Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People [Paperback]

Jim Rough (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 20, 2002

Good News! Important news! There is a Breakthrough answer to today's crucial issues ? the threat of terrorism, racism, the lop-sided distribution of wealth, the corporate takeover of democracy, the non-involvement of citizens in government, materialism, alienation and spiritual decay.Sound too good to believe? By the end of this book, you will wonder why this simple adjustment to the underpinnings of our society wasn?t made long ago. Society?s Breakthrough proposes a seemingly innocuous change to our system that would facilitate deep change in us ? awakening our awareness, creativity, wisdom, and virtue. It would establish a way for us to form a wise and responsible 'We the People' and help us create 'true democracy' as a nation.This book is a fun and exciting read, not just because of the workable idea it describes, but because it is original in so many ways. It uses stories, anecdotes, experiments and reflections to illustrate different ways of thinking, different models of change, and how global transformation can really happen.More good news! The proposed idea is already being tested in large organizations ? cities, schools, government agencies, corporations, and professional associations ? and it works. You cannot afford to miss out on Society?s Breakthrough!

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Most people today are discouraged by the immensity of society’s problems. It’s like being on a ship headed for an iceberg with no way to take the helm. But if you believe that creativity exists, then you accept the possibility ... even the likelihood ... of a breakthrough solution.

"Society’s Breakthrough" suggests such a solution—not to just one of the many problems, but to all of them at once. It shows how a slight structural change to our system will facilitate all of us to come together, face our most important issues, think creatively about them, reach consensus, and act together as a large-scale community. It’s an innovation in true democracy.

But this book is not aimed at political scientists who study democracy and review public policy options. It’s aimed at the ordinary person who is fearful about our future and open to even bigger ideas for change. Using stories, examples, and experiments it explains how we can transform our mythology, our vision, our economics, our thinking, our decisions, and our lives.

This breakthrough is real. It’s a positive vision that can be rapidly implemented, and you can play a vital role. People who see its potential, who "get" that it will work, are already testing it in local governments and corporations.

About the Author

Jim Rough is a consultant, speaker, seminar leader and author. Since 1990, he has presented four-day seminars in Dynamic Facilitation Skills, where people from around the world are facilitated to engage different ideas creatively, address societal issues, and achieve breakthrough insights. He is a long-time faculty member of annual Creative Problem Solving Institutes and an ongoing explorer in the field of Jungian psychology. He lives with his wife, Jean, in the Northwest, where he enjoys walking, watching high school sports, and thinking about how life works.

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: AuthorHouse (May 20, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0759691681
• ISBN-13: 978-0759691681
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,126,261 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Society's Breakthrough, September 5, 2002

By 

Bruce Elkin "Coaching people and groups to th... (Victoria, BC, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People (Paperback)

Society's Breakthrough
Jim Rough's new book, Society's Breakthrough! is a challenging yet thoroughly hopeful look at old and often intransigent problems. Rough offers us new ways to explore those problems. He shows us how to transcend them in favor of what truly matters to us and to our society. Most important, Rough offers an inspiring and hopeful vision of a future we can have a hand in creating ourselves. His vision of a society in which "We the People" truly govern ourselves and the institutions, organizations, and communities we create is nothing short of uplifting. And I think it's workable!
Through innovations such as "choice creating," "dynamic facilitation," "wisdom councils," and a simple, yet far-reaching amendment to the constitution that he calls the "Citizens Amendment," Rough asserts that We the People can reassert control over a system that has gone astray. Society's Breakthrough describes how such changes would enable us to "come together and seek what is best for all, rather than automatically relying on self-interested competition."
Whether Rough is right in regard to all the details of how the changes would come about, not, his vision of "a living conversation" as the basis for society-making and policy creating is brilliant. It permeates the book. It lifts you above the details, inspiring you to imagine a societal system that is "more collaborative than competitive, more thoughtful than argumentative," and that would allow us to "exercise our creativity in the service of all. Perhaps more important, though, than the vision is that Rough outlines a method that makes such a living conversation possible at any level of society.
I started the book as a skeptic however Rough led me through his proposals and reasoning with clarity, power, and convincing examples. I recommend this book to anyone interested in change in government, organizations, and business. And to anyone interested in becoming a more thoughtful and empowered citizen.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reshaping America through the power of "We the People", February 2, 2003

By 

Nicole V. Langley (Langley WA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People (Paperback)

How is a new author to capture the public imagination in such times as ours?
Jim Rough's premier book has done this in spades - no, in hearts. Without
giving the story away, I urge all who are discouraged and perhaps
embarrassed at our nation's fall from global grace to get this thoughtful
little book. It suggests a simple solution by which government, governance,
and civic life in the U.S.A. might come alive again. In this very bright
first book, we find a simple way to move from today's mechanistic,
short-term/close-up, hypercapitalistic priorities into a new democracy which
applies our innate native wisdom and creates social and economic systems
which operate sustainably and intelligently.

Society's Breakthrough is a simple read with profound implications. It
proposes a nationwide awakening into a new civic vitality and creative
power. Rough proposes a take-over, a civic coup, a rebirth of democracy
which taps and activates the social intelligence of We The People. An
alternate title might have been "Reconstituting Democracy: A Constitutional
Amendment for We The People of the 21st Century."

Jim Rough writes for everyone, not for the scholar, yet he manages to convey
a profound message. He proposes that the ordinary person is not only capable
of understanding deeply complex issues, but is the BEST engineer and
designer of new choices. We The People have never actually come to power in
this country, Rough contends, yet it is We The People who are best able to
understand and interpret our social systems and create self-organized
solutions even to today's "impossible" problems. Rough proposes that we need
only implement a simple structure in order to activate the collective wisdom
that resides in We The People. The "Breakthrough" which Rough proposes is no
modest thing, being a constitutional ammendment. Its effect is to bring
about a quiet yet total revolution. Skeptical at first, I found the book
persuasive and exciting. Get it, and breathe again!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Renaissance of We the People, Unifying the Young and Old, April 27, 2007

By 

Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People (Paperback)

This is one of the most brilliant and compellingly comprehensive books I have read in recent time, and certainly one of less than 100, probably less than 25, and perhaps even one of the ten most important books available in English.

Everyone, including corporations, is starting to realize that Green is Good (see my list on Natural Capitalism), and that the Earth is at a tipping point. The ten high-level threats are Poverty, Infectious Disease, Environmental Degradation, Inter-State Conflict, Civil War, Genocide, Other Atrocities (e.g. kidnapping for body parts or child soldiers), Proliferation, Terrorism, and Transnational Crime.

What this author has done is pioneered the concept of Wisdom Councils at every level of society, a leap ahead of citizen involvement initiatives like Citizen's Councils formed in Denmark to study issues of national importance for legislative action. This book suggests a strategy for bringing "all" together as "We the People" where We assume our rightful role as intelligent top authority.

The author is acutely aware that we are fragmented, ignorant, inattentive, and ineffective as a collective at any level. He suggests that we got that way because we adopted a mechanistic system to govern us, where self-interest is the prevailing value, rather than dignity, sharing, open-mindedness, and so on.

He articulates a vision of a We-ocracy, a circle instead of a box, with a spirit similar to our Native American councils, where people seek what's best for all. And, he suggests a surprisingly simple social invention, not fully tested, that can make the vision real.

It was my great good fortune to meet the author personally at the Nexus for Change conference organized by Peggy Holman and others, and I found him to be one of the most sensible, down-to-earth, and focused individuals I have ever met. He told me there that collective problems require collective solutions, and I agree with him completely. It's about all of us, as well as each of us. Along with this book I recommend Tom Atlee's "Tao of Democracy" and the other books linked to below.

The author's conception of the Wisdom Council, which is now enjoying significant success and public appreciation in the Eco-topia of the Pacific Northwest, is one of a continuous Constitutional Convention with all of us as permanent delegates. It is a way "We the People" can come into existence and collectively choose topics, explore them and evolve consensus ... possibly some sensible sustainable decision or policy that goes out 200 years (what the Native Americans called 7th Generation thinking).

It's a simple approach that bridges all eight of what I call the tribes of intelligence--government, military, law enforcement, business, academia, non-governmental organizations, media networks, and most importantly, all citizens in all civil societies including social advocacy groups, labor unions, and religions.

The book describes an innocuous-seeming Constitutional Amendment to the United States Constitution. But the author inscribes the book to me, ending with "we don't need an amendment, we are out doing it." Now, there are experiments in cities and organizations in different countries, begun by ordinary citizens, proving that this strategy can work. (see www.WiseDemocracy.org) This is good news for those of us who care about society as a whole.

I recommend this book, and the three books below, to every citizen and especially to the 48% that do not vote. We get morons and thieves in power because we all do not vote and hence these charlatans are elected by a minority of dogmatic fanatics aided by less than honorable tactics such as Karl Rove has pioneered (see "Bush's Brain").

But beyond the bits of power our system currently provides to "the people," all-of-us-together can assert power over the system. This book, the books below, and the many books I connect in my varied lists, show us how. They are ammunition in our combat with the Republican and Democratic Party mafiosos. Unity08 is in my view a scam--a last ditch defense of the totally corrupt two-party "winner take all" and share the spoils system. Only the Center for Wise Democracy, Reuniting America, the Transpartisan Policy Institute, and a couple of other massive social networks now in formation, can transform political hypocrisy, corruption, and illegitimacy. Our government today, all three branches, is illegitimate. We can fix that.

We are long overdue for a popular uprising. This author, like Gandhi (see the DVD), provides for an informed non-violent revolution that is both inevitable, and unbeatable. We the People ... what a great concept. Time to honor it again, with the Wisdom Councils and the strategy of full engagement that the author outlines for us.

Bush's Brain
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents)
Seeing the Invisible: National Security Intelligence in an Uncertain Age
Bush's Brain
Gandhi (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)
Don't Bother Me Mom--I'm Learning!