[OSList] About the wisdom of the "crowd", self-organizing, and Constitutional Conventions...

[Brett Barndt]

Last night I heard Laurence Lessig speak about the need for
constitutional conventions in the USA at All Soul's UU Congregation in
NYC.

He spoke about his observations of mock conventions and the incredible
wisdom and eloquence of citizen participants in these conventions,
despite what we are so led to believe in our culture about the dangers
of mass democracy and the dangers of the crowd.

I was delighted when he admitted that even he had been skeptical (he
formerly advocated Amendments rather than Conventions) himself being a
constitutional law professor. He said in the end what he saw was
eloquent expression from ordinary citizens about constitutional
principles. Most of us of course would not be surprised by that since
we know these principles to be universal, as reflected by our
experiences with OST or AI, and that they are always achievable absent
manufactured conditions of intimidation, scarcity, or fear.

I know Harrison speaks about all these qualities of the Tribal Council
in his books and talks about OST. We can all speak with great lived
experience about these attributes and potentials. There is a real
opportunity for OST community to make a very important and valuable
contribution to this discourse we have to get going in this country to
save this Republic. People at the meeting last night were expressing
doubt about the wisdom of opening up constitutional conventions, while
they seem to overlook the sheer tom foolery and out-and-out imminent
danger history shows of letting our system go on as it is. This seems
such a shame, but it is true that most people have never experienced
OST or Appreciative Inquiry but instead are fed a daily diet of the
worst stories they take as inevitable "human nature".

It seems a pretty interesting fix that the Federalist Papers harp on
and on about the dangerous of the multi-ethnic multi-cultural republic
and the needs to curb the deleterious effects of "mob rule". Funnily
enough, nobody ever talks about Federalist Papers debating the dangers
of concentrated power or democratic institutions in the hands of
Oligarchs, nor what happens when Oligarchs have it within their
absolute power to pit against each other and manipulate those
multi-ethnic groups in even a Constitutional Representative Democracy.
History shows however many more examples of this latter than the
former danger! Even the collectivized utopia of the USSR was taken
over by an Oligarch who committed the worst crimes against his own
people.

Of course, the big danger of that "mob rule" in the US has always been
against property owners who have the potential new taxes to pay when
voters vote for infrastructure, education, public goods, or social
safety nets. That Constitution and its institutions were also
carefully designed to protect Slave Owners for more than 80 years
despite mass public consensus that slavery was unconstitutional and
most states banned it starting with PA in 1780. Lessig's examples from
today show clearly that similar contradictions between mass public
voter consensus and what Congress or SCOTUS do are still to this day
two very different things!

There is a real need for a experiences of OST and Appreciative Inquiry
practitioners to enter into this discourse and offer up real lived
experience that can dispel these nasty and self-serving myths so well
implanted in our foundational texts.

Of course, those fears have been well seeded by many institutions, and
they need to now be reversed by a wider awareness of our lived
experience as the OST community and practitioners of real fundamental
change.  We need all our collective wisdom. Lessig outlines ways to
participate and get your views out there to a wider range of your
neighbors and fellow citizens. He is arranging networks of local
educational public events

I would like to encourage any of you who are so moved to engage with
Lessig and his organizations to create discourse that contrasts real
lived experience and truth to these long held errant and well planted
myths out there that say ordinary people are not suited to participate
in direct democracy.

The dangers of leaving the Oligarchs in charge are written all over
history books including those of Herodotus from Ancient Athens. In
fact, Herodotus and others like Aristophanes clearly demonstrate that
Oligarchs by being free to manufacture scarcity and manipulate the
public do the worst things arise. We don't need to look back that far
either, as most of you will know and some may even have some lived
experience of your own or your family's from which to draw.

These lessons point to new constitutional principles and mechanisms
that reflect new accumulated wisdom and that can protect us more in
our new future from these ancient methods, all of which would be fair
game in constitutional conventions in all our states. The best ideas
will rise to the top. What a wonderful opportunity for us! How our
peers need what we have come to know.

I hope we can engage and participate in this growing and important
movement with a positive outcome. Here are some links to Lessig and
his nascent movement to generate self-organizing energy!

http://blip.tv/file/4171181

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-lessig/a-call-for-a-convention_b_448762.html

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2010/02/11/lessig-and-turley-constitutional-conventions



-- 
Seek first to understand, then be understood. Stephen Covey

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

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