Why do we need an alternative to the status quo, though?

Participation in the democratic process has dwindled, at least in part, because there is a pervasive sense of disgust with politics in general and political interactions in particular. This is true of both kinds of political conversation discussed above: most people have a hard time watching politicians engaging with one another, and they also find it difficult to discuss politics with each other. What is that people find distasteful?

• Negativity. Most political conversation has a very negative emphasis. At the heart of most political statements is the assignment of blame to some individual group, and most interaction is a back and forth between competing parties, each trying to pin the other with various kinds of culpability. Very often, the debate devolves into personal attacks, with rivals questioning each other’s credibility, competence, and ethics.

  Politicians and pundits aren’t the only ones who tend to be negative -- most political conversations between “ordinary” people are also relatively negative. When people have a similar outlook, conversations are usually gripe sessions, with participants taking turns complaining about “the other side” and the destructive impact they are having on the world. When people have conflicting opinions, conversations often become fights.

• Vagueness. If positive ideas do enter into political discourse, they tend to be extremely vague. Politicians are legendary for their use of well-worn clichés, promising things like “a better tomorrow,” “freedom,” and “prosperity.” The most rhetorically gifted of them can sometimes get away with language like this, but mostly the public recognizes these kinds of empty generalizations for what they are.

  When everyday people discuss public policy, they often have just as much difficulty identifying solutions with any real substance and specificity. This is partly because they lack enough information about the nature of the problems and what resources are available to solve them. It’s also because the interactive environment is so saturated with negativity and despair that many people expect to get argumentative or even derisive responses to any positive idea that they might introduce.

We have designed the Activist Solutions program to address these problems. To counteract the addictive pervasiveness of negativity, our emphasis is on finding solutions. To counteract the problem of vagueness, we ask people to put forward specific ideas, and set up channels of interaction that will help them inform themselves and each other.

We think that the key to generating solutions that are both positive and concrete is to create an interactive environment that is not just dedicated to solutions, but is actively supportive of positive, innovative thought.

We plan to do this first by helping like-minded people find each other. We don’t expect, and wouldn’t want, all of our participants to agree with one another. We also don’t want to entirely insulate participants from others who disagree with them. People who come at a given problem from radically different directions can offer feedback and a unique perspective to each other. At the same time, we believe that many people have a hard time thinking creatively if they expect to meet a wall of hostile response. By linking people with similar ideas, we hope to create a more encouraging enclave for positive brainstorming. But by placing these interactions directly alongside others with very different points of view, we hope to guard against “stove-pipe” thinking, where certain ideas are taken for granted because there is insufficient exposure to other viewpoints.

The second key to a solutions-friendly interactive environment is having attentive moderators. We will have several moderators or facilitators at start-up, and will add more as traffic on the site grows, who will keep track of each discussion. They will give participants feedback on any aggressive or destructive criticism. We intend to make every effort to establish a respectful and positive tone on the site, believing that once this norm is established it will be much easier for the evolving Activist Solutions community to help us in maintaining it. When participants encounter a solution they don’t like, we will encourage them to respond courteously and specifically, explaining the problems that they see as concretely as they can, and offering practical suggestions for improvement, whenever possible. After briefly detailing their constructive criticism, we will encourage them to spend the bulk of their energy on posting their own alternative solution.