Dear friends, Tomorrow is `departure day' for three weeks in N America, a chance to meet lots of wonderful new people, and hopefully the beginning of a new kind of momentum toward our goal of a `democratic renaissance'. Below is an excercise in `endeavor analysis', starting with an assumption of a particular goal, `achieving a livable world'. I hope you will find it useful, and you are invited to send in your comments. I also invite people to send in self-intros... ie, let other people on the list know who you are and what you're up to, especially as regards political activism. We never went through any introduction process, and I think it would be appropriate for this particular list, if it is ever to get `in gear' and become relevant to the purposes for which it was established. That purpose, in my mind, is the development of a poltical movement based on coalition-building among the hundreds (thousands?) of movements and causes that are operating all over the world. all the best, rkm ------------------------------------------------------------------------ goal: achieve a liveable world exploration: there needs to be an `us' that `thinks' and `plans' and is capable of `doing' and `achieving'. some people think this means creating an `enlightened think tank', based on gaia priciples or whatever. i think this is an elitist approach, leading to rule by a new elite, as with Plato's `philosopher kings'. i don't like it. i think we need the `us' to be everyone, i think democracy is the path to follow. this means there needs to be a `popular consciousness', a sense of `popular solidarity and will'. (this is different than just being a `citizen' in a `society' run by some remote _government.) i say that genuine democracy is humanity waking up, growing up, and taking responsibility for itself and for the future of the world. it is not something someone else can do for us. objective: create a stronger `civil society', what has been called a `social revolution' based on partipation in commuities, associations, activist groups, unions, etc, on scales of local, regional, national, and international, as appropriate. this is a `solidarity' project, a `consciousness-raising' and `colletctive empowerment' endeavor. this `civil society' would work in terms of voluntary collaboration of the different `associations', and the `coalition' would be a kind of general networking mechanism for the overall movement. through the coalition, it should be possible to select candidates and win elections. _not based on competitive parties, but based on the concept of candidates which represent the population and use office to represent the will of the consitituents faithfully. Elections, per se, become minor affairs, not a battle over competing candidates who tell lies to get elected. obstacles: there are many: determined elite opposition; mass media in control of elite; factionalism in population and in movement; infiltration by spies, disruptive elements, and provocateurs (people who create or encourage violence); draconian conspiracy laws and other repressive meaures that have been designed to destroy movements and suppress democracy. the elite can easily create economic chaos, mass unemployment, etc, which causes people to revert to their primitive needs for food and shelter, and seek `stability' rather than change (even though `stability' is an illusion in the current system). the most serious obstacle, in my opinion, because it is so seductive, would be for the elite to pretend `they have lost', as with the MAI, and agree to implement our new society for us. this is the `FDR' option, or even the `JFK' option -- following some sweet-talking leader on a white horse, making revolution seem so easy and painless. this is co-option and it is a way to keep the elite in power. it has been used countless times and typcially the agent is the Democratic Party. plan: seek out and build relationships with activist leaders of all stripes, as well as educators, writers, and journalists. Begin to develop a `movement consciousness' and a sense of momentum and coaltion building. identify, gandhi style, pivotal actions which can be taken on a mass basis, which are non-violent, and which force the system to _shift: either they back down, in which case we press our gains, or else they become repressive, which, if we are strictly non-violent and honest in our cause, only serves to strengthen and broaden the movement. this has been called the `jiu-jitsu' approach, although i prefer `aikido', because aikido is a non-violent martial art and the metaphor is more accurate. we need to be always aware of the obstacles, and the elite strategems and counter measures, and not be caught off guard. as the movement builds, we need to make the communication channels robust, and there needs to be dedicated effort put into overall coordination and facilitiation across the whole movement. care needs to be taken that his does not itself become an `organization' or a bureaucracy or a top-down governing structure. that would kill democrcy and re-introduce power-brokerage and elite rule. work: carry out the plan... as the movement grows, those who start it may become less and less significant as stronger leaders begin to take the movement seriously and add their weight and participation. but we don't want to become a leader-based movement, and especially not one built around a personality, some `white knight'. democracy is a process of ongoing participation by everyone. i suggest we study closely the cuban model, as a starting point for discussion. realization: with a vibrant civil society and democracy achieved, it is possible to move toward changing our systems, moving away from high-energy use (particularly dependence on highways and internal combustion engines), moving to sustainable agriculture and sustainable everything, changing the parameters of our economic system, breaking up TNC's, reorganizing along smaller- scale models, building a peaceful and collaborative international regime, transforming education to being an awakening of concsiousness and nurturing of child's native curiosity, not a programming of static paradigms, `lessons', and `information'. re-apportionment of societal resources to encourage development in desirable directions. transformation of `health industry' into a free and effective `well oriented' service infrastructure -- again cuba deserves serious study. transformation of the notion of `employment', getting away from `work' being something that makes money for someone or an institution. is it not socially useful and valuable to make it possible for people to produce art, or to do research, or to make music, or write, or work with children, or design a city park, or whatever? do these kind of things need to be defined and measured in economic terms? why can't society be more like a family, or a community? these are serious projects, comparable in maginitude to space programs, or the infamous `five year plans', or FDR's New Deal, they are not just a signing of the pen on some enlightened piece of legislation -- they are _societal projects, needing the participation and understanding of everyone. it needs the kind of overall societal solidarity that, unfortunately, in the past, has most often occured only in wartime. application: here we move into a whole new realm of considerations, and there are too many intangibles to get very precise. assuming we've got democracy, sustainability, universal health and enligtened education, etc, etc, then what do we _do with it? if 'making money' ceases to be the raison d'etre of life, what _is the raison d'etre? perhaps it is to `live nobly' or whatever... an interesting discussion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Restore democratic sovereignty Create a sane and livable world Bring corporate globalization under control. 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