Friends, Good news and bad news. FIrst the bad news. Pluto's interest in the book was very short-lived. The editor wanted all the ideas to be placed in an academic context, citing all those who had developed ideas along similar lines. For a book which covers such a wide scope, that would mean making the material at least twice as long, and would greatly dampen its accessibility to the intended audience. The good news is that there is a wide choice of on-demand publishers, and they can get the book out in a fraction of the time required by traditional publishers. Nonetheless, the logo & support of a real publisher would have been helpful. Can't have everything, sigh. I know most of you don't have time to keep up with all the material, but I've been very gratified and encouraged by the many people who have jumped in and provided all sorts of help. I've gotten invaluable feedback at many levels, from 'how an ordinary reader would respond', to 'how professional facilitators see these things', to detailed proofreading. Catherine Breen, a university student in Cork, has been particularly helpful, reviewing everything from the point of view of a reader for whom most of the ideas are new and strange. As a consequence of all this help, I'm in the process of making considerable revisions. I'm going to put back in a Ch 1 which is along the lines of "Brief History of Humanity"... introducing concepts of cultural evolution, mythology, pre-civilized societies, etc. -- what one might call the 'Daniel-Quinn / Riane Eisler stuff'. It will include some of the material currently in my final chapter, about "Life outside the matrix". The final chapter can then be shorter and more focused. The matrix material, as Ch 2, would then tie in to the mythology thread of the new Ch 1. There will also be a new chapter that talks about the 'transition period' -- the practical problems involved in converting our energy-intensive systems into sustainable ones, while keeping the wheels of society turning during the process. In response to several people's suggestions, I want to make the chapter on "Charter for a democratic world" less abstract. Rosa Zubizarreta suggested it be more like a 'poetic journey' than a 'systems analysis'. Jim McGregor pointed out that the few scenarios I dealt with in some depth only raised more questions than they answered... "Such as crime, police, prisons, universities, hospitals etc etc". What I want to do is make the material more open and suggestive, hinting at the kinds of solutions that are possible for different kinds of situations. Also I want to refer to real examples of solutions from around the world and from history, rather than making them all up as abstract scenarios. For example, Tree Bressen says that parliaments in Europe, up to about 1600, used consensus. I'll need to research that one, and this information could be very effective. I'll also need to say why that practice stopped, and how that might be avoided. The chapter on "Harmonization in the Microcosm" has gotten LOTS of critique and suggestions from Rosa, Tree, and Jim Rough, all professional facilitators who are supporters of the concept of harmonization, and from whom I've learned what little I know about the various processes. One of their suggestions is that I need to acknowledge that there are processes using the word "consensus" that try to manipulate the participants toward particular outcomes. Harmonization processes need to be placed in the context of group processes in general. This chapter will change quite a bit, but the main conclusions seem to have survived critique. I'd like to include an appendix, a 'recipe book', that describes some simple processes that people can 'try at home', sot to speak. It could also be a kind of 'consumers guide' by which people could evaluate processes that might be on offer in their community. But I'd need a volunteer expert to write such an appendix. There's a limit to how much detail I can get into with something I don't have direct experience with. I haven't mentioned everyone who's been helping, and I hope no one is offended. I just wanted to share an overview of the kinds of support people have been offering. If anyone else wants to give any kind of detailed review, please ask me for an MS Word version of the relevant material. The text versions I post to the list are less useful for such purposes. --- On another note, Chris Thorman (our noble server guru) introduced me to a spam service, aliencamel.com. It costs $15.99 per six months, and is very effective and easy-to-use. If any of you are still bothered by spam, this seems to be the way to go. It works best if you upload a 'white list' (known correspondents) at the beginning, but you can also just approve messages as they come in, and build up your white list that way. One of the nice features is that you can handle your email from their website while you're on the road - no need to bring along your computer and hope you can find a service provider to log into. All's you need is a friend's computer with access to the web. When you get home, you can easily download all the new mail (incoming and outgoing) onto your computer. If you want to give them a try, more information is available on their web site: http://aliencamel.com/receive/ Below is a very encouraging excerpt from a website, sent in by Dion Giles. I'm amazed that "Electronz" would post such a thing and not even let me know. best regards, rkm http://cyberjournal.org -------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 13:03:19 +0800 To: •••@••.••• From: Dion Giles Subject: Commentary on "Escaping the Matrix" Dear Richard If you haven't already read it, you may be interested in the following comment that appeared in a New Zealand e-mail magazine ("E-zine") called "Electronz". http://www.electronz.cjb.net/ Best wishes - Dion Giles ---<fwd>--- [2 ] ESCAPING THE MATRIX Author Richard K. Moore could be termed an historical analyst, with X-ray vision. His book by this name zooms right through the perceived reality as conjured up by political and corporate spin-doctors. He shows it up as a fictional matrix or mirage created and sustained by, and in the interests of, Big Business, the privately owned international news media, and the major left and right political parties which are kept dominant by F.P.P. Elections, plus crumbs and free beer from the TNC (TransNational Corporations) banquet tables. Moore's journey through, from the matrix into a different world, is likened to accepting the "red pill" or Truth Drug, from Greek Mythology's Morpheus, after which the matrix of myths woven by vested interests to tranquilize an unsuspecting public and protect themselves suddenly becomes transparent. The so-called ignorant protesters at Seattle, become a highly literate tip of an iceberg; a mass movement starting to revolt against globalization and international rule by a supreme and unelected "elite". The matrix equates capitalism with freedom and free enterprise, but instead it is an environment where governments provide conditions for corporates to feed their hunger for unlimited profits at the expense of the rest of the community. Matrix builders, even including significant parts of academia, portray democracy as being competitive party politics, but after the "red pill" it is seen as a game that the wealthy, ruling elite have long since learned to corrupt and manipulate to maintain their control, and achieve their ongoing objectives. After Moore's ESCAPING THE MATRIX, the world will never look the same again. For more info, go to http://cyberjournal.org --------------------------------------------------------
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