PURPLE ACTIVISM
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From: Bruce S.
Date: Monday, February 8, 2010, 12:55 PM
Subject: Purple Activism
ID: 269722

Hi again, People. Just checking in...

There's been a lot in the air -- a lot of exciting stuff. The State of the Union, Obama talking to the House GOP in Baltimore, and over the weekend, Sarah Palin at the Tea Party convention in Nashville.

For me, there's been a lot of network growth. This little "Purple Alliance" project is feeling a lot of push. There's a powerful surge of energy that's lifting this thing, and I just have the feeling that we're very in-synch with something moving across the political spirit of the USA.

So, again, for any of you who are looking for ways to enfire the big dreams that Obama brought to millions back in '07 and '08, maybe the Purple Alliance would give you a place to get excited and put your shoulder to the wheel. I myself am just feeling a lot of energy with it, and am building lots of ways to create a national organization with a local community presence.

So, if this resonates for you at all, try it, you might like it.

http://purplealliance.us.

You can get in there with your same USA.CAN email address and password.

And -- just to kind of stimulate some sparks, here's an article I wrote today, inspired by a guy who created a website called "The Webster's Dictionary" -- a "webster" being somebody who wants to do political organizing on the web.

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WE THE PEOPLE - INTERSECTING ADVOCACY

Written Feb 8, 2010, for Ralph Benko, http://thewebstersdictionary.com/

We're experiencing a surge in the American politic spirit. One year and some shockwaves into the Obama presidency, there's an uprising afoot. It's not just T-Party -- it's progressives, it's traditionalists, it's people from all over the USA who are picking up this gathering vibe -- that something is wrong and it's time to act. Maybe it's hard to say what that something is, maybe there's no wide-spread agreement, maybe it's a leaderless movement inherently splintered like the particles of a cloud. But it's out there, and picking up steam.

From my point of view -- the common denominator of this movement isn't simply dissatisfaction with government or congress or the administration, or the supposed tentacles of socialism, or the evils of the capitalists, or the crushing of personal freedom by an encroaching federal bureaucracy. It's a call to empower the "voice of the people" -- a call to traditional populism -- but somehow brought up to speed by the incredible diversity of voices and points within the grid that are beginning to feel and act on this call.

This energy -- "the imprisoned lightning of the electorate, looking for release" -- is an energy that can be harnessed for a great new political movement -- and that energy can be coordinated over the internet.

But what we need -- I claim and strongly advocate -- is not another form of "us against them" advocacy -- the "my team can beat your team" approach to politics. We just saw the New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts in a great game -- but do we want follow this same "one team ends up on top and now controls everything" approach to our national governance?

I'd say -- that millions of people -- who maybe grew up with that way of thinking, and who are immersed in a media culture that never sees it any other way -- are beginning to feel their way into some new alternatives.

This movement is still incoherent -- "inchoate", as they say.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inchoate

But it's potent, and full of creative power. If we can figure out how to channel this energy, and pull it together in the right way -- we can do something great. We can design and actually manifest a tremendous revitalization of American democracy -- without destruction, without negativity, without the enormous collateral damage of most revolutionary processes.

What we gotta do

is simply conceive this action

in its fullest inclusiveness.

Put it simply:

We need everybody, and we need everything -- and we gotta see how that tremendous content and diversity and detail can be entrained in a coherent internet design, that intersects these creative forces, the liberates the voices from everywhere, that fully hears the people, and has the programming capacity and elegance of design to actually assimilate and integrate this massive flow.

We can create an internet channel for "we the people" -- that is not "one-sided". That does not leave out critical aspects of essential issues. That pulls together all facets of extremely complicated and vexed issues (immigration, abortion, free market dynamics, etc) -- and liberates the "collective intelligence of the American electorate".

This is something we can do -- if we begin to see how potent is our opportunity, how interesting is the design challenge and the emerging new "all voices all aspects" philosophy of this kind of "transpartisan and integral" politics.

Reach everybody, and invite them in.

Get major advocacy and research/policy groups to weigh in on their areas of expertise.

Define the entire process in "fast click" bullet-point format that releases the internet from the overwhelming tsunami of prose -- and, like Twitter, gets this huge process defined in tiny bite-sized pieces we can deal with separately one at a time.

We could create an interface for hand-held devices and "low-bandwidth" participation, that included everybody, that balanced every issue, that was totally consistent with the highest ideals of our national history and "civic religion", and grew with a kind of explosive force, creating full engagement across the political spectrum.

I think we need a team-based approach that looks into this potential, that kicks it around, that starts gathering the raw creative force and server horsepower that could lead this kind of vision from dream to action.

No, you can't push the river. But the river itself is pushing pretty hard.