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On December 30, 2008, twenty-eight of us gathered in Staten Island, New York to discuss the problems with the health care system, and to brainstorm what could be done about it. Here are the areas we discussed:

1. What does the group perceive as the biggest problem in the health system?

Representative government fails when corrupt politicians mostly serve corporate and other special interests. Then it is crucial for citizens to have direct democracy opportunities. This means having the right to place initiatives or referenda on ballots that can make new laws, amend constitutions, recall elected officials, or control taxes and government spending.

The system of governance we have today is one where representatives are in the long term accountable to the people, but in the short term look for support to various factions, either special interest groups (such as unions, the NRA, etc) or monied interests (such as companies, wealthy individuals, etc). These factions end up having an outsized influence on what representatives are chosen and they make any representative who wishes to support a policy that goes against their chosen factions pay a severe price for the disloyalty.

At the precinct level, ordinary citizens seemed to have achieved a remarkable degree of organization that was personally meaningful. And the county staff seems to have supported, joined and rode that focused energy into a county convention that accomplished its necessary tasks. But clearly the traditional form of pulling it together for the county was way outmoded for the kind of participation that has erupted this year. The state party rules for this kind of meeting are grounded in assumptions that relate to our current proto-democratic era dominated by citizen passivity and isolation.

That means it operates predominantly as an oligarchy but with strong democratic elements. As a result we do not grow-up learning to think and relate democratically. Rather, for the most part we grow-up learning to think and relate in top/down ways: employer/employee; winner/loser; dominant/subordinate; etc. All cultures literally wire the brains of its members, and tend to continuously reinforce its basic modes of thinking and relating. So we tend to come out as mostly hierarchic worker bees re-producing our top/down culture.

Most people shy away from politics and political action because they find political dialogue obnoxious and pointless. They don’t enjoy engaging and they don’t think it produces much. Talking with someone who disagrees with you is almost always an argument. Talking with someone who agrees with you almost always centers around how bad the powerful people are who disagree with both of you.

Hunger and famine is a problem in many parts of the world, isn't it?

Imagine that some governmental and/or non-governmental body decides to tackle the problem at its roots. They have a nice solution that everybody is excited about. The public is delighted: at last a comprehensive solution is going to be discussed, putting an end to famines and human miseries.

A large conference is organized in some poor African country in order to work out the last details. The conference is taking place in some fancy palace. The attendees are discussing a 20 year plan to eradicate hunger. They can't be disturbed: this meeting is critical. The conference lasts several days, and copious meals are served at regular intervals.

Meanwhile, outside of the palace outer walls, the famined populace is slowly dying of hunger, begging for some food now and for some media attention.

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It's great that you include so many links, so people can read more about what you are talking about.

I have a few questions, which would help me understand your solution better. Before I ask them, I want to briefly feed back to you what I think you are suggesting -- that way you can correct me where I'm making assumptions or misreading you.

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I agree with you (and Putnam) that television has eroded our social networks, probably more than anything else.

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In the next few days/weeks, I am going to detail 3 very different solutions to this problem.
1) understand the effects of watching TV.
2) change voting system so that people's votes really matter (i.e. they would be more motivated to participate!)
3) create a Free Association with Delegable Proxy (FA/DP) (to allow meaningful participation even when short of time).