Friends, First I want to share with you the all-important prologue...a reader's thoughtful comments, followed by a response that evolves out of considering seriously what they have said. This is how our collective creative process works around here. We listen to one another, and through these dialogs our collective understanding grows. But after that I want to hit you with my challenge. As I mentioned in our previous posting, "post-xmas dialog", I have a new mission, which I dubbed "Johnny Process Seed": http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/?id=1369 In the process of responding to Mr. Addyson, I came to realize that this can be a collaborative endeavor, and that you all can play can important role, with very little effort. How, I will challenge you, can you pass up such a handy chance to contribute to saving the world? rkm -------------------------------------------------------- From: "JOHN ADDYSON" To: •••@••.••• Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:40:58 -0500 Subject: Regarding your brilliant article, The Post-Bush Regime: A Prognosis http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7693 Dear Richard, It was back in the spring of 2003 when I first came across your article, Escaping the Matrix. At the time, I had never read such a clear and precise analysis of the invisible forces that were manipulating the major and political events that affect our lives on a daily basis. As I had mentioned in my very first email to you, Escaping the Matrix became sort of a lens in which to "unpack" and interpret the manufactured events that are playing out daily on our television screens. With the release of your latest article, The Post-Bush Regime: A Prognosis, you once again have your finger on the pulse of what the puppet masters have in store for humankind. Again, thank you for your insightful analysis. But I would like to share a few anecdotes with you, Richard, which may already confirm what you are hearing from others. I travel extensively throughout the United States working on short-term projects as an engineer. It's a good living, and it provides great opportunities to talk with folks about how they perceive the forces that are shaping their world. Believe me, my audience has consisted of conversations with all kinds of folks: a rancher in western Montana, a postal worker in center city Philadelphia, or an architect in Lexington, Kentucky. The list is long, and the conversations have been varied and revealing. From what I can best discern, I find that folks who come from disadvantaged socio-economic groups are the first to acknowledge that the system is rigged, and that the deck is stacked against them. Most of them know this from first-hand experience. But the majority of them believe that there is little that they can do to correct the injustices. They take a pragmatic approach to living--namely, keeping out of trouble, and maintaining a low profile. I respect this approach to living, but it is merely a form of survival with the supreme hope that nothing drastic will befall them, such as the loss of a job, imprisonment, or a serious illness for which they are not insured. The next group is the Sheeple. This is the American Middle Class. This is the world that I was born into. I can characterize Sheeple in a word: clueless. Having surrendered their souls to bread and circus, along with the trappings of crass materialism, such as having that new flat screen television set, they are impervious to any suggestion that they are pawns in a game that will invariably bring them to financial ruin. No matter how tactfully, Richard, I would try to broach a particular subject (like mentioning that the Federal Reserve is a private bank, or that the surplus cash in the Social Security trust fund has been looted and stuffed full of worthless IOU's known as Special Issue Treasury Notes), I generally receive some pretty nasty looks and am shunned from any further conversations at the proverbial water cooler. Ignorance is enslaving us, Richard, and what I find alarming here is that the most obedient Nazis who support this new world order are the folks who have the education and the professional credentials. It appears that they have the most to lose should they speak out against the injustices that are ripping the fabric of humanity into shreds. So let me sum this up. I realize that I have made some sweeping generalizations about specific groups of people, and I will be the first to admit that they are notable exceptions who are trying to make a difference. To this special minority, I offer my deepest respect and appreciation. But I will close in reaffirming my earlier observations, which is the result of dozens of conversations and thousands of miles of travel--and say that most Americans don't get it. Should an economic or political crisis befall the sheeple here in the United States, most folks will not even have a clue what will hit them, and why it has hit them. I suspect that they will turn to the usual talking heads (Bush II, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, et al) and get their daily dose of propaganda...you know, the terrorists did it; or, the Liberals did it; and on the list of excuses and scapegoats continues ad infinitum. I often wonder if humankind is reaching a sufficient critical mass in its consciousness, so that "we" can act in sufficient numbers to effect the changes that will enable us to dismantle the institutiional and political scourges that are stealing the fruits of our labors, and enslaving us in return. With a new year soon upon us, I want to thank you, Richard, for your significant contributions in analyzing the methodologies of oppression, naming the principle actors who benefit from this zero-sum game, and for also featurng in your email postings those individuals who are genuinely trying to make a difference. To this latter group of proactive individuals, I wish to extend a special word of thanks to them for their brave efforts. The recent assassination of Benazir Bhutto along with all of the attendant misinformation concering her death certainly confirms that we have a lot of work in front of us. Best wishes, John Addyson Pennsylvania, USA -------------- Hi John, Thanks for your thoughtful letter, and for your expression of appreciation for our list and its subscribers :-) It is useful to analyze the system, and I must say I enjoy doing that. I've always enjoyed liked things out and solving problems and getting an A on my report card. But my conclusions these days are always the same -- there is no solution within the context of the system. I keep saying the same thing, putting it in the context of the latest developments on the world stage. And always my point is to get people to give up on their reformist ideas, to realize the system is unfixable, and to turn their attention to their real world, the world of their communities, friends, and networks. Fixing the system is not our challenge. Our challenge is to create a new culture, beginning with those around us, in our communities and networks. The problem is not numbers. The problem is that we are divided one from the other. We need to learn how overcome our differences and discover our common interests. We need to learn how to make wise decisions together in a way that takes everyone's concerns into account. We need to learn how to work together in pursuit of our objectives, like in the old days, when the people of a community would come together and build a barn for a new neighbor. In learning these things, we will be raising our consciousness at the same time. We will come to realize that ordinary people can work together wisely, that we can govern ourselves, that real grassroots democracy is possible. We are the solution to our problems, and we have the capacity to solve our problems -- these realizations are the very 'consciousness raising' that we need in order to transform our cultures and our societies. We will not learn these things in the context of a confrontation with the regime. That's too big of a task to contemplate at the beginning. We can learn these things in our communities, in the process of building stronger communities. We can learn these things in our movements and networks, in the process of making them more democratic and effective. We need to learn to walk before we can run, to work on small things together before we can contemplate large-scale endeavors. If we want to change the system up there, our task begins with us down here. The only potential counterforce to the system is We The People. And We The People, unfortunately, does not exist -- not as a nation, not as world, and not even as a community at the local level. We are a bunch of individuals each going our own way, not even knowing our neighbors. As individuals we are completely powerless against the regime. Political apathy, given this situation, is a sign of intelligence: "Why bother with what you can't change?" Sheeple are Sheeple not because they're ignorant, but because they are powerless, and they don't want to admit it -- so they occupy themselves with jobs, entertainment, and consumerism, depending on TV news for their 'information'. Our task, if we seek to transform society, is to do whatever we can to facilitate the emergence of We the People consciousness -- to help bring people together, to help them discover their shared interests and learn how to work together wisely. This cannot be done on a large-scale basis all at once. It needs to begin in the small, with people in their communities and in their groups and movements of various kinds. Transformation must begin as local pockets, pockets that grow and join with others, evolving like an organism, until the new culture is ready to replace the old, like a snake shedding its skin. When a people are at last united in their purpose, no power can stand against them. It turns out that there are ways of awakening We the People consciousness. There are relatively simple dialog processes that can transform the way people interact with one another. These processes are designed to enable people to 'really hear' the concerns of the other people, and to then go on and work together creatively to find solutions to problems that take everyone's concerns into account. The processes also enable people to tap into their inherent wisdom, so that the solutions turn out to be very sound ones. When people go through experiences like this, when they use wise dialog processes together, two important things happen. First, if they solve some irksome problem, they have that immediate benefit. But more important, they experience 'collective empowerment' -- they see that it is possible for ordinary people to overcome their differences and work wisely and creatively together. They experience, in microcosm, the awakening of We the People. At the same time, they learn that 'appropriate dialog processes' are the key to this kind of awakening, to this new consciousness that We the People is possible, that real democracy is feasible. In other words, when people solve problems together using wise dialog processes, their consciousness is raised. They have glimpsed the possibility of direct democratic empowerment. The have seen the Promised Land of liberation and they know it exists and is reachable. They also become conscious also of how to reach that Promised Land -- they have learned the value of wise dialog. This is the consciousness that needs to spread if social transformation is ever going to be achieved. This is how humankind can reach "a sufficient critical mass in its consciousness". *** I hereby issue a CHALLENGE to you John, and to all of our readers. I challenge you to look around your environment, in your community or perhaps in some group you're working with, and identify a 'problem that needs solving'. In particular, we want to find a problem that is largely due to divisiveness. That is, there are competing camps with different solutions, and if they could all agree the problem could then be solved as a relatively minor technical issue. And it is important that people really care about the problem, that they are all motivated to find a solution and move on. If you can find such a problem, then the next part of the challenge is for you to tell me about it so we can talk about it. I am connected in to networks of facilitators and process consultants, and I am confident that we could come up with a practical proposal that could lead to a solution to the problem. It would involve convening some kind of customized local dialog session, employing appropriate dialog processes and a skilled facilitator. The costs and logistics involved in such a proposal are minimal. A dialog session is not a big deal at all. It's really just a long meeting in a room somewhere with some flipcharts and coffee. if people really care about solving the problem, and if the proposal makes sense to them, the fees and expenses of the facilitator should be a negligible part of the equation. Anything I might do is of course on a volunteer basis. My part of the challenge is to come up with a proposal for a session, with your help, designed so that it can succeed in solving the problem. I've got a pretty good sense for such things at this point, and I can also work on particular cases with my friends in the field. These people earn their living by their process and consulting skills, but their primary motivation is much the same as ours, so they are always happy to give their best objective advice, and to recommend the best facilitators for a given job. If you can identify such a problem, and if we develop a proposal together, and if you can generate interest in the proposal, and if the session succeeds in solving the problem -- we will have made real progress toward social transformation. We will have given people the experience of empowerment, and shown them the means of achieving empowerment. We will have sown the seeds of a new culture, of a raised consciousness. I don't think I'm asking very much of you. How difficult is it to identify such a problem? And you don't even need to work on the proposal if you don't want to, you only need to inform me about the community and the problem, and review the proposal and suggest improvements or different ways of saying things. The proposal will speak for itself, as regards what benefit it promises to deliver and the costs involved, and as regards the credentials of those who would be involved in the project. You need only to present, nay just deliver, the proposal to the groups who care about the problem. The rest is between the local groups involved, and the folks whose names are on the proposal. I'm serious here folks, and I'll be very disappointed :-( if I don't get a flurry of responses, as people begin to identify 'appropriate problems' in their environments! Happy New Year to all :-) richard -- -------------------------------------------------------- Posting archives: http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/ Escaping the Matrix website: http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal website: http://cyberjournal.org How We the People can change the world: http://governourselves.blogspot.com/ Community Democracy Framework: http://cyberjournal.org/DemocracyFramework.html Film treatment: A Compelling Necessity http://rkmcdocs.blogspot.com/2007/08/film-treatment-compelling-necessity.html Moderator: •••@••.••• (comments welcome)
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