*************
Appendix B: Fequently Asked Questions
"Be patient with all that is unresolved in your heart. And try to love the questions themselves. Do not seek for the answers that cannot be given. For you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now and perhaps without knowing it you will live along some day into the answers."
Rainer Maria Rilke
Each year twenty-four registered voters are randomly selected in a lottery to form a Citizens Wisdom Council. This Wisdom Council is a symbol of "the people of the United States." It meets for one week to choose issues, talk about them and determine consensus statements. To assure creative conversation and unanimous conclusions, the meetings are aided by a dynamic facilitator. At the end of the week, the Wisdom Council presents the statements to the nation in a new ceremony, a State of the Union address from We the People to the people. The Citizens Wisdom Council then disbands permanently. The following year a new Council is randomly selected.
2. Why do we need this Breakthrough?
We are on a path that is nonsustainable. The Citizens Amendment is a low risk, low cost way to facilitate a shift in global consciousness.
3. Shouldn’t we try this in local governments or corporations, then build up to the national level?
Yes, Wisdom Councils can and should be applied to states, cities, counties, high schools, corporations, housing projects, labor unions, and any large organization seeking democratic governance. There should be many experiments so that people build confidence in the process. But an amendment to the U.S. Constitution is crucial and essential. Only then have we changed the system to correspond to today’s reality and opened the door to a shift in global consciousness.
4. How can twenty-four people represent a huge population like the nation?
Some confuse the Wisdom Council with a poll where the number of people who are randomly selected must be large enough to be statistically significant. The Wisdom Council is not a poll. It is a symbol, like the flag. The statistical concept of sample size is irrelevant.
5. What if a random selection somehow yields an unrepresentative sample?
Because it is a lottery, it is possible that a particular Wisdom Council will not accurately reflect society. It is unlikely, but possible. The probability of having all women or all men on the Council, for instance is less than 3 in 10,000,000. But even if there were an unrepresentative group one year, it would not be a problem. Unanimity is still required, the conversation is still a creative process and, most importantly, the Wisdom Council has no coercive power. If they say something that people in the general population disagree with, the Statements of the People will be discussed further but will not receive the necessary support of the general public.
6. What if insane or chemically addicted, or the "wrong" people get on the Council?
Each Wisdom Council is a microcosm of society. Over time alcoholics, drug addicts, racists and emotionally damaged people will be selected to serve on Wisdom Councils in proportion to their percentage in society. But the quality of conversation in the Wisdom Council is different from normal politics. It’s "choice-creating" instead of "decision-making," allowing all to be heard, valued and included. Yet even if everything were to fall apart, in a worse case scenario, to not reach a consensus that year. It would still spark the all-important larger dialogue.
7. What is "choice-creating?" How can a diverse group be expected to reach consensus, or unanimity?
Choice-creating is a non-judgmental, creative thinking process where people seek to invent new options that work for everyone. Rather reaching agreement on one idea, for instance, they seek breakthroughs which everyone can support. These breakthroughs come in two forms – changes of mind and changes of heart.
Unanimous views can be assured on the Wisdom Council because the group has authority to frame the issue in any way it wants, because there are no representatives, and because there is a Dynamic Facilitator present.
8. What is a Dynamic Facilitator?
A Dynamic Facilitator is one who helps people thinking and talk creatively and open-mindedly, using choice-creating instead of decision-making. He or she does not participate in the conversation.
9. What controls are on the facilitator?
An Oversight Committee of former Wisdom Council members chooses facilitators and helps the Wisdom Council evaluate their performance. The Wisdom Council can use majority voting to decide whether or not to replace them.
10. What if a particular Wisdom Council develops Statements of the People that are "wrong" or that many people disagree with?
When as many as twenty four randomly selected people reach unanimity on one statement, most people will pretty much agree with what they say. But even if the Wisdom Council got it wrong one year, or was lacking in some crucial knowledge, the resulting Statements of the People would still work. They would create the desired dialogue. The media would be drawn to those who knew better or who disagreed and the public at large would become better educated.
11. How would this small group affect the whole system? Why not involve more people?
The goal of the Wisdom Council is to involve everybody. There are a number of ways this happens: a) Each registered voter will have a number and a chance to be selected each year; b) All of us can watch most of the dialogues on television, identifying with some of the participants; c) The conclusions reached by the Wisdom Council are presented back to us in a new ceremony; d) We will be invited to dialogue directly, and through the internet, with community members about the Wisdom Council’s conclusions and; e) at times the Wisdom Council may suggest something for us to do or say.
Twenty-four is suggested because it is large enough to guarantee diversity, yet small enough for a "small group process." It allows each person plenty of time to express his or her perspective and to play an active role in developing the results.
12. How will the results of the Wisdom Council get translated into action?
We the People have power for action. We just don't have a way to use it. The Citizens Amendment provides that way.
The Wisdom Council is not an advisory group to Congress. It is a symbol of We the People. If most citizens identify with it and agree with what it says, We have more power than any special interest group, the President, Congress, more even than the U.S. Constitution.
13.? If the Citizens Amendment has no specific powers, won’t it just frustrate people when Congress ignores them? Why not give the Council some coercive power?
If a Wisdom Council proposes legislation, then We the People are telling Congress what we want them to do. Elected representatives would ignore this request at their peril.
If the Citizens Amendment were to give coercive powers to the Wisdom Council, its "real" power would be reduced, not enhanced. Adding coercive power would merely sustain the current, power-based system rather than facilitate its transformation. The Amendment is aimed at facilitating global consciousness -- with higher levels of respect, trust, community, morality, empathy, etc., These can not be coerced. To try only diminishes them.
14. People don’t care about politics ... won’t they just ignore the Wisdom Council?
People do care about society and societal issues. In fact, they long to engage one another and talk about these issues creatively. It doesn’t seem that way, however, because the current political conversation doesn’t really involve people in a meaningful way. The people who don’t vote are right when they complain of how little it means.
But the Wisdom Council provides a way for the natural caring of people to have a powerful effect. The media will cover it, just like they cover the doings of the President or any other Constitutionally anointed position.
15. Won’t special interest groups co-opt this process?
To overcome any feared special interest influence, those selected can be easily kept isolated from outside contact, like a jury.
But in a larger sense, the Wisdom Council is the solution to special interest domination. No money is involved and the process helps people articulate a general interest perspective.
16. Why does the Wisdom Council meet for such a short time?
It is important that the Wisdom Council is comprised of ordinary people -- not officials, celebrities or representatives. If the period is too long, they become "personalities" and people will stop identifying with them. Also, it's important that most everyone selected can take one week out of their schedule to attend. One week is plenty of time to address key issues and reach consensus.
17. How would the Wisdom Council receive expert information? Would they meet with elected officials?
Since the Wisdom Council is We the People, it can ask the President or any expert to meet with them. It has no power to force compliance but it's an honor to be asked. An Oversight Committee comprised of former Wisdom Council members makes the arrangements.
18. Why don’t we link everyone through a computer network, instead?
The Citizens Amendment offers a way to take good advantage of this new medium. Computer networking and web pages are well-suited to supporting the Wisdom Council but are incapable, by themselves, of establishing the essential heart-felt, transformational conversation.
19. Won’t the Citizens Amendment affect just the United States? What about the rest of the world?
Although an amendment to the U.S. Constitution ostensibly affects only the United States, its effect would be global. The topics of conversation, the quality of dialogue and the conclusions that are reached will receive media attention throughout the world. Transnational companies, other countries and large global networks will want to adopt the Wisdom Council as a low cost way to improve.
20. Won’t it take forever to get an amendment to the U.S. Constitution enacted?
The Citizens Amendment is on a fast track compared with other proposed big changes or amendments. There are a number of reasons why it will happen very quickly:
o Instituting the Wisdom Council will allow us to solve many problems that national and local leaders have labeled intractable.
o The Wisdom Council can be tried in cities, professional organizations, unions, churches, other countries, counties, etc. Whenever one is tried, within a very short time, everyone in that system will have direct experience with its benefits and can envisage how it would work as an amendment.
o Wherever a Wisdom Council is tried, it will be well covered by the media. It is suited to widespread media coverage because everyone is involved in some way, it addresses issues people really care about, it happens on center stage for that area, it produces a final result, and people engage the media by writing letters to the editor, for instance, on an ongoing basis. The national media will cover the first city that tries it.
o Unofficial experiments with national Wisdom Councils will be conducted. National magazines, prime time television shows or nonprofit organizations will convene trials and publicize the results.
*******