The next step to mending the hoop

Current Project: People PoWEr

Focus: a multi-organizational network whose synergetic functions act as catalyst for the cultural paradigm shift that is occuring due the internet, globalization, emerging technologies, as well as the necessity to change the habits, conditions, and behaviors known to be the cause of the world's imminent problems of climate change, environmental degredation, and resource shortage.

It consists of the following three elements:

The Holy Tree Investment Group

Type: Financial Services

Descrption: Implement proprietary technical and statistical analysis methodologies in equities, forex, real-estate, and renewable energy infrastructure investments.

AV Community Development Bank (Águia Verhmelho)

Type: Financial Services

The financial empowerment of the working class through the utilization of an innovative stakeholder-division scheme that uses credit unions to help communities become their own philanthropists: by becoming investors in their own communities. The bank facilitates the financing of these enterprises and has the option to invest or take a stake in the projects(programs/what word). Such investments include a variety of projects ideas that benefit the schools and communities- some of which are structured to also serve as the source for brain-storming and problem-solving for those very projects.

Project Empower

Type: Educational and Educatinal Enrichment of the Youth

Description: The element of the Holy-Tree scheme that facilitates the execution & cross-community coordination of such projects mentioned above.

The school as the portal of contact and meeting point for all community oriented activities.

Summary: Google's project 10^100 expanded to function on a continuous and more ubiquitous basis: with fixed organizational mechanisms for capital generation, capital dispersion, and idea incubation and implmentation-that is: a way to make money, and way to ensure discretion with it's allocation; a way to simultaneously incubate new ideas for social change and capital generation and to introduce those ideas to new markets.

Liberalism is a concept created by the small group of people, each with more money than can fit inside of a 60 story building; who use their ownership of the media companies, as well as their influence in academia and politics, to set boundaries on what can be discussed and considered "real." They do this to set limits on public debate, and dispel any publicly expressed thought or political act contrary to their interests by labelling them as "crazy, sick, radical, or mentally ill" 

These conceptual limits such as "liberalism, conservatism, and radical" sanitize public opinion before it reaches the loudspeaker of the media, so that groups that are trying to change the status quo are considered irrelevant or "idealistic" by being given the label "radical."

It wasn't until recently, with the expansion of the far-right political machine by newt gingrich that being called a liberal in public or on the media was also considered "radical." 

These concepts "liberal and conservative" are like the lines of a boxing ring that keep the verbal boxers (politicans) from entering into the world where the real politics happens. We, the people, watch the match. We even particpate with our vote based on values that are defined by (such as abortion and healthcare). What we don't know is that these aren't the real issues at stake. 

The organizers of the fight don't care who wins, their personal preferences in respect to the boxers is irrelevant. What they care about is one thing: making money and being able to organize more fights in the future.

The real poltiics happens where we don't look and normally can't see: behind closed doors- like the organizing of a boxing match, we don't know who paid for it or how they actually went about organizing it.

There's one thing wrong with this metaphor, though: a boxing ring has four boundaries, and liberalism and conservatism are only two. This means that we are essentially living in a two dimensional world with respect to politics. What happened to the other dimension?  The other axis still exists, but we no longer call the two sides by their real name.

It's called Democracy and Fascism.

Capitalism/Socialism/Democracy is the decentralized control the government and the means of industry by the people.

Fascism/Oligarchic Corporatism is the centralized control the means of industry, who use the government to control the people.

2% of the world's population owns 98% of the world's wealth. The same people who own our news stations own our means of industry and also own fund both political parties. 

Maybe we should open the public debate a little bit and start to ask ourselves:

"Are we really in a democracy?"

Noam Chomsky said:

"Debate cannot be stilled, and indeed, in a properly functioning 

system of propaganda, it should not be, because it has a system-rein- 

forcing character if constrained within proper bounds. What is essential 

is to set the bounds firmly. Controversy may rage as long as it adheres to 

the presuppositions that define the consensus of elites; and it should 

furthermore be encouraged within these bounds, thus helping to 

establish these doctrines as the very condition of thinkable though"

Hello. 

My name is Anderson.  I am from the future. 

Or, better yet, I am your future you.

Don't worry too much about how I got here, and why. There's a lot about the universe that your brand of physics is still not yet able to explain. Let's just leave it at that. I am not here to talk about my world. I'm here to talk about yours.

Let's start with a simple mental exercise. I want you to try to imagine the situation that I describe to you in as much vivid detail as you can manage. 

Try to live what you read. Take the time to pause and let your mind fill in the details. If i tell you to imagine driving down a dirt road, I want you to ask yourself if the window is down; what the weather is like; if there are fields, ponds, or swamps to your sides. Don't approach this as a race or a "task" that you must "finish." It's leisure. No one is going to give you a bad grade if you don't read from start to finish. Take your time. It doesn't matter if you ever finish.

Enough chatter. It's due course that I give you a look into your future, but first, the present:

This planet, and the people on it, are undergoing a period of tremendous change. Few can argue against the benefits of the scientific revolution, democracy, industrialization, internet, and the rise of globalization...

... but there are two sides to every coin. You are just starting to learn of the harmful side affects of our technological advancement. The negative consequences of our technologies stand to have an equal or greater impact on future generations(me) as the technologies themselves. 

 If you don't act soon, you should expect see many of our greatest social, technological, and biological achievements, which in some cases took the whole span of known history to create, to vanish-- or even reverse--in your lifetime. 

Impossible? Improbable? 

Likely. 

Read on...

Imagine snow in the middle of August. 

This is followed by a 3 week flood and then an eternity of dry heat days that cook the earth into a fine powder until november, just before 110 mile an hour hurricane winds carry the Arkansas' topsoil 3 states west to smother the entire spinach crop in Nebraska.

Imagine that you're on your way to the supermarket. It's hard not to forget your sunglasses, but the sun is not bright. When you get in your car, the first thing you do is turn on your windshield wipers, but it's not raining. 

It's the dust.  

You're in wisconsin, but who knows where it came from: 100, 300, 1000, 2000 miles away. The storms can blow 3 inches off the top of the earth and send it half way around the world almost as fast as a passenger airline. Imagine that microscopic flight crashing into your eye 300 times per second... That's why you never forget your sunglasses. 

Now, imagine walking into the supermarket... and seeing the isles empty.

There is no food.  

At least, not any fresh, anyway. We haven't had that for some time.

Just before things got really bad, all of the world's governments convened in Shanghai and decided that all of the world's harvests must be frozen and rationed from here on out. So all you can remember eating has been frozen and reprocessed.  What little fresh food that exists is usually fabricated in specially fortified, weather-proof, hydroponic labs, using seeds with the latest in gen-mod technology. Hardly natural, but the closest thing you can get to the truth.

It's much too expensive for us regulars, as they call them. Most of us have never felt the crunch of fresh, raw, dirty spinach. 

Our grandparents lamentfully remark, more often than we would like, that before things got really bad, the earth had a different.... 

...smell.

After a rain. Go outside and stick your fingers in the earth. Take a good whiff.

http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/?responseToken=04bda3f6f2dd942dfd2017f6bff23a1b3

Opening Letter

To whom this may concern: 
 

The planet, and the people on it, are undergoing a period of tremendous change. Few can argue against the benefits of the scientific revolution, democracy, industrialization, internet, and the rise of globalization...

... but there are two sides to every coin. We are just starting to learn of harmful side affects of our technological advancement. The negative consequences of our technologies stand to have an equal or greater impact on future generations as the technologies themselves. 

 If we don't act soon, we should expect see many of our greatest social and technological achievements, which in some cases took the whole span of known history to create, vanish-- or even reverse--in our lifetimes. 

Imagine snow in the middle of August, followed by a 3 week flood and then an eternity of dry heat days that cook the earth into a fine powder before 110 mile an hour hurricane winds carry the arkansas' topsoil 3 states west to smother the entire spinach crop in nebraska? What kind of effect do you think this will have on our economy? Even moreso, what kind of effect will this have on you? What the hell will you eat? I high doubt we would be able to function as a democracy. The governments of the world would swoop in on the grounds of national security and assume even more control over our country's processes.

To prevent this from happening: we have to act soon and we have to act quickly. Everyone is going to have to make this a number one priority in their lives, not just institutions, if we want to preserve the earth and human civilization for our grandchildren.  

Making it everyone's 9-5 is the most logical first step toward that end, but it can't end there.  

It's going to take all of us. 

I want to take the current decision-making process for social reorganization out of the ivory towers and mahogany halls of the elite, and put the effort on the street. We need to utilize communities, not just the G-20 leaders, their think-tanks, and a small number of well-established organizations.  

Everyone, not just the supposed "experts," need to be dedicating their mental energies to this end. Experts are now saying that thanks to the internet and Google anyone can be an expert. Ironically, experts also say that a relatively uninformed person is as good of a problem solver as a person labeled as an "expert."   

Being an expert is not what you know, or what you can prove that you know, but what you can create. The intersection between knowledge and the Now is much more important than the knowledge itself. In light of that, we need to make it our goal to make every person in the world an expert on global warming by creating a structure that taps into each person's creative capacity and makes it readily available to professionals who can implement it. 

What we are in a serious shortage of right now is not only habitat, trees, water, and arable land. Even more-so it's the shortage in creativity, community, wonder and passion that lead to a shortage in the first 4. Get the smell of the earth in their nose. Make their hearts pump green and red. Make their minds sparkle like the rivers USED to. Now is a good time to reorganize society in light of the realities of global warming AND the information age. 

How can we create a paradigm shift? 

I sense we have become to accustomed to underestimating the power of A Person. A single, solitary, Person is prepared to do a lot more than charge a few light bulbs or attend another lecture or workshop.When you ask yourself what you can go out and do-- tell yourself to get out on the streets and aspire to do what the world's greatest leaders and achievers are doing and/or have done. 

The ultimate goal of We. is to create a dense network of institutions- a meta-institution or organizm- that can organize and support an army of full-time change agents dedicated to re-envisioning society. 

For those of you already involved and doing your part, I urge you to do more: ask more of yourselves and ask more of others. Set a good example for others to follow. 

If and when a young black lady in the 8th grade from Dunbar Junior High asks you what she can do to help, push her limits on what she thinks she is allowed to do by pushing the limits on what you are allowed to tell her.  

Let it boil over into a mass-movement, a mass re-organization of society. A major societal transformation--- Like the white man did to the indians, only the other way around. Do everything you can to achieve that. When they ask you what they can do, don't tell them to join a vo-tech school... 
 

...tell them to be like Gandhi. 
 
 
 
 

Thanks, 
 

Andrew McSwain

Mission Statement

may our solutions not only fix a single problem. let them be drenched with the energy of change, so that it transforms everything that it touches. peripheral change: kinda like cleaning a shirt that has a stain on it with soap that makes the entire fabric brighter.

Issues: climate change, maintaining global economic importance; improving mental health, improving physical health: increasing rates of depression, drug abuse, suicide, anxiety and other related mental problems; increasing rates of obsety, cancer, heart disease)) widening gap between the rich and the poor, economic imperialism, attacks on democracy and personal liberties by political, economic, and religious interests.

The solution intends to address each of these issues in temporally varying degrees of intensity.

Priority Issues:

Climate change

challenges: human assisted global warming is causing atrocious devastation on the world’s life-support systems, upon which man’s food supply is inextricably dependant;. The consequences of unchecked global warming could quite spell global collapse for modern society.

United States maintaining global economic importance:

challenges: The consequences of a broken financial sector and degradation of national fiscal integrity, along with being increasingly out-competed by developing nations such as China, India, and Brazil may prolong disruption of economic well-being for the United States and it’s citizens.

Solution:

Green economy and innovation: the trauma from the two above crises has the potential to be the driving force for change in the institutions of business, media, government, and education. 

The solution provided herein prescribes a revision of the conventional organizational processes that are based on a hierarchical structure. In place of top-down managment, where decisions, creativity, and vision are restricted to postitions completely isolated from the organization's.. 

Form an institutional partnership between academia and the non-profit sector

Points of focus:

1)Education:  Teach them something worthwhile. 

...because the school system isn't enough

2)Activity: Make them do something. 

No educational technique is more effective than the real work.

3)Opportunity: Help them get where they want to be. 

All of our campaigns and projects must provide worthwhile, tangible, benefits for participating in the project.

First Campaign:  

Name: Loose Change for Climate Change

A collegian operated fundraising campaign which raises money to put renewable energy on campuses of all grade levels at a price competitive with conventional utility companies.

Objective I: to create leaders for our movement

(Education)Collegian Age students are taught how to lead discussions and mentor their youngers through leadership courses 

(Activity) College students are placed into situations where these skills will be tested and further developed. (what types of activities?)

(opportunity) leading discussions, participating in strategic planning, and learning how to lead and work in small groups are invaluable skills in the workplace. Outstanding leaders in the program will be offered the opportunity to be a part of the permanent staff.

The momentum created by this camapaign will be  channeled into continually escalating civic involvement through the formation of long-lasting partnerships between colleges, grade schools, and community development organizations.(see objective II)

Objective II:  to ensure the movement's continuity by carving out a niche in the pre-existing societal infrastructure. (particularly in the part of the infrastructure responsible for acculturation, social conditioning, and intellectual engagement)

(education) providing educational enrichment modules tailored to fit any need, intensity, or time frame. Clubs, courses, lectures, after-school programs, summer camps, and, where applicable, full-day, full-year, classroom involvement.

(Activity) democracy, justice, leadership, and democracy. creativity, experiential learning. global consciousness, universal compassion. activism. making an impact. wake up! bla blah to be filled in later. COMMUNITY and CIVIC INVOLVMENT IS THE CORE. playing an active role in one's community, approaching the community's problems creatively, and with a strong sense of )))) is the core element to the cirriculum. creativty

(opportunity) act as a long-term change agent for the education system: providing a flexible medium for assisting school communities adapt to societal, macro-economic, environmental, and technological changes and challenges.

Objective III: establish economic independence

(Education) participants gain confidence, insight,  ambition and practical organizational skills by having the opportunity to participate in all aspects of the organization (including economic). Economic Empowerment. They learn firsthand the whole chain of a large organization. Potentially seeding then leading their own organization in the future. study bill mollison's funding the revolution (each organization is part of the Organism or network)

(Activity) (1)Become a supplier of renewable energy, energy auditor, and building retrofitter for the communities we organize. (1) Use pre-existing funds and skillsets to create a non-profit hedge fund. (2)Create an insurance company for non-profit workers.  (2) create a non-profit / humanitarian venture capital fund to spin-off seed companies and organizations.  *Use the profits to maintain the organization.*

(opportunity) Economic Empowerment. 

Objective IV: Make it viral.

Establish Contact with other organizations.

Partner with them. (example of this would be SEAC and the NLC// BCD// City Year)

Give them our ideas.

Publish our ideas.

Make it as visible as possible.

Make it as wide and as strong/long as possible.

Structure and processes

"The Organizm"

See diagram.

to come...

Initiative

To whom this may concern: 
 

The planet, and the people on it, are undergoing a period of tremendous change. Few can argue against the benefits of the scientific revolution, democracy, industrialization, internet, and the rise of globalization but there are two sides to every coin. We are just starting to learn of harmful side affects of our technological advancement.

 
If we don't act soon, many of our greatest social achievements will vanish or even reverse. 

To fix this: we have to act soon and we have to act quickly. Everyone is going to have to make this a number one priority in their lives, not just institutions, if we want to preserve the earth and human civilization for grandchildren.  

Making it everyone's 9-5 is the most logical first step toward that end, but it can't end there.  

It's going to take all of us. 

I want to take the current decision-making process for social reorganization out of the ivory towers and mahogany halls of the elite, and put the effort on the street. We need to utilize communities, not just the G-20 leaders, their think-tanks, and small number of well-established organizations.  

Everyone, not just the supposed "experts," need to be dedicating their mental energies to this end. Experts are now saying that thanks to the internet and Google anyone can be an expert. Ironically, experts also say that a relatively uninformed person is as good of a problem solver as a person labeled as an "expert."   

Being an expert is not what you know, or what you can prove that you know, but what you can create. The intersection between knowledge and the Now is much more important than the knowledge itself. In light of that, we need to make it our goal to make every person in the world an expert on global warming by creating a structure that taps into each person's creative capacity and makes it readily available to professionals who can implement it. 

What we are in a serious shortage of right now is not only habitat, trees, water, and arable land. Even more-so it's the shortage in creativity, community, wonder and passion that lead to a shortage in the first 4. Get the smell of the earth in their nose. Make their hearts pump green and red. Make their minds sparkle like the rivers USED to. Now is a good time to reorganize society in light of the realities of global warming AND the information age. 

How can we create a paradigm shift? 

I sense we have become to accustomed to underestimating the power of A Person. A single, solitary, Person is prepared to do a lot more than charge a few light bulbs or attend another lecture or workshop.When you ask yourself what you can go out and do-- tell yourself to get out on the streets and aspire to do what the world's greatest leaders and achievers are doing and/or have done. 

The ultimate goal of We. is to create a dense network of institutions- a meta-institution or organizm- that can organize and support an army of full-time change agents dedicated to re-envisioning society. 

For those of you already involved and doing your part, I urge you to do more: ask more of yourselves and ask more of others. Set a good example for others to follow. 

If and when a young black lady in the 8th grade from Dunbar Junior High asks you what she can do to help, push her limits on what she thinks she is allowed to do by pushing the limits on what you are allowed to tell her.  

Let it boil over into a mass-movement, a mass re-organization of society. A major societal transformation--- Like the white man did to the indians, only the other way around. Do everything you can to achieve that. When they ask you what they can do, don't tell them to join a vo-tech school... 
 

...tell them to be like Gandhi. 
 
 
 
 

Thanks, 
 

Andrew McSwain