Engaging with the Evolving Whole
What this message is about: Everything in the world is part of an evolving whole. Learning – once again, newly – how …
My Growing Taboo Awareness (…for Wise Democracy)
Taboo uses social pressure and self-censorship to keep us from thinking, talking or behaving in ways our social group doesn’t want us …
The secrets behind Dynamic Facilitation’s special power
I want to share with you Rosa Zubizarreta’s remarkable insights into how a very powerful process works its magic. That process is …
Scaling up powerful conversations: Examples, methods, and approaches (Collective Coherence Part Four)
In the first two posts in this “Finding Our Way Together/Collective Coherence” series, I explored innovations in voting and in conversations that …
The wisdom of the fringes?
Counterintuitively, the highest evolutionary wisdom lies on the fringes of business as usual. The fringes are fringes because they are different, dissident, …
Must-read article on approaches to money in politics
The debate over corporate power and money in politics is beginning to generate some significant light – good analysis, integral thinking, creativity – as well as heat – passion, slogans, quick response. If both of these forces of nature can synerg…
Will Egypt Revolutionize Democracy Itself?
Thomas Friedman suggests that the special strength of Egypt’s youth-led revolutionary movement has been “the fact that it represented every political strain, every segment and class in Egyptian society.” But then he turns around and says that dive…
Citizen Initiative Review – media and arguments for it
Oregon’s new Citizen Initiative Review is a big positive step away from partisanship and is getting some great press coverage. I think the best so far is this one http://t.co/KxgCMVn . I posted some comments… When one commentator complained that…
2010 election in Oregon could change the game…
Do you live in Oregon? Do you have friends, associations, networks in Oregon? If you do, I’m urging you to spread the word on one of the most important developments toward a wiser democracy in the US. Although most Oregonians don’t know it — and …
Citizens Juries and Deliberative Polls
A friend wrote me “What is the distinction for a general reader between a Citizen Jury and Deliberative Poll?” Here’s my answer: A Citizens Jury is very analogous to a regular jury, but it is considering a public issue instead of the responsibilit…