Do you feel like howling in protest at the electoral system's failure to meet the challenges of our times? Whether it's the behavior or philosophy of one candidate or the other, the limits of the two party duopoly, the corrupting influence of big money, the possibility that our votes won't be accurately counted, or some other aspect of this absurd circus, reasons for feeling frustrated, anxious, angry and fearful abound.

Join us for a conversation where we discharge our difficult emotions and then think together about what might be possible to create an electoral system that works, as well as ways to move from being passive "consumers" of political leadership to active citizens co-creating our future.

We are beginning our inquiry here on the forum, and then continuing with our regular Monday Cafe Call on October 29:

Register for our Monday Vital Conversation Series
8-10a PDT | 11a-1p EDT | 3-5p GMT

This theme will also inform our Tuesday "Connect2012" and Thursday "Occupy Heart" calls.

We can start with the following questions:

  • What is the story about this election that you hear yourself most often telling?  The one that you are wedded to and maybe even take your identity from?*
  • What are the payoffs you receive from holding onto this story?*

*Question framing from Peter Block's Community: The Structure of Belonging

Photo courtesy of the Group Works Deck

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You don't really need to formulate an answers Pawel.  I'm not demanding or even asking for your response to any of this.  It seems more friendly to just listen to one another without demands.

I don't know whether to get into (connective tissue of) your response... e.g. the relevance of "Oneness ready" expanding the thought of "being deserving as We The People."  I seems on a divergent path rather than honing-in on anything.

Dyck, in spite of the overall tone of your post I hope I am entitled to answer in the context of growth and  collaboration.

Can’t we collaborate mutually to grow? Whatever you say resonates with what I feel and think. Why can’t we grow together?

E.g. I share your view on books and quotes. Can I however quote you – and try one more question referring to the quote?

It isn't logical to me how we can do anything but let off steam...when one doesn't even acknowledge fully their part in creating the mess....

And when the millions like me are all put together in one place we make a hell of a mess...

Do you mean we are here to be the mess?

We are part of the whole, we are leading edge of the whole’s evolution, and we are the proof of harmony. Can “WE” grow assuming we do not fit the cosmic harmony?

One more quote:

  • "Yet we must live together and somehow communicate to find harmony."

Could you help me harmonize this one with the one in my previous post?

Your question:  Do you mean we are here to be the mess?

The statements you posted quoting me deal only with behavior and deduction, not intention or purpose.  (I wasn't talking about the purpose of life here... and my comment about cosmic harmony is that it includes us... not dependent on us, we're dependent on it... it defines us... not the other way round.)

1.  I feel repudiated without trying to be understood, without stating reason. What you wrote in brackets is exactly what I “know” and think.

2.  Deduction: do you mean deductive reasoning or natural deduction?

3. “Somehow communicate to restore harmony” is the idea I am committed to. You say we must do it on the Gifts thread... If some of us choose to broadcast and some choose to listen it is not yet a communication!

4. Do you assume the level of inner awareness appropriate to establish convergence for such communication is inaccessible?

5. We are dependent on cosmic harmony – does it mean for you we are impotent to grasp common fallacy of our understandings and work together to reset it? Isn’t consciousness a gift we should value, nurse and grow?

6. I am not demading any answer, I just hope for it. I am not afraid to be received pushy – eventually you are not obliged to answer. No answer will be as good as any. Or, at least, more clear...

There was no intention of repudiation on my part... simply answering directly your two questions.

Do you mean we are here to be the mess?

We are part of the whole, we are leading edge of the whole’s evolution, and we are the proof of harmony. Can “WE” grow assuming we do not fit the cosmic harmony?

I'll let it rest here.

I know we've strayed far from the topic of the election on this thread, which is fine.  I did want to share Naomi Wolf's new piece A Cure for America's Corruptible Voting System  however, which contains a very simple and compelling suggestion for allowing voters to self-verify the accuracy of the count, which is one thing that has concerned me and others posting here greatly:

Here is my modest proposal: let us end the secret ballot, because we have reached a point, with the internet, in which transparency and accountability is more important than absolute secrecy. Don't panic, because this is what I mean: your vote won't be publicly available, but why can't I get a number when I hand in my ballot, or when I vote in a machine – just as I do with bloodwork, or computer passwords, or other transactions in which I get accountability, but not disclosure of my actual name? Then, the votes get tallied and posted – with their corresponding numbers – online on a public site, and major media reproduce the lists. And I can check my number (unidentifiable to anyone else) to check whether my vote was correctly registered.

This would allow, in one sweep, all citizens to watch the watchers. It does not compel anyone to reveal his or her vote – but gives him or her the option of challenging a discrepancy, and the means to verify what he or she had actually intended to do. And in one easy, inexpensive, technically feasible gesture, it takes the power away from the Diebold-type private corporations and the various parties and the officials, and allows actual verification that cannot be spun or falsified. Most importantly, it removes a psychological blinder, which the American people are asked to wear every two and four years – the blinder that infantilizes us, that has highly interested individuals and groups say to us, "we are impartial, this is a magically noble and incorruptible process: trust us."

Ben, if I deserve any answer to my post above we should move the discussion to Choice or Consequences thread and mean much more than electoral choice...

To Dick,  Pawel, Ben and ...et al.

I came across this beautiful essay which speaks to the false assumptions that are at the core of so many issues.  They are the triple Myths of Our Times... 'I",  "is"   and "because".    These are  the underlying assumptions of so much of our logic... and, upon examination, show up as false.  

http://landmarkinsights.com/landmark-forum-leader-article/myth-bust...

Very nice link for me, it mentions two of my compatriots: Wislawa Szymborska and Marie Curie.

I am afraid however it misses another part of "knowledge" and "context", the inner one.

Integral theory to be applied - IMHO:-)

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