Re: Another Bush Crime against humanity and Gaia

Jan Steinman <[email protected]> Fri, 28 Jan 2005 20:36:23 -0800
Newsgroups gmane.technology.sustainable.ecobalance
Message-ID <[email protected]>
On 28 Jan 2005, at 19:15, Globalcircle wrote:

> I agree and promote " the paradigm shift to small decentralized 
> bioregional
> consensus group land based actions...." but without the consensus group
> part... Such
> communities usually had the independence to decide their own governance
> without ideas of democracy, consensus, or dictatorship shoved down 
> their
> throats from outside.

I don't think you understand consensus. And I think the only societies 
that have ever survived for long had some form of consensus -- whatever 
they called it.

In whatever words, it's a feature that Jared Diamond says is essential 
to long-term survival. (In his new book, "Collapse.")

Consensus does not mean everyone agrees with something; it means 
everyone does something together.

There's a world of difference in beating the last dissenter into doing 
something the way everyone else wants to do it and having no dissent in 
the first place. Consensus drives agreement into the process at the 
very beginning, including dissenting views. Dissenting views are 
accommodated and integrated throughout the process.

That sure is different from what people are calling "democracy" today! 
And I imagine it's very different from what you imagined it was.

:::: Nothing  will replace what we are burning up quickly now. Every 
possible  replacement has problems which have received little 
publicity. -- Dr. Kenneth Watt
:::: Jan Steinman <http://www.Bytesmiths.com/Van>


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