FOUNDATIONS
WHY XR?
STRATEGY
CULTURE
ACTION
LEARNING
VISION
RADICAL
INCLUSIVITY
EVERYONE
Include everyone, a voice to all, especially the seldom heard, challenge inequality and ingrained cultural prejudices
PARTICIPATION
Everyone who chooses to should be able to participate
GROUPS
A home for all groups/tribes who are working to include people
ACTIVE
LISTENING
BE HEARD
A fundamental human need is to be heard
CONNECTION
Build genuine connections with others
EMPATHY
Cultivate empathy between all members of society
TRUST
TRUST IN THE PROCESS
Trust in each process, as you are participating in it
TRUST IN THE SELF
Trust in yourself and the Self Organising System, that all tools are ones you can pick up and use, some are entry level, others you will grow to be able to master.
TRUST IN OTHERS
That others will also learn and grow to help us all deliver a future that works for all
STRATEGY
CULTURE
ACTION
LEARNING
VISION
OVERVIEW: WHY IS XR NECESSARY?
HOW OUR CURRENT DEMOCRACY HAS ENABLED CLIMATE BREAKDOWN
Politics is a cartel system, in hock to the growth economy.
People have no mechanisms for expressing their objections, other than to choose between political parties once every five years.
Political parties, within a first-past-the post-system of voting, cannot collaborate. They are locked into opposition with each other. This formation has prevented them from responding clearly to a crisis we know exists. Similar to parents on the top floor of a burning building, arguing about who is right about the right way to evacuate. Rather than holding hands and leaving.
For more on this see Compass publication: Is The Party Over?
CURRENT PACE OF REFORM IS TOO SLOW. WHY DISRUPTION IS NECESSARY
There are innumerable initiatives and think tanks aimed at reforming party politics. But turkeys don’t vote for Christmas. A new democracy has to arise from outside of Westminster, causing it to respond. The people waking up to the environmental breakdown will orient themselves around a new kind of agency in order to see results. This is not a threat to democracy, but an overdue evolution of democracy.
A RADICALLY DIFFERENT DEMOCRACY IS ALREADY POSSIBLE
Only 2% of people in the UK (and across Europe, 2-5%) are members of political parties. Not only do they hold the power, they also control the mainstream narrative about what matters, who ‘the people’ are and what ‘they’ want. However, outside of that 2% innumerable groups have been experimenting with new forms, practices and mechanisms for meaningful participation. From personal to social and global development tools are available. We will host the best of them here.
HOW A NEW DEMOCRACY DELIVERS A BETTER LIFE AND HEALTHIER PLANET
Our current party political system has an insufficient representation of the human being at the heart of its operations. We are imagined as homo economicus - easily measured by our material inputs, outputs and needs. However, our own experience of life reveals us to be complex bio-psycho-social-spiritual beings, not easily measured and requiring much more than is offered on party manifestos. When people have more autonomy to design their own community systems of support, provision and opportunity to create, they will deliver better lives for themselves and each other.
A more autonomous democracy, will factor in a healthier environment to support them. Becoming response-able will result in more direct solutions being chosen more quickly.
Not everyone will take action in the same way: the aim is to design a system of enlightened actions, respecting each others’ role in the huge task before us.
HARD POWER: CREATING OUTCOMES THROUGH NON-VIOLENT FORCE
The front line - the thing that is most visible to the mainstream media - is disruption of ‘business as usual’ by taking over the streets. This is bringing hope worldwide. However, if the only possible result we are working towards, is a response from the government, we are replicating our failed democracy and our imposed powerlessness. Instead, we have to share the many ways to be in action ourselves. The Future Democracy Hub exists to point to and integrate these tools: Transition Towns, citizen action networks, Flatpack Democracy, municipalism and so many more.
SOFT POWER: CHANGING OUTCOMES THROUGH THE POWER OF ATTRACTION
An American concept born out of US dismay at losing the Vietnam War. Joseph Nye pointed out that despite the failure of guns and money, US values and culture (freedom, the American lifestyle Dream, strength) will always attract people. That has proven true until now. Long term, the loss of international soft power through Trump, is the biggest threat to US in the future.
Since Nye’s use of soft power to shape US public diplomacy however, the term has been used to describe a more general distinction between the tools of force and influence.
Soft power tools and practice includes offering alternative narrative through better media, stories of successful new models and prototypes, experiences of regenerative cultures, ways of being together - anything that attracts and engages people as they reach to get their needs met. Art is a soft power - reframing, enchanting, energising - pulling people towards outcomes. But it should always be remembered that both hard and soft power are neutral tools: can be used for good or bad.
CULTURE: RADICAL INCLUSIVITY; HUMAN CENTRED; PLANET ORIENTED
FROM 20TH CENTURY MACHINE CULTURE TO 21ST CENTURY RELATIONAL
Complex democracy cannot be carried by simple linear connections and tick boxes. It must be carried through capacious relationship between people and organisations. A healthy democracy arises from the capacity to generate and regenerate healthy relationship between people - internally and externally - and power. See also relational welfare.
A HEALTHY DEMOCRACY IS NEVER EXCLUSIVE
It recognises and welcomes the unique contributions of every person within its constituency. It understands
that without input from everyone, on their own terms, it cannot reach its highest potential.
At the centre, the concept of the complex bio-psycho-social-spiritual human being.
In the bigger picture, relational culture implies a relationship between individuals, the community in which
they live, the environment which enables them and the planet they impact. I-We-World.
ACTION: MULTIPLE POINTS OF ENTRY, LEADING TO COLLABORATION AND DECISION MAKING
Diversity means not only different cultures, genders, economic circumstances but also different levels of agency arising from the above, but also other individual circumstances, histories and stages of life. A healthy democracy provides multiple forms and speeds of entry into the collective conversation.
Once a meeting comprised a group of experts sitting at the front of a hall and the audience signalling their approval or rejection. Healthy meetings allow a high level of participation, carefully facilitated to enable diversity of input and lead to collaborative decision making.
LEARNING: UPGRADING OURSELVES FOR 21ST CENTURY DEMOCRACY
Below is just a few of the many skills, learnings and developmental tools we can get for free from the internet, or even better - through agreements - from each other. This kind of acknowledgement that we ALL need to shift our understanding and skills to create something that will equip us for 21st Century democracy:
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Principles of non-violent communication and action
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Hard power / soft power
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How to use the tools in the Future Democracy Hub
VISION: WHAT COULD FUTURE DEMOCRACY LOOK LIKE?
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Vision is the work of our imagination, a resource that every single person is born with.
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The relationship between imagination and manifestation could be in constant development in a healthy, vibrant democracy.