Until the Internet comes, and we live in the Information Age…
Let me, please share with you one of the most amazing experiences of brainstorming…
It was in Occupy London 9 years ago. One Saturday was a symposium of ‘direct democracy’ in front of St. Paul Cathedral. Around 300-400 people were sitting down on the stairs. In front of us was a small podium with one microphone and 2 speakers. Then comes a speaker and told us something like:
“We can bring you here the best specialists of direct democracy on the planet, who can speak to you for hours. However, you will still just be passive listeners, but real direct democracy is about you. You can speak, you can come up with ideas, and you can make decisions about how you want to live! Therefore, please divide into small circles of around 7 people, find any good idea which is worth sharing with all people, evolve in your circle, and choose a delegate who will present it in front of the auditorium.”
In our circle, we had just one – mine idea, but it doesn’t matter because the mindset was different than in hierarchy structures. It wasn’t important to assert myself. We were honestly looking for the best solution. After the presentation of my idea, people asked me many inspirative questions about how it would work. It led me to evolve the idea. Also, people have many good ideas on how to make it better! The aim was to write down some output that we could share with others. To save time for others, the output is supposed to be as brief as possible!
In the end, we share our teamwork in front of others, where all processes repeat again: people ask inspirative questions and come up with many good ideas. My original idea evolved to such a higher level that I was shocked! The same happens with the ideas of others! It was massively developed around hundreds of ideas (some. groups share more ideas).
We created a new being; we created a herd intelligence! The intelligence of the group was perhaps 2000 – 3000 IQ, with unbelievable creativity! The energy there was nearly so nice that I still have goosebumps when thinking about it.
I realise that it’s not just about people but also about the structure of how we organise ourselves!
The same people organised into the centralised hierarchy structure would have IQ around 60, and it would be really easy to manipulate them (look as Hitler did it!).
We also fully use the potential of every member of the herd (neuron network), not like in the centralised hierarchy where most people would be just passive cells without a chance to contribute.
By the way, my point was that all great ideas will flow away in the information flow… We need an online Information System where all these amazing ideas are saved to share with others and be able to continue with evolving…
We are working on a similar IS.
Now imagine that for every question of our society, we use this method.
What would be more efficient, what would come with better solutions:
Parliament
or
Brainstorming of the Nation???
People hardly imagine how the Parliament can be replaced by something else…
In the beginning, the Brainstorming of the Nation wouldn’t have the legal power, just moral. E.g. If the prime minister or MP makes a different decision from the Brainstorming of the Nation, we (or the media) can ask him: ‘Why did you choose another solution than the Brainstorming of the Nation to come with?’
We would have better, smarter and more qualified solutions than coming from politics. As would be the Brainstorming of the Nation bigger, It would be harder for politicians to act contrary to it. In the end, Parliament would be irrelevant, and the attention of people would be turned to the Brainstorming of the Nation.
I believe it is time to leave the Middle Ages with Parliament – an invention from the 13th century and bring democracy to a higher level – to move to the 21st century with modern self-government.
