Please help me think this through...

[Seamus McInerney]

Good point Chris.
I was forgetting how thick skinned a politician needs to be to work their
way through the party system, the election and so forth.
I'm even a little embarrassed at my naivete now. ooops
It's all about doing what you can do, where you are and doing it now.

Shay

At 18:46 06/07/2004, you wrote:
>Seamus McInerney wrote:
>
>>
>>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.
>Shay:
>
>I've been thinking a lot about the nature of democracy lately, and
>especially thinking about human societies as complex adaptive systems.
>All this has led me to a focus on action, especially what Vaclav Havel
>calls "living in truth."  In other words, democracy seems to be not
>about voting or sharing views, but rather about looking at what needs to
>be done around you and actually doing it.  What is important is the
>action, and that's one of the reasons I love Open Space.  In OST
>meetings we get a great deep dialogue experience, but even more
>important than that is the nature of the action that follows, as passion
>and responsibility translate back into the "real" world.
>
>So I have my doubts about collecting a bunch of information and
>providing to politicians as if they are at the top of a pyramid.
>Ultimately, it is the people's action that moves things, not the chosen
>paths of the politicians.  The mayor of my island (who is a fan of
>OST...lucky me eh?) has a bumper sticker on her car that says: "There
>they go!  I must follow them for I am their leader!"  That seems to me
>to be a significant shift, for it puts politicians in the position of
>offering support to groups of people that are doing things.  Then their
>decision becomes one of stewardship: how can we best use the collective
>resources of this town/province/country to support action we believe
>makes a difference?
>
>Complex adaptive systems work because agents undertake actions on the
>local level.  Politicians, like the rest of us, can only act on these
>levels too.  The difference is that they have much different resources
>available to them.
>
>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
>
>*
>*
>==========================================================
>OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>------------------------------
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
>view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
>http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
>
>To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
>http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist

Crossroads Facilitation
50 Carrigdhoun, Waterpark, Carrigaline, Co. Cork
www.crossroadsfacilitation.ie
"Building bridges and getting you over them"

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist