Time out~time in
microcosm
macrocosm
Wise Democracy Santa Cruz County
Microcosm/macrocosm
Microcosm/macrocosm
TOUCHSTONE QUESTIONS ~ what would You like to see a Citizens Wisdom Council convened for... no holds barred!!! ?
TOUCHSTONE QUESTIONS ~ what would You like to see a Citizens Wisdom Council convened for... no holds barred!!! ?
1. How can we emerge from this unprecedented societal Covid experience better than we went in? ✅ (Convened June 2020)
2. What is stopping us/our County making the shift to being a Charter County with rank-choice voting?
3. Given a true We the People recourse {tabula rasa} how can we, the living generation, resolve the Tragedy of the Commons?
4. Why does the City of Santa Cruz have to 'steal' San Lorenzo Valley's water?
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"Ring the bell that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering,
There's a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in.."
~Leonard Cohen
Given a true We the People recourse {tabula rasa} could the living generation resolve the Tragedy of the Commons?
Give me a fulcrum, and I shall move the world.
Give me a firm spot on which to stand, and I shall move the earth.
[Archimedes] Points of Leverage
We the People
"... that a government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from this earth." Gettysburg Address
"..We reiterate that no single silver bullet, conceptual or otherwise, will be able to turn around the self‐destructive trends that have led to the proclamation of the Anthropocene. But still, history has proven that major changes in human behaviour do occur – the end of slavery or racial segregation, and increasing equality of women and men being examples of major changes that at some point would have seemed utterly unthinkable to contemporary analysts.
Paradigm shifts and societal transformation are possible, arguably when the desire for change coincides with practical means to enact concrete measures.
Through spanning the broad range of considerations from simple parameters to shifts between paradigms, a leverage points perspective might hold considerable promise for sustainability science."
"Of Courses" ~ the fifth chart
OF COURSES defined:
Dynamic Facilitation [DF] uses four charts; Data, Solutions, Concerns, Problem Statements. A 'DF' is marked by shifts and breakthroughs in thinking;
Sometimes the shifts and breakthroughs take the form of new ideas. Other times they bring a new sense of what the "real problem" is, or a change of heart. At the end of a dynamically facilitated meeting, a fifth chart is used to capture group conclusions, what we call "Of Courses", the basic choices for going forward.
Dynamic Facilitation opens the door to a thinking process, which sometimes emerges naturally in a crisis, where people drop their roles and positions, open up and share what they really think, work together in surprising ways, and make progress that would normally be impossible. ... Dynamic Facilitation is especially valuable in such difficult settings, though ideally it is used on a regular basis rather than only when facing an impossible-seeming issue.
2020 Covid Shelter-in-Place #DFO Citizens Council "OF COURSES"
Here follows more numerous "Of Courses" than we would commonly see from an in-person Citizens Wisdom Council. This may turn out to be an integral feature of an online Dynamic Facilitation #DFO ~
We are posting verbatim:
Of course we will
Get the people who need to be part of the conversation into the conversation
Bring a clean slate (a tabula rasa) to the post corona world to forge a new path forward
Take action by approaching all the thought leaders in the county and across the state to share the findings of this GWC and to explore how we can make those conversations happen regularly.
Expand this conversation across the state of California
Keep this momentum going right now and use this window of opportunity presented by the current social and political situation
Move into action with compassion and empathy for others and ourselves
Recognise the difficulty that those in power are in to show their vulnerability and we will extend the same empathy and compassion to them
Put music to our movement
Hold community conversations to heal the deep hidden and complex wounds of institutionalized inequity and inequality
Rewire ourselves to make space for a new narrative and tap into the deep emotions inside us, whether triggered for the love for animals, the oceans, the people, the whole planet, to propel us forward.
Debunk the myth of humans having dominion over nature, so that we treat our planet with the respect it deserves and requires to support life.
12. Of course we seek to engage in dialog with an open mind, always striving to avoid assumptions and judgments, with a deliberate desire to expand our own thinking and learn from others' perspectives.
{this one was still being worked / not fully fledged}
From the first run at the Of Courses on the final day came 4 “coalesced Of Courses” which encapsulate all of the above.
Of course we will
Put our efforts into organizing regular Wisdom Council conversations, with diverse groups of people, to create a place for vulnerability and listening to learn from each other, to become more compassionate and challenge the broken system together.
Hold our county supervisors and other local politicians to account on the scale and urgency of their action to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss, racism and white privilege.
Vociferously seek out the truth, challenge our own thinking and those of others, and seek out wider perspectives to escape our own echo chambers and challenge those in positions of power.
Oscillate between our own anxieties, anger and fear at the sight of the extent of the brokenness of this system, which stays alive through how we bring up our children, how we buy into ‘wound and heal’ strategies of corporates, the media and politicians; how we reinforce patriarchal patterns; and our deep knowing that to develop the necessary courage to become the leaders of a compassionate revolution we need to practice compassion, empathy and vulnerability towards ourselves and all other beings.
Note: The Council Story timeline is still to be uploaded / will happen after the Resonance Group has completed.
Invitation "To Be"
"A ToBe is when you take “Time Out” from normal life. It’s a mental “shifting of gears,” maybe you do it just 2% of the time. It's a shift of thinking from decision-making to choice-creating.
Of course, the idea of taking “time out” is an old one. It happens in many different ways—meditation, retreats, religious services, the sabbath, vacations; recreation, prayer, etc. In using the term "ToBe" we are referring to a specific kind of “time out,” where we stop and step back to face our most important issues in the spirit of choice-creating.
Ultimately, this process generates deep connection with others, empowerment toward transforming the system, and breakthrough answers to difficult problems. Then "Time In" and it's back to normal. But of course, there is no normal anymore since the ToBe Process transforms us and our situation."
That's what we're doing.
Dynamic Facilitation and the Wisdom Council Process
Choice-creating
“The Wisdom Council is the most empowering democratic innovation I know.”
Tom Atlee, director, Co-Intelligence Institute, author, Tao of Democracy and Empowering Public Wisdom
