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From: Bruce Schuman
Type: News
News: News 27 - Interspirituality and the Network Nation
Date: March 14, 2014

Thanks for being here, thanks for the Heart, thanks for the Vision --

There's a lot of creative movement in the air right now. It's very strong, rather explosive, a bit hard to handle, coming in a hundred directions at once, and fascinating --

THE INTEGRAL VISION

For me, one calming and centering influence is the new KOSMOS Journal. A lot of you are probably familiar with Kosmos, quite a few probably got the announcement on March 11 of their new/updated web site. For me, those guys are holding the big picture together, while some of us are working hard down in the engine-room to get these elements fully connected and up to speed.

This is a wonderful place, with a wonderful synthesis of all things integral and global and collective. And it's beautifully done, a masterpiece of vision. Take a look.

http://www.kosmosjournal.org/

I'm especially drawn to their integral worldview, that helps us to understand how all the pieces fit together. Compare their list to the "wheel of co-creation" originally spearheaded by Barbara Marx Hubbard's Conscious Evolution groups and now carried on in various ways by groups in the Shift Network.

This framework helps us to "think holistically" -- to broaden the old thought of "thinking globally" -- to include not only "the entire world" -- but all the sectors of civilization and human community.

TRANSPARTISAN POLITICS

Another group I've been excited about for a long time is the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation -- NCDD -- http://ncdd.org

As they say of themselves, "The National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation is a network of thousands of innovators who bring people together across divides to tackle today’s toughest challenges. NCDD serves as a gathering place, a resource clearinghouse, a news source, and a facilitative leader for this extraordinary community."

If you care about fixing this planet, and encouraging people to work together to take on that task, you should know about NCDD. They have all the leaders and innovative voices in "group process" over there -- experts in dialogue, collaboration, teamwork, collective intelligence, theory of democracy -- and they are full of energy and life-force. It's an inspiring place.

And one of the things they have recently done -- is set up a "Transpartisan Listserv" -- an email discussion regarding which they say "The Transpartisan Listserv was launched in March 2014 by the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation, Mediators Foundation, and over a dozen co-founders who are leaders in political bridge-building work. The purpose of this moderated listserv is to introduce potential colleagues to one another, to expand our knowledge of transpartisan theory and practice, and to showcase ongoing activity in the transpartisan field. Our goal is to provide a simple, safe communication channel where individuals and organizations that are active in this boundary-crossing work can connect and learn from each other."

That's happening, in very cool and significant ways. Take a look at this list of founders.

  • Mark Gerzon, Tom Hast and John Steiner of Mediators Foundation
  • Sandy Heierbacher, National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD)
  • Tom Atlee, Co-Intelligence Institute
  • Steve Bhaerman, humorist and author
  • Dr. Don Beck, The Spiral Dynamics Group
  • Joan Blades and Debilyn Molineaux, Living Room Conversations
  • Laura Chasin, Bob Stains, Dave Joseph and Mary Jacksteit, Public Conversations Project
  • Lawry Chickering and Jim Turner, co-authors of Voice of the People: The Transpartisan Imperative in American Life
  • Jacob Hess and Phil Neisser, co-authors of You’re Not as Crazy as I Thought (But You’re Still Wrong)
  • Margo King, Wisdom Beyond Borders-Mediators Foundation; John Steiner’s networking partner
  • Mark McKinnon, NoLabels.org
  • Ravi Iyer and Matt Motyl, CivilPolitics.org
  • Evelyn Messinger, Internews Interactive
  • John Opdycke, IndependentVoting.org
  • Michael Ostrolenk, transpartisan organizer and philosopher
  • Pete Peterson, Pepperdine University’s Davenport Institute
  • Amanda Kathryn Roman, The Citizens Campaign
  • Michael Smith, United Americans
  • Kim Spencer, Link TV and KCETLink
  • Rich Tafel, The Public Squared
  • Jeff Weissglass, Political Bridge Building Advocate

That's a strong group. This is enlightened revolution in a bottle and the conversation is just starting to heat up. It's exciting and very meaningful.

NETWORK NATION

http://networknation.net

One initiative that I am bringing into this framework is a concept I call NETWORK NATION -- a term taken from the title of an influential book that predated and foresaw the internet. I've been exploring the potential of "smartphone integration" -- based on the stunning fact that there are now over one billion cellphones in service. If we want to have a network of 5,000 interconnected conversations, going on everywhere about everything, and all held together through highly enlightened shared protocols -- this is the way to set the process on fire.

I've been writing on what I call "Democracy in the Cloud" -- and considering how complex dialogue can be made highly succinct. They are doing it at huge scale on Twitter. Let's get that huge capacity pointed at politics and gridlock -- and let's inspire it all with an illuminated vision from the heart of interspirituality.

We've got a new web domain for this framework. We're starting to explore "writing a constitution" for this new Network Nation. Maybe the fundamental plank in our call to "form a more perfect union" is the principle of mutual respect -- followed closely by co-creative listening. If there are one-billion smartphone users in the world today -- how about getting 50 million of them interested in a network based on respect, listening and teamwork. Think that could work?

INTERSPIRITUALITY IN THE NETWORK NATION

We can broaden our thinking. How about "Network Planet"? We'll get there. But for right now, we're dealing with "our immediate locale" -- this messy lovable/endearing place called the USA, where we got our hands full of wild challenging problems, despite the great potentials and energies all around us.

How should we guide ourselves? Where do we get our values? How can we tell right from wrong?

The fundamental agenda of this Interspirit Alliance project says that we're combining influences from every source of wisdom and insight and philosophy -- and religion and mysticism. In that sense, we're very much like transpartisan politics. We're combining a fully inclusive range of influences into not only a "melting pot" of influences -- but a fusion of influences. We're starting to think (??) we know how this stuff works. Maybe it really IS simple, as the native people's have been telling us -- for 100,000 years....

Run straight, run true, be nice, honor one another. It's a simple code, with the stamp of eternity.

Transpartisan Politics is the white fire of governance in the Network Nation. Interspiritual Communion is the white fire of ethics and community that guides it.


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