Last night I heard Laurence Lessig speak about the need for constitutional conventions in the USA at All Soul's UU Congregation in NYC.
He spoke about his observations of mock conventions and the incredible wisdom and eloquence of citizen participants in these conventions, despite what we are so led to believe in our culture about the dangers of mass democracy and the dangers of the crowd. I was delighted when he admitted that even he had been skeptical (he formerly advocated Amendments rather than Conventions) himself being a constitutional law professor. He said in the end what he saw was eloquent expression from ordinary citizens about constitutional principles. Most of us of course would not be surprised by that since we know these principles to be universal, as reflected by our experiences with OST or AI, and that they are always achievable absent manufactured conditions of intimidation, scarcity, or fear. I know Harrison speaks about all these qualities of the Tribal Council in his books and talks about OST. We can all speak with great lived experience about these attributes and potentials. There is a real opportunity for OST community to make a very important and valuable contribution to this discourse we have to get going in this country to save this Republic. People at the meeting last night were expressing doubt about the wisdom of opening up constitutional conventions, while they seem to overlook the sheer tom foolery and out-and-out imminent danger history shows of letting our system go on as it is. This seems such a shame, but it is true that most people have never experienced OST or Appreciative Inquiry but instead are fed a daily diet of the worst stories they take as inevitable "human nature". It seems a pretty interesting fix that the Federalist Papers harp on and on about the dangerous of the multi-ethnic multi-cultural republic and the needs to curb the deleterious effects of "mob rule". Funnily enough, nobody ever talks about Federalist Papers debating the dangers of concentrated power or democratic institutions in the hands of Oligarchs, nor what happens when Oligarchs have it within their absolute power to pit against each other and manipulate those multi-ethnic groups in even a Constitutional Representative Democracy. History shows however many more examples of this latter than the former danger! Even the collectivized utopia of the USSR was taken over by an Oligarch who committed the worst crimes against his own people. Of course, the big danger of that "mob rule" in the US has always been against property owners who have the potential new taxes to pay when voters vote for infrastructure, education, public goods, or social safety nets. That Constitution and its institutions were also carefully designed to protect Slave Owners for more than 80 years despite mass public consensus that slavery was unconstitutional and most states banned it starting with PA in 1780. Lessig's examples from today show clearly that similar contradictions between mass public voter consensus and what Congress or SCOTUS do are still to this day two very different things! There is a real need for a experiences of OST and Appreciative Inquiry practitioners to enter into this discourse and offer up real lived experience that can dispel these nasty and self-serving myths so well implanted in our foundational texts. Of course, those fears have been well seeded by many institutions, and they need to now be reversed by a wider awareness of our lived experience as the OST community and practitioners of real fundamental change. We need all our collective wisdom. Lessig outlines ways to participate and get your views out there to a wider range of your neighbors and fellow citizens. He is arranging networks of local educational public events I would like to encourage any of you who are so moved to engage with Lessig and his organizations to create discourse that contrasts real lived experience and truth to these long held errant and well planted myths out there that say ordinary people are not suited to participate in direct democracy. The dangers of leaving the Oligarchs in charge are written all over history books including those of Herodotus from Ancient Athens. In fact, Herodotus and others like Aristophanes clearly demonstrate that Oligarchs by being free to manufacture scarcity and manipulate the public do the worst things arise. We don't need to look back that far either, as most of you will know and some may even have some lived experience of your own or your family's from which to draw. These lessons point to new constitutional principles and mechanisms that reflect new accumulated wisdom and that can protect us more in our new future from these ancient methods, all of which would be fair game in constitutional conventions in all our states. The best ideas will rise to the top. What a wonderful opportunity for us! How our peers need what we have come to know. I hope we can engage and participate in this growing and important movement with a positive outcome. Here are some links to Lessig and his nascent movement to generate self-organizing energy! http://blip.tv/file/4171181 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-lessig/a-call-for-a-convention_b_448762.html http://onpoint.wbur.org/2010/02/11/lessig-and-turley-constitutional-conventions -- Seek first to understand, then be understood. Stephen Covey Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted. 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