Public Intelligence Blog

Venessa Miemis

The Critical Need for Self-Care When World Building

emergent by design, 21 February 2012

There’s a lot going on right now.

I’m in the process of federating with a large number of people across the globe to form a new kind of living systems organization, and lay down infrastructures that we intend will lead us towards a desired socioeconomic paradigm and human operation system. We’re pioneering practices in cultural design, systems intelligence, and coordinated creative action at scale.

It’s really, really hard.

It would seem that if one wants to engage in real transformation in the world, a shift has to take place, which is expressed through culture, but begins within.

Here’s an experiential exercise you can try, to simulate how I see it:

First, take your index finger, and point it away from you, and out into the world.

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This is what all of us are familiar with doing, in some way. It’s identifying all the problems out there that need fixing. And there are many, many things, aren’t there? If only people would listen, things would finally change.

This is life from the bleachers.

Now, slowly redirect your index finger to point towards yourself, and bring it in until it’s touching the center of your chest. Perhaps you say out loud, “I AM.”

This is life on the field.

This is what world builders are doing.

It can be seen happening across every corner of the planet, with millions of people beginning to play. We’re witnessing it through uprisings, Occupy, and communities everywhere becoming self-aware.

As people awaken to what we really want and what we care about, then compare that against our fragile and crumbling systems that no longer serve these values or intentions, we begin to make choices. We decide that we are not interested in propping up old paradigms that are not life-enhancing and abundance producing.

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Michel Bauwens

Below by Nick Mendoza is recommended!

Up front extract:

With the decline of state capitalism, capitalist governments and corporations now dream of the internet as the tool for corporate growth through ontological colonialism, free to expand within the mind and the planet, exploiting everyone alike.

Metal, code, flesh: Why we need a ‘Rights of the Internet’ declaration

The internet, as a living being which is part human, should have rights of its own.

Nicolas Mendoza

Nicolas Mendoza is a scholar, artist and researcher in global media from The University of Melbourne.

Al Jazeera, 15 February 2012

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Chiang Mai, Thailand - “OH $%#@!”, reads the caption under the image depicting a group of protesters wearing Guy Fawkes masks and holding both humorous and denunciatory signs, “The internet is here”. The caption not only conveys the sentiment that drove US congressmen to drop their support of the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) bills, but can also be said to summarise the analysis of the January 18 blackout by several of the most prominent media experts and scholars.

Larry Downes eloquently describes the January 18 events as “the dramatic introduction of bitroots politics”. In case the leaks, springs and occupations of 2011 left any room for doubt, the recognition of the internet as a political force in itself has moved from academic theoretical discussion to hard tangible reality. Lawrence Lessig portrays this sense of general underlying bewilderment by using the haunting metaphor of “a giant” when describing the web as a political force:

For the first time ever, the internet had taken on Hollywood extremists and won. And not just in a close fight: the power demonstrated by internet activists was wildly greater than the power Hollywood lobbyists could muster. They had awoken a giant. They had no clue about just how angry that giant could be.

However, the “January 18 blackout” victory guarantees “the internet” nothing. As Clay Shirky explained a few days before the blackout, rather than the end of this struggle, the SOPA/PIPA incident is just one chapter in the greater project of crippling the internet to eliminate its autonomy:

The hard thing is this: get ready, because more is coming. SOPA is simply a reversion of COICA [Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act], which was proposed last year, which did not pass. And all of this goes back to the failure of the DMCA [Digital Millenium Copyright Act] to disallow sharing as a technical means. And the DMCA goes back to the Audio Home Recording Act, which horrified those industries. (…) PIPA and SOPA are not oddities, they’re not anomalies, they’re not events. They’re the next turn of this particular screw, which has been going on 20 years now. And if we defeat these, as I hope we do, more is coming.

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Gary North

The Crucial Pillar of the New World Order

by Gary North

LouRockwell.com, February 4, 2012

One of the most alluring temptations that face men is the desire to enter the inner ring. C. S. Lewis wrote a wonderful essay with this title. It should be part of every person’s rite of passage into adulthood.

The desire to enter the inner ring is closely related to the desire to maintain a New World Order. There is always an institutional claimant to New World Order status. It is always structured in terms of a series of concentric rings. These rings are always vertical. They are part of a pyramid of power. They are best represented by a stepped pyramid. (See Genesis 11.)

Every empire has been founded in the name of – on behalf of – some version of a New World Order. Empires all have this in common: they are eventually replaced. There is nothing more defunct than a New World Order that has failed. Think “Ottoman Empire.” Think “Thousand-Year Reich.” Think “British Empire.” Think “Soviet Union.”

When they are riding high, they seem unbeatable. What could possibly replace them? Most people cannot imagine anything. But there are always a few who can. They get together informally to help arrange the transition. Then they get together formally. They screen access to meetings. They set up a new inner ring.

In our day, the cry is “Next year, in Davos!” The best book on this is an insider’s book, David Rothkopf’s Superclass. It is not a conspiracy theory-type book. It is a “look how we’ve made it” book. It’s a “top of the world, Ma!” book. He also sees that this superclass is vulnerable to changes outside of its control: in Asia, in the Third World. “We’ve made it” can become “we’ve lost it.”

Count on it.

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Venessa Miemis

Reflection: The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge

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I. The Field: Knowledge in Computerized Societies

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The nature of knowledge itself is shifting from being an end in itself to a commodity meant to be repackaged and redistributed. In order to be valuable, learning must be able to be reformatted into these packets of information in computer language, so that they can be sent through that channel of communication. Today, we increasingly hear the words “knowledge economy” and “information society” to describe the era we are entering. As was always the case, knowledge is power. Now, in an increasingly complex world, those with the ability to sort through the vast amounts of information and repackage it to give it meaning will be the winners. Technologies continue to solve problems that were formerly the source of power struggles between nations (i.e. the need for cheap labor is diminished by the mechanization of industry, the need for raw materials is reduced by advances in alternative energy solutions), and so control of information is most likely to become the 21st century’s definition of power.

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2. The Problem: Legitimation

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The definition of knowledge is determined by intertwining forces of power, authority, and government. Leotard draws a parallel between the process of legitimation in politics and of those in science: both require an authority figure or “legislator” to determine whether a statement is acceptable to enter the round of discourse for consideration. In an increasingly transparent society, this leads to new questions:

Michel Bauwens

Discussing OWS (3): #OccupyWallStreet as a Culture Change Movement

Excerpted from William Gamson:

“The single most important thing to understand about the Occupy movement[deleted plural ending] is that it is primarily a movement about cultural change, not institutional and policy change. Cultural change means changing the nature of political discourse and the various spheres in which it is carried on, especially mass media. Changing what is salient on the public agenda can open discursive opportunities for various groups seeking specific institutional and policy changes.

The cultural mission of the Occupy movement is to raise consciousness about the corporate domination of American political, social, and economic institutions – and to the enormous inequalities in income and wealth produced by this domination. At the same time, it attempts to build a collective identity within its constituency by making personal suffering a shared experience. While I have no systematic data to prove it has done so, I am quite confident that, when such data is available, it will show that in various forums there has been a sharp increase since September, 2011 in references to corporate power and actual or potential abuse of corporate power and to statistics showing the dramatic increases in wealth and income controlled by the richest one percent or fewer families. Hence, it seems reasonable to argue that, whatever future institutional and policy changes may or may not take place in the future, this movement has already been a major success by changing the nature of U.S. political discourse.

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David Swanson

15 Things More Important Than Newt’s Sex Life on the Moon

1. A war on Iran could kill us all. President Obama said in the State of the Union: “America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal.  But a peaceful resolution of this issue is s till possible . . . if Iran changes course.” So, unless Iran, which the Secretary of Defense says is not developing a nuclear weapon, ceases developing a nuclear weapon, we’re going to war.  Sound familiar?  Ever seen this movie before?  Actually, we’ve seen it in every single war ever fought by any nation.  The best defense against the lies of the Department of Defense is good preparation.  Read this book: http://WarIsALie.org

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Use these resources: http://DontAttackIran.org

Join or create an event on February 4: http://worldcantwait.net

2. Occupation of DC under threat. The Park Service plans to try to remove all tents from both DC occupations (Freedom Plaza and McPherson Square) at noon on Monday, January 30th. Be there. Be nonviolent.  Be determined.  Be relentless.

Rise like Lions after slumber: In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew: Which in sleep had fallen on you
Ye are many — they are few

3. California could solve healthcare. California has until Tuesday and is two senators away from enacting single-payer healthcare.  This is far more significant that anything that has been done at the national level for healthcare.  This solves the problem in one state and creates a model for the other 49.  You can help: http://warisacrime.org/node/60764

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4. Corporate personhood is on the defensive.  The Montana Supreme Court has refused to comply with Citizens United.  Citie s and states are taking action.  Stronger bills are being introduced in Congress all the time.  The latest is HJRes 100.  Rallies were just held in over 100 towns and cities.  Join this movement: http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5236

5. They’re raising military spending and calling it “cuts.” The supposed cuts in all the headlines are cuts to dream budgets, leaving actual increases.  Small but real cuts would result from following the law after the Super Committee’s failure (remember them?).  But bills in both houses would block all actual cuts to the military, and President Obama agrees with that agenda.  This will mean severe cuts to education, transportation, and — as Obama indicated in his State of the Union speech — to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. http://warisacrime.org/node/60747

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6.  New classic book on peace just out. An amazing new book that you will treasure has just been published.  It is first-person stories of war and peace and activism from all over the world, from victims, refugees, journalists, lawyers, and participants in numerous wars.  Every story is personal and moving.  There is not a drop of corporate media disinterestedness in the book.  You may know some of the authors and now you’ll know them better.  It’s 600 pages but you’ll be sorry when you reach the end. http://www.amazon.com/Why-Peace-Marc-Guttman/dp/0984980202

7. Guess who says the anthrax attacks were pinned on the wrong guy (again)? The Department of Justice. Anybody else, and Obama would have charged them with “espionage”.  http://warisacrime.org/node/60765

8. We’re re-occupying the Philippines, by jingo! On the plus side, we have not yet been told that this will benefit “our little brown brothers” (whether they like it or not). http://warisacrime.org/node/60746

9. Prevent Fukushima in Vermont. A Fukushima-style nuclear power plant in Vermont legally must shut down, but in reality is up and running. We can close it. http://warisacrime.org/node/60745

10. They hate us for our bases.  As in many other places around the world, in Japan and Korea, people are risking their lives to resist U.S. military base construction. Japan: http://warisacrime.org/node/60718 — Korea: http://warisacrime.org/node/60743

11. Torture lawyer John Yoo badly loses debate.  Professor Yoo agreed to debate a sane person, with predictable but still satisfying result: http://warisacrime.org/node/60738

12. The State of the Union speech only sounded good if you were screaming in terror.  http://warisacrime.org/node/60727

13. United National Antiwar Coalition Conference. Don’t miss this! https://nationalpeaceconference.org

14. Occupy Spring! The National Occupation of Washington DC starts on March 30, 2012. http://nowdc.org

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15. No Immunity for Mortgage Fraudsters! The Obama Administration has been working on a mortgage fraud settlement that itself amounts to fraud, but attorneys general in several states are pushing back. Obama’s speeches stress fairness and equality, but a settlement granting immunity to big banks is not fair. Robosigning and other fraudulent practices are ongoing.  The White House is offering the banks a plea bargain in the middle of a crime spree.  Attorneys general in Delaware, New York, Massachusetts, California, and other states are pushing in the right direction. Tell leading state attorneys general not to settle for less than an adequate settlement. http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5322

http://warisacrime.org/content/upcoming-events

Venessa Miemis

Reflection: The Concept of Enlightenment

musings on Adorno & Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment.

When I review these passages, my mind speaks back – “the machine is using us”.The goal of the enlightenment was to free our minds, by favoring ‘rationality’ over myth and mysticism. Nature became something that was to be controlled by us, quantified, compartmentalized, labeled, manipulated.

But, this new scientific way of looking at things changed the way we THINK… or perhaps limited our ability to think at all. Instead of looking for greater ‘Truth’ or deeper meaning in things, identifying the essence of a thing, giving it ‘value’, it becomes a mere definition. The framework of thoughts are based in a soul-deadening logic and mechanicality. Everything that can be named and described and explained away can be somehow controlled, and there’s a power in that, but at the same time, something sacred is lost.

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The belief in positivism seems as irrational to me as mythology must have been for those that started the enlightenment movement. To place utmost value in what the senses can perceive, and call it Truth, is ridiculous. I think we’re finally coming around full circle, not to a return to mysticism, but at least allowing ourselves to say that there’s more to life than meets the eye. In some ways, science itself has pointed out its fallibility. The more we dive into quantum mechanics, the more incongruities and incompatibilities we find with what we think we know and what is. Perhaps there really is an unknowable universal. Is it really such a horrible thing to have a sense of awe of the world around us??

We become like slaves in invisible chains, our minds shaped into the pattern of a machine: efficient, mechanical, repetitive, causal, our thoughts on the conveyor belt of an assembly line – there are no alternative paths for them to take.

This machine-like way of thinking is tied directly to the division of labor – the mechanized process of thinking is merely a function of material production and the “all-encompassing economic apparatus”. By abandoning the cumbersomeness of formulating actual thoughts in favor of following a predetermined reified path, the greater machine/system of society can operate smoothly. At the same time, the smooth operation leads to a distillation of society, a loss of culture.

By treating nature as something outside of oneself, something that needs to be manipulated and controlled verse something with which to be in harmony, humans become isolated and estranged. Both the lowly worker and the ones in charge are victims – the dominated are resigned sheep, and the dominators are equally immobilized by their distance from the experience, the self imposed detachment and repression of novelty in favor of utility in order to ‘better’ perform their role of power.

Chuck Spinney

Thanks be to Tony Blair and Bill Clinton for giving us the Kosovo narco statelet — a gift that keeps on giving.  Think of the opportunities after achieving the near-term options discussed below: Occitania and Bretagnia, Flemishia and Walloonia, and then to the big game: Schleswigia, Bavaria, Thuringia, Pomerania, Silesia, Prussia and the endless opportunities to the east and south.

Spain could wield veto over Scotland’s EU membership

Independence for Scots could embolden separatists in Catalonia and Basque region, Madrid fears

Brian Brady, The Independent, Sunday, 22 January 2012

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/spain-could-wield-veto-over-scotlands-eu-membership-6292846.html#

Spain is standing in the way of Scotland’s ambitions to become an independent nation within the European Union because of fears that it could spark the break-up of the Spanish state.

Spanish officials have registered concerns with counterparts in the United Kingdom over the Scottish government’s independence blueprint, senior Whitehall sources confirmed yesterday.

Spain has indicated it could block an independent Scotland’s accession to the European Union, sources said. It has already refused to recognise Kosovo’s existence as an independent state. Madrid fears such moves will encourage separatist ambitions in Spanish regions, particularly Catalonia and the Basque region. Spain’s refusal to recognise Kosovo has frustrated the former Serbian province’s ambitions to enter the union.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota:  Brother Spinney is wrong on this one.  There are 5,000 separatist movements in the world, 27 of them in the USA.  2012 is the tipping point year when “big” and “concentrated” die, and the original indigenous approach of “many small” begins to reinstate itself.  It is not possible to micro-manage complexity.  As Cambridge professor Philip Allott shows so well in The Health of Nations: Society and Law beyond the State, it was the colonial powers that distorted the centuries old balance among smaller tribes, natural resources, and geographic distribution.  The people, not the state, are the center of gravity.  The fastest way for any failing state to restore resilience is to embrace separatism.  An Alert Reader sends in the following: 

I would call it Devolution–perhaps in our own history, a re-look at the concepts contained in the Articles of Confederation (absent the bows to the preservation of slavery)–instead of Separation, but you hit it.

See Also:

2008 Legitimate Grievances (Foreign vs USA) ELECTION 2008 – Lipstick on the Pig (Full Text Online for Google Translate)

2008 Legitimate Grievances (US Citizens versus US Government) ELECTION 2008 – Lipstick on the Pig (Full Text Online for Google Translate)

Review: A Power Governments Cannot Suppress

Review: The Power of the Powerless–Citizens Against the State in Central-Eastern Europe

Review: The Unconquerable World–Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People

Worth a Look: Book Review Lists (Negative)

Worth a Look: Book Review Lists (Positive)

Michel Bauwens

From Franco Iacomella at P2P Foundation

#whilewewatch is a gripping look at the media revolution that emerged from Zuccoti Park in New York City to the world. It is the story of how many people came together in the sun and rain, day and night, broke and loaded with energy and hope to get their story out to the world. #OWS has galvanized the world. #whilewewatch is the real inside story of great people who have no fear. They don’t back down from the police, big business or a city government that tried to dismiss them. When regular media paid no attention to this movement they decided to tell the world their story.

#whilewewatch is the real experience of what democracy looks like. We hear it from their voices, pain, energy and honesty.

#whilewewatch – Trailer from #whilewewatch on Vimeo.