politics

Politics: bcmeikle@shaw.ca

For me, Politics (and the root word polis) is about being 'polite' (not 'police') and I believe it's polite to establish a basic human needs criterea: fresh water, food, clothing, shelter, etc. and make sure everyone has it available as a basic human right...

If you're born here you have a right to live here. We want each other to thrive.

Right now we're in a world where the rich are like the hosts of a party, and I think it's noble to be a polite host. I have no illusions of socialist revolution. The rich would still be the rich in my suggested world, and the poor would still be the poor.

It's just what it means to be poor would be modernized.
I am interested in elevating everybody, not redistributing the wealth.

Polite states, not police states. Get everyone at the party a drink...

I will eventually try to use this space to
think out loud about

global politics
National politics
Provincial politics

and civic politics. but for now it's mostly global...:

LETS MAKE A MAP

Over the centuries basic human rights should be improved and expanded until all people are as free and empowered as possible. I propose a global internet based mapping system to define and implement these rights globally, faster.

I think the way to meet a criterea (fresh water for all first!) is to make a list of 'things to do' on the web, and slowly tick tasks off... and celebrate when a new goal is met! So we focus on a chain of global parties,wild abandon, that will happen about once every decade into the next millenium...(or once every century...who knows!)

I also believe this should be done outside the spectrum of Left VS. Right which most politics is framed within... but using BuckMister Fuller's design spec:

To make the world work/ for 100% of the people/ in the shortest possible time/ through spontaneous co-operation/without ecological offence/ or disadvantaging anyone...

This would mean it can't disadvantage the rich to advantage the poor as a traditional left view would say is necessary...but in some way should make everyone wealthier, so the minimum is elevated. I mean Bucky sort of invented the conept of 'win win' with his synergetics ideas...

So a politics that wastes none of its time on left right bickering is in order....
A rich man is not threatened when a poor man thrives. He is only threatened when a poor man thrives by making him poorer.(I hope...)

The strength to this approach (once a 'working world' is rigidly defined) is that it makes it possible to quantify an EXACT number of material things to do, before the design goal is met. I propose a definition of 'working world' only in material terms. Spirit and philosophy are another kind of politics.

I mean, the reason it has to happen quite slowly is because spirit and philosophy need to be locally defined.
If it doesn't come from the local heart and mind, it won't have quality...

I'm talking about an exact number of tasks, and an exact number of matierials. Any group of tasks can take a few years, or a few decades to do, but can be mapped and known.

A GLOBAL THINGS TO DO LIST

So if a list of 'things to do' was put on the web, how would it work?

Well, probably a map would be put up, and people would go around their neighborhood, village, or town, and check if a criterea has been met. Does everyone in your area have access to clean drinking water? ('access' would be clearly defined.)
If so, you report it in to the map, and your area is checked off . Slowly, the map would be covered in checked off areas, until finally only the problem areas of the planet would remain. These would be slowly worked on, until finally the entire map was complete, and a large global party would be thrown to celebrate!

Satellite linked with huge music concerts and small cultural events...A parade
around the world...

The funds raised from the first party would be used to help achieve the next goal on the list...

after water (deep impementation of water would include irrigation?)
comes food. (everybody needs a guarenteed meal)

AN INFINITE LIST OF TASKS...

I'm not sure if such a web mapping system would ever be finished... It seems that when it gets to the criterea like
'access to education' or 'access to sustainable transportation' that it just goes on and on, but that's ok. Once a few
criterea were met, the global confidence would improve and people would have faith that another party was coming,

If we can't actually make the world a utopia right away,
we can get better and better at talking about and visualising what we think a better world would look like...

On the web, we can make visualizing utopia an exact science...

So if we can't actually change things, we can get better and better at visualizing what those changes would be.

I dream of free food growing down the boulevards of the cities...
A water system that provides clean drinking water for all... but
also irrigation to the deserts...

food as a basic human right. (in some countries the right to work for that food is what is provided)

free libraries and hospitals everywhere...(automated geodesic domes airdropped over the planet would work. )

clean energy for all...

Schools...Universities, research... a renaissance!

Wildlands growing to take up 25 or 30% not 12 like the un has mandated...

Is it coming about anyway? a bit...

This would be done by
raising the minimum 'human rights' any person on the planet has, to something a little higher each year.

For me the sustainable infastructure would use only non-polluting renewable energy like Windmills, micro-hydroelectric,
geothermal, and perhaps hydrogen from underground... insulation is a huge energy technology. Oil would
thrive as a maker of fine plastics but would be too precious to burn...

I dream of space as a right, housing, as a right when you're born. You're assigned some space and some shelter you can use when you have nowhere else to go... being born on the planet should guarentee you a warm, dry, spot on the planet.

Rather than welfare you should be assigned a small farm to get food from. Highly automated these farms would provide basic sustenance for those who can't or don't work. They are work-farms...it is welfare, but they are modern and empowering.

Actually my Utopia is pretty much like the world is now, but when complete would have almost no
taxes because it is sustainable and automated and omni-empowering...

So think of these dials on a machine:
Greenhouse gases:: population:: unemployment::habitat loss::

and the goal is to assure these good things for all...:(more dials)
Food, water, shelter, information.etc.

and we are playing such a video game everyday but just don't know it.

How this would work

There is a paragraph here that I deleted where I tried to explain HOW this would work.

The answer is um, spontaneously.
bucky's spec says 'through spontaneous co-operation'.

spontaneous events by nature aren't pre-known. This a really important point for me
because I spent years trying to write a novel visualising Bucky's day, but I failed.
I got very depressed...I would mournfully tell my wife that if I couldn't visualize hope,
there must not be any...

yeesh...

new conclusion:
You don't have to know how it would happen for it to spontaneaously happen.
In fact, you can't know, or it's not spontaneous.

Truth is I see some things quite clearly, but others are totally blurry.

I see the tasks being mapped in detail on the web.
I see the materials being listed.

I'm really just thinking of water, as an example, and it's known exactly how many pipes and purifiers
septic systems, solar desalinators, etc. are needed. The design is all done in detail on the web, and a lot of new
techs are evolved. There is a TON of arguement over the design...always.

Next I see vacant lots and warehouses being assembled all over the world, and the materials piling up there. This may take a while...(years). There could be a webcam on each warehousing area...

I have no idea how the land would be supplied or the materials. Oh, that's not true. Spontaneously.
Also feedback is a key. The hope is that if people have a means to effect problems and see outcomes they will
do so.

One trick I do know is that supply lines are followed back, so the only thing actually 'donated' for
a huge plastic pipe, would be the resin. All labour is donated by the people who do it...

Another thing that is a basic design principle: It's possible to add a lot of value without using much money...
if the project had some kind of internal currency so pipe makers could trade with toilet makers could trade with
food growers, without using money, a lot could be achieved. It's possible to increase people's value a lot
without using much cash....

There could be teams of experts to install the materials once collected. Global teams with special suits and
a reality t.v. show about them. Installation isn't that hard, once the materials are on site. Locals would have to do
most of it though... they'd have to know how to maintain it anyways...

Of course with water, serious innovations like fog-catching, and solar desalination, and aquifer replenishing
would have to be added. By the time the water project really goes full steam, a lot of the next steps, like food, have to be thought through, so the actions are in integrity with future plans...

When an area is completed that graphic changes on the website and people sing and dance. When
the whole world is done with a criterea a global party is held.