Wise Democracy Victoria

Past Events including November 2006 Forum

November 10-12, 2006

Introduction by Tom Atlee and Jim Rough
Friday Evening, November 10
About 90 people attended.

Caspar Davis welcomed everyone to the Wise Democracy Forum and explained that the Victoria Branch of the World Federalist Movement had initiated the process leading to this weekend because of their belief that global democracy starts with local democracy. However, Wise Democracy Victoria is a completely independent group.

George Sranko introduced the evening with Elizabet Sahtouris’ story (retold by David Korten) which describes the emergence of the butterfly in its cocoon. First, the caterpillar actually dissolves, and the resulting soup is reshaped by organizer cells into the form of the butterfly but not before the organizer cells are themselves harassed by the remnants of the caterpillar’s immune system. This is a wonderful metaphor for the emergence of genuine or deep democracy, including both the need for “organizing cells” (like Wise Democracy) and the resistance likely to be felt from the existing system.

George introduced Tom Atlee, who enthusiastically recounted the Brian Swimme/Thomas Berry vision of our evolution from the hydrogen created in the Big Bang and the complex elements forged in supernovas. He also told of his friends, Michael Dowd, an erstwhile fundamentalist preacher and Connie Barlow, his scientist wife, who have written a book called “Thank God for Evolution” and who travel in a van displaying a Darwin fish kissing a Christian fish. Tom said that people acting together are capable of both co-stupidity and co-intelligence, and that the context determines which emerges. Co-intelligent processes temporarily lift people to a higher state, where they are able to make statements that can be used to carry social evolution forward. He said that Wisdom Councils are a very effective tool for this purpose. Toms website provides a wealth of information along these lines; see www.co-intelligence.org

Jim Rough then provided a brief overview of the dynamics involved with Wisdom Councils and recounted some stories of how Wisdom Councils had been used successfully in different contexts to create a much higher quality of community conversation. The extensive Q&A session elaborated on these issues.

In retrospect, we realized that what was missing from Friday evening was a concise explanation of what a Wisdom Council is and how the Wisdom Council process works (see below).

Wisdom Council Workshop
Saturday, November 11
Approximately 30 people attended

We started with a round of introductions answering the questions, “Who are you, and what brought you here?” This round lasted for some time, and revealed that the participants were a very diverse group with a wealth of experience under their belts. It also led rather abruptly into a dynamically facilitated (by Jim Rough) session on the question of whether the workshop would be recorded or not. Some people found the facilitated session exhilarating, while others were mystified and/or resentful of what they saw as an anarchic and possibly pointless process. One of the real issues, we discovered during the process, was that we had differing views on what comprised a democracy, i.e., a 50+1 majority, or a collaborative approach where all views are integrated.

As lunchtime approached, Jim realized that some participants were desperate for more context, and he described his theory of social evolution:

“Civilized” political authority was originally organized on the pyramidal model, which Jim depicts as a triangle. Power was person-based, with the king on top, and loyalty to the king the overriding virtue.

In the 18^th century, a very imperfect but radically innovative “We the people” consisting of (only) propertied white males, established a contract the US Constitution as the new basis for political authority. This rules-based model, which Jim depicted as a box, is based on a competition of self-interested parties. When it doesn’t work, people rebel, but so long as they stay inside the box they may change elites but they do not change the system of competition among self-interested parties. There is no real space for the common interest.

It is now time for the emergence of a conversation-based political regime in which each participant is a co-founder of whatever emerges. Jim depicts this as a circle, and he sees Wisdom Councils as the vehicle that can take us out of the box and into the circle.

Box processes are self-limiting, and they can be managed by elites. But circle processes are self-organizing. They cannot be managed, and they are messy. There is no telling where they will go, but they always have the potential to go to “of courses” a place where all the participants look at each other and say, “Of course. That is how it is” (or how it must be changed). Square processes are “decision making” they are designed to choose among a range of recognized options. Circle processes are “choice creating” they are not constricted by the recognized options but can create new and better options that no one had thought of before, options that take account of each person’s concerns. (For more information, see Jims website www.tobe.net and specifically, http://www.wisedemocracy.org/papers/wisdom99.html).

After lunch Jean Rough, Jim’s wife, (finally) described what the Wisdom Council Process is, i.e.:
1. The holding of a Wisdom Council an open-ended, dynamically facilitated conversation among approximately 12 randomly selected people.
2. A community meeting immediately following the Wisdom Council at which the Wisdom Council reports to the full community at a well publicized public meeting. The members of the Wisdom Council also talk about their experiences in the Council. It has been found that the energy and enthusiasm of the participants about the process energizes the whole meeting, and kicks off
3. A larger conversation throughout a small community, or in the churches, community groups, coffee shops, etc. of a larger community.
4. Ongoing Wisdom Councils build on and contribute to the momentum until the whole community is engaged in a new way of relating to each other and to issues.

Jean then got into the organizational nuts and bolts, and about 15 people said they would like to be involved in organizing a series of Wisdom Councils.

Planning Meeting
Sunday, November 14
Eleven people met to begin the work of planning for a series of Wisdom Councils. Six others said they wanted to be involved but were unable to attend the Sunday meeting.

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Two other events helped to set the stage for Wisdom Councils:
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On October 26 Richard Moore, author of Escaping the Matrix, gave a talk in which he said that for the last 5,000 years (a tiny fraction of human story, which starts about 100,000 years ago) hierarchical structures have perverted the course of history, putting the narrow self-interest of elites above the common good. He concluded that our best hope is to develop resilient and self-reliant communities, and to introduce genuine democracy at the local level by using community Wisdom Councils.

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On November 3, David Korten, author of The Great Turning - from Empire to Earth Community gave an excellent talk summarizing his book. Korten offered a historical analysis very similar to Richard Moore’s, although he calls Moore’s ‘elites’ Empire. He said that Empire has promoted self-serving stories about security, prosperity and meaning, and that we need to change the stories. (Click here to read an earlier version of Korten’s speech.)

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