The U.S. has "Monster Problems"
"Monster Problems" are existential issues that seem impossible-to-solve but which must be solved. A short list of national Monster Problems are:
- Increasing polarization, media silos, separate versions of "truth," lack of shared vision;
- Radicalized people, conspiracy theories, rage without evidence, calling for violence, lack of listening;
- Pandemic mismanagement, government mandates, distrust of science, Covid variants;
- L-shaped distribution of wealth and power, U.S. is an oligarchy, poverty, homelessness, oppressive school debt for young adults;
- Increased corruption, special interests dominating the public interest, legal bribery of politicians;
- Unraveling of public institutions —threatened autocracy, fake news, runaway Supreme Court, foreign manipulation of elections, breakdown of the rule of law, threats to voting rights, captured agencies/revolving doors for executives, etc.
- Poor collective thinking, partisan gridlock in Congress, avoiding the BIG issues, threatened loss of democracy, massive need for governmental reform;
- Declining trust in elections, the courts, governments and one another; loss of the spirit of community;
- Systemic racism, mysogyny, prejudice, violence directed at minorities;
- Destruction of the commons ... e.g. aquifers, forests, trust, spirit of community;
- Our system is destroying our people ... e.g. money comes first, our food system builds unhealthy bodies and destroys soils, economics encourages over-consumption, people are stuck without meaningful work;
- .... and many more
Our SYSTEM is causing these Monsters
Our System no longer fits our Situation. The U.S. Constitution may be the greatest social invention of all time. It is the underpinning for the national System in the U.S and much of the developed world. It structures how we think, talk and make collective decisions. It establishes "the rules of the game" and sets up freedom, the pursuit of "happiness" and competition as the basis of governance, economics and culture.... While the Constitution was a vital step for humankind our collective situation has changed. Today we are inter-dependent more than we are in-dependent. So a competitive structure will necessarily break down ... from win/win to lose/lose.
What is our System? Most people think there are only two viable Systems by which a large society can organize itself, autocracy and "democracy." At the Center for Wise Democracy we call these the "Triangle" and the "Box" systems. The ultimate authority in the Triangle System is some "Great Leader," to whom citizens owe undying loyalty. In the Box System we are loyal to the Social Contract, Constitution or Rules of the Game instead. But now, because we are increasingly inter-dependent, the Box System is destroying our planet, our nation, our people, etc. It was never really a "democracy," where the people are ultimately in charge, but increasingly that's what's needed, the Circle System. The whole idea of our 18th century Founders designing a near perfect System that we can live by hundreds of years later must be reviewed. Obviously, it's not possible for everyone to independently pursue personal happiness (e.g. profits) when we are facing collective problems that must be solved. Nor is it possible for a machine-like System of Voting, Balance of Powers, Laws and Freedom within the laws to generate collective intelligence. At some point, we've must come together and start thinking.
There is a missing conversation. What's needed is simple. Periodically, all of us must step back and think creatively and respectfully together about our Monster Problems and build a unified perspective about what's going on, what We want, and how best to get there. This conversation must be ongoing and far better quality than voting (no conversation needed), debate, discussion, negotiation or compromise. The kind of conversation needed is key, what we call "choice-creating." This is where all the people face Monster Problems with heartfelt creativity seeking breakthrough progress. And they reach shared conclusions about what's going on, what We want and how best to get there. This "We the People" conversation is similar to the one at the Founding of the U.S., when almost all the delegates to the Constitutional Convention and to the Ratifying conventions achieved near unity in supporting this new form of governance.
There is no identifiable risk to this strategy. The ToBe Project, which is just the Wisdom Council Process applied nationally, does not change anything in the current Box System. It just adds to what we already have a new voluntary conversation. The only power this conversation has is if it results in unified conclusions. And then Congress, the Economy and the Culture will respond ... also voluntarily. There is no coercion in this strategy. The Circle System, what we call "Wise Democracy," comes into being when all of us participate in this new "We the People" conversation and we all recognize that "Hey, if we are all together on this, then We are the ultimate authority in our System. Higher than the President, the Congress, the Supreme Court and even the Constitution. The new ultimate authority is all of us seeking what's best for everyone.
What is our System? Most people think there are only two viable Systems by which a large society can organize itself, autocracy and "democracy." At the Center for Wise Democracy we call these the "Triangle" and the "Box" systems. The ultimate authority in the Triangle System is some "Great Leader," to whom citizens owe undying loyalty. In the Box System we are loyal to the Social Contract, Constitution or Rules of the Game instead. But now, because we are increasingly inter-dependent, the Box System is destroying our planet, our nation, our people, etc. It was never really a "democracy," where the people are ultimately in charge, but increasingly that's what's needed, the Circle System. The whole idea of our 18th century Founders designing a near perfect System that we can live by hundreds of years later must be reviewed. Obviously, it's not possible for everyone to independently pursue personal happiness (e.g. profits) when we are facing collective problems that must be solved. Nor is it possible for a machine-like System of Voting, Balance of Powers, Laws and Freedom within the laws to generate collective intelligence. At some point, we've must come together and start thinking.
There is a missing conversation. What's needed is simple. Periodically, all of us must step back and think creatively and respectfully together about our Monster Problems and build a unified perspective about what's going on, what We want, and how best to get there. This conversation must be ongoing and far better quality than voting (no conversation needed), debate, discussion, negotiation or compromise. The kind of conversation needed is key, what we call "choice-creating." This is where all the people face Monster Problems with heartfelt creativity seeking breakthrough progress. And they reach shared conclusions about what's going on, what We want and how best to get there. This "We the People" conversation is similar to the one at the Founding of the U.S., when almost all the delegates to the Constitutional Convention and to the Ratifying conventions achieved near unity in supporting this new form of governance.
There is no identifiable risk to this strategy. The ToBe Project, which is just the Wisdom Council Process applied nationally, does not change anything in the current Box System. It just adds to what we already have a new voluntary conversation. The only power this conversation has is if it results in unified conclusions. And then Congress, the Economy and the Culture will respond ... also voluntarily. There is no coercion in this strategy. The Circle System, what we call "Wise Democracy," comes into being when all of us participate in this new "We the People" conversation and we all recognize that "Hey, if we are all together on this, then We are the ultimate authority in our System. Higher than the President, the Congress, the Supreme Court and even the Constitution. The new ultimate authority is all of us seeking what's best for everyone.
What is your wish for America?
Please, make the biggest wish you can for American society. Then look at the "Monster Wish" below.
I wish ... . .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
I wish ... . .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
The Monster Wish
Good news: We think the Monster Wish probably encompasses your wish. And that it is realizable! See The ToBe Project.
That we (just us) can convene a national conversation where “all” the people come together respectfully; face Monster Problems like purchased politicians, media silos, homelessness and corporate values; co-create shared perspectives on what is really going on, what we want, and what we need to do; where this new creative collaborative "We the People" conversation achieves breakthrough progress on each Monster; where "We" provide wise leadership to government, corporations and the culture so that needed changes happen in both distributed and collective ways; where this new conversation is ongoing so that it becomes part of the underlying structure of our society, assuring a new form of governance (i.e. Wise Democracy), a new form of economics and a new culture; and where individuals gain achieve new levels of awareness, understanding, consciousness, empowerment, healing and freedom.
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The ToBe Project —8 steps to facilitate the "Monster Wish" into being
The ToBe Project is the Wisdom Council Process applied to the nation (or to the world). It's a way to facilitate all the people to come together as
"We the People." Originally, we thought a U.S. Constitutional Amendment was needed for this strategy to transform the System. (See The Wise Democracy Amendment.) An Amendment like this was described in the 2002 book, Society's Breakthrough! Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People. But since then we've discovered that an Amendment to the Constitution isn't needed to facilitate a legitimate "We the People." And in any case, our experience with the process shows that "We the People" will likely structure the process into the Constitution once it gets going.
The ToBe Project can facilitate us all to face the big issues in a high quality conversation, where we reach unified views as "We the People." Just the existence of this new conversation is the missing ingredient to making our System what we call a "Wise Democracy," where an inclusive unifying "We the People" is ultimately in charge. Below are the basic steps of The ToBe Project.
Note: Our current System has little provision for collective intelligence. Basically, it about giving people a simple set of options; they make a judgment about which is best; and someone adds up the numbers. This voting approach is very limited and shouldn't be the centerpiece of our System. Better is to add the missing collect thinking process, where we face the Monster Problems creatively together.
"We the People." Originally, we thought a U.S. Constitutional Amendment was needed for this strategy to transform the System. (See The Wise Democracy Amendment.) An Amendment like this was described in the 2002 book, Society's Breakthrough! Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People. But since then we've discovered that an Amendment to the Constitution isn't needed to facilitate a legitimate "We the People." And in any case, our experience with the process shows that "We the People" will likely structure the process into the Constitution once it gets going.
The ToBe Project can facilitate us all to face the big issues in a high quality conversation, where we reach unified views as "We the People." Just the existence of this new conversation is the missing ingredient to making our System what we call a "Wise Democracy," where an inclusive unifying "We the People" is ultimately in charge. Below are the basic steps of The ToBe Project.
- Gather "Just Us" and adequate resources
- Identify the first Monster Problem to address
- Randomly select 10 to 16 people
- Use Dynamic Facilitation to reliably evoke the spirit of "choice-creating" in each Wisdom Council
- Convene a live "global community" meeting where the Wisdom Council presents the story of its journey & unified conclusions
- Structure this process of global Wisdom Councils to be ongoing
- Provide for the new whole-system conversation to include everyone
- Provide ways for all to learn more about this holistic model of change, especially the mode of thinking (i.e. choice-creating) and our way to reliably evoke it (i.e. Dynamic Facilitation)
Note: Our current System has little provision for collective intelligence. Basically, it about giving people a simple set of options; they make a judgment about which is best; and someone adds up the numbers. This voting approach is very limited and shouldn't be the centerpiece of our System. Better is to add the missing collect thinking process, where we face the Monster Problems creatively together.
Trans-partisan video
Below is a short 9 min video briefly describing the national Wisdom Council Process. This talk was given on 1/25/17 to the Democrats of Spokane WA, just after the installation of Donald J. Trump as President of the U.S. Because this strategy is "trans-partisan", this talk could have been given to Republicans.
How does this work?
The benefits from the ToBe Project are immense as one can tell from the Monster Wish. And the risks are difficult to find. Interestingly these benefits happen in three primary ways:
To understand more about how the Wisdom Council Process can achieve the Monster Wish please see the 5-part video series "Essential Wisdom for solving society's biggest problems".
- The CONTENT of what the Wisdom Councils co-determine in addressing each Monster issue.
- The PROCESS of thinking they use in achieving unity and building trust.
- The SYSTEMS change from Box to Circle that occurs naturally because of the added ongoing "We the People" conversation.
To understand more about how the Wisdom Council Process can achieve the Monster Wish please see the 5-part video series "Essential Wisdom for solving society's biggest problems".
Checking back on how this affects the Monster Problems
Let's check back on the Monster Problems listed earlier ...
- Increasing polarization, information silos, separate versions of "truth," no shared vision; ... The ToBe Project facilitates a new kind of public conversation where people naturally listen to one another and co-determine "what is truth", "what we want", "how to get there" ... So just implementing the new conversation is a solution to the mis-information and information silos.
- Radicalized people, conspiracy theories, rage without evidence, calling for violence lack of listening ... There is no creative, collaborative thinking process in our System, just adding up individual judgments. Of course, these dysfunctions result. What we need is one ongoing whole-nation Choice-creating conversation where we all talk together about the big issues and reach shared conclusions. The ToBe Project adds back this missing "We the People" conversation and turns diversity and emotions into necessary assets needed to co-create the shared perspective.
- Pandemics, excess government mandates, distrust of science, Covid variants ... Our System focuses on individual freedoms with little regard for the collective need. So to meet the need for "herd immunity," for example, government mandates go against this basic national nature. However, the ToBe Project provides a way for the people to talk things over and choose a multi-layered plan for what's needed. "We the People" choose together what we want to do. ... And if needed our conclusions may include government monitoring, support for research, questions to science, etc.
- L-curve distribution of wealth and power, U.S. as an oligarchy, poverty, homelessness ... Our current System is like the game of Monopoly: In the end one player wins everything and everyone else loses. What's missing is the spirit of national collaboration and community that turns the spirit of "winning the competition" into "deeply embarrassing greed."
- Increasing corruption, special interests dominating the public interest, legalized bribing of politicians and judges ... There is little sense of the "Public Interest" in our current System. Instead we have set up a competition of Special Interests with the presumption that ultimately the "invisible hand" will operate to make things better for everyone. But the invisible hand doesn't work in an oligarchy. Society's Breakthrough creates a clear expression of the Public Interest and a clear desire among all of us to realize this shared vision.
- Unraveling of public institutions —threatened autocracy, fake news, runaway Supreme Court rulings, foreign manipulation of elections, breakdown of the rule of law, threats to voting rights, captured agencies/revolving doors for executives, etc. ... Society's Breakthrough establishes a new collective thinking capability and a new public institution, "We the People", which is ongoing. This provides a way that We can establish trustworthy public institutions and reshape our social contract.
- Partisan gridlock, avoiding the BIG issues, politicians incapable of agreeing, threatened loss of democracy ... Quality leadership cannot come from within the partisan battle. A way to transcend the partisan battle is to enlist the participation of all people in a creative endeavor, solving real problems. This is a higher form of democracy, what we call "Wise Democracy." Here we face the Monster Problems one at a time, reach unity and provide responsible direction to elected officials, the marketplace and the culture.
- Declining trust in government, elections, the courts and one another; loss of the spirit of community ... When the people face difficult problems and come together on what's needed, this builds trust. Here's a way that "We the People" of the 21st century can take responsibility for our System and institutions back from an 18th century "We the People" that is currently in charge. Now, in unity, we can start designing a 21st century system.
- Systemic racism, mysogyny, prejudice, violence directed at minorities ... Our current System is rooted in "decision-making", which literally means "cutting away" ... e.g. a judging process that "cuts away" the minority. On the other hand an ongoing national choice-creating conversation sets up a system of valuing diversity. In choice-creating minority voices are necessary to achieve creative shifts and breakthroughs.
- Destruction of the commons ... e.g. aquifers, forests, trust in government, spirit of community ... The Tragedy of the Commons happens because we are structured to be self-interested parties taking from the commons, with essentially no provision for the well-being of the whole. Society's Breakthrough restructures our System so that we all meet to consider the well-being of the commons and to responsibly manage it.
- Our system is destroying our people ... e.g. special interests and making money comes first, our food system builds unhealthy bodies and destroys soils, pursuit of over-consumption ... Together we are all riding in an airplane on auto-pilot, heading toward a mountain. We are stuck in a System that is forcing us to over-consume. And increasingly people know it, and feel the desperation of our situation. With Society's Breakthrough "We" can check in on our situation and our 18th century system. And make adjustments. Here's a way all of us can get involved in making real headway.
- etc.
Additional benefits!
Society's Breakthrough can achieve even more positive benefits:
- We shift our thinking ... from a basis in judgment (decision-making) to a basis in creativity (i.e. choice-creating), from an emphasis on self-aggrandizement to service.
- We shift from a "constitutional republic" to being a "Wise Democracy" ... where "We the People" are ultimately in charge.
- We heal deep divisions and trauma ... Choice-creating is a trauma-healing conversation. (See the archived video "Healing Trauma and Dynamic Facilitation" 2009)
- We start aligning our actions with our values ... e.g. to reshape our budget priorities
- We structure our society so that jobs have real meaning ... e.g. our current system structures things so that profits are actually more primary than saving our democracy. This would reverse that.
- We shift our economics from capitalism to "ToBe-ism". This doesn't replace capitalism but just adds the missing human element, where we are primarily pursuing a shared vision and collaborating to achieve it.
- etc.
This process already works at large scale
This short (5 min) video (in English) describes one national Wisdom Council experiment in Germany. Note: German-speaking governments refer to the Wisdom Council as "Bürgerat" (i.e."Civic Council").
Note also ...
1) During the years 1993 to 2002, we thought a U.S. Constitutional Amendment was needed to establish a legitimate "We the People" for the nation. This "Citizens Amendment" was the focus of the 2002 book by Jim Rough: "Society's Breakthrough! Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People". ... But after 20+ years of experiments and adoptions of the Wisdom Council Process, especially by governments in Europe, we now know that the "magic sauce" for establishing a legitimate "We the People" lies in our ability to facilitate "choice-creating" at large scale. It's still important that this change be institutionalized in the Constitution. But the need for it, a Wise Democracy Amendment, should emerge naturally from the Wisdom Councils.
2) It is difficult to find any risk to this strategy. Basically, we just gather a small number of random people and dynamically facilitate them over a couple days. They give a presentation and they go away. Then in a few months a new random group is gathered and the process is repeated. Where is the risk in that? ... But obviously since this simple process promises to transforms the System, just hearing the idea can seem risky. The real risk is to assume that we can continue to operate in the existing System with little provision for "collective intelligence."
2) It is difficult to find any risk to this strategy. Basically, we just gather a small number of random people and dynamically facilitate them over a couple days. They give a presentation and they go away. Then in a few months a new random group is gathered and the process is repeated. Where is the risk in that? ... But obviously since this simple process promises to transforms the System, just hearing the idea can seem risky. The real risk is to assume that we can continue to operate in the existing System with little provision for "collective intelligence."
Additional resources
- Video Seminar (5-parts): "Essential Wisdom for Solving Society's Biggest Issues
- Article: 'A Rebirth of 'We the People', Jim Rough, The Good Society, Penn State University Press, Volume 13, Number 2, 2004 pp 44-48
- Video: ... Healing Polarization in Society (4min)
- Handout ... "How to Fix America ... And Become a Real Democracy"
- Chart: Seven strategies to achieve the "Ideal of Democracy" in America
- Short video on “How to reform democracy”
- Book (2002) “Society’s Breakthrough! Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People”