Re: Hello

Don't worry.  Life is busy.  I apologize for my over eagerness to contact you, but reading your posts and watching the video of Mr. Ackoff got my creative juices flowing.  His humor, cynicism, and piercing intelligence jumped off the screen at me.  Then, when I discovered that he was instrumental in the creation of systems thinking as applied to business structures, I had this powerful moment of realizing that many of the ideas I have been struggling to understand came partly from this specific creative mind -- that ideas are not abstractions but are the careful creation of real human people and they issue forth from them and touch people like me without us ever having to know who the creator of them was.

I have some specific ideas about the new form of governance that you mention.  It is a shame that Obama used the new near-zero-cost mass-coordination tools to get elected and then abandoned them to govern.  I am working on a collaborative networking tool called Sumpeople that is an effort to create the concrete software needed to do just what you speak of.  I believe that if the political collaboration module could be combined with a economic collaboration module (as well as the social module that programs like facebook offer) then people would see how using the program would help achieve their short and long term goals and they would get off the couch and come together.  I want to test this aggregation program out on the Nevada County Supervisor election in the 5th District of Truckee.  My motto will be "You rule, I'll serve".

However, I am convinced that economic reform is were the greatest hope for systemic change lies.  If we think of business enterprises as interdependent systems, then the same seismic shift that political democracy had on the day to day lives of regular people could occur in our economic lives.  I call it corporate peoplehood (as opposed to the corporate personhood of Citizen's United).  We had great problems in the 1700s when we thought of Nations as a "person" -- England was a man, the King.  But the shift to imagining a Nation as a "people" with the application of checks and balances, separation of powers, elected accountable governance, rule of law, and representative democracy created an explosion of prosperity and build the "American Dream".   The same unleashing of the creativity of regular citizens will occur with the democratization of our economy. 

But the 1700s was the age of the Nation State, as it took power from the Church.  Now we are in the age of the Corporate State and they haven't even had a Magna Carta yet, much less a Declaration of Independence (although I prefer a Declaration of Interdependence and a Bill of Responsibilities).  My premise is that the application of the hundreds of years of thought that have gone into the creation of democratic civic government can be used to create profitable, dynamic, sustainable, and nurturing incorporations of community that can fulfill the conservative vision of small governance and liberated business at the same time as fulfilling the progressive vision of a fair and just society where we take care of each other and live sustainably.

My problem is that I am not a writer, I am a speaker.  I will work on "A New Ism" piece for your review, because I do need to do it.  "A New Ism Project" is an effort to engage my community in this discussion in a collaborative open ended way.  Not to say "This is what the New Ism should be!", but instead to ask "What would you like A New Ism to be?"  And then I hope to lead them in test marketing this new economic theory in our area, to be exported if it shows value.    

I have include the Declaration of Interdependence that was adopted on 7/7/2007, where I attempted to show how similar our current times were to our revolutionary ones.  It is a rewriting of the Declaration of Independence with as few changes as were needed to adapt it to the Corporate Tyranny we now are living under.  I was amazed how little need to be reworked.

Please come stay at my cabins if you make it to Northern California.  I look forward to keeping in touch with you and continuing to read what you create.

Peace,

Michael Rogers  "Great things are wanting to be done."   -- John Adams, 2nd President of the United States 

On 12/8/2010 11:24 PM, Steven Brant wrote:

Hi Michael,

I apologize for not writing sooner, but I'm having a very busy week.

I'm very happy to see the list of all the ideas you work with in what you do.  My own list overlaps with yours, although normally I just talk about three people - Buckminster Fuller, W. Edwards Deming, and Russell Ackoff - as being my primary mentors and influencers when it comes to my personal philosophy and the ideas I am working to propagate out into society.

I'm sorry we don't live closer, because - if we did - I'm sure I'd enjoy participating in the discussion your A New Ism event in Nevada City.

If you have a think piece on that subject that you'd like me to comment on, I'd be happy to do so.  Otherwise, we could certainly talk on the phone some time.  I'm pretty booked between now and Dec 22, which is when I leave for a trip to L.A.  I will return to NYC on Jan 4th.  Perhaps we could talk after then?

Thanks for commenting on my latest HuffPost essay.  It wasn't about a new "ism"... but it was the beginnings of a conversation i"m seeking to start about a new "attitude".  I really feel it's time that "we the people" start being full partners with our elected officials rather than thinking we can just sit back after we've elected them and let them run things for us.  Even though for some people this will take time away from watching mindless things on television or playing computer games, I think it's ultimately a change in how people spend their time that's critically important.

I'm happy my sister connected us.

Best regards,

Steve

steve@trimtabmanagementsystems.com 

Skype:  stevengbrant

http://www.trimtabmanagementsystems.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant

http://www.facebook.com/stevengbrant

http://www.twitter.com/stevebrant

http://bit.ly/1cA8YD (memorial essay to Russ Ackoff)

"Human history becomes more and more 

a race between education and catastrophe." 

- H. G. Wells 

On Dec 5, 2010, at 12:11 PM, Michael Rogers wrote:

I have been having an email exchange with your sister and she thinks we might have somethings in common. In reading your Huffington Postings, I know we do. I am speaking on "A New Ism Project" in Nevada City in January which is an attempt to create the ideologica­l social software to apply Systems Thinking to the creation of a new ism, but also bringing in Game Theory, Complexity Theory, Coordinati­on Theory, Common Pool Resource Management­, Judgment Aggregatio­n, Reciprocal Altruism, the Evolution of Cooperatio­n, Non-Zero, Non Violence Communicat­ion, et al, into a cohesive ideology that will be ready to apply for the job when we fire Capitalism­, just as the Soviet Bloc has fired Socialism and Communism for their deficienci­es. The idea is to lead with the question of "What do you think should be in A New Ism?", not "this is The New Ism.

I look forward to having the chance to meet you."

--  Michael Rogers  "Great things are wanting to be done."   -- John Adams, 2nd President of the United States 

In Dealing With Blackmailers, We Can Help You, Mr. President

Better government is great, but I think better companies are the answer first. We are in the age of the Corporate State. 2007 was the tipping point. Of the 100 largest economies in the world, the majority are now corporatio­ns, not government­s. Akio Morita, the founder of Sony, said "Nations are a dying industry, corporatio­ns are the structures of the future."



In the 1770s we asked "What if a nation could be a people, not a person"? -- if you said you fought for "England" you meant a man, not a country. National Personhood was transforme­d by National Peoplehood­. Well, what if we could have companies that were of the people, by the people, and for the people, instead of the nightmare of tyranny that is Corporate Personhood­? Then riches could come back into the light of day.



"Capitalis­m is Dead, long live A New Ism".
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

In Dealing With Blackmailers, We Can Help You, Mr. President

Warren Buffet, of all people, has said that we are developing a country "where the great positions in society are going to those born of the right womb, and that is almost un-America­n." I say that is not "almost un-America­n", that is the definition of un-America­n.



What the right fails to acknowledg­e (in public anyway) is that the idea that the rich are "earning" their money is not the convention­al wisdom in the country anymore. The Tea Party candidate in West Virginia this year said it best when he said "I made my money the old fashion way, I inherited it".



What the left really wants is for the wealth of this nation to go to the people who earned it, not to the ones who's daddy did and were just "born of the right womb."
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

In Dealing With Blackmailers, We Can Help You, Mr. President

There is another way. We have to get beyond the false dichotomy that these two posts represent. It doesn't have to be the either big oppressive government­, or Lord of the Flies no government where it is everyone for themselves­. We can actually have small, limited government and accountabl­e, self-regul­ated businesses where the profits benefit those who build and create the wealth.



This is the Third Way that Noble Prize Economist Elinor Ostrom talks about. JNarragase­tt is right that there is incredible corruption­, waste, and incompeten­ce in the road building, food testing, security, fire protection­, soldiering and sailing that centralize­d, bureaucrat­ic government engages in. This is mostly because of the Capitalist manipulati­on of these processes -- and you need to look no further than the Arizona prison industries­' manipulati­on of the Illegal Immigrant issue for their corporate gain.



But progressiv­es will, and should, never allow the "starving of the beast" as long as the increasing­ly unregulate­d and voracious "beasts" of advanced capitalist corporatio­ns continue to engage in their predatory behaviors unchecked. You are both right.
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

In Dealing With Blackmailers, We Can Help You, Mr. President

He will be "alone" as long as he appears to be under the spell of the Plutonomis­ts. I voted for him not to get the best deal from the Republican­s, but to be a champion for the interests of the 98% working hard and playing by the rules.



If he had taken Mr. Brant's advice earlier and clearly drawn the lines of what was at stake and asked us to sacrifice for the heart and soul of our country, I for one would have followed him yay into the valley of shadow of death.



Now, I have come to believe that he does not understand what is at stake and that he may be too beholding to his friends at Goldman Sachs to stand and fight for the dying middle class in this country.



One example, I need a loan to grow my business. My profits are up this year and I could create jobs. But the banking world has a rule called the "3-6" -- pay 3% for deposits, lend at 6% and make money on the 3% margin. Now they are given money at 1/4 percent from the Fed, lend it back to us at 3 and 3/4 and make a 3 1/2% margin with no risk or work at all. Why on earth would they take a chance and lend money to me? They have free money secured by the full faith and credit of the US of A and don't need us peons.
About Bush Tax Cuts
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

In Dealing With Blackmailers, We Can Help You, Mr. President

Yes, Well said.



The problem is that the Democrats don't have a cohesive economic philosophy that would allow the President to stand on principal. If we are just "enlighten­ed" capitalism­, then the Republican­s will continue to get more power than they deserve, because progressiv­e social programs, green jobs, and infrastruc­ture investment are not an economic theory.



As Democrats, we need to wake up to the fact that the time has come to fire Capitalism as an ineffectua­l economic model (just as the Soviets fired Communism for being an ineffectua­l political model). I personally greatly admire Capitalism for leading us out of fascism, totalitari­anism, and monarchy and building the modern economy, and there is a lot we should keep -- like the market economy and the celebratio­n of individual creativity and hard work, but it lacks the complex design necessary for the challenges of today, much less tomorrow.



More importantl­y, advanced Capitalism is evolving into the very force of tyranny that it helped beat back in its earlier form.



We need "A New Ism" that will be capable of distributi­ng the benefits of cooperatio­n more fairly, works to decentrali­ze power and place it back in local communitie­s, has checks and balances on power, branches of governance­, common pool resource management­, and places accountabl­e leadership at the center of its philosophy­.



In the 1770's we imagined this nation as a people, not a person. Now is the time for an economy of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

12/4/10 Letter to Huffington Post Blogger Steven Brant

Thank you so much for introducin­g me to the work of Russell Lincoln Ackoff with this video. His honesty and clarity of thought jumped off YouTube at me and I went on to read your tribute to him and his Wikipedia entry. Although I never knew of him, I know that I have been deeply effected by his work. It is nice to hear a voice and see the man to go with the knowledge he shared with me before I knew who he was.

P.S. I have been having an email exchange with your sister and she thinks we might have somethings in common. Now, in reading these posted, I know we do. I am speaking on "A New Ism Project" in Nevada City in January which is an attempt to create the ideologica­l social software to apply Systems Thinking to the creation of a new ism, but also bringing in Game Theory, Complexity Theory, Coordinati­on Theory, Common Pool Resource Management­, Judgment Aggregatio­n, Reciprocal Altruism, the Evolution of Cooperatio­n, Non-Zero, Non Violence Communicat­ion, et al, into a cohesive ideology that will be ready to apply for the job when we fire Capitalism­, just as the Soviet Bloc has fired Socialism and Communism for their deficienci­es. The idea is to lead with the question of "What do you think should be in A New Ism?", not "this is The New Ism."

I look forward to having the chance to meet you.

--  Michael Rogers 

12/2/10 Letter to Joseph McCormick and Steve Bhaerman

I was given your information by a friend who said it reminded him of
me. I have read your stuff and I believe we are on the same page and
perhaps could further each others work.

I am in the early stages of formulating A New Ism Project. The concept
is that it is time to fire Capitalism because of its failure to mitigate
tyranny, its tendency to rigid hierarchy, its failure to broadly
distribute the benefits of cooperation, and its insatiable,
unsustainable need for growth.

Many youth are being attracted to Socialism and Communism without a
clear understanding of their failings -- specifically they don't have a
coherent modern economic theory (they are primarily political theories)
and they have failed, on the most part, to handle the rise of
authoritarian tendencies, and to protect and celebrate individual liberty.

So, we are in need of "A New Ism". An economic, social, and political
theory sophisticated enough to handle the complexity of modern life and
to deliver general prosperity and happiness. But, rather than tell
people what The New Ism should be, we seek to engage different
communities in a dialog about what they think A New Ism should have in it.

Now we have some specific ideas to keep the dialog moving, such as
Elinor Ostrom's Common Pool Resource Management, corporate peoplehood,
decentralized but coordinated systems, local control balanced against
common action, celebration of leadership, competency-based
representative democracy with elected accountable leaders, separation of
powers, radical resource efficiency, as well as a system designed to put
compassion, joy, and love at the center of all human interaction.

Many of these ideas are based in the study of the Native American
social, economic and political structures that you rightly point out
helped inform the American Revolution. It is now time to apply the
concepts to the economic realm as we are now in the age of the corporate
state.

In 1776 we were in the grip of national personhood, the nation was a
person not a people. England was the King, not the Country. "I fight
for England," meant "I fight for the King, who is named England". The
American Patriots had the bold idea "What if a country can be a people,
not a person?" and that simple idea has resonated across the globe ever
since and built the modern economy.

Well, now it is time to think of Corporate Peoplehood. What if
companies could be people, not a person? This I believe is the common
ground between conservatives and progressives. It is based in all of
the ideals of conservatism and progressivism. It is the only way out of
the ideological grid lock. Progressives will never support deregulation
and smaller government, as long as the Plutonomists rule their economic
empires, and conservatives will never support issues of equality that
are dictated by the government fiat.

Corporate Peoplehood is an idea that is based on people earning what
they want in the world and therefore a smaller government is possible,
however we need a new ism to provide the social software and ideological
framework to pursue our economic needs in a humanizing and sustainable
fashion.

Please contact me if you have any desire to discuss these matters
further. I am willing to come and participate in an Transpartisan
Events you have. I have a resort in the High Sierras of California and
would offer it as a venue. If not, good luck and happy hunting. You
are doing good work.
Peace,
Michael Rogers

Re: [SPAM] FW: A Transpartisan Moment: Special BeyondaNews Message

Great hearing from you.  Thanks for the connection.  Very interesting group and on the right track.  I want to create a software package called Sumpeople.org to facilitate groups like this and the attempt to aggregate judgment, wisdom, influence, and resources for the general welfare. 

I am also working on a series of conferences on "A New Ism".  The idea is that it is time to fire Capitalism because of its failure to mitigate tyranny, its failure to broadly distribute the benefits of cooperation, and its insatiable, unsustainable need for growth.  But what is "A New Ism" that will be sophisticated enough to handle the needs of people and the planet?   It is not Communism or Socialism because they don't have a coherent modern economic theory and they have failed, on the most part, to handle the rise of authoritarian tendencies and protect and celebrate individual liberty.

So, the idea is to ask people what should be in A New Ism and to stimulate a series of discussions around the topic.  I will keep you posted and it progresses.


Peace,

Michael

On 12/2/2010 12:10 AM, xxxxxxxx xxxxxx wrote:

Hi Michael,

I hope this email finds you well. The message below made me think of you.

Yours in (r)evolution,

-xxxxxx

---

To: xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Fwd: A Transpartisan Moment: Special BeyondaNews Message
From: xxxxxxxxxx@xxxx.com
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2010 22:33:51 -0500

-----Original Message-----
From: Swami Beyondananda <info@wakeuplaughing.com>
To:
Sent: Tue, Nov 30, 2010 6:17 pm
Subject: A Transpartisan Moment: Special BeyondaNews Message

November 30, 2010

The Transpartisan Moment: Join the Upwising! "It's time to face the elephant - and donkey - in the living room, and activate the uncommon wisdom of common folks to weave a web of mass-construction." -- Swami Beyondananda Dear Friends and Colleagues: We are living in what Tom Paine would have called "soul-trying" times. In the face of multiplying crises - economic, ecologic, political and spiritual - it's becoming more apparent that fundamental change is required. The good news is, what is needed isn't revolution, but evolution. The other news is, this evolutionary alternative must be clearly expressed, carefully developed, and made tangible to the millions and millions of Americans who see that something is profoundly wrong, but don't know what to do about it. Many of us have spent time and resources over the years supporting causes we believe will create a better world. Until now, the vast majority of well-meaning organizations have either worked within the system, or worked around it. It is now time to confront the elephant - and the donkey - in the living room. The bipolar insanity of a fiercely divided body politic has largely paralyzed us in the face of huge problems, as we have devolved into an orgy of impotent blame and dogmatic positioning. There is now a unique opportunity to seize the time, and take advantage of what we are playfully - yet seriously - calling "an evolutionary upwising." All across America and all across the political spectrum, people are waking up and wising up to recognize that neither political party truly represents them. And as people are awakening from the partisan trance, there is a growing Transpartisan movement, not to be confused with "bipartisanism." Transpartisan and bipartisan are two different things. The corporatist elitist element at the "center" of both parties - Brad Blanton calls them "Dempublicrats" - are now scrambling to channel the discontent with partisanship into a "bipartisan" rule that will further narrow the scope of conversation and increasingly enforce top down rules "for our own good." Or, as conservative activist Grover Norquist puts it: "Bipartisan means the Democrats and Republicans getting together to screw the American people." We the people of America - and indeed the world - are at a crossroads now. There is disheartenment in the heartland. In the past, a discontented populace would rise up to overthrow its government in a revolution. Today we are called upon to wise up and overgrow the corporate-state in an evolution. And there is very good news in this regard. Thanks to the work of pioneers like Tom Atlee and Jim Rough, and the very recent work done in Seattle through the Transpartisan Alliance, we now have the tools to use the existent polarities to activate the collective intelligence and wisdom in any community. In other words, We, the people, are finding that we have access to something "the system" lacks, wisdom. For the past eight months, we have been convening a bi-weekly prototype Transpartisan meet-up in Seattle that began with 4 people and now has 71 from all "tribes." This meet-up has served as a focus group to refine a meeting format that will keep people from all political stripes engaged on a sustained basis (allowing the group to move, month by month, through stages of empowerment from problem identification to "choice creating"). Over the course of the months, we have expressed our differences loudly and clearly - on everything from guns to health care to the role of government - but inside the container of a mutual desire to have a happier, healthier community. In Native American circles, they say, "we just speak until there is nothing left but the obvious truth." And so it has been in our circle. After exhausting ideological positions, having expressed every emotion, and having soberly recognized that we all agree the current system is unworkable, one question emerged: "So what? So what can we do about it?" With this key question came the spark of evolution. Political "children" and "adolescents" (relying on "parental corporate-government" to take care of them, rebelling when it doesn't) began to evolve into political adults. Together we came to the same realization: "It's up to us." We are at a pivotal moment now, at the beginning of a movement to reunite America - but not around worn out clichés masking the same old same old. We have the opportunity to reunite America around its true heart and soul - the "heart virtues" and values that the vast majority of us, regardless of political affiliation, agree on.

As an example of the kind of wisdom that can be generated using the energy of opposing polarities, here are some of the things that ordinary citizens - right, left and center - have agreed upon: We don't support corporate or government structures that encourage predatory behavior The democratic system is no longer representing us We don't want taxation without equal, full representation We agree that a local response is most empowering We need to balance rights with responsibility to appeal to left and right We all want to build a sense of neighborhood, tribe We all have common needs: love, autonomy, fairness, safety, basic services During the next two years these conversations will extend to every part of the country in the form of Chautauquas - a revival of the famous 19th Century community meetings of citizen policy makers - where people step away from the TV and internet, and come together on the "outernet." In coming face to face with one another outside of the bipolar, bipartisan divide-and-conquer game, the long lost moral authority of "we the people" will come to the fore. This is the only thing that can counterbalance the weight of money, and the power of money that seems to make all the decisions in this society. The first prototype Transpartisan Chautauqua will take place in Seattle on Dec. 4. It is co-hosted by three political parties and groups as diverse at Campaign for Liberty and Transition Seattle. We are also planning another in the series of Reuniting America transpartisan national leadership retreats (eight between 2004 and 2007...see alumnae.) The purpose this next retreat, planned for May 2011, is to engage leaders of national networks in seeking practical, safe, creative ways to engage their local members in self-organized meet-ups and Chautauquas in search of bottom up solutions (i.e. citizen created policy options that become attractive to officials because 80% plus can say "Yes!" to them.) We are also in the process of writing a series of e-books (that will become print books) that will serve as a manifesto to move the "up-wising" forward. Reuniting America: A Call to Evolution is designed to weave together the narratives of both left and right to enable us to come front and center to "face the music and dance together." Addressing the questions, "what's so, so what and now what," this book offers the practical experience and toolkit for transpartisan organizing. A second book, Heartland Security: From Ideal to Real Deal, is a practical guide intended to inspire deeper cross-pollinization and weaving of the various green/progressive and libertarian/conservative economic re-localization efforts. We are asking you to financially support this movement at a moment when it can make all the difference in the world. Will our children and their children grow up in a world that is healthier and more free than the one we have now? What happens in the next two or three years may very well determine whether civilization evolves to greater heart intelligence and wisdom, or whether we dissolve into neo-feudalism. If you are in a position to make a tax deductible year end gift it will fuel our writing and organizing efforts (please make checks payable to our 501c3 fiscal sponsor, Empowerment Works, Memo: Transpartisan Upwising, 1801 Lincoln Blvd., #138, Venice, CA 90291.) Alternatively, Chip-in whatever amount works for you via PayPal. NOTE: All contributors will receive a free download of our first e-book when published in early 2011. In supporting this endeavor to bring awakening, awareness, courage and functionality to our body politic, you are playing a significant role in the history of our species and civilization. We hope you will join the "upwising!" With faith in us all, Joseph McCormick and Steve Bhaerman The Transpartisan Upwising http://transpartisan.us/

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--  With Hope, Determination, and Love, Pilgrim   pilgrim@uese.org 

I am jumping mouse

Dear Mr. Storm,

I am writing you to thank you for teaching me the story of Jumping Mouse.  It has been the template for my life and has guided me thru hard and scary times and has allowed me to reach out and try to heal great beings that it would have been so easy to hate and fear.

My "sacred mountains" and "medicine lake" are a vision given to me by the creator, by our wounded mother, to bring healing to the people on a scale that humbles me to contemplate.

But, I know that, I, a wet and shaking mouse, can be a great being, if I only allow myself to trust and be brave, to crouch as low as I can, and to jump as high as I can.

This vision centers around the rebirth of the tribes.  Hunting in old ways, using new tools.  I too am a breed.  My Aniyunwiya Great Grandmother's father was forced to give up his native ways by accepting the deed to 160 acres of land as part of the Dawes Act and turning his back on the common way of living that his people had successfully used for generations.  And, my English blood goes back to 13 signers of the Magna Carta that forced the King to submit to a rule of law -- a King to whom I am also related.   

We desperately need to hunt again as a people.  Only now we hunt money and not deer, or Bison.  But the opportunity of this time is that the new dominant power in the world is the corporation, no longer the Nation State.  2007 was the first year in human history that of the 100 largest economies in the world, the majority are corporations not governments.  The Kings have returned in Corporate form.  We must return to the pre-columbian democratic principals born of this land that inspired the American Revolution and apply them to business.

I see a New Ism being born out of the ashes of Capitalism.  Deeply informed by indigenous wisdom and the concept of sacred capital where we hunt money as a people, with the help of wise and noble chiefs, and where the benefits are shared among those who work to make them happen. 

Here is why I am writing you.   I believe that Artists can be Providers and Protectors for a people, and not just teachers.  I received my Master's Degree in Arts Management from the Yale School of Drama and wrote my thesis on harnessing the economic engine of popular media to drive the empowerment of community.

I see the return of matriarchal wisdom.  I see the guardians of the Sacred Capital taking the form of a Grandmother's Council.  We are working with Grandmother Agnes, and Grandmother Rita from the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers and see the harvest of our efforts helping to fund the work they are doing for our Mother Earth.

I believe the work you have done could be the basis of a Bison Jump.  A common hunt to not only provide you and your family with the sustenance you need to survive and thrive, but to provide the basis of the creation of an artistic clan that can show to the world what abundance, joy, prosperity, and nurturing is possible using ancient wisdom.

Peace,
Alisgia Uwohali

Michael Rogers

530-587-5160

www.shinneyboocreek.com

www.sumpeople.com

Organizational DNA for our new Metropolis

Thank you for allowing me to contact you regarding "corporate
peoplehood" -- or, to speak of it another way, "indigenous economics".

I introduce myself to you after the recent SPUR event and you gave me
your email address. I hope that I did not unduly monopolize your time
at the event and I hope that my aggressiveness in reaching out to you
was not offensive.

I grew up in the Tahoe/Truckee area but I went to Burning Man last year
for the first time because the theme of Evolution spoke so directly to
my passions (I was also getting divorced, so I was finally "allowed" to
go, but that is another story). Black Rock City was the first place in
the world that I felt that I was accepted as my genuine self -- a man
with a vision of renewal. I have always been the boring guy at the BBQ
that can't seem to focus on the latest advancement in mountain biking
technology, or the political intrigues of local Little League Baseball
draft. On the playa, I offered footbaths to the community with my
clear, clean Shinneyboo water. The baths came with or without a vision
of evolution. Only one person took it without the vision, and I
appreciated her candor and enjoyed giving her a footbath just as much as
all the others. I learned to offer my vision as a gift, without
expectation of anything in return, and that has profoundly changed my
life. Thank you for your part in providing me with that opportunity.

The theme of Metropolis is again deeply aligned with my life's work.

I believe that you cannot understand the form of any Metropolis without
looking at its organizational DNA. The large skyscrapers of San
Francisco sprang from the organizational DNA of Wells Fargo and Bank of
America just as castles and moats sprung from the organizational DNA of
medieval monarchies, just as the mighty oak springs from the
organizational DNA held within the diminutive acorn, or Black Rock City
springs each year from the organizational DNA held within the surveyor's
flags that inform the annual unfolding of the Burning Man mandala
metropolis.

An intrepid band in the High Sierra seeks to evolve the organizational
DNA of the dominant structure in society (corporations) and we believe
that the evolution will be manifested in the new metropolises we build
-- but without changing the current corporate organizational DNA then
visions of new metropolises will not be possible. We seek to create
this radical change by looking back to our indigenous roots and fusing
the best of that knowledge with new zero cost, mass coordination tools
-- tools that allow for decentralized but coordinated incorporations of
community never before possible in human history. We call it
"corporate peoplehood" and it is nothing less than the rebirth of the
indigenous tribes based on the economic models of the rabbit runs of the
Shoshone and the buffalo runs of the prairie peoples. In fact, we are
in talks with the The International Council of 13 Indigenous
Grandmothers <http://www.grandmotherscouncil.com/> to host a healing
ceremony where indigenous people forgive the wandering ones for the pain
of the past and ask them to become indigenous again and to enter into a
great economic alliance to nurture the Earth and each other with radical
love and inclusiveness.

In the 1770s in America a handful of people, inspired by the great
Iroquois Confederacy, began to dream of national peoplehood and those
dreams changed the world. In the Western European world up until that
point it was national personhood that prevailed. Europeans even went so
far as to call the monarch by the name of the state, so France and
England meant the Kings of France and England, not the people. But that
was the age of the Nation State, and now we are entering the Age of the
Corporate State and corporate personhood is dominant. 2007 was the
first year in human history that the majority of the 100 largest
economies in the world are now corporations, not governments. We
believe that now is the time for us to imagine corporations that are the
embodiment of a people -- strong, powerful, profitable corporations that
are of the people, by the people, and for the people. We believe that
an incorporation of community of this kind (Us Inc., if you will) has
the potential to become the largest economy in the world, based on the
emerging power of decentralized, coordinated economic structures (e.g.
Burning Man, Wikipedia, Linux, etc).

So enough theory, now to practical matters. We are caretaking 160 acres
of the most spectacular High Sierra county around
<http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=shinneyboo> on the Western Slope of
Donner Summit near Cisco Grove now called Shinneyboo Creek Cabins
<http://www.shinneyboocreek.com/> . We are building an economic tribe,
a democratic corporate nation on this land. We plan to build an ARC
(aggressively resource-efficient community) Ecosphere that will be a
live, shop, work, play village without cars. We will seek radical
efficiencies in the use of natural resources (and the full use of the
creativity and potential of our human resources) to liberate ourselves
from fossil fuel tyranny and to build a just, abundant, and sustainable
economy. But this is just the beginning. We are working on a regional
vision to apply these ideas to the entire Northern High Sierra.

What I ask of you, if you have made it this far, is any time you might
have to advise us. Burning Man in so many ways embodies the indigenous
economics that we are attempting to animate in our lives. Your insight
and experience would be greatly appreciated. Shinneyboo is a great
place to enjoy the High Sierra, and we would be honored to have you come
and stay in a cabin if that works for you, I travel to SF often if that
works better for you, or if you have time on the phone then that would
be appreciated (although I greatly prefer face to face communications).

Thank you for your time and consideration.

With Hope, Determination, and Love
Michael Rogers (Pilgrim)
530-587-5160

Failed State Conference

Hello,

This is Michael Rogers and you gave me the courtesy of walking you to
your car at the Failed States conference. I am forwarding you a link to
the work of Thomas Malone from MIT, one of the originators of
Coordination Theory (and the Thomas Paine of our times).

http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/229

Here is one of the top business schools in the country talking about how
the democratization of business will be as significant to human history
as was the democratization of governments. He puts this all down to the
lowering cost of communication and communication. He states that the
lowered cost represented by the printing press allowed for the
democratization of government and that the Internet is what allows the
democratization of business.

Also, here is a link to Elinor Ostrom and her work on Common Pool
Resources, which when combined with Professor Malone's allows for an
innovative Common Pool Asset Building program that I believe will be
more resilient than the more traditional approaches such as home ownership.

http://www.cogs.indiana.edu/people/homepages/ostrom.html

SumPeople is working specifically on the Northern Sierra and the
creation of an economic, political, and social alliance to build
community capital and to manage our wealth of resources for abundance.
We have a broad range of interested parties from political figures,
business interests, environmental groups, youth groups, indigenous
peoples, and concerned citizens from all walks of life.

We are looking for organizational partners to help with this great work
and believe that New America would be an ideal match. If you are
interested in talking further please let me know.

Michael Rogers
530-587-5160

Regarding Changing Congress.

Dear Professor Lawrence Lessing,

I recently was speaking to Carla Dardis from the Tides Center and she
linked me to your End the Corruption speech from the Momentum
Conference. I know that lots of weird stuff comes in from the Internet,
however I was hoping you might be willing to speak with me.

I was inspired by your patriotism and civic commitment. Yet, at the
same time I was frustrated by what I believe to be the core of the issue
of corruption that you did not address. I will outline briefly the
work I have been doing, hoping you will not dismiss the concepts out of
hand if I fail to articulated them with sufficient skill.

Akito Morita, the Founder of Sony said almost 30 years ago that "Nations
are a dying industry, Corporations are the structures of the future."
Since I first heard that offhanded comment while a student at Yale, I
have seen the truth of it more and more every year. 2007 was finally
the tipping point as, we finally entered the "Age of the Corporate
State" with 51% of the 100 largest economies in the world now
Corporations, not Governments.

The King is dead, long live the King!

As important as government reform is, corporate reform is first, I
believe. The democratization of capital is the great movement of our
generation. Just as in the 1770's when a handful of evolutionary
thinkers conceived of National Peoplehood and changed the world forever,
so too the time has come for a handful of thinkers to present the
concept of Corporate Peoplehood to the world, so that community of the
people, by the people, and for people shall not perish from the earth.

Corporate Peoplehood is not ESOPs or Co-ops, it is not Socialism or
Communism. Corporate Peoplehood is based in the glorious tradition of
Corporate Personhood, just as democratic government is based in the
glorious tradition of monarchy, but both are natural evolutionary steps
in human organization to insure that cooperators thrive and free riders
are marginalized.

If you have made it this far in this email, I thank you for your time,
and if you have any interest in learning more, please contact me.

Michael Rogers

3/19/10 New America Meeting

Thank you for your time and consideration. I am available Tuesday,
Wednesday or Thursday of next week to meet with you.

Specifically, what I wanted to discuss was New America's possible
involvement in an innovative asset building program on the Western Slope
of the High Sierra. We are a very troubled community economically, but
with very strong social capital ties which make us an ideal pilot
program site.

The Western Slope of the Central High Sierra is a resource rich area
with big problems and big opportunities. Some of our problems include
overgrown forests and fire dangers, over use of natural resources,
devastated salmon population, a mono-culture economy that is in a free
fall after the collapse of the trophy home industry, socially and
economically marginalized indigenous population and Central and South
Americans.

But the opportunities are just as big. PG&E will be giving away
approximately 20,000 acres of land in the near future for the best use
of the people of California, 1,500 people are organizing to create a
Collaborative Ski Area, economic opportunities from small wood
utilization, carbon neutral micro energy production, enhanced recreation
opportunities that create revenue to properly manage the resources,
non-profit youth outdoor adventure programs, strong progressive
non-profit community, a Forest Service seeking innovative ways to manage
the Tahoe National Forest, green technology and industry funding
opportunities, jobs stimulus packages, to name a few.

The goal of SumPeople.org is to organize a conference call "Dreams of
the Western Slope" to bring together this "apex of opportunity" to begin
to imagine a systemic resource management plan with the goal of
sustainable resource management, just and broadly distributed economic
development, and enhanced and non-extractive recreation access.

We envision the possibility of the creation of a Collaborative
Corporation that would gain long term resource rights on the Western
Slope, and, in the Common Pool Resource management model of Nobel Prize
winner Elinor Ostrum, manage those resources for the collaborative goals
of the community. Where this becomes an innovative asset building
program is in the collaborative control of the capital created by this
new type of corporation. For instance, resources earned by a
housekeeper are used to send her daughter to get a Master's Degree in
Engineering, or profits earned by a Janitor are used to build affordable
housing for his family.

By adding democratic civil government mechanism to the modern corporate
model such a checks and balance, branches of governance, and elected
accountable leadership we believe we can build a wealth building model
that does not depend on everyone becoming a sole proprietor. As a sole
proprietor I can say that it is an incredible obstacle to overcome, you
need to a jack of all trades and often master of none. Which is an
incredibly high barrier for historically marginalized communities.
However, we believe everyone can have a productive role to play in the
creation of a complex corporation and should have the right to a
representative voice in the government of their enterprise.

Let me know what times work for you.

With Hope, Determination, and Love,

Michael Rogers.

3/19/10 Health Insurance Blog Posting

How about the unhappy customers of the current insurance companies form
together to create a new insurance company with elected leadership,
checks and balances, and branches of governance. We could then create a
new company that's primary goal was providing the best health product at
the best price for its customers (what a novel idea). It would be
relatively easy to create a new company (no legislative initiative
needed) because insurance companies, like banks, have none of their own
money.

What if this Collaborative Insurance Company (CIC) created Population
Care Units (PCUs). For instance, my county has 100,000 people and two
hospitals with combined budgets of $100 million. At the $500 a month I
currently pay for insurance, this PCU would generate $600 million in
annual premiums. This CIC could negotiate with the hospitals to take
care of the 100,000 person PCU with no billing, no administration, no
overhead. The insurance company could probably operate on less than a
$1 million budget.

This would take our current system, where hospitals, doctors, etc become
richer the sicker people are, and instantly change it to them making
bigger profits the healthier the PCU is. You could also get the
government to put every dollar spent on healthcare (medicare, worker's
comp, disability, etc) into the pot to drive down the costs of
premiums. From a business point of view you could say, "Move your
business to our county and you don't need to buy insurance for your
workers because we are all covered anyway". This would drive up
property values and have lots of benefit for the community.

Also, the internal pressure on the real cost saving factors like smoking
and obesity would be huge. If I knew that my chance to have heart
surgery at 70 would depend on whether my friend was over weight, then I
would be saying, "Hey, Joe. Do you want to take a walk with me at lunch?"

We need to stop thinking that government can solve these problems, but
instead we must look to ourselves and build new collaborative
corporations that are accountable and self-regulating.

Sparkplug Mike
www.Sumpeople.org

3/19/10 Michael Moore website dialog

Collectives are nothing but another form of corporation. So, maybe we
need to agree upon terms. I don't use the term collective or
cooperative because I believe they more often than not come from a
tradition of consensus decision making. This is limiting concept and
does not lead to economies of scale and division of labor, which is why
I believe that they have never become more that a small percentage of
the overall economic output despite their clear social advantages.

The problem with consensus decision making, with everyone making every
decision, is that it quickly runs up against the Movie Picking Paradox.
That is to say one person can easily pick what movie to go to, two
people have a simple negotiation, three people is actually 300% more
difficult (not 33% like you would assume), so by the time you get to 10
people deciding on a movie it is approaching the impossible. What
usually happens in that case is that one person gets fed up and says "I
am going to X movie and Y time, who ever wants to join me can".

I prefer the concept of collaborative corporation because I think that
we need something that is capable of processing more complexity in
decision making and can take tactical action more easily when a general
consensus exists on goals and objectives. In a collaborative
corporation you initially start out with a pretty standard corporate
structure with the sole addition of elected CEO, an elected Board of
Directors that is more like a legislature, and a form of Judiciary (I
personally like the idea of a Grandmother's Council because I assume the
Executive and Legislative Branches will be weighted to the Masculine and
I think the nurturing, loving, Matriarchal is important regardless of
the actual gender of the Grandmothers).

But then, the Collaborative Corporation has the general Olstrum"design
parameter" of driving decision making to the finger tips of the
corporate body. We know that corporations that resist top down planning
are more in touch with their markets, customers, more efficient, and
just better places to work.

In the Collaborative Corporation the "leaders" really make very few
decisions (the CEO of Southwest Air was proud to say he made only two
decisions in the company -- who to hire and where to have the Christmas
Party). The role of CEO in this "leaderless" Collaborative Corporation
is to be the Catalyst, the Champion, the Visionary and to encourage
everyone to work together, and most importantly to give voice to the
unifying identity of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

I believe that a Collaborative Corporation can be this "third" way.
And, yes, this is not clearly spelled out in her work but I believe it
can be inferred from it.

Thank you for the intelligent and provocative dialectic.

Sparkplug Mike
www.sumpeople.org

3/18/10 Letter to Michael Moore

OK, do you get it now Mike? We are in the age of the corporate state.
Your efforts need to be focused on the democratization of capital.
Jefferson, Adams, Paine, and friends did not throw out government
because of the abuses of the Kings. Royal Capitalism is the problem, not
capitalism itself. Socialism is just government capitalism and it
doesn't work very well, does not have sophisticated checks and balances
on power, and will never work in our country given our traditions and
history.

Come join the great movement of our generation Mike, stop trying to
destruct and create, build, and work towards the creation of
corporations of the people, by the people, and for the people.

The Evolution of our times is the democratization of capital, but we
don't need to storm the castles on this one, we just need to aggregate
our power to build new corporations worthy of us as honest, hard working
corporate citizens.

If just 10,000 people, the population of my small town, were to commit
$10 a month, that would generate $1.2 million a year in salaries to
start a Liberation Bank. If we then took our money out of the Royal
Banks at an average of $1,000 each, that would create $10 million in
assets, we could lend out $9 million to buy good existing business to be
owned by a combination of working and investing partners, thus instantly
creating $19 million in assets, and so on.

Now imagine if the Liberation Bank had branches in every town in the
country. We could have bought your favorite company GM cheap and then
turned around to the workers and said, "Here, this is your company now."
We will appoint an interim CEO but you will start an election for the
new CEO, you will also elect your board of directors and they will act
like a legislature and make the laws of the company, then you can
appoint or elect the Judiciary branch of your company to rule on the
constitutionality of your laws. Good old check and balances, branches of
governance, and elected accountable leadership so that community of the
people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the Earth.

If we can nation build in Iraq, surely we could build a democratic
economic nation in the heart of Detroit among the good, hard working,
corporate citizens on Michigan.

The only catch is that they make their loan payments before they pay
their salaries and benefits just like any small business person has to
do. Then when they pay back the loan we go and look at another fragile,
hierarchical, monarchical corporation to scoop up at pennies on the dollar.

This is good old fashion capitalism where the benefit inure to the
people who do the work and not the freeriders who take our money to buy
the companies we work for and then fire us to make even more money.

I believe in you Mike, but please open your mind and imagine that you
could fall in love with the right type of corporation.

We have started a group called Sum People to move these ideas forward,
it is less than a month old, with no funding, but a dream and a plan
that we believe can change this F'ed up system. Sum People will be like
Wikipedia and not Microsoft's Encarta. It will be created by the people
who join with us to make it happen. It has no concentrated capital yet
(neither democratic nor undemocratic) so don't expect fancy graphics or
detail proposals. We are starting with an idea and are willing to let go
of where it goes and allow that to be decide by the Whole. Come be a
greater part of Sum People and lets all stop whining and get to work
building the just economy our children deserve.

We are the people, the time is now!

March 10, 2010

I am wondering if you would be open to a refinement on the premise of
your conference?

Sometimes the questions we ask effect our ability to properly understand
the issues. I would suggest that some very interesting dialog could
come from asking if, in fact, the question should not be "Failed State,
or Dying Industry?" Over 20 years ago, Akido Morita, the founder of
Sony, said that government is a "dying industry" and that corporations
are the structures of the future. After the recent Supreme Court ruling
in Citizen's United v. Federal Election Commission, corporations now
have complete, unrestricted constitutional rights. Our body politic has
become the battleground for competing corporate interests and narrowly
focused special interests to the detriment of common sense and the
common good. NPR recently identified the individuals in a congressional
hearing room where the debate on Health Care was taking place and
someone asked, "Who is there representing me?" and unfortunately the
answer was no one.

It is the historic rise of the Corporate State that is threatening our
democratic mechanisms and the recent Supreme Court ruling is an
effective Coup d'Etat completing the transfer of power. However, just
as a few forward thinking individuals in the 1770's gave birth to idea
that a Nation could become the embodiment of a people, now is the time
for us to think about a Corporation as the embodiment of a people, with
all the sophisticated design parameters of civil accountability at play
(i.e. check and balances, separation of powers, and accountable elected
representatives).

This new concept is being called Corporate Peoplehood and works with the
body of law around the doctrine of corporate personhood, but instead of
fighting it uses its full force behind the needs of community.

Undemocratic concentrations of corporate capital are the greasy fast
foods we are shoving down the gullet of our democracy, and we can do all
the open heart surgeries we want, but we will always find ourselves back
on the same operating table if we don't change our diet.

With Hope and Determination,
Michael Rogers
www.sumpeople.org

3/8/2010

I am wondering who to contact for a topic for Insight? My name is Michael Rogers and I am the elected Philosophy Officer of SumPeople.org.

I would be interested in participating in a show based on Citizen's United v. Federal Election Commission -- Corporate Personhood versus Corporate Peoplehood.

This profoundly significant ruling has granted unfettered constitutional rights to corporations, even though our founders wrote "We the People of the United States of America" not "We the Corporations of the World and other unorganized citizens of the United States of America" This ruling is an effective Corporate Coup d'Etat of our democracy and it is based on the legal doctrine of corporate personhood (i.e. a corporation is a legal individual).

But there is good news. Instead of fighting this reality, we can instead embrace it. SumPeople.org is educating and organizing in California based on the concept of Corporate Peoplehood.

The idea is simple. In 1770, the radical idea that a nation could be the embodiment of a people transformed modern society and laid the foundations for the prosperity and abundance we enjoy still to this day. Well, in this age of the corporate state, the idea that a large, powerful, profitable corporation could become the embodiment of a people offers the same prospects.

New internet based collaboration tools have placed us at the apex of opportunity. Social Networking is exploding and Economic Networking is next. Decentralized collaborative organizational structures are having incredible success in this new environment, from Wikipedia, Burning Man, to Linux and open source, to name just a few. The opportunity to create a complex, decentralized collaboration of highly autonomous economic units that also are highly coordinated in their actions is a real and immediate opportunity to solve many of the challenges of this increasingly complex modern society.

SumPeople.org is applying these concepts to the Western Slope of the Central High Sierra. A highly resource rich and environmentally vital area that is struggling with a host of issues from overgrown forests to a struggling economy.

Using the work of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics winners Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson, SumPeople.org is putting on a conference this Summer called Dreams of the Western Slope where their work on Common Pool Resources and Corporation as Governance Structure will be the basis for formulating a vision for the Western Slope that blends long term environmental sustainability, long term economic sustainability, and long term social sustainability.

If any of this interests you and you have more questions, please contact me.