End-of-year lists and wiser democracy
Several end-of-year lists for 2013 demonstrate that things are, indeed, getting better and better and worse and worse faster and faster. Personally, …
Crucial Adventures in Systems Thinking
Systems are everywhere. They shape us and we can, do, and should shape them. Our destiny is tied up with them but …
“The Public” is way deeper than “public opinion”
This remarkable description of systemic problems in the quasi-democracy of the US, and of the proper conception of “the public” and its …
A society governed by the people’s wisdom…
Last weekend I joined a small group exploring the idea that society could have the capacity to generate “public wisdom” and that we could empower that wisdom to support wiser public policy and popular behavior. Because many people don’t know what …
Post-election: A collective shift from divided to wise
President Obama said in his 2012 victory speech that “we are not as divided as our politics suggests”. He also argued that we are more united than our politics makes us think we are. Finally, he hinted that we are more diverse than our politics su…
Collective thinking about public affairs
(NOTE: In this essay I intentionally subsume the thinking processes of official decision-makers into the thinking processes of the citizenry as a whole. I realize that official decision-makers can and do make decisions independently of the will of…
Public Engagement Change We Can Believe In
Below is an interesting piece about the Obama campaign by a fellow named Larry Greene. Alhough I’m not endorsing Obama, this message is written in the spirit of the Co-Intelligence Institute’s “Politician’s Pledge” and it reflects my own sense of …
Public opinion, public judgment, and public wisdom
Pollsters, politicians and pundits quote public opinion polls to tell us what the public thinks. Deliberative democracy advocates promote public judgment to deepen public opinion. Few people talk about public wisdom – what it could be and what it …
Tom Atlee “public wisdom” conference call 1/17/2012
I’ll be doing an online dialogue in the 2-hour National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation Confab Call on Tuesday, January 17th at 2pm Eastern (11am Pacific). Ben Roberts, a principal in both weDialogue and Occupy Café, will be facilitating t…
Guidelines for Making Wiser Decisions on Public Issues
A longer version of this article with more detailed guidelines and references can be found at http://co-intelligence.org/WD-WiserDecisions.html As a civilization we have tremendous collective power, but we don’t always use it wisely. We can make g…