why I wholly disagree, briefly Re: OT: Long, Quantum trickery

Wed Dec 28 09:20:41 PST 2005

Dear Michael 

I suffer from much of the same confusion. Here is my excuse:

http://project30000.blogspot.com is work in progress; not helped by the fact 
that on 9 December,  100 content blogs we had co-edited and prepared in 2005 
including several on open space were unilaterally wiped by google; working to 
restore some of this night and day has somewaht spoilt my Xmas

the simplest way to put in the projects you cherish is to co-edit a section of 
project30000; I have sent you an invitation and will send anyone else one

I would prefer it if 29000 projects come microfinace or from catcomm or from 
India where hunderes of people are preparing projects for a ganghi 2007 
celebration or form open space or from green energy inventors who are 21 years 
into prototyping but last time they started kaunching Gulf war 1 came to the 
part of Kuwait they were testing in, so this time we will put clean algae 
bubbles up in 100 places at the same time- perhaps the one at chealsea flower 
show can be given by our queen to the white house's garden

So yes I hope there is open space for every community up project; its fairly 
easy to find wonderful people like Theresa who I can wholly trust to edit 
their own section; meanwhile it is part of my business to go round verifying 
the projects from the big guys like Clinton

does that make sense? (oh yes - project30000 is open source; if you prefer to 
do your own sister version, just go for it; getting 30000 projects that we can 
tour people round the net on and contact them to the founder or the core 
community is what matters not which blog they are in)
chris

ps Brazil after India and Australia and S Africa (mmm Canada too except 
illness canelled the tour I'd hope to make there) are the 4 countries where I 
have safest (for me) hi-trust contacts; always delighted to try and get to 
knmow other countries (even the dreaded (for me) Washington DC region that 
part of my family lives in). I also lack some contacts with youth and women 
networks as any 54 year old white man is liable to do though I have been 
trying quite hard to remedy this; one of the blogs google wiped was called 
seekingtheresa (happen to love what mother theresa did in India almsot as much 
as what Gandhi stood for communally)

sincerely
chris macrae wcbn007 at easynet.co.uk
DC 301 881 1655

Quoting Michael Herman <michael at michaelherman.com>:

 i've been reading around the blogs, chris, and am confused about something.
 i see theresa williamson's catalytic communities listed in the
 30000"grassroots" efforts.  this makes a lot of sense to me.  but i alsosee
 former president bill clinton and coca cola.  i don't know verymuch about what
 clinton is doing, but the circles i'd expect a formeru.s. president to be
 running in don't strike me as 'grassroots.'
 you have coca cola's energy purchasing commitment listed, but i wouldthink
 you'd hold up cocacola as one of the leaders in globalizationrather than
 grassroots.  again, i'm not very well educated on suchthings, but my guess
 would be that they've come a long way fromteaching the world to sing in
 perfect harmony.
 and as i scan down the list, i'm surprised to miss something like thisoslist. 
 i wonder about other ideas like appreciative inquiry,non-violent
 communication, world cafe, and other such asset-basedmethods.  i wonder about
 the 35 youth we got together some years ago,in open space, who then went off
 and founded an organization of 200+youth and did a bunch of 'sustainability'
 projects in racinewisconsin, teaching open space as they went along.  what of
 the workthat chris corrigan is doing with native youth across BC?
 in my working definition, i'd think we'd need lots more than 30000
 of'grassroots' initiatives like these latter ones i'm listing.  and i'mnot
 sure i understand the inclusion of UN and cocacola and clinton
 in"grassroots".
 my own little foray in this direction, not nearly so ambitious as thework
 you're doing, is developing as a personal project and distinctstream in my
 weblog, under the heading of "small change news"http://www.smallchangenews.org
 is the link... which refers back intothe stream of my weblog where i've been
 working on this for about ayear and a half.
 smallchangenews is deeply informed by my understanding and practice ofopen
 space and then also shows up as the model for the Initiativesinvitation and
 page(s) that have begun to be developed in a new'marketplace'
 athttp://www.openspaceworld.org/news/open-space-initiatives/
 i understand the central work is making connections between thesepatterns of
 opposition, poles like grassroots and globalisation.  i'veno interest in
 siding with one or the other, so that's not my concernin picking out the
 examples i have listed above.  but you say '30000grassroots projects for
 humanity', which seems to lean in the onedirection to counter the other.
 can you help me understand the definition of grassroots when cocacolais
 grassroots, and perhaps what you mean by 'globalization' as well. is there
 some label or working concept that hovers between or marriesthe two that can
 be useful working concept here?  or is it just aboutbalancing?  grassroots
 microcredit turns into global player grameenand cisco systems funds local
 vols?  what's the unifying purpose andworking definition for the kinds of orgs
 and actions we're lookingfor?  or is *that* the exploration that you're
 wanting to invite?
 michael

 On 12/28/05, Chris Macrae <wcbn007 at easynet.co.uk> wrote:> I feel this article
 came up with the wrong interpretations>> As a mathematician, I ask that people
 do not let their self-confidence in> integrity get bamboozled by words such as
 complexity and chaos. For starters,> I suggests entertaining the ideas that
 complexity is simplicity if you look at> wholes before parts;>> what people
 could start enjoy knowing is that:>> If people who study a phenomenon's future
 dynamics in parts come up with a> different consequential interpretation than
 people mapping whole, it is vital> to openly debate the two answers, however
 unconventional the whole's forecasts> may be>> It is not true that future
 exponentials are always unpredictable – see for> example these 1984 forecasts
 http://www.normanmacrae.com/netfuture.html#Anchor-> Changin-27687 or read
 Thomas Friedman's more uptodate future history>
 http://boards.charlierose.com/board/topic.asp?ti=15737>> BIG PICTURE
 SIMPLICITY> The relevance today is that like many 1980s systems thinkers -eg
 Buckminster> Fuller - we can be almost sure that globalisation (and all
 networking> connectivity) will compound one of two very opposite scenarios
 depending on> whether:> *Global decisions are mostly made in bits by a few
 superpowerful people>> *Or evolve with 2 million global villages each
 determining its communal> gravities but also interconnecting boundaries
 harmoniously>> The scenarios forecast that one will mean the end of most
 people two to four> generations out (sorry if this timing strikes you as
 imprecise but as a blip> in nature's world this is as precise as I can make
 it), whilst one will mean> the most harmonious and fulfilling time to be alive
 everywhere. Crucially to> me the chances of an in-between state 2 to 4
 generations out barely exist – it> is one or other of these futures that will
 exponentially compound.>> I would suggest these are the key questions NOT to
 be bamboozled out of>> Which scenario is the end game of which type of
 governance?>> Which type of governance will we get unless a lot of people work
 to transform> the patterns that are already spinning?>> By when will
 globalisation's spin become almost impossible to turn round?>> If what I have
 tried to summarise matters to you there is more at>
 http://exponentials.blogspot.com and http://valuesystem.blogspot.com as well>
 as much more if we choose some contexts but that tends to be most quickly>
 mapped if you rehearse that biggest context which you see as one overall>
 invitational challenge to reconcile>> When I am being a tad more controversial
 I will stand up and say the way we> train or condition our children to think
 now is the war that horrifies me most> of all. Because - even the most ethical
 or religious people may never see the> choice that waved by us>> chris macrae
 wcbn007 at easynet.co.uk>> --------------------------------------------------->
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