> If there is a number one problem, it seems to me that it is precisely
> the ability to garner a sufficiently large mass of people who
> would/could outvote those who just don't get it, whatever it is. (01)
At the risk of dragging the tone a long way down, I'll say that 'P' word
again. Psychology.
Assume that there isn't time to educate the current masses, especially
if they don't read even the newspapers (in which case they are unlikely
to have a computer). What moves a mass? Politicians and powerful people
have understood the patterns for a long time. The less logical people
are, the less thoughtful, the less independent, the easier it is to push
and pull them around as a herd. Nietzche didn't choose the words 'herd
instinct' lightly.
Two things make a herd move en masse according to instinct - fear and
reward. (02)
Advertising is all about mass psychology: speaking to fear or reward
through creating and instilling suitable mental association triggers.
What creates an ongoing reinforcement of such ideas? Brand identity.
Symbol utters a brand identity, even replaces it in the mind. Minds bow
to symbols. (03)
To make a movement first decide what the herd should move toward or away
from. Then build a fear mechanism and/or reward mechanism that directs
toward the goal. The brand identity is always the goal, not the
mechanism. Make a symbol for the goal. Plaster the symbol around.
If possible make it a silly handshake members only club where the true
brand identity is not revealed without adequate initiation and where the
rewards are on the inside. (04)
Sounds sinister? Yep, but it's a tried and tested approach. It's
sinister only because we know how effective it is and how easily people
can be led astray with it. Once you have a mass movement checks and
balances are tricky to implement post hoc. (Stalin had a brutally
effective approach though.) (05)
Goal: Clean, green, sustainable, saved world with no poverty and
conflict in less than 5 years? Discuss.
Logo: To be determined
External Mechanism: TBD
Internal rewards: TBD
Handshake: TBD (06)
Wicked enough yet? (07)
--
Peter (08)
Jack Park wrote:
> Hi Mark,
>
> I've got a hipshot response to this that I need to toss out. First, I
> think this to be a very thoughtful suggestion, and it parallels, in
> some sense, the idea I've been harping, which is to bring all the kids
> on the planet together sharing stories and working on projects in
> order to learn how to work together.
>
> But, there is this never-ending concern; who will jump on board your
> suggestion? I would conjecture that the choir will (most everybody who
> reads this list), but probably not the herds of unwashed masses who
> don't even sit in the pulpits, or read newspapers for that matter. It
> seems to me that, if some nice lady can't camp on our presiden'ts
> driveway unheckled, then there's just bound to be a sufficiently large
> mass of people who will find reason for and ways to heckle those who
> take things seriously.
>
> If there is a number one problem, it seems to me that it is precisely
> the ability to garner a sufficiently large mass of people who
> would/could outvote those who just don't get it, whatever it is. Those
> who contributed thoughtful responses to Henry's original post here,
> and, indeed, to other similar threads here and elsewhere, are bound to
> be equally thoughtful in any reasonable quest to tackle the complex
> and wicked problems of our times. The most wicked problem, I think, is
> what results from apathetic and uncaring masses. My hunch is that an
> appropriate place to start working on that is with the children. I'm
> not so naive to believe that all children would get to participate;
> indeed, one might suspect that those children for whom the most good
> would accrue would be precisely those who would be prevented from
> participation.
>
> I don't think "our" abilities are in question. I agree that your
> suggestion could greatly improve our abilities. Is that enough? Is
> that the right next thing to do?
>
> Wicked, indeed.
> Jack
>
>
> On 8/29/05, Mark Szpakowski <szpak@well.com> wrote:
>
>>I've been reading everything here, and trying to think how best to
>>contribute to improving our abilities to relate and respond to the real
>>problems. Here's the best I can do (also posted to
>>http://www.coachingplatform.com/blojsom/blog/szpak/Dew-Drop/2005/08/30/721FEFFF2CA70A186BF0D4F5E0C437FC.html),
>>which I think has relevance to bringing face-to-face together with virtual,
>>and the soul _into_ the new machines.
>>
>>
>>
>>What is to be done?
>>
>>There are real problems to address immediately: catastrophic environmental
>>change; depleting non-renewable energy; the terror and counter-terror of
>>political, economic, religious, and military forces; failed states;
>>massively corrupt and destructive leadership and media.
>>
>>What can be done? We have ever-more effective technologies for augmenting
>>knowledge gathering, analysis, synthesis, action. However, what about
>>augmenting the perceiver, the experiencer, the knower, the actor? Everything
>>is shaped by the first-person experiencer: so to make knowing and acting
>>effective, one needs to clarify first person experience. We are the lens:
>>clarify the lens.
>>
>>This is the one contribution I think needs to be made to the question of
>>what we can do to improve the improvement process, to augment augmentation:
>>provide a discipline and process of augmenting the subject, the knower, the
>>doer, making it transparent.
>>
>>Secondly, I think there are known ways of doing this, that both have gone
>>through years of practice and experimentation, and have modern embodiments
>>that speak to our time and situation. The Buddhist psychology and practice
>>of mind, for example, is sophisticated, well-documented, 2500 years old,
>>effective, and right to the point: it's not future rocket science, it's
>>already clearly laid out. It's a crime to not make use of it, or something
>>like it.
>>
>>It is not the only tradition that provides this, but it is available. The
>>key is that that level of self-examination and knowledge is necessary. One
>>attempt to bring such depth practice to the contemporary world is the work
>>of the Shambhala Institute for Authentic Leadership
>>(http://shambhalainstitute.org) and its annual summer face-to-face programs:
>>it presents how to create a container for working with personal and group
>>motivation and command.
>>
>>A particular language and process of working with first-person and group
>>attention, that has been offered there as well as on its own, is the "U",
>>developed by Otto Scharmer, Peter Senge, and others (cf
>>http://www.presence.net).
>>
>>I propose that the U process is particulary well suited to acting as a
>>methodology and practice for technical communities of practice, especially
>>those engaged in saving the world, such as this group. The U provides a path
>>to bringing subjective element and bias into explicit view, letting
>>attention relax into presence, and allowing to come the future. Presencing
>>grows the future, the next thing. Basically, the U is about developing the
>>self-aware purposing of groups and organizations, through explicit practices
>>of "sensing, presencing, realizing".
>>
>>This is what augmenting augmentation needs. Without it, improved vehicles
>>are still flying blind. With it, our role in the co-emergence of personal
>>through planetary reality is recognized as intrinsic in both theory and
>>practice.
>>
>>This is what I want to do: be part of an awake team saving the planet - full
>>time. There's plenty of excess money around. Could it be rounded up to fund
>>people getting together, both online but also very critically face-to-face,
>>and then also to work together on getting this process repeated with other
>>groups, so that all of us can more effectively and awakely face and solve
>>the hard problems?
>>
>>I can think of no better or more necessary way to improve improvement, and
>>to care.
>>
>>- Mark
>>Contexts:
>>
>>
>>
>>Blue Oxen Collaboration Collaboratory
>>
>>Siberian Meltdown
>>
>>Douglas Engelbart and Bootstrapping
>>
>>Autopoiesis
>>
>>
>
> (09)
--
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