permaculture

[Koreen Brennan <cory8570@yahoo.com>]

http://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/why-permaculture-needs-accurate-data-and-measurement-persuade-mainstream

 
Koreen Brennan

www.growpermaculture.com
www.facebook.com/growpermaculturenow

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Subject: [permaculture] Permaculture Politics | Conversation as a skill,
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 flow and art | "All social network activity is secretly songs in the key of
 life." -- John Kellden
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*The Google+ Monday Magazine*   http://goo.gl/I2hGZw
Issue 8 - Jan 27, 2014    (part 2)

*"All social network activity is secretly songs in the key of life."*
-- John Kellden

*"Making politics dirty and divisive serves those who like power games.
Sensible people must learn the way of polite politics and cooperation to
outcompete the troublemakers. Politics would be beautiful if we didn't let
some of us smear it. It's absolutely beautiful to be able to meet on a
common ground."*
-- +Sakari Maaranen <https://plus.google.com/100276050920859547198>

*The Conversation of the Week: 21C Politics Is Beautiful, part 2*

+Shava Nerad <https://plus.google.com/101371184407256956306> :
Have to point out that regardless of law "you can't legislate morality," or
even fair treatment in employment. Given identical resumes, American hiring
authorities will hire the resume if told it's attached to a white
applicant, but turn down the candidate if told he's black -- regardless of
the hiring manager's skin tone/ethnicity. Yup, black men will not give
black men an even break.

Then, in practice, we control our poor by incarceration rates that far
outstrip any country in the free world, disproportionately a burden on
black men. Ironic, that the largest source of effectively unpaid
involuntary labor in the US is still young black men in southern states,
many of them working on the same road systems their great-great
grandfathers might have labored on under the lash.

Apartheid is not gone, just gone stealth, just as it has parallels in India
-- things change slowly, and we never won, we never reached our "truth and
reconciliation" stage here. We just shamed a cease fire out of the
memetics, after a couple assassinations in the late 60s convinced a
critical mass in DC we were uncomfortably close to losing our center,
permanently. At least, that's how it looked from here.

So we have a long way to go -- healing the culture to give all our young
men better prospects, and letting the cultural assumptions catch up, fully,
with the law.

Obama is president, but he is also part and parcel of the Democratic
machine. He was the executive of a hybrid Chicago and DLC team, now nearly
100% DLC (Clintonites). The Democrats needed the minority and youth (which
in the US presidential elections is under fifty!) vote -- Barry Obama was a
good marketing plan.

But anyone with a decade of memory could tell, President Obama and Barry
Obama don't see eye-to-eye on a great many issues. This is what happens
when the party "handlers" get to a candidate and make it clear -- they are
only the spokesperson and executive for a 8800 person appointee executive
branch team. (Count may vary depending how deep you want to go and still
really count.)

We don't elect a president. We elect the management team for a
multi-trillion dollar bureaucracy. We might not treat it like part horse
race, part beauty contest, and mostly single-focus cult of personality if
more people thought of the process in those terms.

What were we saying about enlightened corporations?

+John Kellden <https://plus.google.com/101010252943098026073>  :
It will get worse until it changes and then it will get better. As a
collective organism, we human beings have still some way to go when it
comes to design.

What most people fear above everything else, is their own living present
thriving beingness. Almost anything is more desirable, than becoming still
enough to hear and embrace ourselves. Any which distraction will do nicely.

Out of this desiring something else above ourselves - confusion.

Since we don't particularly like to acknowledge our own confusion, we often
seek out foes, enemies, some select figure out of the ground upon which we
can project otherness and badness. The side benefit here is that this
projection transforms confusion, anneals it into anger. The cost with this
approach, is often an overemphasis of self-assertion, to the exlusion of
the #miteinander <https://plus.google.com/s/%23miteinander>  the
meaning-moving-with, together with others.

We can choose to be forgiving, both towards ourselves and to others when we
notice these and related dynamics.

+Michael Josefowicz <https://plus.google.com/114944409106623979163>  :
Obama is not an end, more like a beginning. "You can't legislate morality".
I have to disagree.  If one compares the realities of Mississippi Summer
versus the realities of Atlanta Georgia today. Absolutely there is a long
way to go. The school to prison pipeline in the States continues to be a
disgrace. Unemployment among people of color is an outrage. Driving while
Black continues to plague some of our fellow Americans.

Having said that we have to look at the progress that has been made. Back
in the day there were no black people on television in adult roles.
Homosexuality was never openly discussed. Very very different from today. I
find it's the only way to see the story to arrive at Hope rather than
cynicism and despair.

MLK said  "“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards
justice.” He was right...

+Sakari Maaranen <https://plus.google.com/100276050920859547198>  :
If our ideas are little more than a sparse representation produced by
feature selection after applying some reversible-jump Markov chain Monte
Carlo method, then at least we can predict our thoughts, predict our
predictions ... no comment on whether those necessarily have anything to do
with predicting the future, more like predicting the past. :)

+Michael Josefowicz <https://plus.google.com/114944409106623979163>  :
"We can choose to be forgiving, both towards ourselves and to others when
we notice these and related dynamics." +John Kellden  That includes
corporations and even politicians. Most - not all - are just good people
doing the best they can given the perverse incentives and old mindsets.

+John Kellden <https://plus.google.com/101010252943098026073>  :
This is an interesting thread - it illustrates the power of a single word
 _politics_  to consciously frame and subconsciously prime the conversation.

I'm almost completely uninterested in politics as it has been framed up
until the 20C. Not uninformed, mind you - uninterested.

I'm very interested in us as human beings learning to assume shared
responsibility for our part of the Gaia stewardship.

Spaceship Earth, as Buckminster Fuller put it.

To illustrate a different framing and priming:

*What are some of the Venn diagram patterns, out of the intersection of
governance and tensegrity?*

+John Kellden <https://plus.google.com/101010252943098026073>  :
+Michael Josefowicz yes. Forgiveness and discernment. A non-fluffy
forgiveness, if you will.

+Sakari Maaranen <https://plus.google.com/100276050920859547198>  :
+John Kellden and I would like to redefine politics to mean stewardship of
Gaia.

+Michael Josefowicz <https://plus.google.com/114944409106623979163>  :
+Sakari Maaranen  yes. Climate change and global inequality are moving to
the top of the agenda for corporations, people and even governance- The
EU-US are close to the top 1%.

"I'm almost completely uninterested in politics " +John Kellden

Perhaps I can change that a bit. It is on the stage of politics that the
dynamics of complexity become most clear. With a nemetics view, good
governance is moving to authentic constraints. Tensigrity is local
resilience within an ever present  global perspective.

+John Kellden <https://plus.google.com/101010252943098026073>  :
*"...as it has been framed up until the 20C."*

:)

I'm all for any which #metalogue
<https://plus.google.com/s/%23metalogue> which catalyzes future
thriving societies for our children and
grandchildren.

If this means we need to take the word politics out behind the barn and put
it out of its misery, then that's just what we have to do.  :)

+John Kellden <https://plus.google.com/101010252943098026073>  :
*"Any sufficiently advanced 21C governance is indistinguishable from
integral stewardship."*
-- John Kellden

2036, or thereabouts - although I'd love to be wrong, and we'd help each
other wake up, smell the ecosystemic, fairly grown and traded coffee, and
it happening sooner.

+Michael Josefowicz <https://plus.google.com/114944409106623979163>  :
2036 is why I think you are wrong.

I bet if you had come of age in America around 1964, you would see what I
see. Just one of many examples, when I entered college in 1963 women were
not allowed in the men's dorms. In 1972 women and men lived in the same
dorms. 1964, The Summer of Love plus the Beattles radically changed the
culture in a few years. The list goes on and on.

When a new generation steps onto the stage of History, things change much
faster than previously thought possible :-) 

+John Kellden <https://plus.google.com/101010252943098026073>  :
Happy to be wrong Michael.  :)

+Michael Josefowicz <https://plus.google.com/114944409106623979163>  :
Bob Marley-Don't worry be happy

+Kate Griffiths <https://plus.google.com/114828709378372964551>  :
Firstly sorry for not coming back in for 24 hours but I am a single parent
this w/e because my hubby is away which with the age of my kids means I can
only participate in evenings.

I have skimmed the comments since I last wrote so forgive me if I do not
capture everything.  Firstly a big thank you to +Michael Josefowicz I loved
how you really addressed the issue and gave your perspective on that and I
will come back to that in a moment and +Maher Khalifa yes please I would
like a separate thread for this issue so if you are still willing to set it
up then pls do because I feel it is getting buried in amongst some other
fascinating threads and merits some attention of its own.

I agree to a point that people are sharing more openly than perhaps they do
on other platforms in that it is certainly not about selling BUT

1)  Men and women do communicate differently - we know that their brains
are different for a start.

2) You were onto something Michael when you mentioned logic.  I would go
further, in my experience, even in f2f communities, there seems to be a
tendency amongst men to get excited about an idea, explore it and start
intellectualising stuff.  In other words it is not what you talk about it's
how you talk about. For me and possibly other women that's a turn off.

3) It is not a gender thing for me either it comes down to how spiritually
evolved a person is.  Those with deep spiritual leanings get that it is
critical to get out of your head and into your heart and gut.  Listen to
that inner voice and share what you feel rather than talk about constructs
for the sake of talking about constructs.

Parker J Palmer who I love as a writer and is an academic talks about how
folk have gathered in circles since the beginning of time.  The key is not
to fix each other.  Think about M Scott Peck's model which he elaborates in
the different drum.  Phase 2 is about fixing people this leads into time
alone to assess your own values rather than whatever you initially adopted
(your parents'/ a mentor's values for example) which leads to phase 4 where
you can sit in a circle with others accepting them for who they are
whatever their point of view.  Creating the space for people to be, to
allow them to speak from their soul, their inner truth, their own unique
wholeness.  Then we have something beautiful, inspiring and REAL.

+Kate Griffiths <https://plus.google.com/114828709378372964551>  :
There is another thread here [in the Conversation Community]  which is
about what's happening in corporations and   said he is optimistic about
them and   seems to be too in his reference to human capital.

>From my experience, you are seeing what you want to see.  I worked in one
of the top four global professional services firms from 2001 til 2011 and
everything I saw pointed to a different conclusion.

Yes they use better terminology like human capital but the guys (90% of
them are guys) at the top do not want anything to change they have fought
very hard to get to where they are.  They continue virtually to a man and
woman at that level to be fear driven.  So the pc language and other
schemes are all window dressing.  They are not interested in sharing power
because it has cost them a huge amount to get there - many are on their
second/ third marriages or are single because that way they can dedicate
more time to work.  They hire A type personalities who are neurotic and
fear for their job and so competitive to the nth degree - they would sell
their grandmothers if it meant they could get on.

The only hope is the fresh blood coming through.  They want a more
value-based society and more meaningful work.  Yet often they have their
ideals crushed or corrupted if they stay in the system - it is rather like
a Stepford Wives makeover.

I realise this may appear cynical but it is the truth that I saw and that's
why I left in the end.

My hope is that with the new ways of collaborating, we will erode the power
of these monoliths and get more support for the SMEs which will become
better at forming alliances that will challenge the power of the corporates
and be more agile.  If government supported SMEs in the way that they
support big business, the world would look very different already. 

+Michael Josefowicz <https://plus.google.com/114944409106623979163>  :
"tendency amongst men to get excited about an idea, explore it and start
intellectualising stuff.  In other words it is not what you talk about it's
how you talk about. For me and possibly other women that's a turn off.  "
+Kate Griffiths  You nailed it for me. Has led to many not very pretty
"conversations" in real life.

The tricky part is the "excitement" is real. So often taken as "I am the
smartest little boy in the room." But that is not it.  It needs lots of
mindfulness and impulse control to get it better...

But, I also think I have seen that women tend to avoid direct
"confrontation." Many men on social media do the same. But an unanticipated
component of "mine is bigger than yours" is a greater willingness to
disagree. It's important as dialog needs respectful but persistent
disagreement to get to new knowledge.

Thoughts?

on corporations:
"They continue virtually to a man and woman at that level to be fear
driven." There is a saying that purchase decisions are made by greed or
fear." My experience is that it is fear. "No one ever got fired for hiring
IBM."

Consider as a context for what you saw that General Motors, Xerox, Yahoo
 among a small number of others, has a woman as CEO. Consider further that
we now have more women in Congress than ever before.

Small signs of course given the ongoing pay differential between men and
woman. Still I like to believe it's a sign of an uber trend.

Corporate culture will take a jump in the right direction when the 30
somethings come to C level positions. I think it's pretty fair to say that
for them it is finally a non issue at least among intellect workers and
probably through out the society.

+Kate Griffiths <https://plus.google.com/114828709378372964551>  :
I wrote in my recent newsletter about the winds of change and for me
Michael that was signified by hearing that Marianne Williamson is running
for Congress. I really hope she gets in because she could really shake
things up in a good way.

Just for the record I have never been adverse to a bit of confrontation but
I have a lot of male energy in me.

+Sakari Maaranen <https://plus.google.com/100276050920859547198>  :
I certainly agree with most of what +Kate Griffiths wrote above. There are
a couple of views I would like to add about intellectualisation though.
Firstly, most often when I do it myself it's a form of play, like making a
few spontaneous dance moves, not competition. Very often others may
perceive it as competition even when that's not the point. When kids run
around the house playing "it", we may understand that they are playing or
we may see that they're trying to prove who is quickest. I'd rather see the
play. Secondly, building abstract constructs is how we create solutions
that work. It's engineering standard approach. That's how we build a sturdy
house where we can all live together safely and comfortably. The house per
se may not be a very emotional thing. Still, it certainly requires a lot of
technical discussion how we can make it happen, and while we can also
discuss how we feel about some of the choices we have there, much of the
talk will be about technical constructs for a reason. This applies not only
to building houses but also to building organisation and communication
systems. They are not purely spiritual nor purely technical constructs.
People aren't either-or. We are all both spiritual and technical. And both
are needed. If we purely focus on spiritual or technical only, we will be
missing the other.

+Sakari Maaranen <https://plus.google.com/100276050920859547198>  :
Some people, like myself quite often, like to communicate relevant
information. The goal of this kind of communication is to share the info.
Maintaining an inspiring conversation for its own sake is another thing.
Surely we can mix and match these styles. Sharing info can be more
entertaining when turned into a conversational form.

+John Kellden <https://plus.google.com/101010252943098026073>  :
Both are needed. It's almost a universal meta-heuristic with me, when
someone asks me to choose between two things, I imagineer a third option on
the spot. This can come across as being a trickster at times - but I do
have a whole collaborative sensemaking methodology which can be used to
weave back and forth between various sizes, shapes and services - boxes.

+Luis Alberola <https://plus.google.com/113484800243211186014>  :
I hear you +Kate Griffiths, I have a similar experience in large
professional services firms

But think about society or polity - People in positions of power do not get
there only because of their virtue or wisdom. Politics si à tough game,
whatever the organization

But in any human organization or institution, as représentation or
democracy matures, things get better, but obviously not perfect. But REALLY
better (I spent part of my young years with a grand mother that would tell
about WWII)

So, People in power Will not change but deep down, corporations are
evolving because average employées are more important everyday, even though
there are less of them ...

And in power, there are many, many great leaders, but they are less visible
for they do their job right

+Michael Josefowicz <https://plus.google.com/114944409106623979163>  :
*"we may understand that they are playing or we may see that they're trying
to prove who is quickest. I'd rather see the play"*

*"The goal of this kind of communication is to share the info."*
-- +Sakari Maaranen

What's nice about this conversation is the info we are sharing is who we
are. 

+Michael Josefowicz <https://plus.google.com/114944409106623979163>  :
Found a little post giving a context for the new marijuana laws in the
States. A nice slice to see how politics interesected with an elite's
agenda.

"In 1968, Nixon was elected on a Law and Order platform. He was going to
save the nation from pot smoking, hippies swimming naked, sex without a
missionary commitment, and wimpy people wanting peace before he’d won the
Vietnam war and brought peace with his “I’ll tell you after you elect 
me,”
secret plan."

http://blackhistory360.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/a-guest-writer-provides-marijuana-a-political-context/

"People in positions of power do not get there only because of their virtue
or wisdom. Politics si à tough game, whatever the organization "+Luis
Alberola

My contention is the more we understand politics, the better we will
understand complexity in any context.

+Sean Grainger <https://plus.google.com/114603239544983387594> :
+Michael Josefowicz +John Kellden Perspective is everything... literally
makes or breaks everything. Politics is nothing but perspective and the
will to force it on others whether democratically through voting or by less
subtle means. Our internal political state is the forcing of a perspective
known only to us. We believe what we see and that is reality. A political
change requires a different lens enabling us to "see" our reality
differently. Then we have political will over ourselves. People who are
really good at willful seeing can be dangerous when they realize their
personal politics ( internal) can be imposed on others with a bit of
charisma. Can be used for good and bad groupthink.

+Michael Josefowicz <https://plus.google.com/114944409106623979163>  :
" People who are really good at willful seeing can be dangerous when they
realize their personal politics ( internal) can be imposed on others with a
bit of charisma +Sean Grainger  An important insight. Thanks.  Makes me
think of the delicate balance between Clarity of Vision v Humility. It's a
real problem for many change makers.

+Kate Griffiths <https://plus.google.com/114828709378372964551>  :
+Luis Alberola hmm love what you are saying & yet I think you ate
over-optimistic. The level of fear I witnessed stunted people's ability to
take a different course wherever they were in the hierarchy - bullying was
the accepted norm when peeps tried to be different despite what the
policies said so wholeness was fractured. What corporates are thirsting for
are more wisdom practices built in from the beginning as in the Twitter
founder's new org.

+Sakari Maaranen and +John Kellden of course it is not one or the other,
there are many perspectives & this is only possible when we create a space
for all to be themselves.

I like the idea of play an important part of learning & growth & yet I wd
argue that there is a danger in intellectualisation for the sake of it. Let
me explain. There's an organisation called Global21. It looks amazing from
the outside fill of well known folk, great links into Westminster etc.
However they do not capitalise on this. They pride themselves on being a
talking shop although they call it exploring ideas. It is a bit like Nero
playing the fiddle while Rome burns. The UK desperately needs creative
solutions to bring about much needed change. The problem is IMHO is that
they are in love with ideas.....And yes I have a preference for action
learning & in TA terms the hurry up driver features strongly.

+Michael Josefowicz <https://plus.google.com/114944409106623979163>  :
My thought is that it's not so much a love of ideas, as the perverse
incentives for producing "popular" or "important" ideas.

Same dynamic we see in academia. The more one publishes, the more
citations, the increase of the perceived value of the academic. The value
is monetized with speaking gigs, book tours and in the university with
tenure, bigger offices and labs, more staff. For people not in that system,
the payoff is self image and "influence."

Loving ideas on the other hand is wonderful.

+Sakari Maaranen <https://plus.google.com/100276050920859547198>  :
Universals vs. Matters of Perspective

I really don't think politics is about forcing perspectives, +Sean
Grainger. +John Kellden already stated the keywords above: Gaia
stewardship. Technically the same can be expressed as sustainable shared
resources management. Fundamentally this is not a matter of personal
preference, but hard facts of life and hard science. We need to take good
care of the limited resources that we still have available to us. This is
basically the same as holistic understanding of waste management at all
levels—aiming to eliminate waste as much as possible.

People who have thought through these matters all understand that it is not
about personal opinions, but universally smart behavior for a living being
capable of the level of awareness that we humans can be. Many just haven't
done the math yet and some don't have access to adequate education that is
necessary in gaining the global perspective.

For example, these matters are already identified in the list that +Doug
Breitbart <https://plus.google.com/105970612703559036760>   started.

In addition to the universal goals stated above, in politics, there are
also several matters that are indeed personal preferences where people have
different opinions. Here we should accept diversity.

Aligning our perspectives is desirable for universal shared values, Gaia
stewardhip as a prime example. With other matters mindfulness and
appreciation of others, of life's diversity are the keys. These principles
were already understood in ancient times and they are clearly and richly
expressed for example in Buddhist teachings.

+John Kellden <https://plus.google.com/101010252943098026073>  :
 I believe what you wrote is one of the best outlines of individual
sensemaking I've read.

+Maher Khalifa <https://plus.google.com/108490303236690986425>  :
+Kate Griffiths +Michael Josefowicz - I will start a separate thread
tomorrow.. I am impressed with all the discussion you have brought into
this Community, Kate, I have not seen such a long thread in my experience..
Fantastic..

+John Kellden <https://plus.google.com/101010252943098026073>  :
At the risk of hopelessly complexify this thread:

*Gaia Stewardship*
*"Everything from carbon atoms, to elephants, to hospitals survive as
organisms amidst their environments due to the ongoing effectiveness of
canalized habits in securing the modes of organization peculiar to their
purposes. Maintaining their wholeness as organisms requires that their
parts continue to play the roles required of the whole."*
-- Matthew David Segall

http://footnotes2plato.com/2011/06/13/thinking-etho-ecology-with-stengers-and-whitehead/

Stengers and Whitehead nod to   +John
Verdon<https://plus.google.com/107400768680112451370>
+Clare Patrick <https://plus.google.com/100420851761340173663> +David
Amerland <https://plus.google.com/115620878851836664537> +Gideon
Rosenblatt<https://plus.google.com/105103058358743760661>
+Pascal Wallisch <https://plus.google.com/100279438294886290330> +Alex
Schleber <https://plus.google.com/112964117318166648677> +Xeno
Phrenia<https://plus.google.com/100520148877423056661>
+Zaine Ridling <https://plus.google.com/108871877301789098084> +Jennifer
Sertl <https://plus.google.com/110409303843109622161>

+John Kellden <https://plus.google.com/101010252943098026073>  :
+Grizwald Grim a metanote - could we test a subset of a
#networkprotocol<https://plus.google.com/s/%23networkprotocol> for
when it is apposite to bifurcate long threads, and spawn new posts and
threads?  This question is obviously free to pursue for anyone else
participating of course. Now, back to the thread...

+Gideon Rosenblatt <https://plus.google.com/105103058358743760661> :
Tagging for later review...

+Grizwald Grim <https://plus.google.com/116135963476096063106>  :
+John Kellden I like it - seeing a thread like a tree, yielding fruit. The
protocol I'd focus on is how to plant it.

I'll think on it and get back to you.

+Deborah L Gabriel <https://plus.google.com/115809049562672335283>  :
+John Kellden I am interested in what your purpose is in being here.

+Sean Grainger <https://plus.google.com/114603239544983387594> :
+Sakari Maaranen With respect, what politics should be and what it is are
not even close.  Perhaps "sustainable shared resources management" should
be a political issue in the purest "species" perspective, but enter lobby
groups, profit margins, pseudo science and campaign promises designed to
get elected and you have the real political element, that which is
motivated mostly for personal gain and emanating from personal perspectives.
Global warming is a stellar example of what some would refer to as "hard
facts of life and hard science," however there are many learned researchers
and scientists that will indicate there is much more to the global warming
story in the long now than we common folk are willing or able to
understand. I live in a part of the world that was once inhabited by
countless dinosaurs living in a ridiculously warmer and jungle like
environment than the current 4 season environment where it seems 6 months
are spent in sub zero temperatures under four feet of snow. Hard science?
At best open to interpretation and inconclusive in the shorter now of our
living awareness.
+John Kellden I do believe that personal sense making is where politics
begins... how we view the world and how we believe it should operate.
Beyond that it gets much more complicated and corrupt once we understand we
can impose our perspective on others, and perhaps even more interesting,
become vulnerable to the perspectives of others... the political game in a
nutshell.

+Shava Nerad <https://plus.google.com/101371184407256956306>  :
Stewardship:

(Sorry if this is a repeat for some of y'all…)

When I was a young woman, a bunch of us were munching out on burgers and
fries on the MIT campus after a marathon gaming session, and talking
politics. There was a young man there who was -- not uncommon at the 'Tute
-- a scion of some Captain of Industry, and he declared, "There are only
two kinds of people in this world -- sheep, and wolves. And I, I can tell
you, am not a sheep."

And I just flashed a very toothy grin at him and retorted, "There are at
least three kinds of people in this world, you know? Sheep, wolves, and
sheepdogs. Better watch your damn back."

He never came back to game with us. Probably we weren't the "right sorts."

Stewardship in politics is a sort of boddhisattva oath. You learn what you
can, you "get it," and you embody the "finger pointing at the moon" as much
as you actually teach specifics. Politics being all about systems,
networks, and case studies, it's often hard to lay down as linear rules,
flatland scenarios and case studies -- even richly painted historical
landscapes are invisibly smeared with the fog-of-war of abstraction,
accepted truths, self-drunk Koolaid, smoke and mirrors, braggadocio or
libel. Sometimes it's not that "you can't handle the truth" -- sometime the
truth is as indeterminate as Heisenberg's cat's vitals.

But the public isn't comfortable with EigenCat news, or shades of gray.

They don't want to hear that General Alexander is probably a pretty good
guy in general who feels a lot of pressure to CYA when Congress inevitably
comes howling at his doorstep when something like the Marathon Bombing
happens, and then the public joins the lynch mob on Congress' side, the
hell with Snowden/privacy/civil liberties.

Yeah, kinda makes me itch too. It's so much simpler to hate people. It's a
cherished habit for most people.

And then, Congress -- they're howling because it's a shameless ploy for
votes. So… how do we make it shameful, instead? These are the sort of
memetic storytelling puzzles that keep me up at night.

Everywhere in politics there's a feedback loop, there's a place to exert
influence and change history.

How exciting and interesting and scary is that?

Politics as karma yoga.

+Michael Josefowicz <https://plus.google.com/114944409106623979163>  :
"Politics as karma yoga."
-- +Shava Nerad

I wish I would have said that....

+Sakari Maaranen <https://plus.google.com/100276050920859547198>  :
+Sean Grainger but of course. Otherwise we would have been born ready, as a
species. Our behaviours are still quite primitive, often driven by fear. We
already know that and how to live with fears, boasting our feathers,
hiding, shying away, camouflaging our intentions, etc. Many of us have
grown mature enough to let go of fear. With these people we can already
discuss actual politics with no need to waste time in the aforesaid masking
activities.

+John Kellden <https://plus.google.com/101010252943098026073>  :
Personal sensemaking is the only possible place to consciously choose karma
yoga. Eventually, a reweaving of neuroscience(brain, mind) with
biosemiotics(significant embodied presence) and play(work as a subset of
play).

*"Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words.
Trust movement."*
-- Alfred Adler

- Out of biosemiotics and embodied presence: Trust

- Out of neuroscience and mind witnessed mindful and integral: Events
turned convivial, one moment, one meeting at a time, including this here
very thread

- Out of Serious Play: Performance and Movement

Politics, as it is defined throughout the ages up until the 20C, is a
diversion. Divide et Impera. Notice how there's practically no emergent,
resultant vector out of a hundred comments.

Politics, once we understand that there's 7bn human beings living on Gaia,
as if in one global polis, city - is one of the many tools and approaches
at our disposal, to design, develop, build and hand over as legacy, a
society, a flourishing multitude of communities and villages, to our
children and grandchildren.

Notice, at all times, if there's an emergent, resultant vector out of what
you do, individually, together with others and together with your body and
with the planet. Build discernment capability, towards integrity of
spiritmindbody individually, and towards tensegrity of interdependent
artifacts.

The below video is something we could emulate and produce something similar:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU'<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU%27>
‎
Imagine our own individual stories, brands, woven together so as to form
the word Gaia. Then we could help each other share the video across our
combined networks, catalyzing growth of awareness. Other people could then
join our communities....  from there, only our imagination sets the limit
for what we can achieve.

*CTA: Together*

+Kate Griffiths <https://plus.google.com/114828709378372964551>  :
+Shava Nerad I agree that people don't like shades of grey. Why is this
because on the whole folk are afraid to embrace uncertainty. I too used to
be like this.

I believe that as we awaken to what is possible then our roles as stewards
of Gaia is to create from the unknown, start to build the flourishing
communities we yearn for. And we can start right here.

+John Kellden I think we have just created our first conversation of the
week. Look how effortless it was.

+John Kellden <https://plus.google.com/101010252943098026073>  :
I'm very happy you see it that way +Kate Griffiths - I will amplify this
here thread in

The Google+ Monday Magazine

which will be published later today.

+Shava Nerad <https://plus.google.com/101371184407256956306>  :
+Kate Griffiths This is why I want to create a movement that frames
political reform as the hero(ine)'s journey for the younger generations of
digital natives.

Right now, their alternative is Anonymous, memetically framed as a wild
hunt -- outsider, dangerous to both society and the individuals involved,
and vulnerable to ego/agenda co-option, as we saw in small with
Hammond/Lulzsec and Stratfor.

There are those in DHS who see it in the same anxiety, if not using the
same vocabulary. These people are neither blindly malicious on a whole, nor
idiots.

But I am at the very least a two-year prisoner of the health care system.
The good news being we have a hypothetical diagnosis!!! BEHCET'S. Even fits
my genome. The bad news: even though the standard therapy is prednisolone,
four key tests fit, history fits, and when I was on the med for my back in
June for five days it was the miracle of Lourdes for a month? I have a
series of one-at-a-time every 3-6 month appointments for rule-out tests
with specialists before they will ponder getting me working and out of
daily agony and a wheelchair -- because steroids _might hurt me. Lololol.

Someday, I may be back to tilting at windmills full time. For now, I am
trying not to curse a system that might have me on my feet relatively pain
free if I could afford a week in a private clinic to do a panel of tests.

Micropolitics. I have faced down the Great Firewall of China and gotten my
qualified victory conditions, but a clinic full of suburban doctors with
MassHealth forms are beyond me. I am reduced to tears regularly in the
office of the Lahey Clinic patient advocate. "We can't change the system
just for you." "You need to show more compliance." (This, when I had to
reschedule a specialist appointment due to being too ill to get out of bed
and walk with the illness they won't medicate or certify me as disabled
with…)

Two years in the iron maiden, and if none of the tests come back (false?)
negatives, and I don't have any fatal or permanently disabling side effects
of the untrated syndrome meanwhile… and I'm not catastrophically homeless
and so on… and I maintain what's left of my rep and sanity and there's
democracy left to uplift…

I will return to political work with a broader perspective and compassion…
;)

But as a white hat social engineer I play with shades of gray, educate
around them, try to make them into toys, innoculations, memes (both kinds),
teachable moments. I try to make people embrace being the protagonists of
their own lives, for their own sake perhaps, for the sake of meaning, for
the ones they love, for society, play, or heroism. Whatever it takes. Until
they center on task through doing.

Heroism isn't necessarily egoic. I was a student of Choyam Trungpa,
Rinpoche -- if you can span the Buddhist/Dzogen vocabulary, his Shambhala:
Path of the Warrior describes leadership as karma yoga.

+Michael Josefowicz <https://plus.google.com/114944409106623979163>  :
*"a reweaving of neuroscience(brain, mind) with biosemiotics(significant
embodied presence) and play(work as a subset of play). "*
-- John Kellden

beautifully said.

"Politics . . . is a diversion. Divide et Impera. Notice how there's
practically no emergent, resultant vector out of a hundred comments. Notice
how there's practically no emergent, resultant vector out of a hundred
comments. "  +John Kellden

*"I think we have just created our first conversation of the week. Look how
effortless it was."*
-- Kate Griffiths

Consider the real essence of politics is dialog. What it is now is a
corruption of what it should be. Like every emergent system it is evolving
to what it should be. Slowly, Fitfully. Two steps forward. One step
backwards.  The more we watch, the more we can learn about the dynamics of
conversation. 

+Michael Josefowicz <https://plus.google.com/114944409106623979163>  :
*"I want to create a movement that frames political reform as the
hero(ine)'s journey for the younger generations of digital natives."*
-- +Shava Nerad

A wonderful vision. How can we help? 

+John Kellden <https://plus.google.com/101010252943098026073>  :
#evolutionofconversation<https://plus.google.com/s/%23evolutionofconversation>

This conversational dynamic can be packaged in various ways, for easier
consumption, eg #sociallearning<https://plus.google.com/s/%23sociallearning>
#socialpresence <https://plus.google.com/s/%23socialpresence>

Anger, confusion, worry, anxiety, fear - these are all excellent starting
points for #metalogue <https://plus.google.com/s/%23metalogue>

*Metalogue*
Meaning-moving-with, including bringing our own selves "to the table". This
is why a metalogue cannot happen if we bring an agenda to the table, to the
exclusion of allowing others to take a seat. At the center of the table,
and through the center of everyone gathering around the table, is a
potential collective intelligence, that will unfold in perfect accordance
for what shared understanding among the participants allows the collective
intelligence to emerge out of the conversation. The currency of collective
intelligence is shared insights, eg through unique individual stories.

Evolution of Conversation
debate, discussion, vulnerability, dialogue, metalogue

1. Debate, Arguing
Everyone bringing their own partially hidden feelings and agendas

2. Skillful discussion
Everyone sharing part of their agenda and talking points, yet still hide
most of their personal feelings

crisis of vulnerability

3. Dialogue
A suspension of disbelief, a letting go personal armour of the mind, in
favour of empathy and respectful, deep listening

4. Metalogue
A letting go of those parts of our own individual agendas, whether unspoken
or spoken, that impedes the flow of meaning, the cocreation of value.

:_"Every conversation is a sacred moment and an opportunity for coming to
consciousness through a transformation of fear, pain, suffering and
grievances."_
-- John Kellden

+Michael Josefowicz <https://plus.google.com/114944409106623979163>  :
Easier consumption for many in the community. Politics in this context in
this thread is irrelevent as no one has the power to limit the
conversation. So happily no one in this thread is trying to exert power in
the service of building their brand or proving they are "right." Merely
playing around by tossing words back and forth. Allowing those words to
form other words that are worth sharing.  Very special.

The value created is not really about politics as a worthy or not object of
attention.. Rather it's about disagreement - not agreement - at the core of
dialog.  

+John Kellden <https://plus.google.com/101010252943098026073>  :
For me, at the core of dialog is collective intelligence. To me, this is
sacred. The words are not what's important. The amount of spirit, heart,
passion and intention we infuse our words with, is.

Consider how a child is looking upon an icecream on a summer's day. That's
the spirit.

It can be rediscovered by everyone.

*Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman*
THERE was a child went forth every day;
And the first object he look’d upon, that object he became;
And that object became part of him for the day, or a certain part of the
day, or for many years, or stretching cycles of years.

The early lilacs became part of this child,
And grass, and white and red morning-glories, and white and red clover, and
the song of the phoebe-bird,
And the Third-month lambs, and the sow’s pink-faint litter, and the mare’s
foal, and the cow’s calf,
And the noisy brood of the barn-yard, or by the mire of the pond-side,
And the fish suspending themselves so curiously below there—and the
beautiful curious liquid,
And the water-plants with their graceful flat heads—all became part of 
him.

Image: +Joachim Stroh <https://plus.google.com/100641053530204604051>
text +John
Kellden <https://plus.google.com/101010252943098026073> 



-- 
Lawrence F. London
lfljvenaura@gmail.com
http://www.avantgeared.com
https://plus.google.com/+Avantgeared
Skype: lawrence.f.london