Category Archives: Government

the truth about them

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Someone I know received an email like:

In 1863 a Democrat shot and killed … In 1881 a left wing radical Democrat shot … In 1963 a radical left wing socialist shot … In 1975 a left wing radical Democrat fired shots at … In 1983 a registered Democrat shot and wounded …

Two paragraphs of slanted ranting later:

… Clearly, there is a problem with Democrats and guns. …

Let’s look closer at the truth about “us” and “them”.

A similar missive could be put together about Republicans. Or Americans.  Or capitalists.  Or Christians. The truth about “them” is that any sizable group of people has members who’ve done strange things. All these groups also have people who were exemplary and heroic.  Singling a few out of one group is neither impressive nor suggestive, much less conclusive.

Name-calling comes in all sizes and shapes. So does judging. So does complaining.

These are all forms of false religion, believing in abstract notions of good and bad, believing generalizations are accurate, believing in simplistic notion of cause & blame. All of these are worshipping the rightness of ones own thoughts and judgments instead of holding only God’s word sacred.

People fixate too much on the question “What’s true?”  Wise people know that any notions simple enough to fit in our brains aren’t true.

I suggest these questions are better:

What will we create?
How great dare we be?
How close can we come to creating a world we love?

Join me.  Let’s stop these silly time-consuming arguments and see where we agree.  Humanity has never before communicated about what kind of moral, just, peaceful, free and prosperous world we’d like to create.  Not a new government, just a new level of communication and cooperation.  Let’s begin to build that, using PeopleCount.org.

Please, register today.  Vote on issues.  Share.

You make Politics Hard

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Today Al Franken’s office sent out a note that started:

If there were an easy way to fix everything that’s wrong with Washington, I’d be emailing you about that.

But there’s no easy way. Only a hard way. The hard way involves organizing. It involves patiently building a grassroots coalition capable of taking on powerful special interests. It involves making just a little bit of progress every day until we get the country we want.

And it involves fundraising.

It doesn’t matter whether there’s an easy way or not.  Al, like almost all of us, has already decided that politics is hard.  If an easy way presents itself, he’ll argue with it.

And so do most of you.  You make politics hard.  You and you and you and you.  I used to, too.  But I’ve given it up.  I’ve joined PeopleCount.org in the solution.

People argue with me all the time.  About 95% of the people I talk to, instead of listening, insist on saying why no solution will work, why politicians will never be accountable to the people.  Many feel sure that politicians are corrupt, or that we’ll never agree on things, there’ll always be a stalemate, we’ll always run a deficit and never retire the debt.  People feel that changing the constitution is impossible, whether to limit campaign contributions, impose term limits, clarify gun rights or change from plurality voting to approval voting.

Someone just yesterday argued that almost all members of Congress and the Senate are in it for the “fat paychecks” rather than to be of service.  And those who are already rich or made more money in the private sector are in it for the power, the control.

Then I asked, “Do they really want to control things, or just avoid the control of others?”  That made him stop and think.

Above, I said “many feel…” and “people feel…”  We’re emotion-based creatures.  While we can reason, mostly our brains manufacture reasons that support our feelings.  We “feel certain”, we “feel a position is correct.”  When someone arguing with us makes us feel that perhaps there’s a possibility that an opposing view is correct, our brains usually go into overdrive until they create some arguments that can get us back onto our familiar track of feeling we’re right.

People argue with me.  Within about 15 minutes most run out of steam and start listening.  Within about 20 they see not possibility, workability and promise.

Al Franken can’t find an easy way to change government because he isn’t looking. His thoughts insist it’s impossible.  Most others in Congress and most Americans, agree with him without even giving it serious thought.

At PeopleCount.org we offer an easy way to get government on track.  Support us by registering, and especially filling out the Demographics profile, telling your friends about us and asking them to sign up, and donating at least the cost of a lunch.

In my view, we’re the only organization providing a clear path to political transformation, to all Americans communicating effectively to design the future we want and empower government to lead us to build it.  We’re the only organization with no enemies.  Our challenges are resignation and lazy thinking.

Do you want the America of your complaints, or the America of your dreams?  Join us.

Truth: There is no such thing as failure

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Language is a funny thing.  With it, we can tell all kinds of stories.  Some are just views on episodes of life.  Some are fiction.  And of course, many are both.

Some are fiction.  We can talk about things that were, that never were- fictitious stories about what happened, like the Life of Brian (the Monty Python movie.)  And we can talk about things that aren’t happening right now, like modern-day spy novels.  And we can talk about things that haven’t yet happened, like Star Trek and Dr. Who.

And, we can talk about failure.  The truth is, there’s no such thing as failure.  Failure is a judgment we make about an episode in life.  We say someone tried to accomplish something, they had an intention to create a future and failed.  It’s a trick of language that we speak of failure as a thing.  So it seems like a thing, and things are real to us.

If I pick up a rock and show it to a group of people and let them touch it and see it and feel its surface and heft, they’ll agree it exists and it’s a rock.  Agreement adds to its reality.  Similarly, we can agree about failure.

Failure doesn’t exist.  It’s a story about a viewpoint.  It’s a side-effect of language and the way our brains are trained to understand the world of things.  Maybe failure sort-of exists as an idea or a judgment or a declaration, but there’s no such thing as failure.

PeopleCount.org is young.  It’s small.  It’s the beginning of a huge change in the way we govern ourselves, in how we communicate with ourselves.  It’s the beginning of real people-centered power.

If agreement adds reality to ideas and judgments that are spoken or written, what will happen when we all vote on issues and see the areas of broad agreement?  The realness added by agreement won’t magically make things happen.  But it will be the beginning of wondrous new efforts and projects.  It will make things happen.

I read up a bit about Mahatma Gandhi.  He worked on Indian independence from 1915 to 1947, 32 years.  For many of those years, the movement seemed like it was failing, making no progress.

PeopleCount.org is up to a transformation far greater.  It will take years.  On the other hand, Gandhi didn’t have the web…

Please register on PeopleCount.org.  If you’d like to do more:

Another truth: there is no such thing as success.  But if we can get many to participate in PeopleCount.org it will create agreement that we can transform government and politics.  By participating, we can make the possibility real and powerful.  Together, we can create truth, just as we can create our future.

PeopleCount: being Non-Partisan supports Truth

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A member of a certain political party sent me a long, highly partisan, blog response.  My reply is that the truth is best served by staying non-partisan.

Consider the following assertion:

We can have whatever government and politics we’re willing to create, once we’re able to communicate effectively with each other and with our politicians.

The first 11 words seem false.  We seem stuck with our current government and political situations.  But, read on.  The rest says it can be true once we’re able to communicate effectively.

It’s possible to start communicating effectively now.  PeopleCount.org is the beginning of a way for all of America, hundreds of millions of people, to communicate effectively in designing our future.

Thanks for sharing with me all your judgements about our leaders, the military-industrial cabal and the “imminent war”.  In my view is a different America.

Why would I want to adopt your view?  It creates an America where our leaders are short-sighted and fearful and our citizens are willing to let their rights be lost.  It’s an ugly world, and needs a lot of remedies.

And then you say your party is s “natural force for good”.  Every party is composed of supporters wedded to that view.  And, to err is human.  Every view is narrow.  What matters are principles and promises and solutions.  Your message seemed mired in negativity, willing to denigrate American government and leaders, painting them as not just not respecting our constitution, but being evil!  Instead of challenging them to uphold our rights, you clumsily force them to dismiss you as a radical enemy.  There might be value in some of your insights about what’s happening in our country and the world, but I’m not impressed by your emotional presentation.  Your words aren’t so different from those of other parties.  I’m not willing to trust a party, a view, with the responsibility of leadership.

Besides, my promise is that government will be responsive and accountable.  To do that requires I stay non-partisan, above the fray, so that’s part of my promise.

What’s in it for you to believe my truth?   Lots.  You get to vote your truths, showing them to everyone else, and you get to see theirs.  Instead of communicating to one person at a time, you get to have your votes sway your district, state and national tallies.  And once many of us are participating, we can take the next step, effective communication with our officials and politicians, creating real choice in elections and real accountability.

I apologize that currently PeopleCount.org currently has few “truths” to vote on, but let’s start somewhere.  And, I’d be happy to accept your help on new political profiles.

Please, get your fellow tea partiers and their friends and families to vote on PeopleCount.  I promise you: if we can grow PeopleCount, we can build a government that is truly responsive and accountable, we can build the country of our dreams.  Our American government can be as constitution-respecting and as good as the American people.  Better actually, because we can support each others’ better natures.  Instead of parties battling parties, we can work all together.

The PeopleCount Story, Part 1

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PeopleCount.org started as most organizations do: an unmet need was found and we sought a way to fill it.

In late 2010, I realized I wanted to do more with my life. I was a software engineer with a small, successful company in the heart of Silicon Valley. Over the years, I had grown to enjoy working with customers much more than plugging my mind into software to build applications.

I was already taking Landmark Education seminars (ten evenings over a period of about 15 weeks), and I had heard about their Wisdom Unlimited course (five 3-day weekends over the course of ten months).  So I signed up with the intention of creating a more fulfilling career. In the course, we looked at ourselves in completely new ways. After the first weekend, I began intently “listening” for a new opportunity, asking myself “What’s next?” and “What do I want to do?” Continue reading →

Creating A Government We Love

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What would it be like to have a government we love?  A government that was within budget?  One where we liked it’s accomplishments, its plans, the way it conducted itself, its transparency and its accountability?

In America, it’s within our reach.  We, the people, have the ultimate power.  We can direct our representatives to do our bidding.  If we want, we can even direct our state governments representatives to change the constitution.  All we need is the ability to collaborate effectively. Continue reading →

The Problem

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People are frustrated. For many the American government is too big, expensive and falling deeper in debt. For others, we shouldn’t have gotten involved in Iraq or Afghanistan, and we shouldn’t engage in wars on terror or drugs. Unemployment is high and people are worried. Meanwhile, our politicians are mired in name-calling and gridlock. I can make a sign and protest in the streets. I can email or phone my representative or sign a petition. I can send a check to a political party. Nothing changes.

What do we collectively want? Different politicians tell us we want different things. We don’t vote on issues, so how do they know? They don’t. They’re guessing. Continue reading →

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