lili

community is our collective midwife for the birth of change.

We need deliberative spaces that allow people to truly listen to one another and to be heard, to recognise and acknowledge each other, even in difference, to grapple with complexity and spark curiosity – in ideas as well as in why others believe what they do; to have empathy and also to be able to do the hard work of finding common ground on the... See more

Darrell Bouldin • Assembly required - RSA Comment

Politics

Could citizen assemblies be a new model for the future of political decision-making, to overcome some of the challenges of our democratic crisis?

I continued to read the article and want to add the below, to build on the above question.

The more fundamental issue is that a system defined by elections, with political parties and politicians, is designed for short-termism, for debate, for conflict and for polarisation. It puts re-election goals and party logic ahead of the common good. Adding on new forms of democratic institutions like citizens’ assemblies to an electoral system does not address the underlying democratic problems of an elections-based system.

But now it has happened,

No use in talking

The silence between me and you

Has never had meaning.

It was, love it, that was all

That was asked.

But now it has happened,

No words for the foretime,

The desperation has made me the same,

Has made me another.

Who looks at the shape of the fish

Grow giant on the side of his bowl,

Who walks on the terrace

Observing... See more