It Is Abdication Of Americans

        Americans and others have not only given up their citizenship responsibilities, but have given up their responsibility for helping their children and youth to be effective members of society. The have the excuse that their parents did not carry out their parenting responsibility. Also that the help of professional educators and others was scares.

        Have you noticed any results?

                                                                                RCS

For a Pleasant and Useful Behavior

We can practice talking among ourselves.

            It seems time to begin speaking to one another about that which is important to us. By us, I mean more than friends, family, political party, or religion, although those dialogues too are very important. I mean, for example, a better cross-section of your town, or city. So, it seems important to learn some new and useful dialogue skills. Our willingness to try and to practice such skills can take us to a better society, to better governance, and to a lot of personal satisfaction.

            I heard on TV recently, a suggestion to be informed, connected, and invested. It got me interested. I thought it seemed a good idea to be well informed, well connected, and well invested in our society. I also thought that it might well take more thought.

            I have also thought that it is good for our well-being to practice freedom, equality, brotherhood, and even goodness. It thought that it would be even better if it were practiced in our daily lives inclusively all over our land. It does seem kind of a good direction to try to go, doesn't it?

            The above suggestions and thoughts seemed could perhaps be more effectively done when they included the practice of participatory governance. Even, if it does not include this and much of the above, some talking together about that which is important to us does seem a very good idea. 

            Fairly early in such talk we need to understand meanings, and to talk them over until we have abundant mutual understanding of what we are talking about. Such talking over must not end. our talk must continue if we are to act together.

            Words are important for the meanings they carry. "Governance" may be easier to understand and taken in than is "democracy" or even "participation." The phrase "participatory democracy" may be newer and more important to understand than one may imagine at first. It is important that we come to a  fuller understanding of each others' understanding or it becomes difficult to act cohesively.

            If  we are to co-operate effectively we need to keep aware of our understandings which are mutual at the present time and those which are not. Doing so necessitates ongoing dialogue on meanings and understanding of phrases such as:

~ Well informed about the nature of our society

~Well connected with others in our society

~ Our citizenship

~ The practice of supporting freedom to and freedom from.

~ The nature of equality in society and in governance.

~ The nature of and importance of brotherhood and goodness in our daily lives

~ The meaning of and the great value of inclusiveness in the maintenance of an effective we and and effective us in our doings.

            These phrases and ones like them have not been used much among us recently. To develop. enough common understanding of them among us may take a lot of talking-over. Many of us already believe that the practice of talking-over is very important now. We are capable of learning to dialogue well enough to become a satisfying and effective us. We are capable of helping our children to develop their dialog power to better effect than we have. 

            Our good talk can guide us to action that leads our humanity to survive and thrive.

            You are more than welcome to comment.

            Thank you for reading.

Organization: First Notes.

 We know that organization increases our power enormously. We know that our organization informs and educates us well.

                    We are capable of forgetting the pleasures and satisfactions  of organization. I expect that the pleasures and satisfactions I am recalling just now will not be the same as yours. Still among mine you may find one or two of yours.

I have an interest in ad hoc organizations and and those of longer term.

Below are many of my personal likes in organizations. You may find some of your likes listed.

An organization which attracts me often has:

~ members who feel connected, involve, and respected.

~ the motive of helping me and others to thrive.

~ a clear understanding of costs and benefits.

~ members who promote widespread participation and responsibility.

~ members who embrace reality and who are willing to approach the truth.

~ members who value honesty and justice.

~ a mission I find valuable and pleasing.

~ plenty of talk in which all participate.

An organization which pleases me is one which:

~ Keeps me in the information loop.

~ most members feel well connected with leadership.

~ Makes very clear who pays how much and who gets what.

~ moves in the direction of democracy.

~ tends to be inclusive.

~ tends to safeguard that which I value.

~ includes those who study and promote actions good for me and others.

~ advocates and protects people and process important to me.

~ promotes dialogue which leads to appropriate action.

I find an organization congenial when it includes:

~ teaching the process of organizing.

~ the purpose of advocating and protecting me.

~ objectives very like my own.

~ intelligent, respectful, loving ladies.

                I am very interested in hearing  your thoughts on organization. I expect to post more about organization and organizing. Dialogue skills are organizational skills for all participants in society.

                Tell me what congeniality, pleasures, and attraction you would like to find in your organization for self-governance,

                More as soon as I can.

                                                                                                            RCS

Governance: We May Need a Better Way to Talk About It.

                        Societies develop. Governance is developed within a society. For governance to exist there must be some common consciousness among some members of society and and government, the more the better. There may be nearly an infinity of tentative kinds of governance, but the kinds which develop within a given society depends upon the histories of the members of that society and their present consciousness..

                    In the U.S. two primary types of governance prevale, republicanism and democracy. Republicanism is the form  actuall practiced. They are still prominent, but the members of the society have lost some consciousness and awareness of their natures. 

                   Americans chose republicanism largely because it seemed the most doable of the two, many had hopes for the development of more democratic governance, but today there is some fear that we are losing our Republic. Too many of us may lack understanding of both forms of governance historically important among us. Even fewer seem to understand the difference between the two.

                    Modes of governance exist because of the awareness and consciousness of  them in the people of the society. The nature of a particular form of governance depends on the quality an prevalence of awareness, the awareness and consciousness of the people. 

                    In a republic, the power of governance is stratified. In the US  wealth, education, and experience of one gives that person a great deal of opportunity to rule. French "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" is less strongly present in a republic than it typically is in a democracy. So, even the French republic had some pretentions to democracy.

                In some parts of  our population, awareness of the values of a republic and a democracy is, at least, a fairly strong memory, but in too many of us there seems too little consciousness of the values of republic and democracy.

                In that we are the ones responsible for our governance(if we aren't, who is?), it seems best that we know how to work our government pretty well. How are we to govern our counties, towns, cities, states, nation, school districts, and more. Or, have we truly chosen to abdicate that responsibility?

                When we choose to govern there are plenty of us to do so, and with  practice improvement often happens.

                So, is it time for us to consider how to govern? Getting informed is important. There is plenty of information among us. It is possible to honestly share that information. An aid to doing so may be found at the associated blog: Dialogue With RCS. The web address  for Dialogue With RCS can be found on this blog on the list of associated blogs. One click there on the Dialogue With RCS will take you directly to the blogsite of Dialogue With RCS.

                   Also there about 90 posts on governance right here on Governance With RCS. It is possible to learn somthing useful without leaving this blog.

                I with little pleasure, let me say that my spellcheck for this site has been lost and also the "comments" app here has also been lost! However, although Dialogue With RCS is also without spellcheck, it does have a working "comments" app! You may use the comments function at Dialogue to make comments about posts on the Governance site. Just mention that the comment, question, or information is for the Governance blog and include the name of the post you are commenting on.

                  I am willing to talk about governance and dialogue. I will respond to your comments. When you tell me that you like, or liked, some post, I will say "Thanks." When you say something about a detail of content I will say more.

                I can say now that I am pretty sure that the more we know about governance to more democracy we can have.

                Thank you for reading and bye for now.

                                                                                        rcs

                    

                    

 

                    

Pleasure and Satisfaction in Organization

                    We know that organization increases our power enormously. We know that our organization informs and educates us well.

                    We are capable of forgetting the pleasures and satisfactions  of organization. I expect that the pleasures and satisfactions I am recalling just now will not be the same as yours. Still among mine you may find one or two of yours.

                  I have an interest in ad hoc organizations and and those of longer term.

    

                Below are many of my personal likes, of the moment, in organizations. You may find some of your likes listed.

An organization which attracts me often has:

~ members who feel connected, involve, and respected.

~ the motive of helping me and others to thrive.

~ a clear understanding of costs and benefits.

~ members who promote widespread participation and responsibility.

~ members who embrace reality and who are willing to approach the truth.

~ members who value honesty and justice.

~ a mission I find valuable and pleasing.

~ plenty of talk in which all participate.

An organization which pleases me is one which:

~ Keeps me in the information loop.

~ most members feel well connected with leadership.

~ Makes very clear who pays how much and who gets what.

~ moves in the direction of democracy.

~ tends to be inclusive.

~ tends to safeguard that which I value.

~ includes those who study and promote actions good for me and others.

~ advocates and protects people and process important to me.

~ promotes dialogue which leads to appropriate action.

I find an organization congenial when it includes:

~ teaching the process of organizing.

~ the purpose of advocating and protecting me.

~ objectives very like my own.

~ intelligent, respectful, loving ladies.

                I am very interested in hearing of your likes in organizations. I expect to post more about organization and organizing. Dialogue skills are organizational skills for all participants in society

                More as soon as I can.

                                                                                                            RCS

Civics for the Brave and the Free

                             It seems worth repeating that civility is an important part of governance, civics, politics, society, and our daily lives.

We, and our governance, can also profit by our learning:

~ some collaborative leadership. 

~ about consensus building.

~ about a deeperlevel of tolerance.

~ about sources of conflict an cohesion.

~ how people fudamentally different from one another develop sensitivities which enable them to co-operate effectively.

We ar at our civic best when we:

~ are listening and hearing.

~ are working in partnership with others

~ lead by example.

~ have the courage to be appropriately humble.

~ are practicing productive democratic talk.

~ show up.

                            We all have some learning to do. I like to remember what my old aunt used to say, "By beginning, we are half way there."

                            Other saying worth rememberting are: Democracy breeds solidarity solidarity and justice. Democracy exists where and when it is being practiced. The practice of democracy is not difficult.

                                                                                                rcs

Democracy Is Participatory: Get what you want

 When you want a democracy, begin to participate. Show up. Show up to have democracy. Democracy is a participatory process which includes participatory decision making. Participation brings better policy. We get more of what we want when we show up. Start close to home, perhaps with schools and learning. The more it interests you the better, Don't wait to be invited, Its your democracy. We can make participation easier by initiating better mechanisms of participation.

Or, by showing up with a friend.

                                                                    RCS