Please help me think this through...

Mon Jul 5 18:25:09 PDT 2004

Great idea m, and what a conversation it would be.

OS has that wonderful capacity to allow all comers to represent themselves.
All are equal in the circle. All have equal rights and potentialities. For
whatever reason some may choose not to avail of their potential and post or
of their rights and use the law. But under OS, all are created equal.

It is often suggested that one of the reasons why people should vote is
that they would have their views represented. Yet it is reasonably clear
that politicians consider it their job to represent their constituents
views. Normally our chief representative, be they president, prime minister
or taoiseach, represent only their constituents at home but claim to
represent all their people abroad. They also lie about the level of support
they actually have for any given policy.

The media is not always to be depended upon either. I'm sure the New York
Times and The Washington Post represent certain viewpoints as does the The
Times of London. I watched the news regarding the handing over of
sovereignty in Iraq and depending on which station you watched, it was
either of great importance or no significance.

The great diversity of opinion expressed in Europe and elsewhere must also
be reflected within Iraq itself. But how do you deal with that level of
complexity. There must be a way. We know OS works with 2000+ individuals. I
wonder what solutions a group of 2000+ individuals doing OS could have come
up with in the months prior to the invasion.

Following on from the half way technology discussion, I am tempted to
wonder what could be done to ask a million people "Given the situation X,
what are the next steps to take?". Can we imagine a technology that would
be used to really get the views of 100 million people, that would be
self-organising and that would deliver to the so called representative's
desk on Monday morning a complete report of the views of the people and an
indication of the most popular courses of action.

Could the 300 or so subscribers to oslist do an on line OS on the global
questions or on a particular current crisis? The population is certainly
diverse enough. Maybe we could develop something that would force our
representatives to represent the collective wisdom and be the forerunner of
an on line system of collective governance. You might find the politicians
lurking about on the list looking for all the really clever ideas that
would emerge.

Maybe, just maybe.
Shay

At 17:50 02/07/2004, you wrote:
>in another world i travel through, we have started talking about G-Bay,
>a marriage of the eBay marketplace and the google news and adword
>functions... a G-iant bulletin board for good, giving projects.  it
>would seek to make markets as conversations between those who are giving
>attention to issues and situations and projects and those who are
>looking for what to give attention to.  all of which leads me to wonder
>what would happen and what could be learned if one or a few people on
>this continent somehow came to be in email conversation with some people
>in iraq... i wonder what might get unfolded if you were simply in
>ongoing email conversation with a few folks in iraq, doug.
>infrastructure may be a problem at the moment, but certainly
>e-connections will be possible soon if they are not already.  seems some
>very interesting conversations might be possible about the effects that
>powerful leaders can have on countries and the world.  wonder if a few
>emails couldn't snowball into a stunning sort of online open space
>event.  wonder where one might find a few folks to begin a conversation
>with.  wonder if what unfolded couldn't be rolled up into some cluetrain
>sort of book.  what would that be?  renewtrain?  i wonder....  m
>
>
>
>
>Chris Corrigan wrote:
>
>>One of my learnings from the last year, coinciding with the practice of
>>peace, is about the contrast of justice and reconciliation.  Justice
>>contains that grasping energy of conflict, a divisive feel to it.
>>Reconciliation is about opening space and moving forward.
>>
>>As regards apologies, my personal experience is that they are very
>>powerful, but they represent a very serious commitment that only
>>individuals can carry through.  In 1998, the federal government issued
>>an apology to Aboriginal people in Canada who had been affected by the
>>residential school policies that tore apart families in our communities
>>for many generations.  The residential school system was perhaps the
>>single most successful vehicle of colonization in this country's
>>history, in some cases almost completely destroying languages, cultural
>>practices, traditional life, families and individuals.  It was
>>responsible for multi-generational violence and abuse which has carried
>>through even to those of us that never set eyes on a residential school.
>>
>>The federal government apology hit me very personally, and it affected
>>many people I know the same way.  It felt like something unlocked inside
>>me.  The federal government took some responsibility especially for the
>>physical and sexual abuse that happened in the residential schools,
>>saying to the victims "it was not your fault."  There was a visceral
>>feeling of something dropping away, perhaps something I didn't even know
>>was clinging to me.  It was a very deep experience.
>>
>>The problem was that it didn't last because there was no one actually
>>doing the reconciliation.  The federal government promised a new
>>relationship based on reconciliation, but within two years they were
>>engaged in a national initiative to remake First Nations governments
>>which was carried out in such a top heavy and non-consultative way that
>>it was routinely described by non-Aboriginal people as an alarming
>>assimilationist policy.   This governance initiative, despite the fact
>>that we actually need to have this conversation, was carried out in such
>>a way that it increased calls for justice.  It helped to create a
>>situation of confrontational conflict, and the heady days of
>>reconciliation talk all but disappeared.
>>
>>The problem of course, as Michael has pointed out, is that the whole
>>exercise was been removed from the personal.  There was no one person
>>who could actually take on the mantle of reconciliation.  It was a
>>systemic apology for personal pain, and while the apology represented a
>>profound shift for many of us, the reconciliation process evaporated
>>into thin air.
>>
>>The strength of the South African experience was that it was individuals
>>apologizing for individual acts to other individuals.  That helped that
>>country to move through the apartheid transition because it allowed for
>>a peaceful way for people to deal with some of the personal hurt they
>>had experienced both as victims and perpetrators.
>>
>>So I don't know that the "US" can apologize for anything.  As much as I
>>can respectfully take issue with Paul's list of the results of the war,
>>I actually agree with his point.  To whom to we apologize for and to
>>what?  To which I will add, and what else will we do?  The fact remains
>>that apologies are personal, they need "I" language to work, and they
>>need to heal direct person to person hurts.  Soldiers apologizing for
>>killing civilians would be very powerful, but having politicians
>>apologize to whole countries and groups of people is just too diffuse to
>>be sincere or useful for healing.
>>
>>Chris
>>
>>--
>>CHRIS CORRIGAN
>>Bowen Island, BC, Canada
>>(604) 947-9236
>>
>>Consultation - Facilitation
>>Open Space Technology
>>
>>Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
>>Homepage: http://www.chriscorrigan.com
>>chris at chriscorrigan.com
>>
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>--
>
>Michael Herman
>Michael Herman Associates
>300 West North Avenue #1105
>Chicago IL 60610 USA
>(312) 280-7838
>
>http://www.michaelherman.com - consulting & publications
>http://www.globalchicago.net - laboratory & playground
>http://www.openspaceworld.org - worldwide open space
>
>...inviting organization into movement
>
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