and its
recognition of the intimate tie between democracy and peace - collective
wisdom and collective tranquility.  Peace between people requires their
respectful, insight-seeking conversation.  It requires, as Oren Lyons,
Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Iroquois tells us, that "we
meet and just keep talking until there's nothing left but the obvious
truth."

Lyons also notes - to us self-proclaimed modern people - that "The Earth
has all the time in the world.  We don't."  I strongly recommend his brief,
vivid and moving video:
http://vimeo.com/50460060
(note for those who have trouble with online videos: in the lower right it
give the option to use Flash or HTML5 video players).

Few Americans or people in other modern "democracies" realize how much our
government structures owe to the Iroquois.  We talk about ancient Greece
giving us democracy.  True, ancient Athens gave us the idea of "one man one
vote" when adopting laws.  But some scholars suggest that the Iroquois gave
us our federal system (an alliance of free states under one greater power),
the idea of "balance of powers", and much of our sense of personal privacy
and liberty from government interference, as well as the idea of taking
turns while speaking in an assembly.
http://www.co-intelligence.org/CIPol_IndiansOrigDemoc.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Law_of_Peace

We might note that America's founders chose not to adopt the Athenian or
Iroquois approaches to selecting leaders - oligarchy-resistant random
selection in the case of Athens and patriarchy-resistant dialogue among
women in the case of the Iroquois - nor did they adopt the Iroquois
practices of consensus decision-making and women's close monitoring of male
leadership.  Unlike both the Greeks and the American founders, the Iroquois
League gave women real political power.

My own activism was born in the peace movements of the 1950s and 60s.  It
was only in the 1980s and 90s that I realized that real peace (not just the
absence of war) and real democracy (not just elections) were intimately
related.  In their finest forms, both peace and democracy involve people
successfully co-creating good lives and futures together.
http://www.co-intelligence.org/CIPol_PeaceDemocCommons.html

This congruence between peace and democracy was recognized many centuries
ago by the legendary Native American prophet and diplomat known as The
Great Peacemaker.  With his spokesman, the renowned orator Hiawatha, he
drew together five major warring nations in what is now northeastern North
America into the great and lasting Iroquois League known as the
Haudenosaunee - meaning "the people of the longhouse" or "they are building
a longhouse".  Tradition says The Great Peacemaker convened tribal leaders
around the Tree of Peace, under which they buried their weapons and adopted
The Great Peacemaker's Great Law of Peace, their oral (and now written)
constitution.  Among other things, the Great Law of Peace established
procedures for cultural unity, conflict resolution and making collective
decisions to govern the entire League - resulting in an elegant merger of
peace and democracy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Peacemaker

On April 17, Co-Intelligence Institute board member Manju Lyn Bazzell and I
will be sharing our views about 21st century approaches that embody the
kind of peace-nurturing democratic wisdom The Great Peacemaker pioneered so
many years ago, informed by the best that Athens, too, had to offer, and
integrated with emerging understandings about how to actually do all this
in societies containing millions of people - especially in the face of
increasing hardships, innovations, and extinction-level issues.

We'll be talking in a Maestro teleconference format with Dr. Lauren Oliver,
a major organizer of Peacemaker Circles, a growing network of modern
peacemakers inspired by the traditions of The Great Peacemaker and the
social change artistry vision and practices of Jean Houston.  The
teleconference will include opportunities for discussion among listeners
and for questions to Manju, Lauren and myself. You are very welcome to join
us.

It should be interesting.

Coheartedly,
Tom

==========

Edited from the full CirclesWork newsletter at
http://conta.cc/YgcdgP

April’s Eminent Peacemaker Teleconference
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
5:30pm-7pm Pacific Time

Peace and Democracy
Tom Atlee and Manju Lyn Bazzell in dialogue with YOU!

Tom Atlee, founder of the Co-Intelligence Institute (co-intelligence.org),
in dialogue with Manju Lyn Bazzell, Dr. Lauren Oliver, & YOU evokes our
wisdom on peace & democracy

You can sign up for the Teleconference series here:
http://myaccount.maestroconference.com/conference/register/TYDFIMWUAUIP49Z

As we continue following the Great Peacemaker…  founding the Iroquois
League by planting the Great Tree of Peace, the Peacemaker invited all the
warriors to throw their weapons under the tree – to assure they cast away
all thoughts of making war, and the hatred and enmity that fed them.  War
no more!  Peace and democracy were birthed as one, by the Iroquois League,
and detailed in a consensus-based constitution co-created with the 5
original tribes.  Not legalistic, the Iroquois Constitution sets out a way
of life that keeps peace alive in daily cooperative action & in Council
(see note below).

Tom Atlee, our Eminent Peacemaker on April 17, founder of the
Co-Intelligence Institute, will model his commitment to conversation and
council in dialogue with Manju Lyn Bazzel and Lauren Oliver, igniting our
Peacemaker community with democratic praxis that embodies peace.  In his
books Empowering Public Wisdom and The Tao of Democracy and on his websites
his explorations range from leadership, governance and economics to
spirituality, dialogue, and activism - all derived from his vision of
evolving wholeness and the role of human conversation in co-creating our
world.

After Tom Atlee’s Vietnam draft resistance, the watershed event in his life
was the 1986 cross-country Great Peace March, where he and 400 others
learned circle process from a Native American marcher and experienced
palpable collective intelligence.  Since then he has explored many ways we
can be smarter and wiser together than we are separately, and how peace and
democracy are both about co-creating our shared lives. Tom sees his work -
and the work of The Great Peacemaker - as evolution becoming conscious of
itself. He lives in a consensus co-op household in Eugene, OR – with a
changing population of friendly people, dogs, cats, chickens, plants, and
thousands of books – and in his partner Dulcy's rural dome.

Manju Lyn Bazzell joins the dialogue, bringing experience as a talk show
host, non-profit Executive Director, organizational consultant and
award-winning inner-city schoolteacher.  Her vision: if we can imagine a
better world, it is within our reach.  Serving
on Boards of Directors including The Co-Intelligence Institute, and
featured in both INC. and Entrepreneur magazines, Manju's skills in large
group processes, communications & human technologies bring co-intelligence
to governance and economic systems.

Join us April 17 for great dialogue!

----------

>From "Manual for the Peacemaker"
by Jean Houston and Peggy Rubin

"Living Democracy and Peace"

The Great Peacemaker and Hiawatha worked with the people to create a way of
living to sustain peace and democracy and meet the needs of all.  Weapons
and enmity were buried beneath the Great Tree of Peace.  Peacemaker
envisioned a watchful eagle atop the Great Tree of Peace, with eyes alert
to the slightest sign of danger to the tree's roots, or, to peace.

The Great Peacemaker urged people to maintain friendships energetically.
Bonds of community were designed to keep alliances strong, including:
 *  Living in the Longhouse; this required daily cooperation and fostered
an ideal of sharing all resources equally.
 *  Adopting the Condolence Ceremony, to let go of old insults and wrongs.
Mourning grief fosters sympathy & healing.

The Great Council empowered and governed the Confederacy. The Council -
meeting under the Great Tree of Peace - included guidelines and checks and
balances:
 *  Regular meetings
 *  Representatives from each tribe - with one vote for each tribe.
 *  Leadership: Two leaders for each tribe, with clear safeguards to assure
they be servants of the people.
 *  Set pattern for meetings of the Great Council.
 *  Open with thanksgiving.
 *  Songs commemorate League unity.
 *  Roll call of the tribes.
 *  Proposals made holding wampum meant speaking truth; & no interruption.
 *  Disagreements were sent back to the point at which they arose.
 *  The Great Council was adjourned at nightfall to avoid raised tempers
when tired.

Iroquois live democracy and peace daily, still.

________________________________

Tom Atlee, The Co-Intelligence Institute, POB 493, Eugene, OR 97440
site: http://www.co-intelligence.org  /  blog:
http://tom-atlee.posterous.com
Read EMPOWERING PUBLIC WISDOM - http://empoweringpublicwisdom.us
THE TAO OF DEMOCRACY -  http://www.taoofdemocracy.com and
REFLECTIONS ON EVOLUTIONARY ACTIVISM - http://evolutionaryactivism.com
Please support our work.  Your donations are fully tax-deductible.
http://co-intelligence.org/donations.html
________________________________

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