Shava you are like a breath of fresh air after dealing with the so called normal people and government idiocracy.
Like Spike, I very much look forward to reading your posts. On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 4:13 PM, Spike (Chris Foote) <sp...@tenbus.co.uk>wrote: > > Thank you Shava, > > I so look forward to reading your posts. > > Spike > > > On 10/07/2013 20:07, Shava Nerad wrote: > >> I have to say, this is why I am proposing we must turn to traditional >> community organizing, using the net only as a means of totally >> transparent communications at this point for organizing facilitations. >> >> We have a strong history in this country of successful insurgent formal >> nonviolent social movements. And I am afraid if we do not mobilize the >> consequences are in fact dystopian. >> >> We have two generations essentially detached not only from civic >> activism but largely from the social contract in general. I feel as >> though society is inviting renewal or despotism. >> >> So, what are we looking at? The vague shadows of a Spanish Civil War? >> I hope the hell not. Shadows of 1930s Germany is what I hear more >> often, ducking Godwin, but just reporting. >> >> The point is that there is one piece of compassion we might have here: >> while we are horrified as activists in a democracy in America regarding >> our government, our government -- our friends and people we see not as >> friends -- is somewhat justifiably horrified looking over our shoulders >> at the electorate. >> >> Government can not change the electorate in a democracy -- at least, not >> quickly. That really only works the other way around. >> >> Our people do not understand their own government any more. They have >> been reality engineered into a market-of-votes. Elections here are >> transmedia, and are game theoried to death. Party platforms are minor >> lore and backstory. Political principals that actually relate to real >> world consequences have very little place in electoral politics except >> as they are adopted as plot elements in the transmedia drama, which >> often holds no reliance, especially, on facts. >> >> If you have felt like every bit of this has been social engineering >> since about Clinton and Gingrich started influencing their parties, I >> think you would be right. Both men are very fond of a marketing/game >> theory chase to the middle. The DLC and the Contract for America both >> displayed strong ideological platforms while candidates pursued whatever >> it took to take the unaffiliated vote. So we entered the age where >> everyone complained that the parties were indistinguishable. For >> decades. Until that became, in market research, too unpopular. >> >> Nearly instantly, our two dominant parties went, in the public >> perception, from being indistinguishable, from having always been too >> polarized and unable to work with one another, ever. >> >> And, although this made approval ratings of Congress as a whole drop (at >> 11-17% now but they have no reason to fear consequences), it made >> approval of your local congresscritters go up -- your own delegation is >> seen as aggressive, fighting for you, and standing up to bad >> government. Teflon. And totally unaccountable. >> >> We are so fucked. This is the perfect morph of "we have always been at >> war with Eurasia" in politics. >> >> You have to be carefully taught... This is not an electorate. It's an >> arena of futbol yahoos who never had a chance to learn what it means to >> be a citizen of a democracy, drunk on cheap beer and cheering for the >> guys wearing the right color uniforms, and ready to brawl with the other >> fans if they lose. >> >> This is why, yes they are outraged about Prism -- they have been taught >> to be outraged because in a neuromarketing sense, it retains their >> attention quivering at the TV for three minutes through the next series >> of ads, and they retain more information from those ads and are grateful >> for their soothing effect, so it makes for greater brand affinity. So >> as long as Snowdon keeps adrenaline moving as political porn, he will >> get equal time on CNN, MS-NBC, and FOX News, and as soon as he stops >> selling stuff, the sleeping giant will roll over and go back to >> hibernation until next crisis or the Superbowl. >> >> Like a light switch, by manufactured consent, the spotlights will go >> off, go on again perhaps as a footnote if some bad consequences happen >> to Snowden after the NSA decides enough people don't care any more, then >> fade, entirely, to black. >> >> But it is possible to change things. >> >> It takes the ones who are still learning, and that means the young, the >> geeks, the intellectuals. It takes forming a movement based on >> principals, so it doesn't rely on one set of people coming up with >> ideas. It must be nonviolent and coherent with how the current system >> purports to work (and often that ends up working against the system as a >> shaming mechanism). I am hoping it will be multipartisan, but I am >> pretty unabashedly old-line liberal and conservative-friendly -- my >> attitude is that politics is RvR gaming and beers after, and geeks are >> good at fighting fair in design meetings. ;) >> >> I want to open source politics. It's gotten ikky, and it's getting >> ikkier, but contrary to popular belief, it isn't inherent on all >> scales. And it's gotten worse rather than better due to people >> neglecting the institution. Someone has to clean the loos dammit, or >> they get gross. It's part of co-operative living. We can't get rid of >> politics. >> >> If we don't open it all up, document it, get a million young people >> involved in a Great Hunt to discover how we got here and how their >> birthright can be recovered from the political power mongers -- we won't >> have a democracy. >> >> Besides, this is the biggest most amazing best programmed LARP there >> is. There are actually some great aspects to spending your time on >> civilization rather than Civilization(tm). ;) Why spend time on bread >> and circuses when you can engage the real thing? >> >> So, this is not a "civic game" or gamification. This is using the net >> as organizing for social ends with perhaps a metaphorical idiom of >> gaming, the hunt, the quest, the Hero's Journey. >> >> Because I don't think it's an exaggeration that this is an asymmetrical >> war, however nonviolent, we are entering into. No less than King or >> Mandela or Gandhi went into. Our government is trapped in error and I >> see no way except to bring the people to bail them out, and as was so in >> any of those prior peaceful civil wars, we have friends inside, but >> years of work ahead. >> >> #bluerosemovement >> >> Yrs, >> SN >> >> > -- > Too many emails? 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