At the Center for Wise Democracy, we offer a set of
social innovations where we (a few of us) can facilitate "We the People" (all of us) to solve impossible-seeming problems in society
  

Society's MONSTER problems (e.g. climate change, wars, poverty, etc.) arise primarily from our System of Thinking. So, even if everyone wanted to work together to preserve the well-being of our planet, our underlying System prevents this. It assures competition instead of collaboration where special interests dominate the public interest.

However! ... just recognizing that these problems don't arise from from people as much as they arise from our System is a breakthrough!!! ... This realization provides us amazing leverage. We just need to adjust the underpinnings of our System to solve all these problems at once! ... and know how to do it. 

​At the Center for Wise Democracy we have a strategy to do this. It's simple .... we just add a new conversation to our existing System, where a legitimate "We the People" comes into existence. Where "We" face our most pressing problems, think together creatively, develop win/win solutions and provide responsible leadership to governments, corporations and the culture.

Key to achieving this is a set of social innovations which enhance individual freedoms, reduce the role of laws, yet build trust and raise our level of collective intelligence. 

• Global society...What's needed to solve issues like climate change and to effectively manage the global commons (e.g. soils, water, oceans, the gene pool, overfishing, and species extinction) is a new collective thinking process, where a "We the People" take ultimate responsibility for our planet and intelligently steward our commons. We (a few of us) can facilitate this all inclusive, ongoing, powerful "We the People" into being. We are developing a step-by-step project for doing this at the global level: See Transforming Global Society.
• National society  (e.g American democracy)  ... Today we are discovering that a competition-based form of government cannot last forever. It's simple. OK we need to keep individual initiative ... yes ... but also we need to work together! ... With the help of media sponsors a few of us can use the Wisdom Council Process to facilitate a rebirth of "We the People". This isn't just creating a new social contract and disbanding. It's where "We the People" (all of us) continues on providing responsible leadership to government and society. Using the Wisdom Council Process nationally we can heal the partisan divide, assure election quality, overcome the outsized influence of money on politics, eliminate corruption, etc.   
• The state ... Each state struggles with issues like taxing, education, and welfare. A power struggle among special interests is not an adequate way to decide these issues. But that's our System. ... Here's a way to introduce a new element into that power struggle: A legitimate and powerful voice of the public interest. The Wisdom Council Process has already been adopted into the state constitution of Vorarlberg, the Westernmost state of Austria. It's being used there to help resolve issues like the influx of Syrian refugees and land use planning. (See examples). So we know the Wisdom Council Process works at this scale.
• Local towns, cities & communities ...  See the flyer for how a group of citizens (or government, or a community foundation) can facilitate the citizens of a community to get involved, face and resolve hot issues, and do it in a way that builds the spirit of community. (See examples.)
• organizations ... e.g. The Wisdom Council Process can also be used in organizations and other settings. (examples:  a food co-op, a conference, corporations)

EXAMPLE #1: nationally in the United States most people feel excluded from any real sense of democratic participation. Voting for representatives who supposedly fight for your interests is missing the basic point of democracy, where the people should be involved in facing issues and co-determining what to do. Yet how do we facilitate a creative, thoughtful and wise public conversation at this scale?  ... which reaches shared conclusions? Below is a short video describing how this might happen using the social innovations, implemented as a reality TV show (3.5 min video):

EXAMPLE #2: State-wide ... Here's a short video showing how one state government in Austria is using this process to help citizens address and solve hot issues, like the influx of refugees.

Check out "Our Story" of how these social innovations and this whole-system strategy came about.

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