What we can learn from disrupted meetings?
In the US right now, the health care “debate” is raging and town hall meetings being held across the country are being deliberately hijacked by those who don’t want to see reform go ahead. This tactic is discouraging but predictable. “Town Hall” meetings are not usually conducive to democratic deliberation, and they are never about dialogue.
Over the past few days an amazing conversation has unfolded on the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation listserv about what these events mean for deliberative democracy. Tom Atlee has summarized a lot of the learning from these in a long blog post which is a keeper:
I want to take a look at the dysfunctional health care debate as an opportunity for evolutionary action. Not because health care is more important than other issues, but because its current dynamics exemplify the kind of transformational potentials we will face over and over in coming years, as the multifaceted crises of our time unfold. Understanding the dynamics of this currently disturbing event may help us prepare better for each new wave of opportunity.
Go have a read: Are Disrupted Town Hall Meetings an Evolutionary Opportunity?
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That is one way to interpret such displays but they actually result from the dysfunction of society when the age hierarchy is disrupted and immature ideas are defended by childish individuals. This lack of authority and of any true power destroys intuitive respect for others and allows cultures of negativity in which minor leaders compete to attract the largest majority able to dominate the rest of the tribe. This anarchy reduces the ecological efficiency of the band.
The remedy or solution to the problem of no leadership is to seek out a higher version of the already existing and trusted institutional infrastructure, and I refer here to Potlatch in the context of what the Crown really must consist of, and we have to sacralize that process with all of the ceremony and awe once reserved for temples, mosques, churches and courts. I don’t pick Potlatch out of a hat, nor out of patrimony, but from the synchrony on the holistic event with both Nature and with human history.
It is a fact that I found myself in the role of Chief Kitsilano but the objective reality presented the furrow I followed to my claims and to the version of world history set out in my story.