Escaping the Matrix How we the people can change the world, by Richard K Moore, 2006

blog: "How We the People can change the world"
blog created by Richard Moore in August, 2005
governourselves.blogspot.com
"How We the People can change the world" is about 12 pages, which is long for a blog posting, but it presents all the essential ideas in my book, so in that sense it is very concise. I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out, but I'm sure it can be improved. I hope you'll take a look and comment. Anyone can add comments on the blog, you don't need to be registered with Blogger. I've included lots of links and references, and I'm open to suggestions for additional ones.

The following from 2004 refers to Escaping the Matrix before it was published.

___________________________________________

Subject:	Re: so, Richard, what's the solution
Date:	Fri, 29 Oct 2004 08:15:04 +0100
From:	richard [at] cyberjournal [dot] org
To:	"Lou & Dr. Bob Wynman at Lake Tahoe"
Bcc:	original recipients & some friends

>	so, Richard, what's the solution for those of us who want freedom?

My studies and dialogs since 1998 have been devoted to this question. I've considered election reform, media reform, public education, personal transformation, political movements, revolutionary movements, third parties, and indeed I've looked at every way social change has been brought about throughout history. None of those have ever achieved the goal because they have always led to some form, new or old, of hierarchical rule by elites. As long as people are divided into factions, interest groups, or political parties, we will be controlled by the mechanism of divide-and-rule. (Before so-called `democracy' and so-called `socialism' came along, we were simply ruled by force under kings and emperors).

By this process of elimination, I came to the conclusion that we must, somehow, learn how to come together and find inclusive consensus at the grassroots level. I was inspired by Carolyn Chute, who said, "There is no left and right, only up and down. All the fat cats at the top having a good time, and the rest of us down here struggling to survive." In my email, I began using the signature, "We are all in this together." But I didn't know any means by which "the rest of us at the bottom" could find our common identity and purpose. How could the fundamentalist sit down with the tree-hugger? (so to speak)

And then, fortuitously, I found myself in a meeting which, like many meetings, fell apart in misunderstanding, debate, frustration, etc. Someone stepped forward and began facilitating. Within seconds she enabled a new space to come into existence, a space where we were able to really listen to one another, a space where the people-as-fellow-humans were primary and the dialog an experience of shared discovery. I then began studying the technology of facilitation and the results achieved by facilitated processes, much of that being in the corporate context, and some in the social or activist context. It turns out that the technology works, and the results on-the-ground have been amazing.

I believe that these processes, what I call "harmonization" processes, are the most important tool to come along since the wheel. At the level of the microcosm--a group of people meeting face-to-face--they provide a window onto a new way of being, a new world, a world where we can find our identity and shared purpose as We the People. At the level of the microcosm these processes have proven their effectiveness, they have been field tested, they work, they are a known technology.

Over the past summer, and continuing now, I've been working out how this window-in-the-microcosm can be harnessed in the political context, the social macrocosm. How can the tool be used to create a truly transformational movement? How can a culture of harmonization come into being? How can We the People become a coherent social entity? How can the movement overcome elite power? How can we create a global society that is democratic and sustainable? How would such a society function at the practical level?

>	some, like Rose Wilder lane & Frederick Mann, claim we cannot regain our freedom because we never LOST it, since we were born with it and are stuck with it.

Yes we are born with it... look into the eyes and watch the spontaneous dance of any child. The process of socialization, in all existing cultures, is the process of taking that freedom away from us, transforming us from primates into worker ants in an elite-serving ant hill. The Libertarians have some of the right visions, but their political program simply reinforces factionalism and their ideas are overly rigid and a bit archaic. They overemphasize the individual and don't look seriously at system dynamics, at the inherent consequences of their ideas.

best regards,
rkm
http://cyberjournal.org/

For further information contact:
http://escapingthematrix.org/
Chris Thurman
The Cyberjournal Project
info@cyberjournal.org
(650) 631-2977

Escaping the Matrix: How We the People can change the world presents worldview-altering insights and profoundly optimistic conclusions that will leave readers of every political persuasion with real hope that there are practical ways for ordinary people to work together to shift the course of humanity away from the precipice and create a new kind of democratic global society.

“A brilliant historical expose of democracy as a smokescreen for continuing elite rule, followed by the most sensible ways to create it nevertheless. Couldn't be more timely or important.”
    —Elisabet Sahtouris, author, EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution

“Richard Moore's Escaping the Matrix is one of the most exciting books of ideas I've read in many years. I couldn't put it down until I'd finished. He goes to the root cause of the cancer that is destroying life on our planet today. He does so with a simplicity that is deceptive and an argumentation accessible to anyone of a right mind. His proposals for escaping the Matrix are equally simple and at the same time profound. This is a book that needs to be widely read and debated.”
    —F William Engdahl, author, A Century of War, Pluto Press.

“Richard is both a gifted writer and wise seer. In Escaping the Matrix, he helps us really take the red pill and examine the awful tragedy of our current world situation. More importantly, he then shows us an exciting path we can actually take to create a world that works for everyone.”
    —Jim Rough, author, Society's Breakthrough

Following a career in the California software R&D industry, author Richard Moore moved to Ireland and applied his understanding of complex systems to the most challenging questions of our day: Why does our global society work the way it does, and what can be done to shift its course? His wide-ranging research and common-sense reasoning enabled him to bring a fresh perspective to these questions and led him to some very promising conclusions.

For review copies of Escaping the Matrix or to schedule an interview with the author, contact Chris Thorman. See the books website (escapingthematrix.org) for reviews, sample chapter, bibliography, and recorded interviews. ISBN: 0-9770983-0-3, $15.95 US, £9.25 UK, published by The Cyberjournal Project, San Carlos California, distributed by Lightning Source International, Ingram, & affiliates.