Having recently met Alex, if there is anyone in Denmark who will properly redefine "party" it is Mr. Kjerulf.
Party on! Chris --- CHRIS CORRIGAN Bowen Island, BC, Canada http://www.chriscorrigan.com ch...@chriscorrigan.com (604) 947-9236 > -----Original Message----- > From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of > Alexander Kjerulf > Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 2:04 PM > To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu > Subject: Re: An opportunity for Civil Conversation > > At 11:16 11-12-2003 -0500, Harrison Owen wrote: > > > > >> Folks Up for a little radical Democracy??? > > > Oh, yeah! I've been toying for a while with the idea of "the open space > political party". The idea alone sounds kinda interesting, huh? > > The way I see it, the organization of the party would be as grass-roots, > bottom-up and ad-hoc as possible. And this would apply not only to the > campaign phase but also for all relevant governing and policy-setting > issues, once we're in power :o) > > This party would not have a catalogue of fixed opinions set by the top > brass, saying we're for this, against that and for the other. Instead > the party would have regularly scheduled open space meetings, and > whenever the need arose to form an opinion on a topic (and this happens > faster than any traditional political structure can handle these days), > the party would put that topic on the agenda to clarify the members' > thinking on that issue. These gatherings should probably be > geographically local, so it's easy for people to participate, and should > include a method of consolidating the regional dialogues (any good ideas > how to do this?). Based on this, the party can in a reasonably short > time examine any issue that may crop up. > > This would mean that any issue would be examined in all it's complexity. > That all arguments for and against would be talked about by a large > group of spirited people before a concensus is found. This is in sharp > contrast to todays political process, where a party's opinions are set > by the top leaders, often informed more by polls than by dialogue. > > This would also mean, that membership of such a party would not be based > on how many of the party's opinions you agree with, since many of these > may not be formulated yet. Instead, when you join as a member, you sign > up for two things: > 1: A set of values that unifies the members of this party > 2: The process. Grass-roots, bottom-up and ad-hoc > > And finally, a party such as this would be a hotbed of creativity, > energy, disagreement, chaos, responsibility and fun. Just imagine how > many novel and interesting solutions a group of people working to > improve their nation could come up with in such a setting. > > I've looked at the political structure here in Denmark, and I'm > convinced that this development probably will never come from any of > the established parties (and we have enough to choose from in Denmark > som 12-14 at the last count). The only way to bring this about is to > create a new party. > > I have a deep conviction that it could work, and that this could be one > way for us to take back some of the responsibility that we've left to > the current political system. > > How does that sound? > > Cheers > > Alex > > -- > Alexander Kjerulf > www.kjerulf.com > alexan...@kjerulf.com > Tagensvej 126, lejl. 613 > 2200 København N. > +45 2688 2373 > > Trænger du til noget arbejdsglæde? Kender du nogen som gør? > www.projektarbejdsglaede.dk > > * > * > ========================================================== > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu > ------------------------------ > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, > view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, > Visit: > > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
