A man said to [Jesus], "Tell my brothers to divide my father's possessions with me."
He said to him, "O man, who has made me a divider?"
He turned to his disciples and said to them, "I am not a divider, am I?"
Gospel of Thomas, Logion 72
We are living in the Divided States of America. With the intensely heated political tensions between those who would trump all others and those who have been biding time to have their turn, it seems the perfect moment to announce that the pinnacle of the majority-rule method of electing leaders has been reached and it's all downhill from here. Or should I say, this boulder has built up speed for decades and has finally cracked in two at the bottom of the mountain.
We know all too well the election process is subject to manipulation. I sensed this as a 4th-grader when the annual "Principal-for-the-Day" election was held, and I found out the older grade students had gotten together and elected me. I was startled but flattered. At first it seemed so innocent: "A little child shall lead them."
I was thrilled to be sitting at the principal's desk until a phone call from a complaining parent came in and I had to take the call. I had no idea what to say! Then I was told a bunch of 9th & 10-graders had run off to play in the orchard and everyone was looking to me to somehow corral them back to their classrooms!
Our education in the majority-rule method begins in the classroom, with the annual election of offices such as class president, vice president, secretary, sergeant-at-arms, salutatorian and valedictorian. Near the end of my junior year of private high school ("academy"), the time of campaigning for student body president came up.
Although I had not been elected to any significant class offices, I developed an impressive list of ideas for the next year's student body activities and posted it on the campaign board. A lot of students got very excited about my list, promised to vote for me, and even volunteered to campaign for my election, which meant suggesting to their friends that they also vote for me.
The popular student body president who had been elected the previous year knew me well because earlier in the year he had arranged with me to look over my shoulder to see my answers on a math test, knowing I was good at math and he hadn't studied. The math teacher saw what was happening and verified that James had made the same math errors I did, and so the faculty ousted him from his post. (I got suspended from math class for a day.)
James was also my neighbor, and he called me up the street to meet with him in his bedroom so he could help me rehearse for my campaign speech. The next day in my speech I said something about my popular opponent's inaction as our junior class president that year, so the majority sided with Joe in a disappointingly close decision. Although I don't remember this, James insisted that he had warned me not to say anything negative about Joe. I guess I thought I was just pointing out the obvious.
In 2009 I became enraptured with libertarian philosophy, which is based on live-and-let-live principles. I joined the local Libertarian Party in Georgia and by the end of the year an unusual opportunity came up to run in a special election for the Georgia State Senate seat for District 42 against Jason Carter, to be held in mid-May of 2010.
Although I had fantasies about going on The Tonight Show as the juggler who was running for office against Jimmy Carter's grandson, my main intention was to use the opportunity to teach fellow citizens about the systemic manipulation of the economy by the Federal Reserve, and what returning to sound money policies could do for the state of Georgia.
I ended up being convinced by my manager to campaign on other subjects of more interest to the die-hard Democrats. I knew I didn't have a chance to win no matter what I said or did, but my Libertarian friends consoled me anyway, saying I got an unusually high vote for a Libertarian at 8% in a four-way race, and yay, I didn't come in last! (Jason won "by a landslide", with nearly 2/3 of the votes.)
I learned much about politics in that 2010 campaign, but one thing stands out as pertinent to 2020. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), based in Atlanta, was in the heart of my senate district, and I remember going to a pre-election gathering at a restaurant nearby. A man in a position dealing with public health told me that if someone gets sick with a communicable disease, government laws give him the right to lock that person up in a quarantine cell. I was shocked by that statement, which ran so counter to my libertarian way of thinking.
With conditions being what they are in this presidential election year that will not be soon forgotten, it seems a prime time to introduce to the American psyche an alternative method of decision-making that leads to peace and harmony. There is a better way than the majority-rule method. I have discovered and participated in such a method.
As I was traveling the world in 2017 as roving Political Ambassador for Ubuntu Planet USA, my good friend Maro in South Africa convinced me that studying permaculture would be the best thing I could do for the movement. She told me about an online course available at that time at no charge unless you want a certification at the end of the course. In studying that permaculture course, I discovered the key to harmonious role selection in a democratic decision-making method called Sociocracy.
The way this works is that a group of people get together in a circle, like the Knights of the Round Table in King Arthur's Court. This is also the way the electoral college was designed to work, and would work, were it not for the fact that the electors in the college are elected by the majority-rule method.
The Sociocratic decision-making method, which includes the role selection method, works well for neighborhood associations, communities, businesses, schools, or any organization -- even families -- that need to make decisions of any kind. A circle can be up to 40 participants, but 20 is a more optimal maximum. 8 seems to be ideal.
Here is a link to a complete description of the process, which always leads to a consensual, satisfying outcome:
https://www.sociocracyforall.org/selection-process/.
This process could be used by several groups to select a representative to sit on a circle with a wider reach (not higher, just larger), such as neighborhoods selecting representatives to sit on a circle that would then select one of their members to represent their area of the county on the county commission circle.
In turn this method could be used to select a county commissioner to represent the county in the state Circle (rather than "House") of Representatives. Then those trusted representatives would select the electors for the electoral college, and one of them would be selected for President of these united states.
The amount of psychic energy, mental attention, discussion and activism -- some of which has gotten completely out of hand -- that we put into a system that never works for everyone must someday come to an end. I am choosing to put my energy into a new system of democracy that will work for everyone!