USF Discussions
Wiser Earth Discussion [1]
Global Mind Shift Discussion [2]
Open Money Discussion [3]
NED Discussion [4]
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Posted 4-1-08
In the NED discussion a commenter brought up the Asoke communities in Thailand and the internal measure of personal merit they use.
In the Open Money discussion a commenter brought up the communities advocated by Vladimir Megre.
I am not familiar with Megre's work but these are intentional communities experimenting with different ways to share value. I particularly like the Asoke model because it demonstrates that we can produce abundance.
Every community on earth is looking for ways to start an upward spiral in their community whether they call it that or not. Every community has unused human potential and unused biological potential. We call those poverty and environmental degradation and treat them as a problem instead of an asset.
When something is abundant, like labor in Africa, it has no market value. Does that mean that people who are surplus to the market have no gift – in terms of the story? Of course not, it means that we cannot value that gift in market money. What is it that we would like to be abundant? Food, clothing, shelter, education and health care. If those things are abundant do they then have no value? Of course not, but we will need a different way to measure contributions to the production of that abundance. And if one community – some where – can figure that out, then other communities can start working on their own version – and humans will be writing the story of how we came to live in peace and plenty.
Posted 4-2-08
In the Global Mind Shift discussion, a commenter asked:
http://www.global-mindshift.org/converse/conversation_details.asp?convInstID=256
I totally like the idea of the story, but I don't quite get what this conversation is trying to do. Is this a place to respond to and build on the ideas in the story? Is it a place to continue building a story like the one you have written so far? Is it a place to build a story with characters and plot that explores some of the concepts that you are trying to get at?
I think we could approach it from any of the three directions you suggest. I am certain that there are better story tellers than I am. I have been thinking about the world as a pattern of flows for some 25 years and I need readers to question the way I describe those patterns so as to reach a common language about them. I am thinking about another of couple of chapters along the lines of what is already there - about limitations of the market - and another on the fact that no one else is going to do it for us.
More importantly, I am looking for a way that people begin to act on our power to create a future of peace and plenty.
Posted 4-2-08
A commenter in the Open Money discussion said:
http://openmoney.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=1180168%3ATopic%3A5965
We have the problem and a vision of the antidote. Now we need some experimental verification...
Yes, we can design solutions here in cyberspace - but implementation will be groups of people agreeing to participate locally. I'm hoping we can spread the story far enough that people who are already doing the local organizing become involved - and maybe we can set up a competition of sorts to be the first to solve the problem.
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